Eric’s hand lifted slowly, hesitantly, fingers hovering just inches away from the delicate ridges of her gills.
He wasn’t assuming.
He wasn’t taking.
He was asking.
Ursula tilted her head, offering him her throat. His fingers brushed against the sensitive skin. It was barely more than a whisper of contact. A shudder rolled through her, down the length of her spine, all the way to the tips of her fin.
The prince watched her reaction. Fascination lit his face. Delight tugged at the corner of his mouth. With agonizing slowness, he leaned in. His breath fanned warm against her skin, a contrast to the cool water surrounding them. And then?—
His lips pressed to her gills. A sharp, pleasure-laced moan tore from Ursula's throat before she could stop it. Eric's lips dragged over the sensitive ridges. His hand slid to the curve of her waist, steadying her as another shiver wracked her body. Ursula gripped his shoulders, claws digging in.
“You like that?” he asked.
She growled, her tail flicking around him, pulling his body closer to her own.
Eric dipped his head again, pressing another kiss to her gills. He ran his tongue over the flesh, the tip lingering. Then his lips closed around her gills, and he sucked. Ursula let out a gurgled moan and sank into the waters, pulling him down with her.
The current caught them, spinning them weightless beneath the waves. Ursula barely noticed. Because his hands were on her, gripping her waist as he pulled her flush against him, his mouth hot despite the cool water, his kiss deep and searching and desperate.
The sea wrapped around them, but Eric didn’t pull away. Didn’t surface. Didn’t seem to realize he was running out of air.
Ursula realized it for him. She felt it in the tension in his body, in the way his fingers tightened against her skin, in the flutter of his pulse beneath her palms. She slid her hands into his hair, holding him firmly against her gills. His body relaxed as she exhaled into him, her gills flexing, releasing a cool rush of oxygen-rich air.
Eric breathed her in, then licked the raised skin again and again. Inhale, suckle. Inhale, suckle. It was the most erotic thing Ursula had ever experienced in her life.
Just like when he was inside her body, he kissed her like he had all the time in the world. Like the seacouldn’t pull him away. Then, just when she thought she might lose herself completely, he pulled away—not to surface, not to panic, not to gasp for air. But to press his mouth back to hers.
He kissed her lips deeply. He kissed her mouth hungrily. He kissed her like he would never stop.
Ursula was glad she had saved his life. She patted herself on the back for her brilliant idea of impersonating her niece and snagging this man. And she was definitely going to keep this prince of the coast after she took back the sea.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The first blush of dawn painted the horizon in soft hues of rose and gold, casting its light through the curtained window of the houseboat. The gentle sway of the water rocked them, a rhythm so steady, so soothing, that Eric almost forgot the weight of the world waiting for him beyond these walls.
Almost.
His fingers trailed along Ariel’s back, tracing the elegant dip of her spine. Her skin was soft, warm. He could still remember the feel of her scales when she had a fin instead of legs. She'd been soft and warm then, too. But different.
She was different. Different from any woman he'd ever met. Not that he had paid much attention to the women in the court trying to catch his eye. He'd alwaysknown his would be a diplomatic marriage, like his parents and his grandparents before him. He'd never imagined that love would be in the cards for him. But here he was, falling, drowning in his emotions.
It was impossible to forget the way her gills had given him breath. How her body had sustained his under water. How she had pressed her lips to his in the depths and made the sea feel like home.
Only yesterday, he had resented this marriage. Resented the chains it had placed on him, the powerlessness of being forced into a treaty forged by their fathers.
But now?—
Now as his wife lay entangled with him, he knew he would wage a war against anyone who asked him to move even an inch. Her steady breaths tickled against his bare chest, but laughter was far from his mind.
He felt thankful. So thankful. So at peace. With himself. With the world. With… everything. He couldn’t imagine another moment, another day, another life without her in it. That's when a sharp surge of anger sliced through him.
What if it hadn’t worked?
What if Triton had tossed his daughter into the arms of some other man, treating her like a bargaining chip instead of a woman with her own mind, her own desires?
His wife was a treasure. A bright light that had already made his life better. And all of it outside any of the parameters of the treaty between their kingdoms.
