Go further, I silently beg.
Instead, I cup my hands over my groin to hide my body’s reaction to her touch.
“That should last for the next few hours, but it is always smart to reapply multiple times a day,” Isla announces, as if reading off the bottle. “I’m going to swim.”
Before I can turn to thank her, she’s already tossed the bottle onto her bag and executed a perfect dive off the dock. When her head pops out of the water, she’s a good fifty feet away. The distance seems impossible with how quickly she reappeared.
But the woman is a selkie, so I’m not surprised.
3
ISLA
I float far enoughbeneath the surface of the murky water that no one above can see me.
But I can see them. Selkies have superior eyesight in the water, even in our human forms, and I use it now to watch one man.
Unfortunately for my plans, that man isn’t Owen.
My future mate disappeared about an hour ago, taking Ramona out on a set of Jet Skis. When I realized he had gone, I decided to stay in the water. Let the cool embrace calm the unfamiliar tension that tightened my chest when Finn put his hands on me.
When I handed him my SPF 70, I braced for the discomfort of his touch. Coming into contact with people has always grated against the delicate edges of my nerves. But Finn’s steady movements didn’t irritate me the way I’d expected. Instead, a heady flush rose throughout my body.
Unsettling but not necessarily unpleasant.
Now, with the cool water all around me, I’m balanced again, even as I stare up at a butt in a blue suit sticking through the hole of an inner tube.
Why do I want to bite that butt?
The thought has me remembering an old game us selkies used to play, inspired by the movieJaws. Finn played, too, but the human was never very good at it. The human was always fascinated by how long Owen and I could hold our breath underwater. Of course, the two of us never stayed under so long to offer real suspicion.
I should probably surface soon.I’ve been down here for at least five minutes. If any of the human guests think I’ve drowned, the whole party will search for me. The idea of that attention tenses my muscles.
Still, I’m not ready to give up my observation of Finn’s posterior.
Why do I always focus on him?
Maybe the gods believe he can help me woo my mate.
I ponder the idea of spending more time around Finn. Showing him the areas of myself that a partner might find appealing, so he can pass that knowledge on. Finn has been Owen’s best friend since high school, and now, they co-own a recycling company. He is in the perfect position to talk about my positive traits to my future mate.
This is a good plan.
Stealthily, I approach the surface, and when I am just underneath the man, I give a strong kick, popping up beside him and grabbing hold of his inner tube.
“Shark attack!” I yell and then tip Finn and his shocked face straight into the lake. As he flounders for a moment, I claim the tube, heaving myself onto the slick surface and reclining on the floaty. Lying there, I let the late afternoon sun dry the droplets from my skin.
“You got me.” Finn grins, treading water at my side.
“I’m much sneakier than you.”
I could always tell when he was trying to creep up on me when we were younger. Sometimes, I’d let him catch me, just to hear his triumphant, booming laugh.
Finn shifts to float on his back, giving his limbs a rest. Humans don’t have the same stamina in the water as we selkies do. When I spy goosebumps forming on his skin, I use the small power I have over water to coax warmer currents to surround him. No reason for Finn to be cold just because I’m better at the shark attack game than he is.
Recalling his question from earlier, I let a wave of hope rise in my chest. “Do you still want to hear about dams?”
Finn perks up. “Yes. But only if I can hang on to the tube while you talk.”
