“How…” he sputters, shaking his head rapidly. “How did you…”
Darla is waiting to block everyone’s view of me with my towel when I climb out of the pool. I let her wrap it around my waist, because it forces her to put her arms around me, and I’m pleased to see she’s distracted by the water coasting down my sculpted chest.
“H-how did you swim so fast?” she breathes unevenly, her pretty head tilted all the way back, her fingers a little clumsy as she fastens the towel.
“Practice.” Not wanting her neck to hurt, I scoop her up, grunting happily when her legs twine around my hips. Even if my resulting erection tents the towel in front of the eerily silent pool guests. “Now, I will quickly meet your parents, then we can get on with our day.”
“Oh, I don’t think now is the time.”
“Why not?”
She slow blinks. “Well, you just shattered Olympic swimming records and you’re not even out of breath. Everyone is a little stunned.” Her tongue skates along her bottom lip. “Plus, I can feel your um…”
“My hard dick? Your thighs are so tight around my waist, little human,” I explain, kissing her forehead. “Do you expect it to be soft?”
A flush travels up her throat. “N-no, but—”
“They know we were together last night. Do they think we played chess?”
She chews her lip. “Probably not.”
I lean in close to whisper at her temple. “Everyone watching us right now knows I’m the lucky one fucking you. I say, good. Let them envy me.”
Before she can form a protest, I approach the table where Darla’s parents, plus an assortment of other bland people, are gaping at me in astonishment. “I’m Moby. It’s a pleasure to meet you, I guess.” Darla buries her face in my neck, and I stroke her strawberry blonde hair, admiring the strands as they sift through my fingers. “Your daughter is my mate. Have a good day.”
Less than a minute later, we are back inside the hotel and I feel Darla giggling into my neck. I locate the corridor that leads to her room and take it, patting her a couple of times on the butt beneath the tiny skirt she’s wearing.
“Is something funny, little human?”
“Uh-huh.”
“What?”
“All this worry I’ve put into making my parents unhappy…it never really mattered, did it? Nothing I do will be enough, so maybe it’s time to put myself first. To heal from my accident on my own terms. Not under their supervision.”
My chest swells with pride. “I like this plan, Darla.”
I carry her in silence for a few steps, before she says, “Also, I think I’m having a weird dream. Or an episode.”
“How so?”
“I can’t tell you, because if I’m wrong, you’re going to think I’m crazy.”
“No, I would never think that.” We reach her room then and I push her up against the door, kissing her once, before pulling back to study her face. “What is it, Darla?”
“Are you a whale?” she blurts. “The one I met yesterday on the whale watching trip?” She squeezes her eyes closed. “I knowit sounds bananas, but your eyes. I noticed the similarities when you winked at me. Plus, the way you swam—”
I stop her sweet rambling with a hard kiss, slanting my lips over hers and filling her mouth with my tongue until the tension ebbs from her body and she’s mewling. “You see?” I slide the room key out of her skirt pocket and tap it to the door handle, the way I saw her do yesterday. “Didn’t I say my human was intelligent?”
She’s breathing faster as I carry her into the room. “You’re really him? Buthow?”
I need to fuck her sweet body so bad, I want to bellow my frustration at the sky, but I can see that she needs to know everything, and I find I’m eager for her to know more about me. Where I come from. Who I am. Maybe that way, she’ll tell me more about herself.
“Allow me to explain, Darla,” I say with all the patience I can muster, sitting on the couch in the living room area, her thighs straddling my hips, her little hands perched on my chest, eyes wide.Such a gorgeous little creature is my mate.“A long time ago, my sister, brother and I angered the Sea Witch, who cursed us with the ability to shift…”
Six
Darla
