Linda Gayle (2 page)

Chapter Two

Lyric woke from the nightmare with a gasp. It was the same one she’d been having almost every night since the breakup, where she was lost in the blackness of a terrible storm and couldn’t find her way home. Probably because she’d actually lost her home—her condo—thanks to Jack. Then again… She sat up in bed and pushed her hair away from her face. Let’s be honest here. She had some blame in the situation, too. She’d trusted Jack despite one of his friends and even his sister warning her about the kind of man he was. Love had made her blind. Or maybe just having invested three years of her life in him and not wanting to see the truth had made her blind.

Never again. If she ever trusted another man, it would only be after she saw him for what he truly was, inside and out. Men could have a beautiful exterior, smile, say all the right things, but deep inside be something completely different. It was the hardest, most bitter lesson she’d ever learned, but learned it she had.

Anyhow, that wasn’t what she wanted to be gerbil-wheeling over now, not when the first light of dawn seeped through the sheers and the rolling waves beckoned. Tossing back the light cover and stretching out in the comfortable bed, Lyric gazed toward the drawn sheers that revealed the view. Tall palm trees stood majestically in the golden glow of the morning sun. The beach stretched down to the shimmering sea, and no florist shop had ever smelled this fresh and alive. God, this really was paradise, and with the island’s scant residents as far away from her as anyone could be on this island, she could be the last woman on the face of the earth.

She raised her arms high overhead and rapped her knuckles on the headboard carved with island images. Her muscles were nicely sore from yesterday’s swim. Running her hands over her breasts and belly, she sighed. A few months ago, that amount of exercise wouldn’t have been anything for her. She’d lost weight from being too depressed to eat, but she’d lost muscle tone, too. Well, those days of moping were over. Time to take herself back, body and soul.

As the morning air washed over her bare skin, other parts of her that had been sent into hibernation began to stir. Experimentally, Lyric stroked her hands over her breasts again and felt her nipples tighten against her palms. The bungalow had no air-conditioning, so she’d gone to sleep in only her panties, and the gentle breath of wind on her breasts and stomach felt freeing. A tiny hum of satisfaction escaped her when she pinched each nipple and rolled them between her thumb and finger. Oh, God… It really had been a long time. Within seconds, her pussy warmed, heartbeat pulsing there, and Lyric squeezed her nipples again, shifting restlessly on the bed. She caught her lower lip between her teeth to stop a moan then laughed at herself. She could scream and shout all she wanted. Who was there to hear her but the birds?

Lifting her hips, she hooked her panties off with her thumbs and tossed them aside. No matter how many times she saw it, her newly depilated pussy always surprised her. Before she’d come to the island, she’d invested in a Brazilian bikini wax. It had stung like hell, but now, as she slid her fingers over the soft, pale skin, it did look pretty cool. And it felt… Sucking in a breath, she eased her fingers lower over her quickly dampening lips. Oh yeah, it felt great. She was so wet already. That had to be a good sign that she wasn’t ready to pack it in yet.

Slipping her middle finger inside her hole, she squirmed a little on the bed and let her thighs fall open. Oh, God… Still sitting up, she pumped her finger gently in and out while she found her clit with her thumb and tried to play with her breasts with the other hand. When she nearly fell over, off balance, she smirked. What she needed was more hands.

Thoughts of Jack tried to invade her mind—he’d been her first and only. When he took her virginity when she was twenty and in college, she’d fallen for him hard. She would’ve given him anything, everything—and had, as it turned out. Pushing her finger deeper inside her soaking cunt, Lyric squeezed her inner muscles and shut her eyes against the memories. This was
hers
now. Hers to do with as she pleased. Instead of Jack, she imagined…Well, she couldn’t put a face to her fantasy man, so she just imagined other hands—large, callused hands roaming over her body, other lips sucking at her nipples, other fingers plunging inside her, coasting over her slickened clit in tiny circles. While that man played with her, another watched on his knees beside her on the bed, his deeply tanned hand stroking a thick, heavily veined cock already dripping with pre-cum.

Lyric licked her lips, dying to take that meaty length into her mouth, to tease, to taste. The watching man stared down at her with fathomless, hungry eyes. His need for her burned through her, driving her desire higher, while the unseen lover now lapped at her pussy with an eager tongue, pushing her higher.

Her orgasm bent her over with its intensity. Her fantasy man’s eyes gleamed with approval and then rolled back as he found his own climax. Ropes of cum pulsed from his cock. For a moment, she couldn’t catch a breath, just rode the tide crashing through her, back bowed, a cry trapped in her throat. Her pussy gripped and sucked at her fingers, and a fresh flood of juices made her clit so slick, her thumb slipped off it.

“Oh, oh, God…” she panted at last. Wrung out, she drew her fingers free, wiped them on her thigh, and sank back against the pillow. “Oh yeah…”

Well, hell. She pulled in a huge breath and let it out with a smile. Inside, her muscles pinged and twitched with satisfaction, and her skin tingled from her scalp to her toes. Mmm-hmm, her fantasies had definitely been upgraded. Wow, for just a moment there, at the very peak, she could’ve sworn she really did have two guys in bed with her. The one watching… She could still see every detail of his face perfectly. An islander, for sure, with burnished skin and wavy, black hair, high cheekbones and full lips, and sexy tribal tattoos on his powerful arms and chest. Mmm. What did the other guy look like? Maybe she’d have to dream about him tonight.

Nice to know that if real men were a letdown, at least her imaginary ones were better than ever.

* * * *

“There she is!” Moana cried. He whistled and clicked, locating the woman in the dolphin way that, even after hundreds of years, always amazed him. He discerned the woman’s form, her shape, her curves, the flow of her hair as it streamed over her back, as accurately as if he still had fingers and was running them over her. Other questions went unanswered. Important ones. What color were her eyes? What music did she like? What made her laugh?

With a glance, he spied Rahiti easily keeping pace alongside him as they crested together for a breath. Of course the dolphin’s expression never changed from the silly smile the gods had deigned to put there, but Moana sensed the cloud of doubt covering his companion’s thoughts. Too bad. Rahiti’s dour mood would not ruin this day. Why couldn’t he see that Kanaloa had finally had mercy on them? Or perhaps the old god’s power was slipping, giving them a chance. Now was not the time to think about the hows and whys, only that here, already in their lagoon waiting for them, was their salvation.

“What do you think her name is?” he asked Rahiti, communicating in their secret language.

“I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. She’s not the one.”

“I’ll tell her you said that when we’re lying on the beach together in each other’s arms. You can stay in the ocean and watch us.”

Rahiti conveyed a smirk. “You mean when she’s trying to push you back into the water after you’ve beached yourself trying to reach her?”

“If that’s what it takes.” Moana dove beneath Rahiti and came up on his other side. They traveled very fast, and he sensed the break in the moon-shaped reef that led to the lagoon. “At least try. What do we have to lose?”

“If we hadn’t tried this before and been disappointed, I would be more hopeful. But we’re only curiosities to humans. No one believes in the old ways anymore, so no one remembers the story or how to break the curse.”

“Maybe it doesn’t matter. The right woman will free us.”

“And she’s it, just because she dropped a few tears in the ocean?”

“I heard her. Felt her. And don’t tell me you didn’t, too.”

They swam on in silence, Rahiti’s gloominess gathered around him like a school of tiny fish. The water grew shallower, and the opening to the lagoon appeared before them, a large break in the coral wall. Before they crossed over, Rahiti slowed and, to Moana’s surprise, nudged him with his snout. “I’m sorry I can’t be as happy as you. Just remember, no matter what, we still have each other. You will always be my friend.”

Nudging him back and rubbing his belly over Rahiti’s side, Moana sent him thoughts of affection. “I know you’ll always be with me, even as I’ll always be with you.” Was that what had Rahiti in such a trench of despair? Did he fear losing Moana to this woman? “This is our destiny. With a woman to love, we’ll be men again and can finish our lives as we were meant to.”

Now Rahiti stopped altogether, the top of his body bobbing above the surface so he might breathe. “The world we left behind doesn’t exist any longer. Our people are gone. Our islands have been taken over by others. Who will we be?”

His words sent a chill through Moana. He’d never been the deep thinker Rahiti was, and now he remembered why he was happy he wasn’t. Such thoughts were depressing. “We’ll be together,” he said at last, rolling over in a wave.

“We’re together now,” Rahiti argued stubbornly.

“Is this how you want to be, forever?” He flipped his tail for emphasis. “I want to be a man again. To feel with my hands. To smell the breeze. To taste a woman and know her body.” He drifted closer to his friend. “To see you again, as you were.”

“And she must see us,” he reminded Moana. “What if she doesn’t?”

“She’s swimming now in the lagoon. All we have to do is get her to look at us under the water, and then she’ll see our true forms.”

Rahiti said nothing for a long moment. “I’m afraid,” he conveyed at last with a series of mournful chirps.

“Then you must also think she might be the one. Otherwise you wouldn’t hesitate.”

“All right,” his friend admitted. “Yes. There’s something different about her.” He rolled his near eye at Moana, and Moana could see the man deep inside the dolphin body, the human being trapped within. “Just remember, if this doesn’t work, that I told you so.”

Moana laughed in the dolphin way, tossing his head and arching his body. “And if it does, then I will tell you so while we are both making love to our woman.”

The thought of them, in their human forms, limbs twined, hands, lips, tongues touching this mystery girl, touching each other, propelled him forward with Rahiti thrusting mightily to catch him.

* * * *

Lyric cast a glance over her shoulder at the shore, which seemed pretty far away now. She’d had to swim out a good distance, much farther than she had yesterday, to reach water she thought might be deep enough to accommodate dolphins. For the last hour or so, with her mask and snorkel on, she’d been enjoying the little reef fish and the colorful plant life that ringed the lagoon. Sadly, though, it looked like the dolphins were a no-show. Belly down, she spread out her arms and legs like a water bug to float on the surface and rest. In a few minutes, she’d have to head back or risk a cramp. Maybe it had been kind of stupid to come out this far alone. As she’d reminded herself this morning, nobody would hear her screaming on this side of the island, whether she was climaxing or drowning.

Still, the water was a balm to her soul, with just enough wave action to almost rock her to sleep. The reef that surrounded the lagoon took the edge off the waves and sheltered it from storms. Rolling onto her back, she floated, pushing her mask up to her forehead and gazing up at the azure sky. Some people said the weather around here was so perfect it got boring, but she’d be willing to risk a little boredom. It didn’t get better than—
shit
! Lyric gasped and flailed upright as a huge shape launched from the water and soared directly over her, blocking the sun, then crashing down to her right. Her heart leapt into her throat, and she treaded water wildly, glancing around.

A gray torpedo shot past her. The wake tumbled over her shoulder, and then another shape appeared from behind. It turned a slow circle before it stopped completely, and a dolphin lifted its head to gaze at her, a fixed smile on its beak.

“Oh my God.” She pressed a hand to her breast. “You scared the shit out of me.”

The dolphin flipped back and disappeared, and the second dolphin came up beside her.

Holy crap, here they were, and close enough to touch. If she’d thought she was out of her depth before, she felt doubly so now. The other dolphin appeared at her right, and the two of them began circling her, gleaming in the sun and gusting the occasional spray of breath. They were a lot bigger than she’d expected. From her limited knowledge, she figured they were bottlenose dolphins. The top part of their bodies stayed above the surface, and their broad, flat tails—flukes, right?—stirred the water as they made a lazy route around her. Were they supposed to get this close? A vague memory stirred of a story she’d read where a dolphin—or had it been a whale? Hopefully a whale—had dragged a woman out to sea to “play” with and had almost killed her.

“You guys wouldn’t do that, right?” she asked, keeping her hands to herself even though the two creatures had tightened their circle and were nearly rubbing on her.

She remembered that other story about the dolphins who flirted with women. By flirted, if she recalled correctly, it meant “tried to mate with.” Shit. She hadn’t showered after she’d come this morning. Could they…smell her? Was human arousal to a dolphin what blood was to a shark? Oh, God, this was ridiculous. Here were the dolphins she’d been dying to see, and now she was scared spitless of them.