Linda Gayle (4 page)

Hands on her slim hips, she eyed him up and down. “A really naked man. Do you always go around like this? Can’t you at least put on a little…seaweed leaf or something?”

Even her mere gaze sent a thrill through him, and that part of him that her attention wandered over so casually began to respond. One of her eyebrows rose right along with it, but he could never have sex with her without Moana there as well. Desperately, he begged again, “Do this one thing. If Moana does not become a man, then I’ll return to the ocean. You will never see either of us again.”

She said nothing, crossing her arms over her chest and staring out at Moana, who swam in a solitary circle in the deeper water. Rahiti held his breath. Perhaps it was his dolphin instincts still at work, but he sensed she
wanted
to believe.

“All right,” she said. “This is crazy, but…” She tugged her mask down over her face again. “Well, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Then she laughed and tossed a hand. “
You
wouldn’t believe
me
. Ha!”

Left baffled by her strange words and mannerisms, Rahiti let out his held breath in a gust when she sloshed toward him. “I am grateful—” he began, but once again she held up her palm.

“Look, let’s get one thing straight. I go check out your fish friend, and then you go home, and not the way you came. I thought maybe you were faking it out there, but I’m not going to be responsible in case you weren’t and you drown. I’ll play your game, and then you take your dolphin and head back to whatever aquarium you came from. Okay?”

Grasping only some of what she said, he nodded. What a strange woman. As he followed her swaying hips into the deeper waves, he thought, beautiful but very strange. Perhaps the world had changed even more than he and Moana had anticipated.

Without hesitation, Moana swam over to them. His emotions—fear, worry, hope—rolled over Rahiti like the tide, and Rahiti caught his friend’s beak in his hand and rubbed the broad, smooth head. Tears pricked his eyes. Tears. A long time for those as well. Returning to the sea with Moana would not be the worst thing. In their ancient tongue, he murmured, “It will be all right, my friend. I will never leave you.”

Beside him, Lyric heaved a dramatic sigh. “Okay, so now what do I do?”

“When you turned me into a man, you saw me first as a dolphin in your world, on the surface. But when you enter our world, the sea, you will see us as we truly are.” He slid his hand reassuringly over Moana’s back. “See Moana as he once was. His true form.” He couldn’t help the note of desperation in his voice when he turned to her and said, “The god has promised.”

He thought it wiser not to mention the god had also promised she would be their mate.

Chapter Three

Amazing. Impossible. Scary. Exciting.

What the
hell
.

Lyric kept her hands balled into fists to hide their trembling from Big Naked Dude with the equally Big Naked Cock. He couldn’t be Rahiti the dolphin. This dolphin in front of her couldn’t be Moana the man. She couldn’t be standing here in the middle of a tropical lagoon trying to convince herself to just dunk her head under the water to look at a fish. Mammal. Dammit.

She was, though.

With his broad hand spread across the head of the bobbing dolphin, Rahiti, if that really was his name, gazed at her with pleading, liquid eyes. For such a powerful-looking man, he had the eyes of an angel, and she couldn’t resist them. She’d seen those eyes before, too—in her fantasy this morning. Goose bumps broke over her skin that had nothing to do with the tiny waves tickling her thighs. Something really weird was at work here. Maybe she’d superimposed this guy’s face on her fantasy man’s, but there was something incredibly familiar and, well, although his dick seemed very happy to see her, despite Rahiti’s otherwise-agitated state, Lyric couldn’t believe he meant her harm.

Then again, overconfidence and trusting had been her downfall before.

“Okay, let’s get this over with,” she muttered. “Do I have to touch him or anything?”

“I don’t think so. I touched you first.”

She bit her lower lip. “Okay, here goes nothing.”

Taking a breath, she bent low in the water, keeping her eyes closed until her face and mask were fully submerged. Crap, what if he really did turn into a man? It took her a few seconds to work up the guts to open her eyes again, and when she did, she wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed.

With a big exhale, she straightened again, pushed up her mask, and slicked back her hair. “Nope. Nothin’ but fish.”

Rahiti’s big, dark eyes went wide. “It can’t be. Kanaloa would not be so cruel…”

Oh, God, no one could resist that look. “Well,” she said, “maybe it’s because he’s still partly out of the water. See? The water’s too shallow here. Let’s go out farther.”

Rahiti brightened. “Yes. Of course!”

Without anyone telling him to, as if he already understood, Moana swam out a few yards, turned, and waited for her. All righty then. Wading in until she could swim, Lyric made her way toward him. The dolphin submerged, and the wake he left shimmered with gold and silver, dazzling her for a moment. Something subtle shifted in the air, as if the whole world held its breath, and once again, goose bumps pebbled her skin. Seeking reassurance, she glanced back at Rahiti, who nodded solemnly. If he was an actor, he was a hell of a good one.

Lyric licked her lips, took a breath, and dived.

She opened her eyes behind the mask. Fully submerged, the dolphin swam up and down in short arcs before her as if it was trying to make her see him. Well, whatever Rahiti was hoping for, it wasn’t…

The water around the dolphin dimmed as if someone had turned down the lights. Lyric blinked, and in that blink, something happened. In the clear Pacific before her, in water that was too clear to mistake him for anything else, a man appeared. Another naked man, slimmer than Rahiti, just as golden-skinned and gorgeous, and grinning at her.

She bolted to the surface, her gasped, “Ohmygod!” bursting from her mouth before her head had cleared the water. New Guy surfaced in front of her, and then with a gurgled yelp, he sank again. Rahiti shouted for his friend. What the heck, couldn’t these guys swim? Who grew up in Polynesia without learning how to swim? Lyric dived again, found the frantically flailing New Guy, grabbed his arm, and hauled him the short distance to the surface. With a few sure strokes and an arm around his muscular chest, she had him in the shallower water with Rahiti.

New Guy—Moana?—struggled to stand, and Rahiti reached out and grasped his shoulders then embraced him. Arms around his friend, he said something in what she guessed was the island’s native language, musical, soothing words that seemed to calm the trembling Moana. The sight of the two incredible men hugging made Lyric’s insides warm. She pulled her mask away from her eyes and set it on her forehead to get an unobstructed view. There was no mistaking the affection between them. New Guy, Moana, turned to her. “Thank you,” he rasped. Guess it took a while for the voice to come back.

To come back? What was she thinking? Oh my God, she’d just seen a dolphin turn into a man. Two men. Shock and disbelief poured over her like an icy shower and held her rigid even as Moana reached out to her, slid his hands over her arms…and kissed her.

 
She gave a little squeak as his lips pressed softly against hers. He tasted…salty.

“Hey,” she said. “Don’t—”

Tipping his head, eyes bright with what she could only interpret as wonder, he pulled her closer and kissed her again. Too shocked to move, she let him. Yeah, because she was shocked. Not because the touch of his lips on hers sent sparkling tremors through her, melting her muscles from shoulders to toes. Not because he tasted like sun and surf. Not because of the sexy moan he made when his tongue slipped over her lips. That had nothing to do with it.

When she didn’t resist, he suckled her lips between his and drew her up against his smooth, firm, naked, and, oh yes, very aroused body. The prodding of his hot dick against her belly finally made Lyric yank back. “Hey!”

He took advantage of her openmouthed protest by diving in again and deepening the kiss, his tongue sliding into her mouth while she leaned back, maybe not trying to get away quite as much as she should have. For a dolphin, the guy knew how to kiss. His hand slid down to her butt, and all sorts of crazy things started happening inside Lyric’s body. Hot, wet, needy things. She wanted to grind her butt into his gripping fingers. She needed to feel that stiff cock inside her. Surrendering a throaty moan, she dug her fingers into his shoulders for just a second before sanity came rushing back. With a gasp, she tore her mouth from his, hauled back, and slapped his face as hard as she could.

Moana staggered back, holding his cheek. He nearly fell, but Rahiti caught him under his arms and set him upright again. “Easy, Moana. You must give yourself time to regain your strength.”

“He’s plenty strong, believe me,” Lyric protested, still feeling the urgent heat of his body impressed onto hers. “Jeez, is this how you thank me for—for turning you into people?”

Still rubbing his cheek, Moana flashed a dazzling grin and nodded. “One way.”

Rahiti rolled his eyes. “Moana, you’re going to frighten her.” He looked apologetic. “Forgive him, Lyric. It has been several hundred years since he’s been able to touch a woman.”

“Especially one as beautiful as you. Lyric.
Lyric
.” He seemed to be trying out her name on his tongue. “Didn’t I tell you, Rahiti? Look at her. She is everything we dreamed of.”

Lyric held up her hands. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down there, big fella. My work here is done. I’m going back to my hut, and you guys can go off to…wherever it is you belong.”

“We belong with you,” Moana said, his face folding into a puzzled frown. And what a face it was. Where Rahiti was all stocky muscle, Moana, while no less masculine, had finer features, lips that seemed chiseled by an artist’s hand, midnight-black hair that fell to his shoulders, and eyes of gold. He, too, bore black tribal tattoos over his arms and chest and even across the tops of his thighs. They just naturally drew her eye to the more interesting bits. Lyric had to tear her gaze from him to answer.

“There’s a man who lives on the island. His name is Henri. I’m sure he can help you figure out what’s happened. He’s the one who told me about that legend.”

“So you do believe?” Moana asked.

Rahiti slung his arm around Moana’s shoulders. “Of course she must, now, after seeing you change.” His attention never strayed from Lyric’s face. “You were right, Moana. She knows our names. She is the one.”

“The one what?” Oh boy, this couldn’t be good, the way they were looking at her so intensely, their cocks still at half-mast, her body throbbing from Moana’s kiss and wanting more. No siree, that couldn’t be good at all.

Moana started to answer, but Rahiti spoke over him. “Can we at least return with you to your hut? Perhaps you can find some covering for us, some…clothing. And then we will speak with Henri.”

“Or with you,” Moana blurted. “I would like to talk with you. I want to know everything about you. Where you come from. What you like. How to please you.”

He gazed at her with such unabashed adoration that Lyric wondered if maybe he was a little nuts. Then again, being stuck as a dolphin for a couple hundred years might do that to a man. Oh heck no, she wasn’t going down that path. No matter what she
thought
she saw, it had to have been some kind of a trick. Still, peering out over the ocean, she didn’t see any dolphins.

Just these two.

Waiting for her answer.

She pushed her mask up a little higher on her head then set her hands on her waist. “Okay. You can come with me now, but later, when Henri gets back, we go to see him. You can tell him what happened because I’m still not sure I believe it.” When Moana began to protest, she held up a finger. “Uh-uh. We’ll let Henri sort it out. And no more kissing.”

He lifted his hands. “I only wanted to thank you.”

“What he means,” Rahiti said, his curling his fingers around Moana’s upper arms from behind as if warning him not to dig himself in deeper, “is that we will do whatever you like.” He tipped his head. “We are yours to command.”

Moana nodded.

“Hmm,” she said skeptically, careful to keep her astonishment from her expression. What exactly was happening here? As she turned to splash toward the beach, a growing part of her pushed to accept the impossible.

Somehow, some way, the two men following her back to shore, stumbling and hanging on to each other for strength, were ancient Polynesian warriors.

And they were hers.

* * * *

“Do not agitate her,” Rahiti whispered to Moana in their native language as they followed Lyric onto the beach. “She does not behave as women of our time did. She has courage and fire, but we cannot expect her to fall to her knees and be a good, obedient wife as Mohea would have been.”

“No more kissing. That’s a worse punishment than being a dolphin.” Moana moaned beneath his breath. “I don’t know if I can stop touching her. Her skin is like the softest sand. Her mouth is the warmest of waters.”

His foolish friend would ruin this if he couldn’t stop thinking with his
tore
. Rahiti corrected himself. They must start thinking and speaking in Lyric’s language, English. So, that would be…his cock, he’d heard sailors say.
Cock, dick
. They would surely say Lyric had a
fine ass
. He didn’t realize he’d been staring at her swaying hips until Moana chuckled and slid his finger underneath Rahiti’s thickening penis.