Groaning, she pushed away the pillow and rolled onto her back. Seeing him, her eyes widened in surprise. She yelped and pulled the sheet up around her nude body, but the effort was too little, too late.
Blake grinned. “ ’Morning,” he greeted. “I can tell by the look on your face that you weren’t expecting see me here.”
A heated blush rose to Gwen’s cheeks. “Honestly, I wasn’t.”
Blake eased himself over beside her. The mattress dipped under the shifting of his weight. “I hope you aren’t regretting it.” His head dipped and he brushed his lips over one of her bare shoulders.
“No.” She shook her head. “I’m not.” She lifted her chin in an almost defiant manner. “I wanted it to happen.”
Something in Blake’s heart twisted. It. She’d used the word it to describe their lovemaking. She hadn’t said she wanted him, or that she’d enjoyed having sex with him. She’d simply said she wanted
it
to happen.
His gaze met hers, zeroing in on her face. “It did happen and it was pretty damn good.”
Gwen bit down on her lower lip.
He caught the subtle move. “Something wrong?”
She shook her head. “I’m just a little stiff, and sore.” Pulling the sheets closer to her nude body, she started to slip off the bed. A gasp broke from her lips when she stood up. “Oh, no!”
Blake’s gaze tracked hers. A small pool of blood stained the place where she’d slept.
Face scarlet with mortification, Gwen reached out to tug the fitted sheet off the mattress. Blake barely had time to stand up before it was whipped out from under him. “Oh, I can’t believe this is happening,” she muttered, balling the soiled linen before pressing it protectively against her stomach.
Blake shrugged. He knew the facts of life. A woman couldn’t help her menstrual cycle. It was a normal, natural thing. An accident. It also gave him another clue into Mers. Their bodies seemed to be exactly the same as any human female.
“Take it easy. We can flip the mattress. It’s just an accident.”
“I didn’t know that would happen,” Gwen hurried to explain. “I mean, I did, but I didn’t, you know. It—it’s my first time . . .” Her words of embarrassment trailed off into silence.
Blake’s head nearly did a one-eighty swivel. “Wait a minute.” He held up his hands, making a time-out motion. “What do you mean it’s your first time?”
She looked at him plaintively. Tears of frustration welled around the edges of her eyes. A long minute stretched into two. “It’s my first time ever having sex,” she admitted, voice strained from the awkwardness of her confession.
Blake’s brows shot up as he realized the implications. Very aware that he stood stark-ass naked in front of the woman he’d just deflowered, he quickly reached for his underwear and slacks. Stepping into his clothes, he zipped and buttoned with haste. It felt wiser to be covered up for this conversation.
“Now, let’s talk,” he said, seeking clarification. “This can’t be right. Are you saying you’re a virgin?”
Refusing to let a single tear fall, Gwen blinked hard. “I was last night.” She sagged into a nearby chair.
Blake shook his head. “I see.” That was definitely one thing he would never have expected to find: a twenty-seven-year-old virgin. In a society that had sex shoved in its face twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, it was a rarity. Especially for a woman of Gwen’s age.
She’d chosen him to be her first. It was then Blake knew what had happened between them was more than the satisfaction of a physical itch. Their bodies had fit together so perfectly, almost as if they’d been made for each other.
“I hope you’re not upset with me.” She closed her eyes, rubbing her face. “I should have told you.”
As she spoke, the mirror over the bureau cracked. Like a windshield struck with a pebble, a tiny hairline fracture began to form in the thick glass.
Blake’s gaze flew to the mirror. His self-protective instincts kicked into gear. He knew she could tear him to pieces with a thought.
Oh, damn
. . . Not good. His head turned back to Gwen.
She leaned forward, planting her head against her knees. “It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.” The moan issuing up from her was low and mournful.
Eyes widening, Blake watched the single crack grow larger. He could hear the glass breaking apart. The cracks multiplied, branching out in a spider’s web, snaking with unnerving speed.
The one thing Blake had noticed about Gwen was that she seemed to have a hair trigger when it came to unleashing her psi-kinetic energies.
Forcing himself to stay calm, he walked over to where Gwen sat. She was still hunched over in her self-protective shell.
Kneeling in front of her chair, he reached out and took her by the shoulders. Holding her in a gentle, yet strong grip, he forced her to sit up. It was the same hold he’d used dozens of times before. He usually used it on a four-year-old boy throwing a temper tantrum.
Grabbing on to her felt like taking hold of a hot wire fence. The blood pulsing beneath her veins thrummed with power. The tips of his fingers tingled as he held her. In a few seconds, her body heat seemed to fall to a low simmer. “It’s okay.” He forced his voice to remain steady. “It’s no big deal.”
“I feel so stupid.” Tears rising all over again, she wavered. “I tried to tell you last night. You know . . . when I said it was the first time I’d ever showed anybody my tail.”
Blake slipped his fingers under her chin, caressing the hard line of her jaw. “I have to admit I was so busy looking at you that it totally flew over my head.” That was pretty true. At the time, a semitruck could have run over him and he wouldn’t have noticed. He was too enchanted by the lady in the water.
A smile tugged at her lips. “I’ve never met a man who I thought could accept me—the real me. Even though I look human, there’s always the Mer hovering in the background, waiting to emerge. It’s hard to find someone you can share it with.”
He suddenly got a glimpse of Gwen’s inner demons. Beneath the facade of confidence and control was a woman struggling to accept herself and her place in the world. It was a burden all people carried at one time or another. Everyone had their trials as well as triumphs. Hers was heavier than most because of her complicated heritage. It would be hard to find a man who would love her—tail and all.
Emotion took over. His grip loosened around her arms and he rubbed her shoulder gently. “I’m honored you chose me to be your first.” As he said the words, he knew he meant them.
She sniffed. “Damn it, I hate to cry.” A wavering smile crossed her lips. “This wasn’t quite the way I’d imagined this would happen. I had something a little more romantic in mind and not—” She squinched up her face. “Ugh. A big mess.” Her trembling body gave him comfort. The attraction was not one-sided at all.
He raised an amused brow. “Trust me when I tell you I’m used to dealing with women’s issues.” He laughed. “I’ve got a kid, remember? This is nothing compared to diapers and food flung all over the house.”
Gwen relaxed enough to laugh. “If nothing else, I guess it will be a night I’ll always remember.”
Blake cupped her hands in his. “I’ll remember it, too,” he admitted. “You’re definitely not a woman I could ever forget.”
“In a good way, I hope,” she added.
Relieved to have the crisis under control, he nodded. “Always in a good way.”
She sighed. “Guess I should take a shower.”
That remark got his attention. Anticipation kicked his heart into a faster rhythm. “Maybe I could join you,” he hinted, hoping she’d say yes. “Then we could get that meal that’s been delayed a little too long.”
I can’t believe it happened
.
Mind half in a daze, Gwen made her way toward the next-door unit. Tessa and Kenneth had one apartment, Addison the other. She needed to talk to her sisters, and soon.
Gwen threw a look over her shoulder, half expecting to see an agent shadowing her as she made the brief trip between the duplexes. To her surprise, no one seemed to be watching. At least not anyone she could see. By all outward appearances the identical duplexes with their precise landscaping looked like any middle-class neighborhood early in the morning. Only the high barbed-wire fencing looming in the distance shattered the illusion.
She made her way up the stairs and into the foyer separating the apartments. Since her apartment didn’t have a morsel of food, Blake had offered to go to the commissary and grab a few supplies. Though he could have called and had the food delivered, it seemed that he needed a time-out as much as she did.
A slow smile pulled at her mouth. Heat mingled with memory, fusing into something warm and fuzzy in the center of her stomach. They’d made love in the shower, and it was even better. She knew it was crazy, the way they’d come together, but she didn’t regret it.
I’m a virgin no more,
she thought, punching at the buzzer of apartment number 1.
When no one answered, Gwen hit the buzzer again. “Come on,” she murmured. “I need someone to talk to.” Neither one of her sisters was up with the sun. The last few days had been exhausting and tense for everyone concerned. She’d be surprised if anyone rose before noon.
Still . . .
She punched the buzzer a third time, holding it down. “Please get up, damn it.”
One minute passed, and then another.
The door finally cracked open. Tessa’s sleepy face appeared. “What the hell?” she groused. “It’s way too damn early to be bothering us.”
Gwen held a finger to her lips. “I need to talk to you.”
Tessa yawned. “Can’t it wait until later? I was up all night listening to Ken rant and rave about our rights.”
She shook her head. “I’ve got something important to tell you.”
Pulling her robe tighter around her body, Tessa ran a hand through her tangled hair. “Unless you’ve talked that agent of yours into letting us go home, you haven’t got anything I want to hear.”
“He’s not my agent,” Gwen started to say, then stopped herself. Well, maybe he was. Her insides were practically bursting to share the news. “I think I did something stupid.”
Tessa gave her a grouchy glare. “What?”
Biting her bottom lip, Gwen blurted, “I had sex with Whittaker last night.”
Her sister’s sleepy eyes immediately snapped open. “No way.”
Gwen nodded. “We did.”
Flinging the door wide, Tessa dragged her inside the apartment. It was decorated in the same bland neutral colors as her own. “I want to know everything,” her sister demanded, heading toward the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. A caffeine kick was the first thing Tessa needed to get going in the morning. Finding the cupboards bare, she pounded a fist against the counter. “Why the hell isn’t there any coffee?” she complained. “Don’t they know we need food, too?”
Gwen slid onto a nearby stool facing the counter. Her muscles ached, but in a pleasant way. Aside from a little soreness, she felt pretty good. Better than good, actually. “Blake’s gone to get us some breakfast,” she said. “But that’s beside the point. What do you think?”
“About you having sex with the man who’s spying on us?” Tessa retorted. “What the hell were you thinking, Gwen?” Her older sister’s words hit like a sledgehammer to the gut.
Gwen’s bubble of giddiness slowly began to deflate as the cold hard reality of their situation set in. She winced. Talk about having one’s brain take a vacation. “I made a mistake, didn’t I?”
Tessa leaned across the counter, tapping her temple with her index finger. “In case you haven’t figured it out yet, we’re being held here for more than our own safety. The government wants to know all about Mers, and they’ve not only got us locked up, they’ve got their beady little eyes trained right on us. Don’t you think it’s kind of funny they’d put an agent right next door to you? Sounds like he got more than an eyeful of you last night.”
Elation fizzling, Gwen laced her hands together. She suddenly felt stupid, an absolute fool. “I guess you’re right. What better way to get to know a mermaid than to sleep with one?”
Her sister propped a hand on her chin. She drummed impatient fingers against the countertop. “So did you tell him all our Mer secrets, like we’re cranky bitches without our coffee in the morning?”
Gwen shook her head. “I, uh, actually gave him something a little more personal than that,” she confessed.
Tessa pinned her under an assessing stare. “Oh?”
Gwen felt her throat tighten with embarrassment. Her heart raced along with her pulse. It was always less painful when the bandage was pulled off fast. She decided to plunge right in and confess. A thousand words tangled inside her, so she spit them all out in a rush. “Last night was the first time I’ve ever made love to a man.”
Tessa stared, speechless. “That’s not possible,” she finally spluttered. “You’ve been with men before. I’ve seen you give the eye to every hot hunk in a tight pair of jeans. And you and Caden were practically living together.”
Gwen blinked, suddenly wishing this were a dream and not real life. “I like men,” she admitted. “But I’ve never been with one. I mean, yeah, Caden and I fooled around a little, but I always put him off.” Feeling her throat thicken, she paused to swallow. “I never could bring myself to, you know, take off all of my clothes.”
Her sister held out her arm, showing a bit of the design etched into her skin. “Because of your scale pattern?”
She nodded. “That, and I never could get around to telling him I’m a mermaid. There never seemed to be a right time to roll out the tail.”
Tessa looked at her oddly. “Maybe because you’ve never wanted to admit you’re a Mer.”
A sinking sensation rolled through Gwen’s gut. As hard as she’d tried to fit into the human world, it was like pounding a square peg into a round hole. In trying to deny her Mer side, she’d practically stifled her life. Instead of living, she was existing, a prisoner in a cage of her own design.