She didn’t press for more. He felt the way her tail moved the water as she leaned back, drew him along.
“What did you mean, you couldn’t kiss me before, but now you could?”
“We’re not allowed.”
“To kiss?”
“No, that would be sad, wouldn’t it?” Her hair flowed over the water, black silk against indigo. “We’re not allowed to kiss a land person first. To ask for the kiss, to take it. It has to be given, by choice. Then we can give back.”
“What, like an Ariel thing?”
Puzzled, she frowned. “Ariel is . . . of the air?”
“Maybe. It’s a character—a mermaid in a story.”
“Oh! I don’t know the story of Ariel. Will you tell me?”
“I’ll do better. I’ll show you. We’ll see if there’s a way to get the DVD or stream it—it’s a movie. A Disney movie. Anyway, she had to wait for the prince to kiss her in the story.”
“You’re a King. Sawyer King.” Laughing, she lifted her head, kissed him again. Her tail swirled back and forth. Then her legs kicked before they both stood in thigh-high water.
“Will you kiss me when I have legs? I can ask now.”
Amused, allured, he cupped her face again, kissed her.
“We’ve got to get back—and you need that dress. Small chance of the polizia coming along, but we could get arrested.”
“For kissing?”
“For public nudity.”
“There are strange laws and rules here.”
But she waded back to the rock, slipped the dress over her head. He grabbed his jeans, his shirt, tugged the jeans over the wet boxers.
Instead of taking her hand, he wrapped his arms around her waist. “Ready?”
She circled his waist with hers. “Yes.”
When they stood in front of the villa again, still entwined, she hugged harder.
“It’s different to travel when you hold me. Everything is different when you hold me. If you came to my room, we could lie together and you could hold me.”
He asked any god listening for strength. “Long, hard day tomorrow. You need to go up, get some sleep.”
“It’s hard to do what needs, but you need sleep, too.”
“Yeah. You go on in. I’ll be in, in a minute.”
To please them both, he kissed her, then again, and once more until her eyes were dreamy when she turned to go.
“Good night.”
“Night,” he said as the door closed behind her, then sat on the step until he could settle down.
An instant later he was on his feet, the knife out of the sheath on his belt and in his hand.
Doyle stepped out of the shadows. “Stand down, soldier. Just taking a last pass before turning in.”