“What?”
“Those in glass houses, um, aquariums, shouldn’t throw stones. I’m wearing more than you are. You don’t even have a top on.” Then I incline my chin. “A little slutty if you ask me.”
His eyes darken, light blue to gray, from a day sky to a stormy eve, and the look he’s giving me is definitely the look of a man. Not the kind of look I’ve seen in a long time.
“Take it off,” he says.
Adrenaline shoots through my belly at his words and then explodes through my appendages. My nipples harden beneath the small triangles of my top. It only took three words to make me come to terms with the effect he has on me.
But the old me isn’t completely gone in this moment. I swallow hard. “I—I.”
“I’m sorry.” He shakes his head, speaking quickly. “I didn’t mean it. I don’t know what came over me. That . . . was completely inappropriate.”
But I shake myself alive. “Shut up,” I say.
I reach for the string at my neck. But I can’t do it like this. Not out in the wide open air. Not with my eyes so clear.
I turn around in the tank and grasp onto the other side.
“Don’t do it.” His voice comes from behind me.
“Why not?” I call over my shoulder.
The strings at my neck slide out from their tie and spill over my shoulders. Then I snag the one at the back, tugging until it releases. I grab it and throw it over the top of the tank. The bottoms are next. I tug on the string at my right hip, tug at the string at my left hip, scootch until release, and then toss it out the tank.
“Please, stop.” Mack’s voice is a strained plea. “I can’t . . . I can’t . . .”
I hold my arm across my breasts. “Can’t what?”
“I can’t . . .” He pauses. “With you.”
I can’t even say exactly what he means by that, but his doubt spurs me on further. I have to prove it to him. Prove what exactly? It. He needs to know.
“Mack,” I say with the most confident tone I can muster.
“What?”
“Get down from the tank and face me.”
If I’m going to do this. I’m gonna fucking do this.
“Jules I—”
“Do it now.”
Behind me, weight shifts, and I can hear sounds but only imagine what’s happening. He drops to the ground with a thud.
“I’m on the ground. Now what?”
I glance over my shoulder, but there’s nothing to see. I’m too high up to see Mack from here without looking down. “Good, now don’t move.”
I crane my neck toward the ceiling briefly, praying for strength from some god I don’t even believe in because, holy hell, what am I actually doing right now . . .
And then I let go of the ledge, submerging my body back in the water.
I don’t have my goggles, so when I open my eyes, all I see before me is a blurry, upright form. Maybe not a fish. Maybe not a man.
An outline with Mack inside. I know he’s there.
We’re living in different worlds.
I hold out my hands, pushing them against the glass. My body is bare to him. Not a stitch of clothing to cover me. The only thing between us is a see-through barrier, warping and refracting the light.
And yet, I’m on display. For him. Like a fish in an aquarium.
And I want him to see. I want him to see it all.
Chapter 14
There’s a crash in the water.
In a flash, Mack has scaled the tank wall and leaped in. His strength and speed are like a shark ready to attack. He grasps my body, and I grasp at his. My eyes snap open in the water, and even though his form is blurry, I see more clearly than I ever have in my entire life.
His hand comes behind my head, and my arms wrap around his torso. He feels different in the water. Warmer. Softer. But also so hard at the same time.
He presses his lips against mine. I pull him flush against me, my arms desperately grappling with the smooth scales, the long muscular contours offset by the soft flag of fins down the seam of his body. I move my hands up to his jaw, and it’s almost a struggle with the way we’re holding onto each other. I push into the kiss, my tongue finding his. Briefly, he swirls his tongue against mine, and a pleasurable tingle shoots down to the pit of my belly.
Before I can dive for another kiss, I’m rocketed upward, bursting through the water, Mack’s large arms enveloped tightly around my ribs.
