Shattered by the Sea Lord - Starla Night Page 0,11
know what it means when a politician gives that answer. It’s just like when a Hollywood producer tells you he loves your script and he’ll be in touch. If I had a penny for every time I heard that, I’d be producing the next blockbuster myself.”
The sun slipped behind a cloud and the tableau of warriors and camera crew took on a gray cast. Only Ciran gazed her way like a splash of color in a world of sepia.
She couldn’t face him right now.
“How disappointing.” She hurried down the beach away from the warriors. “I thought the senator was sympathetic. What happened?”
“He has a college-aged daughter.”
“So?”
“Your office has produced lovely informational ads, but your opponents have struck right in the man’s ugly heart. ‘These monsters kidnap, assault, enslave our innocent girls. Don’t let yours become the next victim.’”
“Those are all lies.”
“Yes, well…In the old legends, mermen were monsters. And the Sons of Hercules are happy to remind us.”
“Yes, but in the old legends, Hercules was an insane, violent murderer.” Dannika rubbed her clammy hands on her caftan. “You know his twelve labors? He performed them in penance.”
“Yes, for offing his innocent wife and children. I attended Oxford, my dear.”
“Yet our mermen are the ones who attack innocents?”
“The modern education system has murdered the classics,” Frederik agreed. “Yet, the message packs a punch. When it comes to love, fear always wins.”
That contradicted everything Dannika stood for.
She shook her whole body, rejecting it with everything she had. “I can’t believe that.”
“Rom coms are fine, but horror will never die. I sell the stories. I know.”
“No, I mean, I’m sure your right, but…” She scrubbed her burning eyes. “Where do we go from here?”
“Why don’t you come down tonight, anyway?” Frederik suggested. “We’ll have a little powwow and figure it out. You have the connections.”
Dannika did have the connections, but her best one had just declined her dinner invitation.
Again.
Gailen and the others were counting on her.
She was failing her warriors.
“We can open a bottle of sherry and reminisce about old times,” he continued.
“Mm.” She cleared her throat. “Well…”
“I am sorry for missing Eliot’s annual memorial. Can you believe it’s been eighteen years since he died? What an awful, awful day. Worse for you, I’m sure. The only blessing is that you weren’t there to see it, although that’s also sad, in a way.”
She rotated her wedding ring. Guilt was a familiar companion. It was the cost of having found true love. “I may come down…”
Ciran’s voice punctured the air behind her. “You are leaving Bermuda?”
She whirled.
His dark eyes mesmerized her. “Where you go, I go.”
The tingle started in her belly.
She sucked in a breath and let it out. Then she moved the phone away from her ear to answer him. “Your warriors must need you here.”
“Lotar is a capable leader.” His fingers encircled her wrist. “You need me.”
“I don’t…”
But he saw the truth.
And so did she.
I don’t want to need you.
Dannika closed her lips and rubbed her tongue across the nude gloss. She didn’t want to need Ciran, but when the world broke down around her, all she wanted to do was lean into his unbending support.
But no.
She pulled her spine straight and took a deep, calming breath. “Yes, I am returning to the mainland. And you are welcome to come as well. We can look at bios together on the plane, and by the time we land, I’ll help you pick out the perfect bride.”
Chapter Five
As she listed her requirements, Ciran’s eyes narrowed in refusal. “I will look at anything with you, Dannika, but you know you are my bride. Accept my claim.”
Which meant to share a kiss.
Heat waved through her veins and twisted in a hot ache between her thighs. Her nipples tightened. Desire flooded into all her nooks and crannies, the sensual pieces of herself that she’d long ignored.
Her body yearned to envelop him, lick the salt off his abdomen, delve beneath the rim of his shorts and encircle the cock she found within.
Ciran would be a passionate and sensual lover. If she let him have the tiniest taste—if she let herself indulge—she would wreck his life and ruin herself forever.
“I will claim you, Dannika.” His low voice was so possessive it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. “You are mine.”
But if she gave in…
Luckily, she didn’t have to.
Shouts erupted with the other warriors. Pushing, shoving, and a scream.
Just when Dannika’s soul was finally starting to glow, his warriors had to start a fight.