Shattered by the Sea Lord - Starla Night Page 0,46
know what is possible. And according to the other queens, that was all they needed to bring forth their powers.”
Bex nodded slowly, then bid them goodnight and headed up the steps.
Dannika’s fingers tingled. “If only you could bottle some of that certainty, I would drink it like the elixir. I can’t believe you promised everyone that I’d show off my powers tomorrow. I still have no idea what I did.”
“You will.”
“Seriously, give me that confidence. I’ll drink.”
“Your confidence will grow with your mastery. It is the same with any warrior.”
That was hard to believe.
“Doubts plague even the most confident warrior when he is tired.” Ciran shucked his clothes and strode proudly to the lip, muscle rippling with unbending grace. He slipped into the water up to his waist and held out a hand to her. “Rest with me, Dannika. Heal your body and your mind.”
Well, he wasn’t wrong.
She slipped off her caftan, folded it neatly beside the freshwater bowl, and hooked a finger under her bra strap.
Ciran rested both elbows on the ledge. His hot gaze drifted down her body and back to her face.
Answering heat kindled in her. She was tired, but excited butterflies awoke in her stomach, and suddenly sleep was the last thing on her mind.
She forced the underclothing off, angling to disguise her worst flaws. The pooch at her belly that had grown. The wrinkly sag under her arms that made her switch from youthful tank tops to flowing sleeves. She clothed her body well and rarely agonized over the natural changes because she had no one to show.
Then she forced herself to her feet and hurried to the water’s edge beside him, covering first her belly and then her arms, and then her belly again, and oh yes, her private areas.
He watched her hands move and tilted his head. “What is wrong?”
“Just thinking.” She sat and dropped her feet in, the water cresting her calves, and positioned herself for the best angle. “It’s been a long time since a man has seen me naked.”
He moved around her and rested one hand on the ledge beside each thigh. His chest bumped gently against her knees, and the iridescent threads in his eyes gleamed. “Lucky me.”
The suggestion in his tone made a delicious throb between her legs. Her butterflies flurried. She squeezed her elbows in tight, hugging her breasts and hiding her belly.
He bumped against her. “You will be more comfortable in the water.”
“I’ll be more comfortable ten years younger.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted you to find a woman with fewer miles on her.” She risked reaching out and stroking his earnest, chiseled cheek. “You deserve someone like that.”
He caught her hand and pressed a sizzling kiss to her palm. “But I want you.”
Her breath hitched.
He’d always said that. And it was too late for them now, anyway. He embraced her. She just had to embrace him back.
He kicked back from the ledge and gently tugged her in.
She entered the water with a splash. It was warm and salty, just like before. She blew bubbles out her nose, and the stillness of the lagoon seemed to chime into her waterlogged ears. She had shifted. She just had to release her bubbles and believe it.
Leap of faith.
Again.
Everything about Ciran was a leap of faith.
The protests of hundreds of her dating clients echoed in her mind. I don’t even know why I walked in here. Dating never works. I’m different. I’ve been trying to meet the man of my dreams for years and all I do is meet losers. What do you mean my attitude is what has to change?
She breathed in.
Water filled her mouth and hit the back of her throat.
She choked.
There was no way not to feel the wrongness of it. Heavy chill in her lungs, unnatural, promising death…
Ciran whirled over her, rolling her around and making the rocky floor the ceiling, the air above her toes.
The glow brightened as the lagoon opened up around her. Tiny, clear shrimps fluttered like moths. Algae glowed blue, and small anemones suctioned to the underside of rocks dusted with sea stars. Wind chimes of a hundred stained glass windows tinkled in her chest, in her ears. Stalagmites punctured the surface, and it was much deeper at the edge of the ledge than she’d realized. He hadn’t been standing on the bottom. No, he’d been floating or kicking those long fins.
“You continue to wish for another bride for me.” His chest vibrated as they gently twirled in the lagoon. “But I want you,