A Thousand Salt Kisses (Book 1 of Salt Kiss series)

><> Chapter Thirty-Eight <><

"Llyr!" I cried excitedly rushing to the end of the jetty.

"Crystal," he said softly, lifting one hand out of the water and placing it round my leg. He tugged downwards so that I sat on the edge and I took my shoes off and placed my feet in the water. 

He handed me the keys.

"Thank you," I said laughing. "I was just thinking I was going to have to sleep in the garden."

"Oh, well I couldn't have that," he smiled, running his hand up my leg. I instantly felt shivers up and down my spine.

"I missed you so much," I said, looking down at him. He had his hair tied up tonight and he looked super, super gorgeous as usual. Maybe even more so as I hadn't seen him in a while.

"Oh good," he said. "I had hoped your anger would subside."

I looked to the side a little sheepishly.  Apparently, Jemima had told Rosie that her father had been investigating the incident and there had indeed been something very wrong with the boat, just like Llyr said. I decided to change the subject before I ended up grovelling.

"Where have you been?" I asked curiously; I still had no idea what this Dream Journey was all about.

"I took all the little mers on a trip," he said. "You know, we teach them to do stuff in the wild; survival skills and stuff akin to this."

"How cute!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, there were less than usual, because of the poison crisis but there were still maybe twenty. They were all lined up with their little spears," he laughed. 

"Oh stop it!" I cried. This is too much.

"Spirit made them their spears," he said.

I made a face as though I were about vomit. "Oh, yuck. Well, that's ruined everything."

"Yes, that's why I said it," he said, pulling himself up on the jetty so one arm was now wrapped around my waist and the other lay across my lap. I felt water seep through all my clothes, but I couldn't be more unbothered. 

He kissed me and I kissed him right back. It had been a long time. Too long.

"You like children?" he said, between kisses.

I blinked, wondering if his trip had made him broody or something. I was only seventeen; I was in no place to think about children.

"Erm, yeah," I giggled nervously turning away. "Why, do you?"

"Yeah, of course," he said. He swung himself onto the jetty and now he sat next to me.

I think he must have sensed the question made me feel awkward and so he changed the subject.

"Where have you been?" he asked, looking at my outfit sceptically. I wore a white shirt and a black knee-length skirt. It was not my usual style, for sure.

I told him all about my new job, including full descriptions of Tamzin and all the leary locals.

"You know, instead of a job, I can just bring you some jewels," he said slowly when I was finished. "They are quite valuable to humans, are they not?"

I laughed, at first I thought he was joking. But he wasn't quite smiling and I sensed there was something about the job that he wasn't happy about.

"What's wrong?" I said suspiciously.

"I just think you should be enjoying yourself, that's all," he said.

Was he worried about all the time my job would take up? I was working four nights a week now, but it's not like he was around so much anyway. I literally had nothing else to do here apart from roam the island.

He seemed to recognize that he was stressing me out and he put his hand on my face. "I'm sorry, I don't mind Crystal. I only want your happiness, I promise," he said.

"Sure, I'm fine," I said distantly. I never expected him to be remotely bothered about a job. Are they really so alpha these mermen; out hunting for jewels whilst their mermaids sit about combing their hair or something?

Llyr started laughing. "I can see in your face, you're imagining all kinds of things..."

I couldn't help but smile. How can he know me so well, in so little time?

I leaned on his shoulder, the job disagreement forgotten. I still couldn't believe we were back here on my little jetty together. I had been so convinced at one point that we would never see each other again.

We watched a shooting star across the ocean. They were so quick that if you blinked you'd miss it.

I felt Llyr's hand on my leg again, light soft caresses making me feel amazing. His hand was around my knees now tugging my skirt up.

I really meant to tell him to stop. Part of me was worried about Dad waking up and looking out of his window and seeing us. The thing was, I just couldn't bring myself to end it, I literally felt ripples of pleasure with every touch. And he soon started on my shirt unbuttoning it, his mouth all over my neck and chest.

"Lie down," he whispered.
 
I nodded and there under the shooting stars, on my jetty Llyr and I finally 'made love'.


***


Afterwards we lay there for a while. I was breathless and really quite overwhelmed by the whole experience. 

I had never really taken so long to recover, and, in actual fact within my limited sexual experience, it was pretty much always the other way around. But Llyr was a three hundred-year old superhuman, after all.

When I had resumed normality, we held each other. My shirt and skirt were somewhere on the jetty, and my underwear was in bits around us - he had literally ripped it off.

"That was amazing," he said, kissing my cheek.

I sighed blissfully. "Yes, it was definitely worth the wait. Although I was a little paranoid Dad would catch us."

Llyr sat up with alarm. "He's awake?"

"No, but I just thought maybe he would wake up or something..." I said. "It's okay, anyway. I'm pretty sure we'd know about it if he had."

He lay back down. "How are your parents?"

"Oh, you know... separated." I said. 

"I'm sorry," he said.

"It's okay." I replied dismissively. I didn't really want to talk about it and ruin everything. "Hey, did you hear about my father and George?"

"No," he said, with interest. "What happened?"

I told him all about the saga over the last forty eight hours and to my amazement, he threw back his head in a bellowing laugh.

"Shhh!" I hissed, hitting him and pointing to the house.

"That is beautiful!" he cried, thumping the wood beneath him with his hand.

"It's not beautiful!" I argued back. Literally the last word I'd use to describe Dad's escapades. "It's... oh, I don't know anymore."

"You're beautiful," he said, moving so that he was on top of me. "Can I say that?"

"Yes, that's fine," I said, nodding with approval. 

"And what about 'I love you'?" he murmured, kissing me. "Can I say that?"

I smiled. They were the words that I literally had to stop tumbling out of my own mouth every second I was with him.

"Yes," I replied happily.