Chapter Sixteen

T here is champagne and hugging, toasting and some awkward silences. Not from Kev, but from the others. The magic users in the room are happy that I'm "protected," but no one is truly optimistic that this is over. The threat of Koshchei means the Night Watch will get involved. I should be there for that discussion, for those plans.

But my mind is firmly on another subject.

My love. My protector. The knight to my queen, now the king of my heart... My shore.

I need water—and for the first time since I've stopped killing, I want to take a man into my river and pull him to the bottom—only this time he'll rise, gasping for air with my body wrapped around his.

"Tomorrow night—Night Watch meeting," Minegold stops me in the middle of my hundredth kiss, ushering us toward the door. "Here or the library's all-purpose room."

"I'll be there," I promise, stopping to hug Calder and Janet goodbye.

"I'll come, too," Kev volunteers, shaking Calder's hand and looking relieved when my water-dwelling bestie doesn't wrap him in tentacles.

I want him to stay gone, to stay out of danger and anything remotely involved in it—but that would mean he'd leave me, too. He can't now.

Even if he wanted to. Worry gnaws at the relief, and Kev pulls my hand into a sandwich between his. "Text Marina the time. Gotta go."

Jakob nods, and we trot to Kev's car, silent and urgent, waiting until we sit down and the doors are shut behind us to burst.

"We did it!" I cry.

"You're Mrs. Dr. Kevin Bailey now—even if we have to wait to make it official. And for the doctor part until I get that diploma." Kev kisses me, leaning across the center console. "Unless you want to keep your last—"

"I love it! Mrs. Bailey. Mrs. Dr. Bailey!" I preen. Accepted. Loved. "Come with me to the river tonight. We have something to do."

"At the river?" Kev puts the car in drive. "I'm not suddenly going to be able to breathe underwater, am I?"

I shake my head. "But I will never let you drown. Not many men can say they have a rusalka as their guardian. Maybe only one in history—and if I'm the last—you will be the only one, ever."

Kev looks at me with a solemn face, one slow nod to show he understands the seriousness of what I'm saying. "I'm honored. And I'm all yours. It's not as fancy, but you're the only Mrs. Dr. Kevin Bailey in history, too. You're my one and only, you get it?"

For a little while, seriousness melts, replaced by a soul-deep feeling of safety and belonging—and a tsunami of desire. I've never felt like this, not even with Gregor. Even though I don't know what Koshchei can or will do, for the moment—I feel free. Like I am totally my own being. My soul is not under Kevin's power, only united with his out of love, not force.

"Drive faster, darling," I say in a deliberately husky voice, just to watch Kev twitch.

"Yes, ma'am!"

THERE'S ONLY A CRESCENT moon tonight, but the river that winds south past the fae-run Country Pines Motel glows extra bright. They say you find what you need here.

I need to be able to see Kev's cock sinking into me, to see his face while he mates his demon bride, claiming me as his own.

I'm out of my dress before he's even out of the car, streaking toward the water with a shriek of laughter.

"Marina! Are we gonna get arrested?" Kev hisses, following me. "Girl, I'm in my good suit."

"You'll look so much better out of it." I pause by the water's edge, letting moonlight bathe my body. In this kind of light, you can see the tiny amount of iridescence my skin has, that sheen that makes it glow when wet, turning any rusalka into an ethereal, glistening jewel that tempts men to take risks. "Come here, brave knight. Your Queen must anoint you. Complete the ceremony that elevates you from consort to king." I hold out my arms and sigh gleefully inside when Kev strips off faster than a professional quick-change artist.

"I'd better not get cholera or some shit in this river. The pollution in—"

"This hotel is fae-run. The property is pristine—including the water. If you were to get a room here for the night, it would have everything you ever dream of inside, everything you need. I need clear, clean water so I can make love with you and watch as you sink into me," I purr, wrapping my arms around Kev's neck as he reaches me.

A long, aching kiss that makes my already wet insides flood.

Kev chuckles as I sway against him, seeking his hand and stroking him with one of mine as we break the kiss. "So, in that room, there would be a sex swing and a leopard print bikini?"

I chuckle. "If that's your fantasy."

"Nah. Already got that." He squeezes my hips with his hands, finally giving in and letting me capture his fingers between my thighs. "Soaking little mermaid."

"Just wait until you see what I can do when I'm really wet," I whisper, jumping into the water and carrying him along with me.

UNDER THE WATER, IT'S as bright and clear as day. The world lights up from Marina's glow below and the bright sliver of moon above. I need to breathe, so I pop up for air, but then sink right back under to watch her swirl and sway, her hair billowing out around her like a cloud of chestnut tendrils.

Her skin glimmers, shines, like there's a layer of practically invisible scales you can only see when she's submerged. Maybe they're under her skin, like a second epidermis.

My medical brain shuts off abruptly when she reclines on the river's bottom, looking at home on a bed of sandy mud and water plants.

Air.

Back down.

Her legs part, and the glistening, glimmering trick of the water and light extends to her perfect little pussy, pink and entrancing as she strokes herself.

My hand wraps around my cock, watching.

Air. Desperately needed, but reluctantly sought.

Marina joins me, voice a needy purr. "Here, farther down there's a bend that's perfect."

And sure enough, twenty feet away, the river gets deep, but the bank bumps out, and Marina leans me against the cool grass before sinking below.

It's almost eerie watching her move like a ghost in the water, seeing white limbs floating, then wrapping around my legs. She looks up at me with a smile, showing her razor-sharp teeth while her long, curling tongue licks her lips.

I wonder how many men saw this as the last thing before they died.

The thought erases when her mouth envelops my cock and I get to watch the show, entranced as I straddle the world between air and water.

Her mouth sucks and swallows around me, greedy, deep gulps that pull my entire cock into her mouth and down her throat. "Fuck," I moan, slightly worried that she's going to gag on me and those teeth will slice down.

But that doesn't happen. Marina stares up, a smile in her wide-open eyes as she places her lips right against my abdomen, cock still snug in her mouth.

Guess not breathing isn't really an issue when your girl is a water-dwelling entity. I jump when the tip of her long tongue darts out and keeps unspooling, wrapping around my balls and starting to tug in rhythm of her suction.

My eyes roll back. It's like two mouths in one woman, one on my sack, one on my cock, and I'm dizzy with the sensation. I think every guy at some point dreams about having two women—and if he's smart, he immediately realizes that he's not Superman and can't handle the pressure of getting two women off.

But I'm living that fantasy in the best way possible. One woman I love, but double the sensation. I'm spoiled. Grateful. I pull her off (not smart, I could have gotten all cut up on those teeth!) before she makes me explode.

"I wasn't done!" Marina protests, head above water and breathing without a single gasp.

"But I was about to be! That was intense. Two mouths—or one mouth and one tongue, so like two mouths," I shake my head, shivering as the cool water replaces her warm mouth. The water's not too cold, though. I'm sure that it should be. It's the end of September, and we're in the mountains. "Do the fae control the water temperature, too? And the moonlight?" I ask. I also need to ask what the heck a "fae" is, but I just figure it's magical.

"Not truly, no—but sometimes you can magnify what is already in nature. Enhance it," Marina smiles.

She doesn't need any enhancing. In the water, where she's supposed to be, she's even more stunning than when she's on land. I feel a guilty pang for asking her to live life in an apartment.

"Buy you a house someday. On a lake," I murmur the words, dreaming out loud.

Marina shakes her head. "I don't need that. I only need you. And this." She clutches both hands between those big, perfect breasts, a tiny circle of blue and silver catching a slant of moonlight. "No one has ever made me such a promise. Worked so hard to love me. To save me."

"Shh. No trouble, baby. I would have done it anyway. Do it again and again," I promise, pulling her close. I'll never tire of the way her wet skin feels against mine, the way her soft stomach brushes the sensitive skin of my cock and reminds me her pussy is a thousand times softer with the most erotic grip.

As if she's reading my mind, Marina suddenly grunts and lunges against me, her strength far above mine. (God, I can't wait until my brothers try to arm wrestle her at Thanksgiving. That particular tradition is going to get her first pick of the turkey this year.) My back lands against the bank, and Marina's knees hit the ground on either side of my hips.

My lower body is weightless, suspended in water, and a water goddess with shining eyes is straddling me, moaning as she rubs her juicy slit across me before we moan as one and she takes me in. A slick thump and she sits down on me, pulling me into her as deep and hard as we've ever gone.

And tonight it feels different.

I can feel each of the little suckers inside of her locking on. When I arch my hips back, there's a sharp, stomach-clenching sensation as I break their grip and free my cock.

"Oooh, a lover's battle?" Marina asks, and I feel her walls capture and twist, little mouths opening and closing all around me. I'm not even pulled into her secret little suction pocket yet.

For long moments, we huff and puff, me breaking free and her reclaiming me, each time pulling me tighter, sucking me harder until I wonder if my cum will shoot out hard enough to send her over backwards.

"I'll never let go of you now. You're mine," she whispers, laughing between bouts.

"You're right." I don't pull back, instead surging forward to catch her nipple and suck on it greedily, making her walls flutter as she squirms and squeals. Advantage, knight, I chuckle in my head as my eyes roll back. I shift up and sink into the impossibly tight, wetter-than-water pocket. I can feel her clit throbbing against me through the thin wall of tissue, spongy flesh layered over mine.

"Such a big, juicy clit you're hiding," I whisper, rubbing it in slow, teasing circles.

Marina whimpers and lets me win this round, her flexible body turning off the super strength. "So good."

"You like when I'm buried in that tight little spot, don't you?" I hiss, her breathy moans undoing me. My eyes want to close, but I want them open as I push Marina onto the bank and dig my hands into the damp grass for leverage. It's like pulling myself up on the edge of the pool wall, but instead, my cock keeps lifting her hips from the bank, pressing her spasming tunnel until it clenches hard around me.

"Oooh, oh, fuck," I hiss when the clenching stops and is replaced by the sensation of a hundred tiny tongues licking me. "Open up for me," I growl against her neck, and she obeys at once, legs curling up, knees resting against her breasts as I push into her harder and faster. The little mouths feel more like tiny waving tongues now, and I'm brushing them, or they're licking me.

I hope this feels as good for her as it does for me.

My hand slides between her open thighs, finding her hard, swollen pink clit, slipping it between my two fingers before rubbing hard and fast.

I hope whatever guttural word she's screaming means "Yes, you sex-god-stallion-of-a-husband" and not "Easy, you clumsy bastard."

Marina's voice breaks into a long, wailing sob, and the little bumps that I've been enjoying seem to shrink, then expand. Warm wetness erupts from inside her, a current that battles the river's own, sluicing out around us as she keens and tugs her nipples. My cock is coated in something that's silky and sweet-smelling, a honey-like substance that starts dripping down my legs and flowing away in the current of the river as Marina trembles on the grass.

" That is how a rusalka can squirt. From the ‘pocket.'" She's blushing, pink cheeks glowing in the moonlight.

"So, I get a gold star?" I tease, strokes nice and slow now, even though my cock is thicker and fuller than I can ever remember and so sensitive that I'm starting to get sore (kind of feels like I got dozens of hickeys at once).

"More than that," she laughs weakly. "When I can move again—you'll see."

"You're already putting on quite a show. You're making it hard to wait."

"What are you waiting for?" she whispers, fingers coasting down my braced arms.

She looks at me like she's hungry. Starving. Maybe she is.

And suddenly, I'm starving, too. Incredibly hungry. Not for food. For her. To make her scream for me. To come in her again and again, in every opening. Just looking at her is a high, but knowing I can have her... Well, it's always been a rush, but now...

"I think it was a defense mechanism," she says, slowly pushing me back into the water.

"Hmm?" Thoughts are clear, but getting cloudy.

"If a man suspected, we could trigger it. Drench him. Make him lose all reason and then attack."

That doesn't sound good.

"But if it was triggered through pleasure... Well, I don't know. I've never been with my soulmate before. I've never come so hard. How do you feel?"

"High."

Marina bites her lip. "Oh no."

"What's wrong?"

"My venom. It's an aphrodisiac."

"Huh? Venom? You didn't bite me!"

"Not every creature keeps her weapons in the same place." Marina nuzzles me, worry in her big blue eyes.

I don't want her to worry. "I'm fine. I just feel...like I could go all night."

"You're not mad?"

"For my wife making me want to have sex with her? Shit, girl, most men would pay for that privilege."

"I do love you so. You never make me feel bad about who I am—even though I am such a very, very bad girl." Marina's voice drags over the last few words as she trails down my torso, back into the water, and wraps her mouth around me again, sucking her honey off my cock.

This time, I can't fight it. I give a single shout and empty, every muscle shaking and nothing to hold onto in the middle of the water.

Weightless. Coming so hard I see stars. Feeling her swallowing around me and looking down in time to see her licking her lips and smiling...

If this is bad, I don't want to be good.

Marina rises, shuddering in happiness and rubbing her arms. "Mmmm. Such deliciousness, my love. You are this fluffy whipped peanut butter mousse flavor. And sometimes honey, and maybe just little hints of something like dark chocolate. Mm!"

I want to ask questions about rusalka taste buds, but Marina is already swimming back towards that handy little bump in the embankment and flopping down on it, bottom wriggling to tempt me.

Not that I need much tempting. I'm still hard, and the achy soreness that had started is gone.

Marina looks over her shoulders. "I would say that's going to last for an hour."

"I'm not complaining."

"Shall we see if we can consummate this ‘promise'—"

"Wedding," I correct sharply. Ain't changing my mind about it.

"Whatever you'd like to call it... Care to claim your bride in all three openings?" Marina's fingers slowly tease between her cheeks. "One down, two to go." She licks her lips and winks.

I've never swam to shore so fast in my life. It occurs to me that I haven't even thought once about whatever monsters live in the woods or fly overhead at night, or even the local townies stumbling across me skinny dipping and more in some random river.

"I love what you do to me," I whisper as I nibble on her ear, my chest sliding against her back. My lips detour to her neck and down her shoulder, along her spine. I'm working my way down to that sweet peach she hides between her legs, ready to thank it for the wonderful thrill ride I've already had tonight. "I love you."

She stops pushing her hips impatiently back against me, sighing happily when my mouth slides over her sex. "I love you, too. I love who we are when we're together."

She has a way with words, my Marina.

My wife.