I shut off the water, ripped the cap off my hair—and the shower door burst open. A scream died in my throat.
Deke stood there, naked and aroused, his cobalt eyes dark with fevered desire.
He stepped into the shower stall, and I backed into the glass tile. Very slowly, his gaze dropped to my breasts, and every trickle of water on my body sizzled. With a fingertip, he reached to catch a ripe droplet on my nipple, then raised the drop to his mouth. One. Long. Minute.
“Hi, honey. I’m early.”
“I’m ready,” I whispered.
He lifted me, pressed me against the shower wall, and I wrapped my legs around his waist. When he slipped into my wet warmth, my muscles closed tight around him as if to hold him near forever. Each stroke of his shaft built pain-pleasure friction, caressed needs in my heart that had no name. The wave of climax climbed until I hovered on the crest. I pressed Deke deeper, screamed his name. His shout of release echoed mine, and my body sang with power, my heart with fierce love.
A coma. A multiple orgasm, sex-sated, blissful coma. I didn’t want to move again for at least a thousand years. Saber, though, decided he was hungry and pulled on navy blue boxers to go fix a sandwich. Hey, I support whatever keeps my man at peak strength and stamina.
When I dragged myself out of bed, donned a sleep shirt, and joined him in the kitchen, I found my bra with the foam cups lying on the turquoise tabletop.
“I knew I was flinging my clothes left and right, but I didn’t think I threw anything this far.”
He put a glass of sweet tea on the table and sat down in front of his half-eaten sandwich.
“You didn’t throw your bra this far. I stepped on it and got stabbed by this.”
He lifted one bra cup to reveal Triton’s mermaid charm underneath. He dropped it in my hand and raised a brow. Uh-oh. Was Saber upset? He said he wasn’t jealous, exactly, but he could’ve fooled me. The charm gave my palm a mild jolt, and I let it clatter to the table.
“Why was that in a scrap of fabric?” he asked with a hint of his cop voice.
I sighed. “Remember when we were talking about Laurel’s tracker flatlining? I told you Pandora said she was diverted by another signal.”
“Go on.”
“She also said the charm acts like a homing device for her and told me to wear it. I put the charm in the fabric pouch for padding, then put the pouch in my bra.”
“Why not just wear it as a necklace?”
I raked my hair back. “Because I didn’t want you to think I was wearing it for Triton’s sake.”
He didn’t smile, but I felt his energy shift. “Noted and appreciated, but your safety is what matters. Come here.”
He picked up the chain and began easing it over my head when I flinched. “Wait.”
“Did I catch your hair?”
“No, but this thing buzzes with static energy when I hold it. In the cloth, it didn’t do that.”
“You’re afraid it will keep buzzing when it’s touching your skin, huh? Let’s see.”
He finished arranging the chain, then picked up the charm and dropped it down the inside of my sleep shirt. I held my breath, waiting for the charm to go spazzy with energy, but it didn’t. No static buzz, no static shock. Not even the sound of ocean waves.
“Well? How is it?”
I twitched my shoulders to see if anything happened. Nope. Nothing but a little bump between my breasts.
“Fine, but are you sure it won’t bother you if I wear it?”
He wagged his eyebrows. “As long as I’m the only one diving for mermaid treasure, I don’t care. Now, do you want to know what I found out about your land while you were out getting shot at and giving me gray hair?”
I crossed my eyes at him, but the effect was lost since he was already hoofing it into the living room. I leaned around the doorframe to ogle his boxer-clad butt as he scooped a stack of papers from my desk.
He handed me a tome. “Take a look.”
“Don’t I get a hint what to look for?”
“You’ll see it.”
He took a swig from his plastic bottle of root beer and waited expectantly. I growled under my breath and began scanning the pages. Legalese wasn’t my strong point, but only the first two pages were full of legal jargon. The third page contained a list of names and dates, and I spotted the pattern immediately.
“Is this it? That Triton moved locations and changed the name of his company every twenty years?”
“Twenty-two years in one case,” Saber corrected. “And he didn’t just change the name, he absorbed each old company into each new one. A new twist on corporate takeovers.”