Page 50 of Loched in Love

“I want to make you feel good too,” she whispers, her gaze locking onto mine without a trace of fear.

The sight of her taking initiative brings a grounding echo of stillness to the usual restless energies inside me. This woman looks at me like no one else in the world.

She looks at the parts of me I normally try to hide, my scales and fins that can’t seem to stay away when she’s near, yet she meets them with unwavering acceptance.

“Will you please take these off,” she says, lifting the edge of my jeans before tugging at my beard and wrapping it through her fingers.

I raise up and do just that, watching for any sign of unease. But she just stares unabashedly as I undress myself for her, awaiting to see if I pass muster.

“You’re beautiful,” she breathes.

When I finally drop my trousers, letting them fall to the floor so she can look her fill, I can’t fight the grin from my face as her eyes dilate.

She reaches out to touch me, running one palm down my abdomen, and my cock jerks for her, reminding me of what’s at stake in this moment.

“You’re the beautiful one,” I murmur, kissing her as I fall back into the bed beside her.

Her fingers trace over the shimmering lines where I know my scales to be, and a hot wave of blood rushes to my face. I look away when a familiar awkward shyness grips my chest. I’ve worried over this moment for so long, and now that it’s here, finding that she treats my abnormalities like they’re something worthwhile. It makes me feel exposed in a new way, stripped of all my armor I usually rely on.

“Look at me,” she commands softly, cupping my bearded jaw.

I force my gaze to meet hers, knowing I can’t hide the vulnerability inside that terrifies me even now.

Her gaze is steady, filled with open sheer affection and warmth that melts through my walls of hesitation. She leans down and presses a soft kiss to my forehead, then one to my nose, another to my ear fin. She deliberately soothes the tense lines in my shoulders and back, while letting me know she’s entirely unbothered by my true nature. The nervous knot that’s been biding its time waiting for her for centuries start to untangle, even as my being starts to quake with its want of her.

“I’m terrified of hurting you,” I whisper, the confession scraping raw against the back of my throat.

If nothing else, she will know how much she means to me. I gaze upon her, and my heart thuds in my chest and skips a bit at the realization.

Elena is the oceans of my heart; she’s the tides, the salty mist of air on the breeze, my homeland wrapped in one person, and I’d not ever hurt her for all the world.

Chapter 18

ELENA PIERSON

He would never hurt me. Every instinct and intuition within me says I can trust Lachlan with my life, and I know deep within my very being, he would absolutely never harm me, not intentionally, and not in this way.

I smile as I look upon him. He doesn’t look away from me this time, even though a dark handsome flush of embarrassment creeps across his body under my steady gaze.

His chest heaves, that deep rumble I heard before shifting to a fragile trembling vibration. Slowly he turns his palms over and up, opening them to the ceiling to show me a gesture of total surrender that showcases and exposes the fullness of his shimmering scales that suddenly cover him.

“I’ve been locked away for so long that I question every instinct I own, lass. Water is dense, heavy, and crushing,” he says, his voice dropping to a vulnerable octave I’ve never heard from him. “I’ve spent the last three hundred years locked in a dark trench, living entirely in my beastly form. I’ve only been in this form a handful of days, it feels like, you ken? I don’t know my own strength in this skin yet. I only know I mean to never hurt you.”

He swallows hard, his gaze going stony. “Even now, even with my trident made whole again and all my ancient magic returned to me, I am still so afraid. I’m afraid of hurting you, it’s true, but my biggest fear is how terrified I am that you will see what I am and leave. I look at how delicate you are, and though your curves are more than a match for any man, I could hurt you. I know it’s soon, only a handful of days since you fell into my moat, but the thought of you not wanting to be with me makes me entirely helpless.”

My heart swells, aching with a tenderness I can’t possibly explain, even with a hundred bulletin boards and notebooks. This powerful creature has been navigating a foreign body, just got his power back, and is scared that I’ll reject him. Leaving him is the last thing I’d ever want to do.

It may have been only a handful of days since we left Romania, but I know I’m already more than half in love with him.

I shift my weight and slide upward, climbing onto his lap and ignoring how good he feels against me. The direct warmth of my skin settles over his heavy muscular thighs, anchoring him down to the bed. I reach down and take his open hands, lacing my fingers through his and pressing my palms deliberately against his.

“You aren’t a monster to me,” I whisper leaning down until my lips brush softly against his. “Your magic doesn’t scare me, your strength doesn’t frighten me, and I’m not going anywhere. It might have only been a few days since I fell into your moat like you said, but I want to be right here with you. We can go as slow as you need. I want you, Lachlan.”

Under my hands, I can feel the exact moment his defenses break. He lets out a long shuddering sigh, the inflexible tension of his muscles completely draining from his heavy frame. The restless power I’ve been able to somehow sense vibrating in his chest seems to purr finally. It calms, but doesn’t vanish. He wiggles his torso a bit as if to get more comfortable, and I shift my weight above him as he does, as a wicked grin pulls across his kissable lips.

He looks up at me, his blue gaze brimming with a deep affection so fierce it steals the breath right from my lungs. Slowly, the lines of his shoulder drops, and he relaxes beneath me.

“Slowly,” I say, echoing him from earlier. I lean forward, intent on kissing him again and getting him loose before I try to take him inside me.