Page 87 of Loched in Love

We slip out the side door, and the refreshingly cool night air feels soothing against my skin. We walk hand in hand down a sloping lawn behind her mother’s home, where we’re staying for the night.

The grass is damp with the early summer dew, leading us toward a small private lake that borders at the edge of the property. Glassy and still, the water mirrors the vast and star speckled American sky above us, a sharp contrast to the wild and misty expanse of the Loch Ness, but it’s beautiful in its own tranquil way.

We stop at the edge of the weathered wooden dock, and the planks creak softly under our weight as I sit down, letting my long legs dangle over the edge toward the dark water and pull Elena down between my parted thighs to hold her to me.

She settles back against my chest, her smaller frame fits perfectly against my chest as I wrap my broad arms around her, shielding her from the biting breeze.

“Well,” she whispers, tilting her head back to look at me, the moonlight catching the light highlights in her blonde hair. “You survived the gauntlet, how are you feeling?”

I let out a long sigh of contentment and rest my chin gently against the top of her head as I take a deep breath and inhale the sweet scent of her hair mixed with the clean smell of the lake.

“I feel entirely content and at ease, my flower,” I murmur, my voice heavy with emotion. “And I do not just mean my belly full from your mother’s excellent cooking. Your family, Natalie and little Keegan, they’re spectacular and I’ve been hidden from the world for so long, and terrified of what humans would do if they saw the truth of me. But tonight I felt no fear at all from your family, only fondness and goodwill.”

Elena reaches up, her small, soft hands tracing the lines of my jaw and beard before resting against my cheek. “They love you because I love you, Lachlan. You don’t ever have to hide who you are when you’re with me. My brother’s may have big questions if you ever start flashing your tail around true, but I’ve no doubt they’ll welcome you all the same. They’re my brothers and they love me. And I love you.”

I turn my head slightly to press a small, affectionate kiss into the palm of her hand, my heart filling more full than ever with a fierce and protective devotion that burns like fire in my veins.

Inside, I feel the bond between us light up with affection and love as I look out over the quiet and unfamiliar lake and then back down into her blue gaze.

“Your mother was right about one thing, you know?” I whisper, a small teasing smile tugging at the corners of my lips as I tighten my embrace around her.

She blinks and a soft laugh escapes her. “Oh yeah, about what part?”

“The wedding,” I tell her gently, entirely serious now as I look into the future with her. “I don’t want to make her wait six months for that caterer.”

Elena’s breath hitches in her throat and the smile pulling across her lips turns incredibly sweet and emotional while her eyes fill with tears.

“Oh, Lachlan.” She loops her arms around my neck and pulls me down into a deep, lingering kiss beneath the starry sky.

Our lips collide and slide together, and I catch her moan in my mouth with a groan of my own as I get lost in our kiss. Emotions flood through my center so cataclysmic a thick purr erupts from me as I take her lips.

Her lips are petal soft under mine as our tongues intertwine, and I ravish her sweetness, with slow sensual kisses.

I lean back, and pull her into my embrace, listening as our breathing evens as we stare out across the water, sharing a comfortable embrace.

The moonlight catches the quiet ripples of water as Elena turns her body slightly and looks down into the dark edge of the lake where the dock meets the shallows, the water lapping lazily at its edge.

“Look,” she whispers, pointing one finger toward a small cluster of tiny and frantic shadows that spin across the glossy surface.

I lean over her shoulder, my eyes adjusting easily to the dark as I watch a dozen small metallic black insects loop and whirl over the top of the water in perfectly chaotic and hypnotic circles.

“Whirligig beetles,” Elena says, a tender and melancholic smile brushing across her lips. “When I was a little girl, my dad would bring me out to this exact spot on summer nights and he’d sit right where we are sitting right now. He’d hold my hand and show them to me and told me that they had split eyes so they could see above the water and below it at the exact same time, like they belonged to two different worlds.”

“They’re such tiny wee beasts,” I murmur.

“I used to take sediment samples over every creek bed we’d pass on our way to and from school. Dad passed away a few years ago, and sometimes I still come out here. It’s part of what sent me on my journey through all my degrees and all the way to Scotland, to you.”

I tighten my broad arms around her and press a soft kiss to the side of her neck. “He sounds like a wise man, and I can’t help but thank my lucky stars if he sent you to me.”

Elena clears her throat as if suddenly blinking back tears and turns around to face me fully as a sudden and playful spark ignites in her gaze. “Speaking of belonging to two worlds, no one is awake and the house is completely dark. Do you want to play in the lake with me and see what’s below the surface? I think I may need a head start to make it to the bottom first to win though.”

A low, thrilled purr starts deep in my chest as I begin to make the sound for her. “Are you challenging me to a swim, Elena?”

“Maybe,” she teases, already slipping out of her jacket and shoes.

The air around her shimmers a bright green as her human legs melt away, fusing together into her mermaid’s tail, catching the moonlight like spun silver and seafoam green, the same color as my scales.

She slips into the water with a flawless and completely silent dive as her sleek mermaid form cuts through the dark lake without a single splash.