Linda Gayle Read online

  Never again. If she ever trusted another man, it would only be after she saw him for what he truly was, inside and out. Men could have a beautiful exterior, smile, say all the right things, but deep inside be something completely different. It was the hardest, most bitter lesson she’d ever learned, but learned it she had.

  Anyhow, that wasn’t what she wanted to be gerbil-wheeling over now, not when the first light of dawn seeped through the sheers and the rolling waves beckoned. Tossing back the light cover and stretching out in the comfortable bed, Lyric gazed toward the drawn sheers that revealed the view. Tall palm trees stood majestically in the golden glow of the morning sun. The beach stretched down to the shimmering sea, and no florist shop had ever smelled this fresh and alive. God, this really was paradise, and with the island’s scant residents as far away from her as anyone could be on this island, she could be the last woman on the face of the earth.

  She raised her arms high overhead and rapped her knuckles on the headboard carved with island images. Her muscles were nicely sore from yesterday’s swim. Running her hands over her breasts and belly, she sighed. A few months ago, that amount of exercise wouldn’t have been anything for her. She’d lost weight from being too depressed to eat, but she’d lost muscle tone, too. Well, those days of moping were over. Time to take herself back, body and soul.

  As the morning air washed over her bare skin, other parts of her that had been sent into hibernation began to stir. Experimentally, Lyric stroked her hands over her breasts again and felt her nipples tighten against her palms. The bungalow had no air-conditioning, so she’d gone to sleep in only her panties, and the gentle breath of wind on her breasts and stomach felt freeing. A tiny hum of satisfaction escaped her when she pinched each nipple and rolled them between her thumb and finger. Oh, God… It really had been a long time. Within seconds, her pussy warmed, heartbeat pulsing there, and Lyric squeezed her nipples again, shifting restlessly on the bed. She caught her lower lip between her teeth to stop a moan then laughed at herself. She could scream and shout all she wanted. Who was there to hear her but the birds?

  Lifting her hips, she hooked her panties off with her thumbs and tossed them aside. No matter how many times she saw it, her newly depilated pussy always surprised her. Before she’d come to the island, she’d invested in a Brazilian bikini wax. It had stung like hell, but now, as she slid her fingers over the soft, pale skin, it did look pretty cool. And it felt… Sucking in a breath, she eased her fingers lower over her quickly dampening lips. Oh yeah, it felt great. She was so wet already. That had to be a good sign that she wasn’t ready to pack it in yet.

  Slipping her middle finger inside her hole, she squirmed a little on the bed and let her thighs fall open. Oh, God… Still sitting up, she pumped her finger gently in and out while she found her clit with her thumb and tried to play with her breasts with the other hand. When she nearly fell over, off balance, she smirked. What she needed was more hands.

  Thoughts of Jack tried to invade her mind—he’d been her first and only. When he took her virginity when she was twenty and in college, she’d fallen for him hard. She would’ve given him anything, everything—and had, as it turned out. Pushing her finger deeper inside her soaking cunt, Lyric squeezed her inner muscles and shut her eyes against the memories. This was hers now. Hers to do with as she pleased. Instead of Jack, she imagined…Well, she couldn’t put a face to her fantasy man, so she just imagined other hands—large, callused hands roaming over her body, other lips sucking at her nipples, other fingers plunging inside her, coasting over her slickened clit in tiny circles. While that man played with her, another watched on his knees beside her on the bed, his deeply tanned hand stroking a thick, heavily veined cock already dripping with pre-cum.

  Lyric licked her lips, dying to take that meaty length into her mouth, to tease, to taste. The watching man stared down at her with fathomless, hungry eyes. His need for her burned through her, driving her desire higher, while the unseen lover now lapped at her pussy with an eager tongue, pushing her higher.

  Her orgasm bent her over with its intensity. Her fantasy man’s eyes gleamed with approval and then rolled back as he found his own climax. Ropes of cum pulsed from his cock. For a moment, she couldn’t catch a breath, just rode the tide crashing through her, back bowed, a cry trapped in her throat. Her pussy gripped and sucked at her fingers, and a fresh flood of juices made her clit so slick, her thumb slipped off it.

  “Oh, oh, God…” she panted at last. Wrung out, she drew her fingers free, wiped them on her thigh, and sank back against the pillow. “Oh yeah…”

  Well, hell. She pulled in a huge breath and let it out with a smile. Inside, her muscles pinged and twitched with satisfaction, and her skin tingled from her scalp to her toes. Mmm-hmm, her fantasies had definitely been upgraded. Wow, for just a moment there, at the very peak, she could’ve sworn she really did have two guys in bed with her. The one watching… She could still see every detail of his face perfectly. An islander, for sure, with burnished skin and wavy, black hair, high cheekbones and full lips, and sexy tribal tattoos on his powerful arms and chest. Mmm. What did the other guy look like? Maybe she’d have to dream about him tonight.

  Nice to know that if real men were a letdown, at least her imaginary ones were better than ever.

  “There she is!” Moana cried. He whistled and clicked, locating the woman in the dolphin way that, even after hundreds of years, always amazed him. He discerned the woman’s form, her shape, her curves, the flow of her hair as it streamed over her back, as accurately as if he still had fingers and was running them over her. Other questions went unanswered. Important ones. What color were her eyes? What music did she like? What made her laugh?

  With a glance, he spied Rahiti easily keeping pace alongside him as they crested together for a breath. Of course the dolphin’s expression never changed from the silly smile the gods had deigned to put there, but Moana sensed the cloud of doubt covering his companion’s thoughts. Too bad. Rahiti’s dour mood would not ruin this day. Why couldn’t he see that Kanaloa had finally had mercy on them? Or perhaps the old god’s power was slipping, giving them a chance. Now was not the time to think about the hows and whys, only that here, already in their lagoon waiting for them, was their salvation.

  “What do you think her name is?” he asked Rahiti, communicating in their secret language.

  “I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. She’s not the one.”

  “I’ll tell her you said that when we’re lying on the beach together in each other’s arms. You can stay in the ocean and watch us.”

  Rahiti conveyed a smirk. “You mean when she’s trying to push you back into the water after you’ve beached yourself trying to reach her?”

  “If that’s what it takes.” Moana dove beneath Rahiti and came up on his other side. They traveled very fast, and he sensed the break in the moon-shaped reef that led to the lagoon. “At least try. What do we have to lose?”

  “If we hadn’t tried this before and been disappointed, I would be more hopeful. But we’re only curiosities to humans. No one believes in the old ways anymore, so no one remembers the story or how to break the curse.”

  “Maybe it doesn’t matter. The right woman will free us.”

  “And she’s it, just because she dropped a few tears in the ocean?”

  “I heard her. Felt her. And don’t tell me you didn’t, too.”

  They swam on in silence, Rahiti’s gloominess gathered around him like a school of tiny fish. The water grew shallower, and the opening to the lagoon appeared before them, a large break in the coral wall. Before they crossed over, Rahiti slowed and, to Moana’s surprise, nudged him with his snout. “I’m sorry I can’t be as happy as you. Just remember, no matter what, we still have each other. You will always be my friend.”

  Nudging him back and rubbing his belly over Rahiti’s side, Moana sent him thoughts of affection. “I know you’ll always be with me, even as I’ll always be with you.” Was that what had
Rahiti in such a trench of despair? Did he fear losing Moana to this woman? “This is our destiny. With a woman to love, we’ll be men again and can finish our lives as we were meant to.”

  Now Rahiti stopped altogether, the top of his body bobbing above the surface so he might breathe. “The world we left behind doesn’t exist any longer. Our people are gone. Our islands have been taken over by others. Who will we be?”

  His words sent a chill through Moana. He’d never been the deep thinker Rahiti was, and now he remembered why he was happy he wasn’t. Such thoughts were depressing. “We’ll be together,” he said at last, rolling over in a wave.

  “We’re together now,” Rahiti argued stubbornly.

  “Is this how you want to be, forever?” He flipped his tail for emphasis. “I want to be a man again. To feel with my hands. To smell the breeze. To taste a woman and know her body.” He drifted closer to his friend. “To see you again, as you were.”

  “And she must see us,” he reminded Moana. “What if she doesn’t?”

  “She’s swimming now in the lagoon. All we have to do is get her to look at us under the water, and then she’ll see our true forms.”

  Rahiti said nothing for a long moment. “I’m afraid,” he conveyed at last with a series of mournful chirps.

  “Then you must also think she might be the one. Otherwise you wouldn’t hesitate.”

  “All right,” his friend admitted. “Yes. There’s something different about her.” He rolled his near eye at Moana, and Moana could see the man deep inside the dolphin body, the human being trapped within. “Just remember, if this doesn’t work, that I told you so.”

  Moana laughed in the dolphin way, tossing his head and arching his body. “And if it does, then I will tell you so while we are both making love to our woman.”

  The thought of them, in their human forms, limbs twined, hands, lips, tongues touching this mystery girl, touching each other, propelled him forward with Rahiti thrusting mightily to catch him.

  Lyric cast a glance over her shoulder at the shore, which seemed pretty far away now. She’d had to swim out a good distance, much farther than she had yesterday, to reach water she thought might be deep enough to accommodate dolphins. For the last hour or so, with her mask and snorkel on, she’d been enjoying the little reef fish and the colorful plant life that ringed the lagoon. Sadly, though, it looked like the dolphins were a no-show. Belly down, she spread out her arms and legs like a water bug to float on the surface and rest. In a few minutes, she’d have to head back or risk a cramp. Maybe it had been kind of stupid to come out this far alone. As she’d reminded herself this morning, nobody would hear her screaming on this side of the island, whether she was climaxing or drowning.

  Still, the water was a balm to her soul, with just enough wave action to almost rock her to sleep. The reef that surrounded the lagoon took the edge off the waves and sheltered it from storms. Rolling onto her back, she floated, pushing her mask up to her forehead and gazing up at the azure sky. Some people said the weather around here was so perfect it got boring, but she’d be willing to risk a little boredom. It didn’t get better than—shit! Lyric gasped and flailed upright as a huge shape launched from the water and soared directly over her, blocking the sun, then crashing down to her right. Her heart leapt into her throat, and she treaded water wildly, glancing around.

  A gray torpedo shot past her. The wake tumbled over her shoulder, and then another shape appeared from behind. It turned a slow circle before it stopped completely, and a dolphin lifted its head to gaze at her, a fixed smile on its beak.

  “Oh my God.” She pressed a hand to her breast. “You scared the shit out of me.”

  The dolphin flipped back and disappeared, and the second dolphin came up beside her.

  Holy crap, here they were, and close enough to touch. If she’d thought she was out of her depth before, she felt doubly so now. The other dolphin appeared at her right, and the two of them began circling her, gleaming in the sun and gusting the occasional spray of breath. They were a lot bigger than she’d expected. From her limited knowledge, she figured they were bottlenose dolphins. The top part of their bodies stayed above the surface, and their broad, flat tails—flukes, right?—stirred the water as they made a lazy route around her. Were they supposed to get this close? A vague memory stirred of a story she’d read where a dolphin—or had it been a whale? Hopefully a whale—had dragged a woman out to sea to “play” with and had almost killed her.

  “You guys wouldn’t do that, right?” she asked, keeping her hands to herself even though the two creatures had tightened their circle and were nearly rubbing on her.

  She remembered that other story about the dolphins who flirted with women. By flirted, if she recalled correctly, it meant “tried to mate with.” Shit. She hadn’t showered after she’d come this morning. Could they…smell her? Was human arousal to a dolphin what blood was to a shark? Oh, God, this was ridiculous. Here were the dolphins she’d been dying to see, and now she was scared spitless of them.

  “Hey…guys?” Okay, this time, one did rub against her hip. The skin was smooth and cool, like…a banana peel. Tentatively, she reached out. The dolphin arched against her hands, his reaction immediate. He did a barrel roll then went on circling. “Nice dolphin. Nice fishy. Oh, shit, I mean, nice mammal…” Oh boy, that shore was looking farther away. Of course, there were also the stories of dolphins rescuing humans. Damn, she really should have spent more time reading up on dolphin facts than reading fantasy stories about them.

  The slightly larger and darker of the two slowed and rolled so she could see his shiny, black eye on the side of his head. His flipper came out of the water, and he opened his mouth to display the rows of sharp, white teeth. Hopefully that was meant to be a smile. He exposed his white belly to her, inches from her hand where she waved it back and forth in the water to keep herself afloat.

  “Hey, you…” Okay. Maybe they were just überfriendly, used to tourists and swimmers. This dude seemed harmless enough. She reached out and touched his tummy. A shudder rippled visibly through the animal, but he didn’t seem to object to her contact. This was kind of neat. Feeling braver, Lyric rubbed the silky, smooth skin between his front flippers. He felt like rubber, but rubber encasing a ton of muscle. Almost slate gray on top, fading to pinkish white on his belly, this dolphin had to be close to fourteen feet long, way bigger than she’d expected. Fine lines covered his topside, probably scars, maybe from shark encounters. She’d heard they often fought off sharks. His dorsal fin had a nick missing from it. He’d seen some action, this one, but his eyes were kind. Funny, she could almost sense he was as curious about her as she was about him. As she ran her hand up his flipper and gave it a little shake, she smiled. “Okay, as long as I know you’re not going to eat me, I guess we can be friends.”

  With a loud, sea-scented exhale, the dolphin rolled and dived, and the other one took his place. Only slightly smaller and a paler gray, this dolphin seemed even more eager for her touch, bowing up beneath her hand like a cat, coming back again and again to be petted. Lyric laughed. “You guys are adorable. What are your names? Are you Moana and Rahiti? I’ve heard so much about you.”

  Whether it was the mention of their names or the sound of her voice, something set them off, and they both raced away from her then leapt out of the water in perfect tandem. Diamonds of water sprayed from them, and the splash when they landed swept Lyric back a few feet and washed a salty mouthful over her face. She sputtered, and when she opened her eyes, both dolphins were back, circling her. They were absolutely gorgeous. Sadly, though, between the water gagging her and the ache in her legs, she knew it was time to head back—just when things were getting good! Hopefully the dolphins would be here tomorrow as well, and she could spend more time with them. Maybe bring a life preserver or something so she wouldn’t wear herself out.

  She held out her hands, and the two graceful creatures slid themselves up under her palms. Amazing. They not only tolerated be
ing touched, they seemed to really want it. “Rahiti, Moana, I’d love to spend the whole day out here with you, but I have to head in. I haven’t done this much swimming since high school. But I’ll come back tomorrow, okay?” After she’d asked Henri a million questions. She wanted to learn everything she could about these two.

  Lyric waited for the bigger dolphin to pass before she took the first stroke toward shore—but the smaller one was there, blocking her. She tried again and was blocked again. She licked her salty, sunburned lips and went back to treading water. Okay, don’t panic. They don’t mean any harm. She tried moving shoreward again. This time, the smaller dolphin gently head-butted her with his snout—in the wrong direction, toward the reef and the stronger waves and the deeper water. Distracted, Lyric sank and swallowed some water. Coughing, she struggled against a rising tide of fear when the sleek skin of one of the dolphins stroked the backs of her thighs. Damn it, they were close, too close, and moving faster, their bodies overlapping each other as they circled her, turning her against her will.

  The water closed over her head just after she gulped a breath. Blind and thrashing, she fought her way to the surface, churning now with the dolphins’ movement. Hurriedly, she jerked her mask over her face to protect her eyes from the stinging salt. The instinct to yell for help swamped her, but what good would it do? She’d stupidly come out here alone, stupidly thinking she’d make buddies with two huge, wild animals that apparently wanted to drown her, and now she was stupidly going to die.

  A sharp pricking stung her right ankle and startled a yelp from her. Oh crap, one of them had her leg in its mouth. Panic swamped her. “Help!” Her scream ended in a watery gurgle as the dolphin dragged her under. The sea doused her in smothering silence, save her heartbeat.