Maelstrom: Intergalactic Dating Agency (Mermaids of Montana Book 1) by Elsa Jade

Author:Elsa Jade [Jade, Elsa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction romance
Publisher: Red Circle Ink
Published: 2019-10-02T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Ridley woke in darkness and nightmare, choking on a breathless scream.

Big hands pinned her when she thrashed. “Hush, hai-aku. Calm your winds.”

The low, deep voice should’ve been as terrifying as the void closing over her head, but… “Maelstrom,” she whispered hoarsely, her throat sore. “What…?”

“You freaked out.”

She cracked her eyes open—they’d been squeezed so tightly shut she felt as if she had to unbraid each eyelash—and rolled the back of her skull against a cradling softness. The citrusy scent of crushed pine needles prickled in her lungs with each gasp.

Mael was crouching over her, his expression heavy as a thunderhead as his long hair dripped around them both. “I thought the pheromone would get you from the Bathyal back here to the shore. Instead, you almost drowned. I was wrong, and I’m sorry.”

The return swim flooded back to her. Literally. How the strangeness of the spaceship—proof he was alien—had suddenly become too much, how she’d thrashed against his hold and lost her grip, starting to sink away from him, how he’d snagged her from the deeps and hauled her out of the water, the soft lap of wind-driven waves whispering just beyond her slack toes…

Panic rushed through her veins again, and a clammy sweat worse than her wet underwear slicked her bare skin. Clamping her hand over Maelstrom’s fingers, still gripping her shoulder, she held on tight, waiting for the terror to recede.

Except this time, even with the steady hold of the earth beneath her, the terror swept back like waves in a closed system with nowhere to dissipate. Air keened between her lips, too thin to maintain consciousness, and stars behind Mael’s head blurred at the edges of her vision—a warning.

“Ridley.” His hands shifted to frame her face, and his fingers burned on her icy skin. “Close your eyes. Focus on my voice.”

“Can’t,” she gasped. “Can’t breathe.”

“You won’t drown in the air, will you?”

So easy for him to say. A simple truth that made her want to punch him. “No air,” she whined.

“All around you,” he countered. Skimming his hands down her shivering arms, he laced his fingers through hers and drew their joined hands to the middle of his chest. “Feel. I’m breathing. Follow me.”

The heavy rise of his pecs pressed into her knuckles, and his slow exhale was a tropical gust over her freezing face. His skin against her fists was hot, so hot. She wanted to wrap that heat and strength around her like a dry suit with its own oxygen.

“Breathe,” he reminded her.

She sucked in a long, shaky, lungful of air tinged with the fragrance of the nighttime forest, the mineral tang of lake water, and something wilder.

That deep oceanic aroma was him.

The scent filled her head, and she stiffened, waiting for the fright to swamp over her again. First, she’d learned to fear the enveloping touch of water, then the sight of it, now the smell…

But the panic lurked just out of reach, like a ring of depth charges awaiting her wrong move. Mael’s presence kept her still.

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