Immersed in Pleasure (6 page)

“Mr. Edge,” Derek said, his voice so bitterly angry even he barely recognized it. “I know you’ve called all sorts of politicians in your book. I know people who call you the most dangerous man in the city. But if you touch her in any way she doesn’t want…” Derek took a long slow breath. “I don’t know when, and I don’t know how, but I will make you regret it.”

“Jesus, Derek, you really said that to Kingsley Edge?” Christian asked.

“That was it almost word for word,” Derek confessed, recalling that moment in crystal-clear detail. He remembered it so well because at the time he thought it might be the last few minutes of his life.

“Dude, Kingsley’s ex—French Foreign Legion. You’re lucky to be alive. What did he do?”

“He smiled.”

The smile scared him more than wrath would have. Kingsley smiled like a man unafraid of anything or anyone—especially him.

“I like you, Monsieur Prince. But rules are rules. Xenia?”

Her bottom lip quivering, Xenia stepped back into the room. Kingsley ducked under Derek’s arm, and closed the door behind him.

The minute Derek waited in the hall safely qualified as the longest minute of his life.

“You psychotic bitch,” Derek said, his eyes narrowing at Urs.

“Your own fault. You know the rules here. She gets to stay as long as she’s a virgin. Once she isn’t, she’s gone. You having sex with her doesn’t just affect you, it affects her whole life. Do you get that?”

Before he could answer, Xenia emerged from the room and slipped into Derek’s arms. Kingsley followed and gave Derek another smile before strolling off.

“Urs,” Kingsley called back. “Back to work.”

Urs brushed past them and headed back downstairs.

“Are you okay?” Derek whispered into her hair.

“He didn’t touch me. He didn’t do anything but ask me to look him in the eyes and tell him the truth.”

“So he didn’t—”

“No. He didn’t.”

Derek heaved a sigh of relief and prayed Xenia wasn’t lying just to keep him from killing her boss.

“If he made you spread your legs for him, would you have?” Derek asked, afraid of the answer.

Xenia looked at the ceiling.

“He’s seen it before.”

“So that’s a yes?”

“It’s the price you pay for working here.”

“It’s worth it?” he asked.

Slowly Xenia nodded. “It’s my home.”

A cold miserable realization settled into Derek’s mind and sunk into his stomach.

“You really love this place. And I can’t ask you to leave it. But if I stick around, something’s going to happen and they’ll make you.”

“Derek, I don’t want to leave. But I don’t want to lose you either. I’ve never felt anything like what I feel with you.”

“And I’ve never… God, I was married, Xenia, and I never felt anything like this. I threatened to kill Kingsley Edge. I must have a death wish.”

“It was impressive. I think he likes you even more now. I do too.”

Derek rubbed his face. “I can’t do this. I can’t put you in the position to choose between this place you love and some guy you barely know.”

“Don’t be like this. We can figure something out. We can—”

“What? What can we do?”

“I don’t know.” Her voice was no more than a whisper.

Derek squeezed his eyes shut tight. He pulled out his wallet and dug out his business card.

“Here. It’s got all my numbers on it. When you decide to leave here, call me. I’ll come running. But I won’t put you in this position again. I’m sorry,” he said.

Xenia looked down at the card in his hand but didn’t take it.

“Do you know how men have tried to give me their business cards?” she asked, her eyes going cold, her voice hollow. “More than I can begin to count. Do you know what I did when they offered me their business cards?”

Derek swallowed hard.

“No.”

“I did this.”

Xenia dropped her towel, walked to the edge of the column and dived into the water. Dived in and d deep and showed no sign of coming back up for a long time.

“And that,” Derek said, finishing his drink off, “is the end of my story.”

“Whoa, there. No way,” Mark said. “She never gave you her mermaid?”

“No, she didn’t.” Derek stood up and tossed a hundred on the table. “And now it’s almost midnight and I’m about to turn into a pumpkin.”

“Get your ass back here and finish the story, Derek.”

“I already told you, that’s the end. See you at work on Monday.”

Smiling to himself, Derek left Mark and Christian cursing him. He drove to his apartment and on the way remembered how he felt that moment Xenia slipped away from him, dived into the pool and turned into nothing but foam on the surface of the water. He couldn’t believe she wouldn’t even take his card…but then he realized what giving her his business card meant—it meant he wouldn’t see her anymore unless she’d have sex with him. And the ache in his heart at the thought of never seeing her again trumped the ache in his body at the chance they’d never make love.

So he’d done the only thing a man could do when in love with a mermaid who was swimming away from him. He dived in after her. Even underwater he saw her eyes go comically wide. She raced to the surface and Derek clung to the side of the pool.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m an idiot. I can’t ask you to leave your life here, but I don’t want to lose you. So let’s stay together and see if we can work.”

“Derek, I can’t be with you the way you want me to be and stay here.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, meaning every word. “When you’re ready, we’ll go for it. Until then, I’ll just take a lot of cold showers. Starting right now. This water is fucking freezing.”

“Keeps the nipples hard,” she said, grinning. “You really mean it?”

“Take all the time you need. I just want to be part of your world. I need you in my life any way that works for you.”

“And I need you in my life.”

“And I need you out of my pool,” said a voice from above them. Derek looked up and saw Kingsley glaring down at him from the edge of the water. “
S’il vous plaît.”

After they’d dried off, Xenia, Derek and Kingsley had a long talk. Xenia could continue to work at Fathoms and see Derek as long as they didn’t have intercourse. Technical virginity was good enough for Kingsley.

“I am French after all,” he reminded them.

And Kingsley agreed to allow one of the other mermaids to handle Xenia’s rubdowns and virginity checks, which Derek already looked forward to watching.

“You’re a fool,
monsieur,”
Kingsley warned Derek. “So many beautiful girls in the city who would willingly dive into your bed. And you give that up.”

“I don’t want a girl. I want a mermaid.”

Derek arrived at his apartment still smiling at the story he’d told Mark and Christian. As he put the key into his lock, Derek spied a small puddle of water outside his door.

Opening the door, he found Xenia inside wearing the white skirt and cami he’d first seen her in.

She ran to him and threw her arms around him. “Happy anniversary.”

“One year,” he said, kissing her deep and slow. “Seems like yesterday.”

“It’s not the only anniversary we have to celebrate today.”

“Really? What’s the other one?” he asked, gently playing with the mermaid pendant that still hung around her neck.

“Today is the two-week anniversary of me putting in my two weeks’ notice at Fathoms.”

Derek only stared at her.

“You’re kidding.”

She shook her head. “No. I’m ready. Not just for you, but for everything. Life, school maybe, the real world. And I’m ready for this.”

Slipping her hands behind her neck, she unclasped her mermaid pendant and laid it in the palm of Derek’s hand.

“I can’t accept this gift,” he said solemnly and Xenia’s eyes fell.

“Why not?”

“It’s too precious for you to just give it away.”

“But—”

“So how about a trade?”

Derek reached into his pocket and pulled out a large shimmering sapphire-and-diamond ring—sapphire, the color of the ocean, the color of Xenia’s eyes.

Kneeling down on one knee, Derek opened his mouth, but Xenia gave him no chance to speak. She threw her arms around him and sobbed into his shoulder.

“This is a yes, right?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“We can wait as long as you want. For the wedding. For sex. Whatever you want.”

“I want you,” she whispered as he slipped the ring on her left hand. “Tonight.”

As Derek rose off the floor, he took her in his arms and carried her into his bedroom. He hadn’t even let himself hope this would happen tonight. The past year had been a lesson in endurance for him. Some nights he wouldn’t even let her come over because the need in him burned too hotly. But after a few months, she ceased to be an object of sexual obsession and became instead his closest friend. With sex off the table, they had to improvise. They talked for hours, went for walks, went dancing. Derek finally learned how to beat her in Go Fish!—he cheated just as he did. He learned she loved the Go-Go’s and white chocolate and could speak French and Persian fluently. She started to go out more. Six months ago, she started giving swimming lessons at a local gym. Last month, he met her parents. Last week, she met his. And next week, she’d finally get to meet Mark and Christian.

He and Xenia hadn’t been saints during the past year, of course. Not even his ex-wife or Ireland knew his body as well as Xenia did now. Her nimble fingers and full lips and tongue could send him to the heights of erotic ecstasy. And with his mouth and one finger, he could make her wake the neighbors. Tonight he wanted to make her wake the whole town.

Derek laid her back on the bed and slowly undressed her. Even after a year with his little exhibitionist mermaid, he never ceased to be moved by the sight of her naked curves. He kissed her lips, her neck and chest. She dug her hands into his hair as he took a nipple into his mouth as his hand sought her other breast. He wanted their first time together to be as painless as possible. He wanted her wet inside and aching for him.

“Derek, please,” she begged.

“Patience,” he teased. “You made me wait a year. It’s only fair I make you wait a few more minutes.”

Still dressed, Derek spread her legs and sat between her open thighs. He opened her folds and slipped a finger into her. As usual she sighed blissfully and lifted her hips to take him in deeper. For the first time ever, Derek turned his hand and pressed a second finger inside her. He felt the barrier of her virginity against his fingers.

“Tell me if it hurts,” he said softly.

“Feels wonderful.”

He took her clitoris between his thumb and index finger and gently massaged it. Xenia’s head fell back in pleasure while Derek pushed down on her hymen. He put both thumbs in her, gripped her hips, and pulled her wider open. Bending over her, he took a nipple in his mouth again and sucked deeply while he slowly pushed a third finger into her. He wanted her on the edge of orgasm when he penetrated her the first time.

“Derek…” she groaned.

Derek pressed his forehead to hers. “Xenia, I don’t want to hurt you.”

Xenia laid her hand on the side of his face. His fingers still rested deep inside her.

“
Your tail will then disappear
,” Xenia quoted softly, meeting Derek’s eyes. “
And shrink up into what mankind calls legs, and you will feel great pain, as if a sword were passing through you.
”

“What is that?” he asked.

“It’s from
The Little Mermaid,
the fairy tale. It’s what a mermaid feels when she becomes a human woman. Great pain. Derek, I’m ready to be human.”

A tiny knot formed in Derek’s throat. In Xenia’s eyes he saw not a single flicker of fear—only love, trust and desire.

He kissed her once, pulled away from her and undressed. Naked now, he stretched on top of her. Xenia opened her legs for him and he pressed the tip of his straining erection against her hymen.

“I love you,” he whispered and thrust fast and hard into the very core of her. He gasped, his eyes wide open. It had been over a year since he’d been inside a woman’s body. His heart pounded in his chest, blood throbbed in his ears. Staying in her without moving, without pumping madly into her, strained every ounce of Derek’s self-control.

An anguished whimper from underneath him brought Derek back to himself.

“Breathe,” he begged Xenia, running his hand through her hair. “Try to breathe.”

Xenia nodded and buried her head against his chest. All around him he felt her heat, her wetness and her tight inner muscles trying to push him out of her. Wrapping his arms around her, he rolled them onto their sides. He rubbed her lower back and hips, massaging them until her muscles started to unknot.

“Do you want to stop?” he asked, kissing the tear on her cheek.

“Never.” She smiled at him and tentatively pressed her hips into his.

Groaning, Derek pushed her onto her back again and thrust deep. He breathed slowly, willing himself to hold back. But Xenia’s body held him like a hand. Her clitoris swelled at his touch. With short sharp thrusts he moved in her, trying to mask her pain with pleasure.

Taking her legs in his hands, he pushed them as wide as they could go. He moved more easily inside her now. With long full thrusts he rode her, relishing the sensation of her body wrapped around his.

Finally he heard Xenia’s breathing change. He’d learned long ago that when her breaths turned sharp and shallow, she was close to coming. Locking his arms over either side of her shoulders, he increased his pace, moving in her with thrusts both meticulous and frenzied.

Pressure built deep in his hips. Xenia cried out under him as her climax sent her body clenching wildly around his. With a last thrust, Derek clutched her to him, pushed once more and poured into her.

Afterward, Derek lingered inside her, kissing her lips, her face, her forehead.

“Was it worth waiting for?” he asked. He knew his answer—yes. And he would have gladly waited longer.

Xenia wrapped her arms around his neck and sank into the sheets. Sighing tiredly, she smiled.