“I love her.” I was saying that a lot lately, but it was true.

“Oookay.” Vincent blinked. “That’s a first. Does she know?”

“She knows.”

“Good. I like her.” Vince pulled one of his legs up on the bed and smiled. “She seems so natural. None of that fake crap and she’s still gorgeous.”

“I noticed.”

“I bet.” He sighed. “I’m going to miss you.”

“You love Paris. And Liv spends six months out of the year there anyway.”

“It’ll just be different. At least I’ll get snow for Christmas.”

“And maybe a boyfriend with a French accent.” I raised an eyebrow.

“That would be a plus.” His cheeks turned pink but he laughed.

“I’m going to miss you, too.” I shoved his knee off the bed.

“What the hell is that on your hand? Is that a tattoo?” He grabbed for my hand but I pulled it out of his reach.

“It’s new.”

“Right. You’ve gotten really weird, you know that?”

I laughed. “You have no idea.”

Meena peeked back in the curtain and smiled at us. Just seeing her again made my heart beat faster.

“Mind if I come in?”

“I left you the chair.” Vince pointed at the ugly thing next to the bed.

“Thanks.” She sat down and smiled at me. “So, I saw the doctor in the waiting room. He told Dad that once they did a couple more tests and got the x-rays back, you’d be good to go. Probably only overnight.”

“Great.” I tried to sit up and Vince pushed me gently back down.

“Um, that means you get to stay in bed a little longer.” He shook his head. “Enjoy it. You deserve a little rest.”

What he didn’t know was that Meena would have to go back to the ocean tonight and I didn’t want to be without her. She gave me a small smile and I knew she was thinking the same thing. It could have been much worse, though.

“So, when Mom gets here do you want to go look for a new place? You know she’s going to want to help pick it out.” Vince picked at the fuzzy crap on my blanket.

“New place?” Meena looked at me, her eyes surprised.

“Uh. That’s my cue to go, huh?” Vince winced. “Sorry, dude. Thought she knew.” He stood up and smiled at Meena. “It was nice to meet you. I’ll be back tomorrow to help you get to the house, Blake.”

“Thanks.” I frowned at him. Way to throw me in the fire. When he was gone, I turned to look at Meena. She was biting her lip and looking at the curtains around us. “So. I’m getting my own place.”

“Oh.” Her cheeks were pink.

“Oh?” I laughed. “Is that a good ‘oh’?”

She nodded her head. “I’m just still surprised.”

“By what?” I turned a little so that I could see her better.

“That you would stay for me.” Her blush deepened and I laughed quietly. “Why are you laughing?”

“Because you’re so cute when you blush,” I said. “I love you, Meena. I’m staying. Maybe you could help me pick out a place.”

Her blush deepened and I narrowed my eyes. “Okay. Spit it out. What are you thinking?”

“Nothing. I talked to Mireille while you were talking to Vince.” She bit her lip and then shook her head. “We can talk about it later. When you’re feeling better.”

“Uh-uh. I’m stuck here and can’t do anything. Tell me.” A thought popped in my head. “Is it about the bond?”

She nodded her head. “Yeah.”

“Okay. And me getting a place makes you blush?” Her blush came back again. “Am I really going to have to play twenty questions or are you going to tell me?”

She pursed her lips and fiddled with the sheet of my bed.

“Meena, I took on a shark for you!” I raised my eyebrows. If I had brownie points then I was going to use them.

“Oh, that’s low.” She glared at me. “Fine. You know how they said we sealed the bond? Well, now that we’ve done that, you’ll be able to stay underwater longer and heal faster. And I’ll be able to stay on land longer.”

“And how did we seal the bond?” I narrowed my eyes. I had an idea, but I wanted to hear her say it.

“We mated.” She looked up at me from under her eyelashes. “It’s a mating bond. Once you find the other half, you complete the bond by mating.”

“So, when we slept together the bond became complete?”

“Yes.” She licked her lips and I wished I wasn’t stuck in the damn hospital bed. I’d seal the bond again, right this minute.

“I see.” I reached out and wrapped some of her hair around my finger. “So far, I’m not seeing any downside.”

“Once you mate, you can’t spend much time apart. We need each other.” Her words were soft. “Our bodies crave each other. And… it’s irreversible.”

“Ah.” It was a little sooner than I had thought it would happen, but that didn’t make it a bad thing. “So, in other words, we need to look for a place that will fit a king-sized bed.” I tugged on her hair so that she looked up at me. “I’ll warn you now, I’m a blanket hog.”

“Blake, we don’t have to do this anytime soon. We can wait a while.” She looked up at me. Her sadness was palpable. She would let me go if it would make me happy, no matter how much it killed her to do so. “Maybe we could find a way to change it.”

“Stop.” My voice was a little sharper than I intended and her eyes widened. “I thought you understood. I want you, Meena. All of you. For as long as I can have you. And if that is forever, then I’m damn well going to take forever. If you don’t want me, then you better speak up. And expect a fight, because I’m going to try and change your mind.”

She smiled, her face taking on a brighter cast. “Then we need to look at somewhere near the beach.”

“I can live with that.”

Chapter Twenty-One

- Meena -

Leaving the hospital wasn’t an option. I needed Blake as much as I needed the ocean and for right now, the water could wait. We were moved to another room later that night and my parents had come to check on us. Mom and Dad had fussed over Blake, making him uncomfortable, and I’d laughed. Seeing him treated with love made me happy. Mom had looked at our hands but hadn’t said anything. I knew I’d have questions to answer the next time we were alone.

Mireille and Jacen brought a large pitcher of water when they came in the room and some salt packets. She dumped one of the little packets into a plastic cup and poured some water in.

“This will help you stay comfortable overnight.” She handed it to me and I took a sip. It wasn’t the same as the ocean, but it did seem to ease the tightness of my skin. I looked at my parents with large eyes. Why hadn’t we thought of this before?

Blake’s mother had arrived that morning, so I’d left to give them some time. Claire Weathering was a tiny thing with huge brown eyes and short brown hair. Her two sons looked so much like her it was shocking. After meeting Blake’s father, I hadn’t been sure what to expect from a mother that had moved away. It had been a relief to see that she was as far from his father in reaction as you could get. When she entered the room she had gone immediately to his side and ran her hands over his face.

She’d spoken in French, her words quiet and musical. He’d responded in kind and, if it was possible, it made him even sexier. I squirmed in my chair, thinking that I should leave and give them time, but Vince was blocking the doorway. Claire glanced at me, a soft smile on her face, before asking him a question. When Blake nodded his head, she looked back at me with tears in her eyes.

“Meena? Blake said you saved his life.” She took both of my hands between hers and kissed my cheeks.

“No, Blake saved my life. He pushed me out of the way.” I looked over her shoulder at Blake and frowned.

“Yes, but you were able to get him help.” She squeezed my hands, drawing my attention back to her. “He also told me that he’s going to marry you one day.”

My heart stopped and I looked back at Blake. He was smiling softly and raised an eyebrow. My mouth opened and closed once, trying to find words. Vince coughed and I had a sneaking suspicion that he was hiding a laugh.

“I’d very much like that.” I bit my lip.

“Tres bien. You two will make me very pretty grandbabies.” She patted my cheek and fluttered back to Blake’s side, fussing with his pillow. “So, Vince is moving back home with me?” She looked at her younger son and smiled. “I’ve missed my family.”

“Then why did you leave?” The words poured out of my mouth before I could stop them. I wanted to know, though. My parents would have fought the world to keep me at their side. In a way, they had.

Her eyes were thoughtful as she looked at me. “When I caught my husband with the first mistress, I accepted his apologies. The second time, I had no more love in my heart. I tried to leave, to take the children with me, but he controlled their futures.” She sat down in the chair and crossed her legs. “He threatened that if I divorced him, he would cut them off. Tell everyone that he had found out they weren’t his children. I had no doubt that he could pay off doctors to lie, so I did the only thing I could. Being a family man is important to him. He feels that it makes him look more stable, trustworthy. So, if I didn’t push for divorce, he could just claim that I was on vacation.” She shrugged.

“We understood, ma mère.” Blake reached for his mother’s hand. He was moving easily today and the doctors had tsked over his stitches.

“You understand some of it.” She squeezed his hand. “What you don’t know is that I’ve spent the last few years funneling money into accounts for you three. Yours and Vincent’s trust funds are safely tucked away in a Swiss bank account. Elizabeth’s is already safely in her hands.”

“Does Dad know?” Vince came farther into the room.

“Unlikely. He has believed that he had me stuck under his thumb.” She shrugged, her expression reminding me of Blake’s sneaky smile.

“You snuck our money out?” Blake leaned back on his pillow and laughed. “Oh, he’s going to shit.”

“Blake.” His mother admonished him softly but smiled. “It would be a funny thing to see.”

“Please let me move my stuff out before he realizes what’s happened.” Vince shuddered.

The rest of the morning was spent talking and laughing, planning on getting Vincent moved out with as little friction as possible. When the nurse came with the release papers, Blake was already dressed and ready to go. They changed the bandage on his arm again and I got my first look at how much he had healed. My mother came in time to meet Claire and that had been an interesting conversation. To say Mom’s face was comical when Claire started talking about grandbabies would be an understatement.

“I’ll see you tonight.” Blake kissed me, his warm breath making my heart pick up. He leaned close so that he could whisper in my ear. “Then we need to figure out where we’re going to live.”

I followed Mom to the car and waited for the interrogation to begin. My parents never pried, they always treated me like an adult, but I couldn’t blame her for wanting to understand what was going on.

“Meena, are you pregnant?” She was sitting in the driver’s seat and hadn’t put the key in the ignition yet.

“No. I’m not pregnant.” I frowned. “Unless condoms don’t work with mermaids.”

“I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t.” She let her breath out slowly. “Are you going to tell me about the tattoo on your arm?”

This was a little trickier. “It’s part of the mating bond.”

“A mating bond.” I could see her rolling the idea around in her head. “And that’s why Blake has a matching one. I take it that this is a new development?”

I nodded my head.

“What does this mean for you?”

“It started almost a month ago, but we didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t until we…” I was open with my mom. We talked about a lot of things, but what had happened on the beach that night was between Blake and me. “We’re linked now. Mireille said that when we hit a certain age, mermaids start looking for their mate; it’s programmed into us. I just got lucky to find mine so quickly.”

“I see.” She smiled, and I was relieved to see that she wasn’t upset. “You’re an adult, Meena. If you’re happy, I’m happy.” She lifted my hand and looked at the intricate lines that wrapped around my left hand. “It’s gorgeous. I wonder if they all look like yours or if it’s unique to the two of you.” She pulled me to her for a hug. “There is so much that we never knew about you. I started out as a scientist, but you taught me to believe in magic.”

“There’s something that I wanted to talk to you about.” I watched her as she put the key in the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot.

“Shoot.”

By the time we got to Flukes, Mom and I had come to an agreement. She had said yes almost immediately, which thrilled me to no end. Dad waved at us, and I smiled when I got my first look at the new sign. It was beautiful, just the right design to stand out in a sea of tourist attractions.

“What do you think?” He waved his arm like a game-show host.

“It’s gorgeous.” I wrapped an arm around his waist.

“It matches your eyes.” He looked down at me and I winked. I looked back and realized that he was right. The mermaid tail was almost the exact color of my scales and eyes.

“Wow.” I turned and looked at the rest of the sanctuary. The new greenery really popped, making everything look high-end and lush. I’d only been gone for a day and a half, but the place looked amazing.

“C’mon.” He tugged me down to the dolphin pens, and I realized that Mireille and Jacen were swimming with Mitch and Jallia.

I hopped down the ladder to the floating platform and called for Mitch. She swam to me with excited squeals. Her excitement was contagious and I couldn’t help laughing. She was so glad to see me and I was glad to see her, too.

“How’s Blake?” Jacen swam over and rested his arms on the platform.