He knitted his eyebrows together. Apparently, he wasn't trying to show off. "I just wanted to show you how I climbed up to our room."

"Oh!" I laughed and walked over to him hesitantly.

"Look right here." He touched his lower abs just above the waistband of his shorts.

I leaned in slightly, feeling embarra.s.sed.

He rubbed his finger upwards over his skin. "Under this flap are suctions."

My eyes widened in shock. I looked closer.

Without rubbing, his skin looked like any other hot and physically fit teenage boy's with a mesmerizing tan, but when he dragged his finger over it, the surface lifted and sure enough there were many small suctions all the way across the lower section of his stomach. It was truly amazing.

"I can maneuver my way up anything with these." He was holding the skin back. Then he looked at me. "You can touch them if you want. I'm starting to gain better self control around you. The more I'm with you, the better I get. And I just ate, so I won't hurt you."

I tried to run my finger over the small suctions, but they grabbed me. In surprise, I tried to move back, but my finger was stuck.

He chuckled softly. "It's okay." He was watching the expressions on my face. "I don't want to let you go-that's why you remain attached, but if I override my will, I can release you." His eyes were smoldering as he gazed at me.

I placed my other hand on the suctions and they grabbed me again. We were attached. b.u.t.terflies fluttered in my stomach.

He smiled at my surprise and then he released me.

I was disappointed; I didn't want him to let me go.

When I looked at him, his expression was mysterious. "I've never showed anyone those."

"I won't tell, if you don't," I teased, trying to hide my utter infatuation.

"It's still difficult for me to be around you," he said darkly. "I feel an overwhelming draw to you that I have never felt around anyone in my entire life."

"Why me?" I asked, baffled.

His eyes narrowed. "There is something about the rhythms of your inner body that confuse me. I feel the pounding of your heartbeat in the air. The vibrations seem stronger than other humans. Usually I smell other people and sense their location from their frequencies. But, with you, the frequency is much stronger, pounding against my own inner being. If they are like dripping water, you are like a waterfall. And your scent is mouth watering. It overwhelms me."

I was stunned; I couldn't respond. n.o.body had ever talked about me like that. I felt the blood rising to my face.

"I feel the change in your body now," he whispered with his eyes closed. "Your blood is pulsating. The feeling is intense." He opened his eyes and looked at me softly.

"I experience something different," I said, "...but for me it is an electrical current between us. It is almost like a light force rushes through my body while in your presence." I blushed even redder at my admittance.

He shifted his position. "I felt that too. I fear losing control."

I touched his hand lightly.

He started to retreat, but moved back to the original position. "The rushing of blood through your veins..." he murmured. "The sensation is difficult to describe."

I ran my hand lightly over his arm. His skin had a slightly smoother, more elastic quality than that of a human. He tensed. The muscles raised beneath the surface, but he held his position. "I don't want to cause you discomfort," I whispered.

He nodded. "I'm okay." His body relaxed slightly. "Can I touch your hair?" He asked in his rhythmic voice.

"My hair?" I sounded surprised.

"Your hair is beautiful," he murmured as he placed his hand lightly at my forehead and ran it slowly down my locks."

I caught my breath and he did the same movement again, running his hand from the top of my head down my hair. I wanted to hold him and pull him to me, but instinctually, I knew he needed to get used to me. I couldn't move so fast.

I placed my hand on his chest. "There it is," I spoke just above a whisper. "Your heartbeat. I can feel it racing." The rhythm was much faster than I had expected. It excited me.

Now he set his hand lightly above my chest. "You can't know what this feels like." His nostrils started to flare, but then relaxed. He pulled his hand away and shook his head side to side.

His expression was unreadable. "Let's watch TV," he suggested as he motioned me to sit on the other side of the bed.

"Okay," I mumbled, trying to hide my disappointment. As much as I didn't want to worry, I was afraid I did something wrong. I sat down on the far edge, propping a pillow up to lean against. My heart was pounding fast in my chest feeling the electricity between us even though there was a considerable distance apart now.

He started flipping through the channels. A soft breeze blew through the window. I felt the fine hairs lifting on my arms. It was so hard not to touch him, so difficult keeping the rhythms of my breath steady.

"Do you like doc.u.mentaries?" He pointed the remote at the television to change the channel.

I half laughed. "That's practically all I watch." I thought of my dad and how much he must be worrying about me by now. That was enough of a distraction to steady my breathing, but I felt emotional.

When he turned on the same doc.u.mentary about ancient Greece that my father and I had just watched, a tear ran down my cheek.

Laurent looked over at me. His nose flared suddenly and his jaw clenched. "Salt.w.a.ter," he whispered as he jumped off the bed. His eyes narrowed as he stared at me. And then to my utter shock, he jumped on me, straddling my body with his legs and licked the tear off my face. In a flash he was gone. He disappeared from the room.

Only You I rushed to the bathroom, throwing the door open. Laurent was sitting by the edge of the Jacuzzi tub. "Don't come any closer," he warned.

I stood in the doorway. "It's okay," I whispered. My heart was racing. My body felt enlivened. It took everything within me not to run over to him and take him into my arms.

"You were sad," he whispered now. His electric blue eyes were bloodshot. "What made you cry?"

I held to the moldings on the doorway. "I'm upset that my parents don't know where I am. They must be worrying out of their minds. We had a fight this morning and they probably think I ran away."

He sighed. "I have brought horror to you and your family. It kills me to let you suffer as you are. I told you to stay away from me." His voice turned angry.

"There's no choice, Laurent. I can't stay away from you and it is not your fault. This is just our fate, our destiny and we have no real control."

He walked toward me and took my hand in his. His body heat warmed my senses. Tingling sensations ran up and down my body. He placed my hand against his chest. I looked up at his beautiful blue eyes as I felt his heartbeat racing once again. "I don't have a choice, Grace. You are right. I will do everything I can to keep you alive. That is all that matters."

I felt lost in his words, in the song of his heart.

He looked at me carefully causing me to wonder if he was going to kiss me. I yearned to feel his soft lips against mine. Even though I had never kissed a boy in my life, I wasn't embarra.s.sed to kiss Laurent. My desire felt so real and true. But he didn't kiss me. He brushed his finger down my cheek.

As I felt the warm sensation from his touch, I was startled out of the moment. I looked over at the bathtub and noticed something swimming in it. "What the h.e.l.l is that?" I shrieked suddenly.

Laurent laughed. "Breakfast," he said matter of fact. "It's a sea snake."

It was about seven feet long with black and white stripes. "Oh, my!" I gasped as I looked at it from across the bathroom. I noticed a huge bag of salt by the tub. He must carry bags of that stuff in the trunk of his car.

"It's poisonous." His lips lifted into a crooked smile. "So don't climb in."

"I won't." I frowned. "How can you eat that? Won't it kill you?"

"The poison is the best part." He squeezed my hand as he answered in his musical voice, "That's how I can touch you without devouring your essence entirely."

"Poison gives you self-control?" My tone was inquisitive.

"It satisfies mostly. The urges are more manageable. Though I can lose it at anytime."

I tried to seem unafraid, though my adrenaline was rushing.

"Like the teardrop. I had to have that." He looked at me carefully. "Your salty fluids overwhelm me." His ocean eyes sparkled with concern for me. Then the way he looked down, I sensed he was brooding.

"Come," I said softly. "Let's lay in the bed and talk."

He looked up at me. "Just a minute. I'll meet you there."

I wasn't sure what he planned to do in the bathroom. Maybe eat the snake or add more salt to the water? I climbed up on the bed and waited.

After a moment, Laurent came into the room carrying a water pitcher and the bathroom sponge. He set the stuff on the nightstand beside the bed and returned to his spot on the other side of me. "Please forgive my immodesty," he explained as he pulled his t-shirt and pants off.

My eyes widened. He was only wearing swim shorts. I guess he must wear those instead of underwear because of his frequent ocean visits. By now I knew he wasn't taking off his clothes to show off or to insinuate that I should take mine off too. But I couldn't help but wonder why he was exposing his jaw dropping body when he must have known what a temptation he was posing for me.

He dipped the sponge in the water pitcher and started wiping down his body as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Are you hot?" I asked, trying as hard as I could not to laugh.

He looked at me as he ran the sponge over his well defined arms. "Just dried out. Usually I'm in my aquarium by now."

I burst out laughing. I just couldn't help it. His confession was too unexpected. "What do you mean?" I was blinking my eyes trying not to let any tears come to them from the sheer humor of it. It didn't seem appropriate to tempt him with my teardrops again.

"We each have our own giant aquarium at the chateau," he explained with a smile dancing on his lips. "It's not any stranger than humans sleeping in beds."

He must have known how absurd his comment came across to me. "Do you sleep in the aquarium?"

He swayed his head side to side. "Sort of. We kind of rest. Certain parts of our bodies sleep while the others remain awake. They take turns."

That fascinated me. "Do you have gills?" I rolled over on my side to face him with my hand supporting my head on my pillow.

"Actually I do," he murmured with a wry smile. His rhythmic voice was teasing.

I waited for him to continue, but he simply ran the sponge over his neck as he stared off.

Now my curiosity was itching. "Can I see them?"

He looked at me and raised a dark eyebrow. "My pleasure." He set the sponge down and ran his fingers over the sides of his ribcage revealing the overlapping layers of skin. "The skin lifts here much like the flap that conceals the suctions on my lower stomach."

"Amazing," I responded exuberantly. There were three gills on each side of his body. "Do you have lungs for breathing on land?"

"Yes, exactly-mers have both lungs and gills and can use either depending on the circ.u.mstances. We are also cold blooded creatures taking on the temperatures of our surroundings. We are cold when our environment is cold and hot when our environment is hot."

"That's right-fish, reptiles, and other water creatures are often cold blooded. It never occurred to me that you might be that too." I considered the idea for a minute. "Why was your skin warm when I touched it? I would have thought it would be cold."

He grinned. "The times that I touched you it must have been warm out. My body was the temperature of the room or wherever we were."

"What do you do when it gets cold in the winter?"

"We have all sorts of creative ways of dealing with the cold. In our chateau, we lounge on electrically heated rocks to warm ourselves. Modern technology offers many heat sources. We use heating pads and other battery heated gadgets to keep warm. But when in natural environments, like lizards, we lounge in the sun and then hide in the shade or if we're desperate, we lay in mud to cool ourselves."

I laughed at the thought of the vain, beautiful Marine and Brigitte cooling off in mud puddles.

"What's so funny?"

"I'm just picturing Marine and Brigitte covered in mud!"

He snickered at that. "You're right. They will avoid that predicament at all costs."

"It must be a ha.s.sle trying to regulate your body temperature on land."

His head tilted to the side. "That's why we live in California. The winters are mild and it's easier to regulate in the heat. But we are lucky because we have a certain protein in our blood that works like anti-freeze that allows us to survive in very cold environments. Not all fish have that."

"How do mers procreate?" I asked somewhat hesitantly.

His lips lifted into a crooked grin. "Why don't I teach you?" he joked with a devilish glint in his eyes.

I blushed, laughing at myself. "You know what I mean-do they lay eggs like fish? How were you conceived?" Now my cheeks turned even redder.

"That is actually a good question. I was conceived the same way you were. I was born in France in the 1700s to human parents."

My chin jutted back. "How can a mer be conceived by human beings?"

He seemed amused with my question. "I was born human."

My eyes widened as goose b.u.mps rose on my arms. "How?"

"I'm a convert."

"What?" I almost shouted out my surprise. I just a.s.sumed he was born a merman and that he had always been this way.

Apparently he was enjoying my shock because he just watched me joyfully for way too long before answering. Finally, he proceeded to tell me his story. "I'm from Paris. When I was seventeen, I took a trip on a schooner to French Indo-China where I visited my uncle who had a large rubber plantation. From there I traveled to the Philippines and continued on to San Francisco. After, when we were in route to Panama, we heard the most beautiful singing. We were entirely entranced. The captain lost control of the wheel and in turn crashed into a reef. The ship sank like a stone."

I was shocked by what I was hearing. It made me think of my father's shipwreck. "How tragic. That must have been terrifying."

"It was horrendous. That is why I don't want to do the same to others even though it is in my nature." He looked at me for a long minute, but I could tell he wasn't really seeing me-his mind was on his tragedy. "The mers caused the shipwreck with their sonar manipulations and songs. They ate most of the pa.s.sengers, but six of us survived."

"How?"

"The mers said they spared our lives because they considered us to be good looking." He chuckled at that. "As I've explained before, mers are very into beauty. They will often spare the lives of attractive people and turn them into their own kind."