sexual fantasy?” Riley asked.
Nan glanced down at him, a tiny frown furrowing her brow. “Why do you ask?”
“Because I’m in the early stage of one right now,” he replied. Riley chuckled softly. “When I was a teenager, I’d come down here and I’d think about what I’d do if I found a selkie on the beach. I’d try to picture what she’d look like and you’re what I used to picture.”
“No,” she murmured.
“Yes,” he said. “I used to always like women with long hair, but my selkie always had short dark hair. Just like yours.”
“Maybe you knew I’d come someday. Maybe we’ve lived a past life together. You were a fisherman and I was a selkie.”
“Take off your clothes,” he said. “I want to remember more.”
Nan slowly stood beside him, a smile playing at her lips. She skimmed her jeans down over her hips and kicked off her shoes, then waited for a long moment in just her underwear.
“What did you do when you thought about your selkie?” she asked.
“What most teenage boys do when they think about naked women,” he said.
“Is this why you brought me here?”
Riley shook his head. “I didn’t remember until just now. I brought you here because it’s one of my favorite places.”
“I can see why,” she murmured, reaching for the hook on her bra. She tossed it aside, then shimmied out of her panties. “Better now?”
He groaned softly. “It’s not a fantasy anymore. It’s real.”
She rubbed her arms and shivered. “And was it warmer in your fantasy?” Her heart beat a little quicker at the look in his eyes, the barely controlled need sending a shiver through her. “What did you imagine?”
Riley sat up, bracing his hands behind him. “You were standing at the water’s edge. That’s where I found you, staring out at the sea.”
Nan turned and walked across the narrow strip of sand to the water. She dipped a toe in, then winced. It wasn’t warm enough to swim, so she waited. A moment later, she heard Riley behind her. He wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and his hand smoothed down her belly. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the touch, moaning as he found the spot between her legs.
Though it was his fantasy, Nan couldn’t help but get caught up in it. She tried to imagine what he was thinking, what he might have done to the wild creature he caught.
Nan slowly turned to face him. He stared down into her eyes, then kissed her, his tongue delving deep. Riley continued to explore her body with his hands as if he’d never touched her before. His touch was slow and sometimes hesitant, and then suddenly sure and determined.
When he’d had enough of kissing, he took her hand and pulled her down into the sand. She thought he might strip off his own clothes, but this fantasy must not have gone that far. Instead he gently pushed her back onto the blanket and began to trail kisses from her collarbone to her breasts.
Nan’s breath caught in her throat as his lips closed over her nipple. Riley sucked gently, teasing until her nipple grew hard. Then he moved to the other and did the same, her fingers tangling in his hair as his lips teased.
When he reached down between her legs, her breath caught in her throat. When he stopped, she opened her eyes and found him staring at her, a wry smile on his lips.
“What?” she whispered.
“This was always where it ended,” he said.
“You just stopped?”
He shook his head. “No, I finished. I never got any further than this before I finished.”
Nan giggled. “Well, you’ve gotten much better at things over the years, haven’t you?”
“I have. But I’m not sure I want to ruin the old fantasy.”
“Then let me help you,” Nan said. She reached down to unbutton his jeans and then slipped her hand inside his boxers. He was hard and ready and she freed him to her touch. “Close your eyes,” she whispered.
“No,” he said. “I can live with this fantasy.”
Nan seduced him slowly, each stroke bringing him closer and closer to ecstasy. She was determined to make the memory exactly how he’d felt it back then, new and baffling and intense. She wondered about the first time he was touched by a real woman. It was one of those stories that they’d yet to tell. She wanted to hear it someday. She wanted to hear it now.
Nan’s gaze skimmed over his naked chest and moved to his face. He was the most beautiful man she’d ever known, in body, in heart, in soul. His eyes were closed and his features relaxed. And for a moment, she became the selkie in his fantasy.
The longing for this human life, this experience they shared, was acute. She didn’t want to go back to the sea, she wanted to live here with him, to make a life away from everything she knew. The rules were certain. She’d have to surrender her life to him, to toss aside the skin of her old life for a different future.
Did she have the courage to do that? Nan had never made a rash decision in her life, at least not until she’d stepped off the plane at the airport. She had to go back to be sure. It was the only way to test her feelings, to see if they were real.
But would she face the same dilemma as the selkie, unable to return to him once she went back home? There was no magic here. They were living real lives with real feelings. She was in control of her own destiny.
His breathing quickened and he arched into her touch. Nan knew he was close. This was all she’d ever wanted, to please him. She could make a life doing just that and be perfectly happy. But would she always long for the life she left behind? Or could she live here, with him, in complete happiness?
As Riley dissolved into intense spasms, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation of his release. She’d been the one to give him his fantasy. He would remember her once she was gone.
9
THE SUN WAS JUST brightening the sky when the alarm went off. Riley reached for it and pressed the button before it could wake Nan. He fought the urge to set it back in place and go back to sleep. If they overslept and missed her flight, then she’d have to stay for another day or two.
She was scheduled to leave at 11:30 a.m. The trip to the airport would take a couple of hours and check-in was ninety minutes before departure, which meant they had to leave at eight. In two hours.
Carey had volunteered to drive her, but Riley had insisted that the only person with her during her last minutes in Ireland would be him. Riley turned over in bed and let his gaze take in her pretty face. They’d been up late, making love into the early morning hours, and Nan had fallen into a deep sleep. He had tossed and turned for the rest of the night, unable to quiet his thoughts.
He’d given her every opportunity to change her mind, to extend her vacation, to admit that she wanted to stay just as much has he wanted her to. But Nan was determined to go back.
So he’d resign himself to being away from her for a few months. He’d scrape together enough money for a ticket to Madison, Wisconsin, and he’d go there and try to convince her to return. And if she didn’t want to, then he’d stay with her. It was a simple plan and the only thing keeping him from going mad.
“Nan,” he whispered. Riley smoothed his hand over her face. “Baby, wake up.”
“Umm.” She moaned and then reached out and pressed her fingers to his lips.
“We have to leave for the airport in two hours.”
She opened her eyes and stared at him. “It’s today,” she said.
Riley nodded. “It is.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. “Oh, I’m not ready to go.”
He wasn’t going to ask her again, Riley thought to himself. He didn’t want to make their last hours together difficult for either one of them. “We still have a few hours. You packed last night so you just have to shower and get dressed.”
“And make love to you,” she said.
