Rainlashed (18 page)

“And I you.” He kissed her then, with a kiss so deep that he touched her very soul.

She met him in his passion, letting him know without words just how much she longed for him, how much she needed him, and most importantly of all, how much she now trusted him. Her trust in him could not be put into words—all she could do was to show him how her feelings had changed.

She had not yet had her fill of him when he lifted his head, his eyes filled with a mixture of hope and fear. “Does this mean you will stay with me? At least for a little while.”

She swallowed nervously. How long she could stay with him depended now on him rather than on her. “For a while,” she agreed. “For tonight, at least.”

His body relaxed a little, though his face was still sad. “We shall have the whole night together then. I am glad.”

“There is a way…” Her voice trailed off. What had she been thinking out there in the ocean? The sun must have gotten to her head and scrambled her brains. He would never agree to her suggestion. She was foolish even to bring up the subject. It was just dooming her to more heartbreak when he dismissed her tentative plan out of hand.

To her surprise, he jumped eagerly on her words. “There is a way to what?” he demanded.

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

He would not be satisfied with her silence. “Tell me. Please.”

She took a deep breath. He would refuse, she knew he would refuse, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. She owed it to herself at least to give him the chance to refuse her. “There is a way we could be together forever.” Fear for him made her hesitate. “But it would not be an easy way for you to take.”

He remained undaunted. “Tell me what it is.”

“You will not like it.”

His face was stern as he looked down at her. “I can be the judge of that.”

“If I were to marry you in the church, I would remain a human and never be able to turn seal again.” She shuddered at the awful thought of being cut off from the sea forever, and laid her head against his chest for the reassurance of his solid bulk. “I could not survive that.”

He took her hands in his and squeezed them tightly. “We cannot be together that way. I would not ask it of you.”

She traced a pattern on the back of his hand with her fingernail. He had such fine strong hands. “But there is another way.”

He pushed away from her a little so he could look into her eyes. “Another way? Tell me.” His voice was urgent.

She gave a nervous swallow. “You could give up a small part of your humanness, just a small part, and become a selkie as I am.” Her heart was beating double time and her breath was short. Even just getting the words out and opening herself out to the possibility of a rejection by the man she loved was almost more difficult than she could manage. She could not hope for his acceptance, but still a refusal would hurt her more than she could bear to be hurt. “Then we could be together on land and on sea.”

His mouth dropped open and it was a few minutes before he could speak. Myriad emotions chased over his face faster and more intensely than she could read them. “I could become a selkie?” he asked at last.

She nodded. “You could.”

“I could, in all truth, become a selkie?” he repeated.

She shrugged. His disbelief pained her almost as much as an outright refusal would have. “Few humans have managed the change but it is possible.”

“How?”

She countered his question with another. “Do you love me?”

“I do.” His voice was true and there was honesty in his eyes. “I love you more than any woman I have ever known.”

Sincere though he was, that would not be enough for him to make the change. “Do you love me more than you love your life?”

He nodded gravely, taking her question as seriously as she had asked it. “When I thought I had lost you to the sea, my life meant little to me. Without you I have no joy, no passion. Yes, I have found through bitter experience that I love you more than I love my life.” He smiled a bitter smile. “I could wish it were not so but there is no changing it now. Loving you is my fate and I cannot escape it.”

His words brought a warm glow to her heart. “Then there is a chance that you may be able to transform.”

“How do I make the change?”

“The way to change is simple if you have but the courage to try.” She took a deep breath to give her the courage she needed to continue. “You take off your human trappings, your clothes, your shoes, your pocket watch, everything that sets you apart as a human, and you come with me into the sea. We swim out to deep water, far from shore. Then you must sit astride me and throw your arms around my neck and I will take you down into the sea.

“You must not fear the ocean or panic as it closes over your head. If you let go of me when you find yourself under the water, you will surely fall off and drown. But if you can love me and trust me enough to cling on to my back through the currents, you will gain a new life. You will gain the power of a selkie.”

“Then you will be my mate forever?”

“Then I would be your mate forever. I would never leave you. Even in death I would walk by your side as the other half of your soul.”

He set her down off his knees and stood up. “I will come with you gladly.”

His haste startled her. “Now?”

He took her hand and pulled her to the door. “Now. While my love for you is singing in my veins like the song of a siren. I will lose a part of me to gain a new completeness.”

She hung back on feet that still ached from her journey. “Do not be rash. Take some time to think on your decision. Your life will never be the same again.”

“You have offered me a choice between a half life or a whole life. You have offered me a choice that few humans are ever given—the chance to live life as a different being and yet still to keep my humanity. What man would not leap at such a choice? My mind was made up the instant you spoke of it to me. Indeed, there is nothing to consider.”

“Your family? Your servants?” she asked, temporizing madly. Was she really ready for this man to become her life mate so swiftly? She did not know. “Will they not find it strange that you have become a selkie? Will they not cast you out of their lives?”

He brushed aside her fears with an idle wave of his hand. “No one need ever know our secret. When we are on land, I will still be the Earl of Argyle and you will be my Countess. No one will know, or indeed care, that we have another life.” He tugged her along. “Come to the sea with me now. Make me a part of you, as you will always be a part of me.”

He stood naked and proud on the beach, his discarded clothes lying in a heap on the sand. The cool breeze against his skin did not ruffle him, nor did the bite of the icy water as it lapped against his toes. He was ready for this. He was more ready than he could ever be again.

He did not fear death by drowning or by any other means. If Maya had wanted to harm him, she could have done so a thousand times over already, and he would never have raised a hand to save himself. He had spoken true to her. Without her, his life had no pleasure. He belonged to her as he had belonged to no other woman before.

Maya, in her seal skin, slid past him over the stones and out into the deeper water of the bay.

“Come with me,” she called, and with some surprise he realized he could understand her voice.

He waded out into the deeper water until the waves were lapping against his chest.

“Swim with me.” Maya called out in her hoarse seal voice. “Come and swim with me.”

He lay on his back in the water and kicked with his feet until the land was far away.

Maya was there beside him as she had promised. “Take hold of me,” she said. “And do not let go.”

He threw his arms around her neck and clasped them together with an unbreakable grip. “I will not let go. I promise you.”

Down she dived into the clear blue-black of the water.

His arms clasped tight around her neck, into the clear blue water he dived with her, and he was not afraid.

Also by Leda Swann

Ice On Her Wings

School For Virgins

Sunlit

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