Kate Hoffmann - Riley

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.

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.

“Yes,” he said. “We can’t forget that.”

“I never expected this,” she said. “Sometimes, I think I’m living in a dream. I’ll get home and I won’t believe that I met you.”

“I’ll call you and remind you,” he said.

“Yes, you have to call me. I don’t even know your phone number. I’ve never called Ireland. And we have to email. And we can Skype.”

“Skype is when we can see each other over the internet?”

She nodded. “You have to get broadband or wireless to use it.”

“Kellan knows all about that stuff. He’ll help me get it set up.”

Nan smiled. “Good.”

“And what time will be you be home?”

“Probably not until really late. My plane gets in after midnight. And then I have a two-hour drive to get home. So maybe about three in the morning. Which would be…”

“Six or seven hours difference. So, I can call you tomorrow morning at about nine my time. And I’ll have slept a whole night without you.”

“I’m sure you’ll manage.”

“I’m going to sleep here for the next month,” he said. Riley pulled the pillow to his face. “This place smells like you. Like that lotion you put on after you shower.”

Nan reached over and grabbed the bottle from the bedside table and handed it to him. “Here. You can keep it. You can rub it all over yourself when you miss me. Or put it on your pillow before you go to sleep.”

“You’re not taking any of this seriously, are you?” Riley said.

“No. If I do, I’ll start crying and I don’t want to start crying.” She kissed him. “I will come back. I promised my grandfather that I would. Maybe even for Christmas. That’s not that far off. Four months. That will go by so quickly.”

“Four months is an eternity.”

“How long had it been since you’d slept with a woman before I showed up?” Nan asked.

“Longer than four months.”

“So, you know you can do it, right?”

Riley laughed. She obviously didn’t understand male physiology. “It doesn’t work that way. I was a starving man and you just fed me the most wonderful gourmet meal I’ve ever tasted. And now, you’re going to take away all the treats again and let me starve. And you expect me not to crave them?”

“We’ll just have to have internet sex,” she said.

“As much as the idea intrigues me, it’s not a substitute for you.” He paused, then kissed her shoulder. “But we can probably make do.”

“Good,” she said. Nan sat up, then crawled on top of him, her thighs straddling his hips. Riley stared up at her, realizing this might be the last time they had sex. He had no idea whether they’d be able to survive months apart.

Nan was beautiful and sexy-the kind of woman that any man would be lucky to have. And there’d be hundreds, maybe thousands who were a lot closer to her than he would be by tomorrow.

She smiled down at him as she settled herself against his stiff shaft. Riley reached out and clasped her hips. The temptation to enter her without protection was almost unbearable. But she didn’t seem to be concerned. When she leaned forward to kiss him, he probed at her entrance, then waited for her to reach for the box of condoms.

But instead, she simply sank down on top of him. A tiny smile played at her lips and Riley held his breath, wondering if this was all she’d allow. Slowly, Nan began to move, her gaze fixed on his, her eyes glazed with desire.

Though sex with Nan was incredible no matter what the situation, this felt more than extraordinary. Every time she moved, waves of sensation coursed through his body. It took every ounce of his control to keep from coming.

But for Nan, she didn’t want to wait. As she increased her pace, he recognized the signs of her pleasure-the tiny furrow on her brow, the way her teeth worried at her lower lip and her quick, shallow gasps with each stroke.

Riley reached between them to touch her and the moment he did, she dissolved into powerful spasms. Bending close, she kissed him and the taste of her mouth was enough to send him over the edge as well.

Though it came quickly, the orgasm was intensely satisfying. It was the perfect end to their time in bed. Riley slipped his hands through her tousled hair and molded her mouth to his. He wanted to say the words out loud. I love you. They were there, on the tip of his tongue, the sentiment so real he could feel it deep inside his heart.

But Riley stopped himself. Until she came to understand her own feelings, nothing he said would make a difference. She knew exactly what he wanted and how deeply he felt for her. But at the moment, something or someone was standing in between them.

A soft sigh slipped from her lips and she looked down at him and smiled. “We are good together,” Nan said.

“Yes, we are.”

She stretched out beside him, her cheek resting against his chest. “I’m just going to lie here until it’s time to go.”

“You don’t want to take a shower?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t want to smell like me, I want to smell like you when I get home.”

Riley reached out and lifted her lotion from the folds of the quilt, then squirted some into his hand. He rubbed it on his chest and drew in a deep breath. “You’re going to have to send me more of this,” he said. “I think I’m going to be using it a lot.”

Nan laughed, then crawled out of bed. She combed her fingers through her hair and then picked up the clothes she’d left out to wear.

“Give me those,” Riley said, holding out his hands.

“You want my clothes?”

He wiggled his fingers and she relented, handing him the dress and her underwear. Riley pulled up the quilt and shoved the clothes underneath.

Nan braced her hands on her hips and shook her head. “What are you doing?”

“I’m hiding your skin,” he said. “You’re my selkie. Now you can’t leave.”

“It’s not the clothes,” she said. “When I set foot in Ireland, I shed my skin. I’m a different person now. I’m your lover and Carey’s granddaughter and an Irish citizen, according to you.”

He took the clothes out and set them on the bed. “I’m not going to keep you here. But, someday, I hope you’ll stay a little longer.” Riley drew a ragged breath. “There are so many places we haven’t seen yet.”

“All right,” she said. “Enough. Let’s get dressed and we’ll have breakfast on the way to the airport.”

Riley watched her from the bed, refusing to get up until she was completely ready to leave. With every minute that passed, he saw her slowly leaving him, resigning herself to the fact that their time was over. It was a feeling that made him angry and sad and frustrated all at once. But he wasn’t about to ruin their last few hours together.