Page 30 of Anchored to the Storm

I nodded, repeating the swipes, left to right. “Lips.”

Saleeni reached up and swiped my lips, then looked me in the eyes.

I nodded. “Yes, now do it to you.” I gently swiped left, then right on her mouth. “Lips.”

She repeated the process, this time on herself. “Lllll…Laaaiii—” She grunted in frustration.

Giggling at her wonderful angry streak, which I respected, I tapped her lips and kissed her. “You will get it.”

Saleeni tapped my lips with her fingertips, then kissed me. “Gggg-t eeet.”

Now I laughed, fully. “No.” I tapped her lips. “That was a kiss.”

The grin that crossed her mouth was so sexy I was stunned into silence.

She tapped my lips, then kissed me. Then this luscious creature tapped her own mouth and waited.

Fuck me.

I kissed her hard and good, starting a teaching technique of the ages.

Leaving Saleeni’s side was pure torture, but I was looking like a prune in jeans. Plus, my lips were going to fall off from all the kissing. For every hand gesture I attempted to teach, Saleeni tapped her lips, wanting her reward.

For real, who was I to say no?

One of the last lessons for the afternoon was me walking my fingers across my flat palm before pointing to the clubhouse. Saleeni caught on quickly and grabbed on to me, silently pleading for me to stay with her. Hating myself for upsetting her, I quickly showed her my walking fingers in a different direction, then pointed to her.

With a pout, I had no idea how a mermaid even learned to do it; she walked her fingers across her palm, then pointed to herself.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be back real soon.”

Already owning the strings to this puppet, she tapped her lips.

Leaning in, I whispered, “I will always come back to you,” then let our temporary goodbye be sealed with a tender kiss.

Nothing else was said as I was placed on the seawall, this time on my feet. I watched her slip back into the water to disappear. Only a tail swipe at the surface was to be seen of her, and I swear it was her way of flicking me off.

Proudly, I chuckled, “You were made for me,” before heading back to the clubhouse.

Once at the door, I punched in the security code and thought about how I needed to teach it to Saleeni. Then I imagined her trying to get across the yard without water to swim. Opening the door, I was growling in frustration, absolutely perplexed about how I was going to live with a mermaid, or whatever she was. She needed water. I needed land. “Goddamnit!” I slammed the door shut. Then I closed my eyes and chanted, “Nothing is impossible. Nothing is impossible…”

Gaining control of my frustrations, I finally realized there was a power tool hard at work. I followed the noise out the opposite door of my bedroom, realizing I had yet to ever use it. This whole building was newly purchased for the club and was under construction when my tenth Life Date had come. Sadly, I had never gotten a chance to see it.

Curiosity piqued, I crossed the threshold and entered a gigantic open room that was the inside and center part of this mall. Even though it was quite bare, like my bedroom and bathroom, the massive room was all white, including ceilings that were triple the height of my room. It would’ve taken at least fifty of my rooms to fill this space.

Besides canned lighting in the ceiling, there were no decorations to speak of. No plants like Noma would’ve had scattered and hanging about. Just… lots of empty space.

Identical to my door, there were at least twenty-five more surrounding the large room. It was easy now to understand how this was a great layout for a club. From the outside, every member had their own access to their own living quarters; however, they could meet in the middle with only a few steps. Whether it was party time or for security reasons, this was brilliant.

With his back to my door, Styx was crouched in a far-off right corner working a drill. He didn’t see me enter the room, so when the tool shut off and I accidentally kicked an empty can of paint, a gun was pointed in my direction so fast I couldn’t talk. I could only close my eyes and beg the Heavens above not to call me home.

“Jesus, kid! Trying to die young?”

I exhaled. “Not really. Believe it or not, I want this crazy life.”

From his knees, putting the gun back in a holster, he smiled. “Damn good to hear—” but was cut off by an insanely loud shriek.

I jumped, spinning in the air, to now face the door I had just walked through. “What the⁠—”