Page 34 of Anchored To You

"Don't worry. It's not like I hate the full moon or hate that I shift. I love it, to be honest. Being different from so many people, being unique. Being considered a monster is one of the proudest parts of who I am. My parents had a harder time with it, since they didn't grow up being mermaids. The first time they shifted, they thought it was a curse. After having my sister and me, they grew to learn the blessing that it was."

"You have a sister?" I ask, realizing there's so much to Talon I don't know.

"I do," he smiles fondly, looking off into the distance. "She's five years younger than I am. A spit-fire for sure. She's been a handful her entire life, and even though we're a few years apart, she's my best friend. We don't talk as often as I would like because we're both so busy, but whenever we do have a minute for one another, we can easily talk for hours."

"I love that. I'm an only child and I've always wondered what it would be like to grow up with a sibling. It's one reason I love being on the baseball team so much. I've made such great friendships with some guys on the team that it feels as though they're my brothers. They could be people my future children call Uncle when they see them every weekend."

Talon nods his head, "Yeah, Hannah is like that for me. She's the one person at CU that I know is going to be a part of my life going forward. Whenever we're together, we just click. She's like the female version of me. It's pretty wild, if I'm being honest."

"I love that."

Wanting to know more about Talon, I ask him more questions about his family. He tells me about his parents who live pretty close to campus, even though he doesn't stop by and see them as often as he would like. Talking on his family transitions to things we did in high school, and I shock the hell out of him when I tell him I used to be in theater. I was on the baseball team and was part of every school play that our high school put on. He shocks me when he tells me he was on his high school tennis team.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I never saw you as a sports person."

"Is it the teal hair?" he jokes, flipping his hair off his shoulder and smirking. "Most people assume I'm an artsy person because of my hair color, but it's my natural hair. I have no control over it being teal. And I love the color of it, so I've never tried to dye it any differently."

I bow my head, grimacing, "Yeah, I assumed that because of your hair. Damn, I'm an asshole, huh?"

"No," Talons laughs, pushing at my arm. "Can I say I thought you were a jock because of your muscles?"

"Oh, you like my muscles, huh?" I waggle my eyebrows, flexing my arm.

"God," Talon rolls his eyes, faster away from me. “That is not what I was trying to say. I just meant it's normal to try to assume some things about people. What you assume might not be accurate, but it's normal for people to make guesses based on how someone looks.”

"So, what I'm hearing is that you like how I look."

Talon stops in place, placing his hand on his hip. "Now, how did you get that from what I said?"

"I don't know," I sing, walking past him. "First you're talking about my muscles and then you're talking about my looks. If I didn't know any better, I would think someone likes what he sees."

"I never said I didn't like what I see," he tells me, short-circuiting my brain. "I've always liked what I see. Especially when you're naked."

Now it's my turn to stop dead in my tracks. Talon stares at my face, biting his bottom lip as he eyes me up and down. My cock is rock hard, thinking about getting him naked again. I glance around the empty forest, trying to find a spot where we can run and hide. I need to get my hands on him, and I don't know how much longer I can wait.

"You could have been riding my dick right now, but someone wanted to swim," I say, stepping close to him and wrapping my arm around his waist. Pulling him closer to me, I smile when his breath hitches.

"Swimming is so much fun, though," he whispers, subtly grinding his erection against my body.

"But imagine this: both of us in my bed, you riding my cock, your head tossing back in ecstasy as I pound into you from below," I bit the lobe of his ear, then place a gentle kiss below his ear. "But you're right, swimming is so much fun."

I let go of Talon, stepping around him and heading back toward the river. Behind me, I can hear him mumbling incoherently about teasing him and it not being fair, but I keep walking forward. The smile on my face is huge, and as much as I want to turn around and drag him back to our dorm, I'm having so much fun with him.

Chapter

Seventeen

TALON

Beck is skipping ahead, walking straight for the river, while I'm slowly following along, hard as a rock. I was trying to be a tease, but that backfired on me. And now here I want to say forget swimming and let's go back, but he won't let me. By the time I catch up with Beck, he's stripped down to his swim trunks, standing ankle deep in the water. There's no one else out in the river, and with the moon shining so brightly, I can see him perfectly. His body has gotten more defined since last year, which I'm sure is because of all the working out he has to do for baseball. He's grown out his hair in the past few weeks, letting it fall down below his ears. But something that hasn't changed about him is that damn smile. The same one that lured me in over a year ago. The one that's currently on his face right now, begging me to come into the water with him.

My feet walk straight to him, ripping off my shirt and tossing it into the sand. I kick off my shoes and take off my pants, then I plunge into the water. Beck moves deeper into the river, giving me space to shift into my fins. Once I'm fully shifted, I swim a few laps around Beck, splashing him with my fins.

Pulling up beside him, I give him one final splash. "Sorry, not sorry," I tell him, snickering as he wipes the water from his face.

"Don't be. I love seeing you this way." His hand reaches out, running alongside my fin, reaching its way up to my waist. "Your fins are beautiful, Talon. The bit of shimmer that reflects off the moon is the same shimmer that reflects in your eyes when you smile. You're gorgeous."

"Thank you," I swallow a lump in my throat, trying not to get emotional. I wasn't lying earlier when I told him I loved the monster part of me. Being a mermaid is something I've always been proud of. But that doesn't mean that other people see me the same way. For some humans, they don't like monsters, so they stay away, or they try to ask invasive questions that make me uncomfortable. Then there are other monsters who don't consider me "monster" enough. Like even though I shift, I'm not a true monster like the rest of them. So hearing him tell me how much he enjoys this part of me is healing a part of me I didn't realize needed to be healed.