The Mermaid's Curse (California Mermaids Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

kiss between humans. But if the mermaid fills you with the enchanted breath of life, you will have the power to experience the depths of the water without drowning. All you have to do is trust and believe, and never leave my side while we’re underwater. I’d love it if you’d come to my world, Xavier.”
    I glance at the ocean dubiously. It’s beautiful, but it has a mind of its own. The waves may be calm now, but they could become turbulent and dangerous in the next few hours, especially in such close proximity to the rocks. They didn’t start calling the water near Point Joe “the Restless Sea” for nothing.
    And who knows what lies under the infinite fathoms of the sea? There are mermaids, but there are also jellyfish, and man-eating sharks. Would delicate little Oceania be able to protect me from such creatures?
    Besides, I have obligations at home. It’s nearly 6 AM, and the family will be awakening soon. My father is dragging me out fishing on his new boat, with a few of his business associates who are also spending the summer in Monterey. He expects me to be there.
    But I also can’t resist Oceania. What if she vanishes into the watery depths, and I never see her again? I need something of her, even if it’s only a treasured memory that will grow hazy with the passing years.
    “Xavier?” she asks, her forehead wrinkled in worry. “Are you okay?”
    I blink hard, fighting to return to the present. “I am. I was just thinking about how much I want to share this with you.”
    Ignoring the protests of my brain, I listen only to my body and my soul. Gently, I close my eyes and lower my mouth to Oceania’s.
    Her soft, pink lips melt into mine as pliantly as saltwater taffy. I feel a tingling sensation as our lips seem to fuse and lock. With a soft moan, Oceania breathes into my mouth, and my entire body heats up, starting with my throat, windpipe, and lungs.
    Then, before I know what is happening, Oceania tugs me backward, her lips still pressed to mine. My eyes flutter open, and the last thing I see before we plunge into the depths of the sea is the brilliant, colorful arc of sunrise sky.
    And then, everything becomes blue and unbearably cold. Gripping Oceania’s slender hand like a lifeline, I struggle to keep my eyes open under the stinging saltwater, praying that I’ll live to see another sunrise.

 
    Chapter Eleven: Oceania
     
    As soon as I hit the water, Amelie’s beautiful dress and the strange undergarments weigh me down in a tangled mess. I tear them off, wriggling out of them just as my legs prickle and merge into a tail, blossoming with scales and fins almost instantly. There is no burning sensation as there was when I morphed into a human. Ula once told me that the shift from mermaid to human is much more difficult and painful than the reverse, since we are leaving our natural element.
    I have a fleeting thought that Amelie might be angry with me for destroying her clothing, and I should’ve removed it before I launched myself into the sea, but I just wasn’t thinking straight when Xavier’s lips were pressed against mine.
    Xavier likes me! He kissed me, knowing that it would entail coming with me to my world, for my birthday celebration.
    And what a kiss it was, my first ever. Ula told me that kisses can be beautiful and sweet when they’re with the right merman, but as slimy as an old codfish with the wrong one. She’s never kissed a human, though.
    I’m glad that my first kiss was with a human; it was everything that Ula described and more. Xavier’s lips had felt so right; as his warm, soft mouth had landed on mine, I’d felt almost unable to breathe from the sheer thrill.
    I glance at him now, paddling frantically alongside me. Even though I filled him with the enchanted breath of life, giving him the ability to breathe and adjust his body temperature underwater just like a mermaid or merman, it appears that he can’t believe what has happened. His brown eyes are wide with shock,