Page 42 of Free for Adventure
“Whoa.”
She grimaced. “I know. I can’t cut it.”
“You like the length?”
“No, I mean, I can’t cut it. I have broken a lot of scissors in my day. Kitchen knives, too.”
He shampooed her hair. “Dive knives, too?”
“Nope. I would never use a dive knife on hair. Rope, yes, but hair, no.”
His long fingers massaged her scalp, and she supported her injured arm while he washed the salt out of her hair.
Five minutes later, she was clean, wrapped in towels, and walking back to the bedroom.
Skaay put her wrist support in place and smiled. “Lie down, and I will get to work.”
“T-shirt?”
“Right.”
Towels were off and shirt was carefully pulled over her head, her arm supported as it was eased through it. When she was dressed, she pulled a pillow down for her head and got settled on her side. When she was settled, Skaay scooted in behind her and wrapped his arm over hers. That warm-cold combo began to pulse through her from neck to fingertip.
She asked softly, “So, how did you figure this one out?”
“How to spoon with a woman with long hair or the healing?”
“The healing.”
“Ah, I picked up a starfish with a freshly missing leg when I had shifted for the first time. I had gone back to human and was just playing under the water. I picked up the starfish, and the leg grew back. I thought that was cool and found a dolphin that had suffered a shark attack. I watched the tissue regenerate while I touched the little guy.”
“After that, you started groping the undersea world en masse?”
He chuckled. “I also worked on it on land. I discussed it a lot with your father. He tested me as well.”
“He liked to experiment on people.”
Skaay froze. “What?”
“Nothing bad. He just had me running tests alongside some of his grad students. I wasn’t allowed to leave to go to school, but I had to make folks who spend hundreds of thousands on their educations feel like idiots. Not cool.”
“Ah, he was very proud of you. How old was he when you were born?”
She laughed. “Fifty-six. He knocked up a grad student.”
“Charming.”
“He always said that if she had lived, we would have been a family, but I am pretty sure that he would have just broken her heart over and over again. I loved him, but he was an ass where women were concerned.”
“I am not going to comment.”
“That is probably wise.” She felt her breathing slow, had a thought, and started laughing.
Skaay whispered in her ear. “What’s so funny?”
She laughed harder, and he held her tight. She finally wheezed, “I am guessing you can all hold your breath for a really long time.”
He froze for a moment and then started laughing with her. That was when Orc came in with her bags, and he wanted to share the joke. Kayak was next, and suddenly, with them all in the room with her, the joke was a lot less funny.