Page 75 of Mermaid on Heels

“Sometimes, the most extraordinary moments are the simplest ones, shared with the person who matters most.” Luke clasped a hand over hers on the railing and gave it a gentle squeeze. “So, anything for you, my little mermaid.”

Her grin broke wide. “I think I like it now, your nickname for me.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” he said with a laugh.

Liriya turned back to the horizon. The sun continued its ascent and bathed them in its golden light. She inhaled the fresh morning air with closed eyes and exhaled. Opening them and glancing aside at Luke, her heart skipped a beat before galloping wildly to see him watching her.

“You were supposed to be watching the sunrise,” she commented in spite of herself. “And now you missed it.”

Luke’s lips tipped up at the corner. “Oh no, actually, I watched my own personal sunrise walk into my life and fill my soul, and there’s none other that could rival it.”

Liriya blushed and looked away, her eyes squinting at the sun-risen horizon. He was talking about her. She could perhaps stare directly at the sun, but never at Luke, not when he was looking at her like this.

“You think so highly of me, Luke. But I am none of that.”

“You areyou, Liriya. And that’s what makes you special to me; not just my sun, but my moon and my star. I look at you like one looks at all of them. Call me naïve, lovesick, or whatever you want, but that’smytruth and I’m not hiding it from you.”

He leaned in and kissed her cheek, and that was all it took for Liriya’s lowered defenses to crumble into pieces around her feet. Now, even if she wanted to draw them back up again, they were no longer there. He had sweetly destroyed them.

Liriya didn’t know what to say, she was spellbound at his confession. It had been barely two days since they met properly, yet the connection between them went beyond words. If this was someone else in Luke’s place, Liriya wasn’t sure what she would felt at such a confession; she would either have gotten uncomfortable or amused.

However, with Luke, feeling as though she had known him for a long time, calling him naïve or lovesick was the last thing on her mind.

The selfish part of her that succumbed to the magnetic pull long before she had decided to let down her defenses, cried out to her that he was genuine.

And she believed that part of her. He was for real.

A moment of silence passed between them as they continued to stay there and watch the world around them wake up. Liriya tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear that had slipped out of her braid and decided to break the silence, when a certain thought popped into her mind.

She turned to look at him.

His eyes were on the horizon, so she let her eyes drink in his disheveled appearance before her question would avert his attention to her.

She liked the messy version of his brown hair much rather than the neat and tamed one; the way the front locks fell over his forehead, almost touching his eyes, was adorable. She wondered how it would feel to touch and run her fingers through them. Her fingers burned with the urge and she clenched it into a fist at her side, digging nails into her palm to keep herself under control.

“So, who is the elite of the day?”

Luke glanced back at her and smiled almost ruefully. “Princess Aeira.”

“Oh.” Liriya frowned. Somehow, she thought it would be her, given the sunrise moment was past and they were still here.

“You two don’t seem to get along, I suppose?” Luke’s lips twitched a little.

“No, she is alright, really,” Liriya said with a shake of her head. “She is the only one who has talked with me so far, directly. It feels ironic to say that because she called me competition at the ball, but I feel like she is nice to me.”

“She called you competition?” Luke chuckled in disbelief. “That is not so like Aeira.”

A pang of envy towards the Garbian princess hit Liriya hearing Luke say those words. He knew her well, undoubtedly. “She told me you two are friends from a young age.”

“Yes, our fathers were friends. Therefore, we knew each other from a young age. While we’re not close, yes, wearefriends,” Luke said with a nod, before tilting his head at Liriya. “What’s going on in your pretty little head?”

“Do you really have to call myheadlittle, too?” Liriya groaned, fighting a smile.

“Don’t answer a question with another question, little mermaid,” he teased. “But, to answer your question, yes Ihadto call your head little too.”

Liriya rolled her eyes. “And to answer yours, my pretty little head is a mess. So, most times it is hard to say what is going on in there.”

“Why?”