She laughed as she looked back over her shoulder at him. Then she looked a little shocked but seemed to shake it off. It was something he had noticed about her. It was like she didn’t laugh often. He planned on rectifying that as a matter of extreme urgency.

She dipped her toes in the incoming surf. “Cold.”

Torrent jogged towards her. “That’s perfect and exactly what we both need.” She squealed when he caught her around the waist and pulled her into the surf with him.

She sucked in a breath as he pulled her into the water and then screamed and kicked. “You asshole.” He could hear that she was smiling. “It’s freezing.” She laughed. It was a deep sound that resonated from her belly. He loved hearing it.

Torrent laughed as well. “It’s not so bad.” He tugged her in a little deeper. They bobbed up over the incoming waves.

“No, it’s worse.” She laughed some more, her lips were turning blue and her teeth chattered.

“One day...” He pulled her into his arms and she snuggled into him, looking for warmth. She felt so damned good against him. He kept his hips back so as not to scare her. His erection hadn’t diminished in the least. “In the not too distant future, you’re going to be mated to me. Your core temperature will go up and you’ll love swimming in our ocean. I want to show you something.” He moved her closer to the shore and dove into the water.

He stayed under for a good five or six minutes before breaking the surface in the vicinity of where he had gone under.

Candy was closer to the beach, about knee deep. She had both her hands cupped over her mouth and her eyes were wide. What the fuck! She was crying. Then she screamed his name, her whole body sagged in what looked like relief.

Shit!

He swam to the shore using hard strokes and ran from the water.

“Oh my god.” She was still crying even though she still looked relieved. Candy smacked his arm as soon as she reached him. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.” She hiccupped and tears continued to stream down her cheeks. “I thought you had drowned or something. Oh my god!”

Torrent felt something clench inside of him. “You were worried.” He put his arms around her and she tried to push him away.

“Of course I was worried.” She sniffed. “You disappeared beneath the waves. After a minute or two I started to panic. What the hell, Torrent? Don’t you ever do that to me again…” She pushed at his chest and grit her teeth.

“Oh, sweetheart.” He cupped her cheeks. “I’m a water dragon. We can’t drown.”