Mara's Men

By Faith Talbot

n Cancun, Mara met Chris and Aaron, two mysterious men who spend most of their time under the ocean. They showed her a world she never could have imagined -- and she chose to return to her normal life.

Now, months later, Mara returns to the Mexican beaches hoping to find what she left behind. But even if she does reunite with the two men who changed her world, how can she stay with them in their mysterious world under the sea?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Changeling Press
• Release date: Feb 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9780530501697

Book preview

Chapter One

The glare from the blue-blue water of the ocean nearly blinded Mara as she looked out the window of the airplane. She blinked, trying to let her eyes adjust. Spots rose in her vision, echoes of the brilliant shards of sunlight. She didn’t want to look away, but finally had to. It felt like a failure, or a betrayal.

She looked at her watch. The plane would land soon. Her stomach shook with the uncertainty of what would happen next.

Would they come to her?

* * *

Something happened to you, Cor had said to her two weeks before.

Mara jumped a little, startled. She was sitting in her favorite coffee shop with her best friend, and they had been enjoying a companionable silence for the last few minutes. The sudden sound of Cor’s voice had caught her off guard.

What? When? Nothing happened to me.

Cor gave her a knowing look. In Cancun. Something happened. You never really talked about it.

I told you about it.

Not in detail. At Mara’s exasperated look, Cor clarified.

"Not that kind of detail. I mean about them. Whether you really liked them or not."

I liked them.

How much?

Mara shrugged. She’d asked herself the same question several times since that vacation getaway to Cancun. I didn’t have much chance to get to know them. Only in the carnal sense.

You know -- Cor leaned forward and laid a hand on Mara’s -- sometimes it doesn’t matter.

Yeah. Mara said nothing else. There wasn’t anything else to say. Aaron and Chris had been the strangest, most wonderful men she’d ever met, and she’d let them go.

* * *

In the dark depths of the Caribbean, even in the tropical waters that surrounded Cancun, it was cold. The dark, chilled water pressed down on Chris and Aaron where they lay curled together in sand under a ledge that thrust out from the seawall, offering them some camouflage from sharks and other sea creatures. They were on good terms with most of the fish and ocean mammals that frequented this area, but occasionally someone got cranky.

Aaron shifted a bit, not quite waking from the sleep that held him. Chris lay with his face in the sand, the water fingering through his hair, making it wave and sway like seaweed.

Something changed.

Aaron opened his eyes, unsure what just happened, what had awakened him. All around him, the water was dark and quiet. Then Chris awakened, as well, and looked at him.

You felt it? Chris asked. The means of communication they used when they were under the water wasn’t really speech, but it wasn’t telepathy either. Neither of them could have explained it. It just was.

I did, Aaron answered.

Is it… Chris ventured.

It is, said Aaron, and then he smiled. She’s coming.

* * *

Mara checked into the hotel, tossed her suitcase on the bed, and dug out a swimsuit. She should settle in first, she thought, get something to eat, maybe take a nap. But she didn’t want to do any of those things. She wanted to run to the beach, put her feet in the ocean, and call out to the men who had, just a few months ago, changed her life.

Would they come? And if they came, what would she do?

* * *

The hotel was right on the beach, so it was a simple thing to walk down, in her swimsuit and a lightweight cover-up, and stand where the water rolled up onto her toes.

Come to me. They’d told her to look for them if she wanted them, but they hadn’t said exactly how to do that. It seemed like there should be a ritual, a ceremony, something more formal than just standing with her toes in the water, silently broadcasting her need out over the waves. But she didn’t know what else to do. She supposed she could call out loud, but that could end badly. She wanted to meet up with them again, find out if they could move forward together somehow, not end up in a local drunk tank for acting crazy.

She stood there for a time, until she began to feel like the other beachcombers were staring at her. Finally she went to the