Welcome to the first flash fiction based on a song for 2019! Our song this months is called God of Ocean Tides by Counting Crows. If you don’t know it, which I didn’t, here a video for you to check out.

Also, I’m not a fan of the Counting Crows, especially when that horrible song Mr. Jones was played over and over on the radio. BUT, I like the title of this song and the imagery from the video. So, here’s my flash:

Blaire raised her face to the salty ocean breeze and breathed deep. The rhythmic roar of the waves combined with the starry night sky made the evening perfect. Okay, the man walking at her side holding her hand didn’t hurt either. She and Ryujin had met at a party on New Year’s Eve, a party she hadn’t wanted to attend, a party her friend Stacy had practically had to force her to go to. Stacy had told her all about the consultant who had come from Japan to work with Stacy’s husband’s company on their idea on how to get the plastic out of the oceans.

Blaire had reluctantly agreed, wanting to meet the man that even Tom, Stacy’s husband, gushed over. Ryujin Nakashi truly was gush worthy, from his shoulder length ink black hair to his sharp cheekbones to his startling ocean green eyes, the man was all that and a bag of chips. Yes, he was good-looking, but that hadn’t held Blaire’s attention. What did was the man’s brain. He was smart and funny and the two of them could sit for hours and just talk. Politics, religion, the newest science fiction movie, there wasn’t a subject they hadn’t covered.

Now, nearly eight months later Ryujin’s job was taking him back to Japan. She knew their time was limited, but eight months had seemed like such a long time. Not anymore. Not when eight months was now down to hours. Hours until he left. Hours until she wouldn’t see him anymore.

When they’d started, they said they would keep things light, knowing it had an end date. Blaire had been totally good with that. She hadn’t been in the market for a long-term relationship. Her career as a lawyer was the most important thing in her life. She planned on making partner by the time she was thirty-five so she couldn’t afford distractions. Now, after eight months, she was in love for the first time ever and she would give up the idea of becoming a partner just to be with the man who walked beside her.

Not that she would ever tell him that. They’d said casual with an end date and she had no right to ask for more. To expect more.

“I love the ocean,” he said, his deep accented voice easing over her.

“I do too. I could live on the beach and be quite happy.”

“Really?” He stopped and turned to face her. “Would you really be happy living on a beach?”

Blaire looked out at the moon casting its silvery light over the waves and nodded. “Oh yes. When I first came to California. The very first day I was here. The first thing I did once I collected my luggage at the airport was come to the beach. I remember having beach posters hanging up in my room when I was a kid. I even asked my mom for a table top fountain for like my sixth birthday. I wanted the sound of water in my room.”

“Did you get it?”

“Oh no, water and electricity with a six-year-old. But mom did get me a sound machine that played ocean waves. I had it on all the time. I went to sleep with it and woke up with it.”

He smiled. “Now I understand all the fountains around your home and in your office.”

“I know it’s not the same, but it’s the closest I can come on a daily basis.”

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Damn, the man could kiss. She’d found that out on New Year’s Even too. Then she’d taken him home and found out what else he could do with sexy mouth.

He pulled back to cup her face in his hands and stare into her eyes. She mimicked him by cupping his face. They stood like this for long moments, just staring into each other’s eyes.

“I don’t want to leave you,” he whispered. “I know what we said—”

She interrupted him. “I feel the same way. I don’t want you to leave.” Then she took a chance and said the words she’d never said to a man before. “I love you.”

“I love you and I would stay with you here, but I have responsibilities at home.”

“I know,” she said.

“If I asked you to come with me. To my home. To leave your home. Your job. Everything.” He closed his eyes. “Too much to ask of you.”

Something in Blaire rose up. The something that she always listened to, no matter how crazy. It was the same knowing she had when she decided to move to California. Took a different train where she met her friend Stacy. The knowing that had guided her, her whole life.

“Ask me.”

“Will you come with me? Be mine? And I will be yours.”

“Yes, I will.”

He took her mouth in a kiss that was all teeth and tongues and passion. A kiss that always made her crazy for him. This man that she loved and was willing to give up everything for.

“In Japan,” he spoke against her lips, “there are stories about gods of the ocean. Dragon kings who live in cities deep, deep in the ocean. These dragons protect and guard their territories. One of these dragon kings is Ryujin, who rules a kingdom city in the North Pacific Ocean. He had many responsibilities, but no one to share them with. No one to call his own. Until now. Now Ryujin has Blaire who will live with him and love with him.”

She nodded slowly. “Yes, I will live with you and love with you. But I am very human.”

And why wasn’t she freaking out? Why wasn’t she calling him a liar and running away? Because she knew there was something different about him. She’s always known. Once again, her instincts had nudged her and so, she accepted.

“Not so much anymore.” He said and looked a bit embarrassed. “The last few months, when we had sex without a condom, my essence had begun to prepare you, especially since we…you…”

Blaire laughed. “When I went down on you.”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “Yes, that combined with the intercourse had begun to make changes to your body. And, before you ask, if I would have left in the morning these changes would have eventually gone away.”

“Would you have gone away?”

“No, I love you too much. Need you too much.”

“So, what do we do?”

“We leave, if you’re ready.”

“I am ready.”

He backed up from her and smiled then his figure blurred and changed. Blaire blinked her eyes to try to bring him back into focus, but where Ryujin had stood now stood a…dragon. A ginormous black dragon that slowly lowered his head until they could see eye to eye. His eyes were Ryujin’s eyes.

“Wow, you are utterly amazing.”

He nuzzled her gently with his snout and spoke. “Thank you.”

He turned his front paw over and in the midst of the talons was a pearlescent sphere.

“Step in and I will show you our home.”

Blaire stepped up and into the shape that reminded her of a soap bubble and, before she could blink, they were in the water. She knew, that no matter what life brought her, it would never be boring with her god of the ocean tides.

Now head on over and see what Jessica, Bronwyn, Kris, Siobhan and Kayleigh have written.