TAYLOR JONES SAYS: In Under the Pink Sky by Tara Eldana, Sara Watson is shocked and dismayed when the man she has been dreaming about for ages shows up at her work and asks her to come with him under the sea, especially since Sara is terrified of water. She reluctantly agrees but then her dream lover, Thane, is injured and loses his memory. Now Sara is all alone, still terrified, and unwelcome in Thane’s world. Should she go back home to her lonely, unhappy life, or hope that Thane will come to his senses before it’s too late?

Like the rest of her books in the Merepeople series, this one is fun, sexy, and a worthy addition to the series.

REGAN MURPHY SAYS: Under the Pink Sky by Tara Eldana is the fifth book in her mermaid series. In this story, Sara Watson is an HR manager for a large investment firm. For years she has been having very realistic dreams involving Thane, a man who lives under the sea. Sara is terrified of the water, but that doesn’t seem to matter in her dreams. Thane lives in a crystal city under the sea—where the sky is pink, not blue—and Sara visits him there every night in her dreams. By day, she is lonely and unhappy and worries that she may be going insane because her dreams are so real. Then one day, Thane shows up at her work. He convinces Sara to leave everything she knows and come with him under the sea. Thane’s mother hates her and wants Thane to mate with one of his own kind, not a human. But Thane is determined to have Sara…until he is injured and loses his memory. Now, Sara is alone and unwelcome in a world very different from her own.

Under the Pink Sky is charming, clever, and intriguing. The sex scenes are hot and spicy and the action fast paced. Another jewel in the crown of this talented author.

Chapter 1

Sara had well and truly lost it.

There was no other explanation.

Who else had a different life every time they went to sleep? In college, she had discussed it with a therapist who basically thought she was strung out on drugs.

But she never took anything, not even an aspirin. And she nursed one light beer or the same glass of wine all night long.

Each night, she was always bound to him in some way in a place very different from her waking life. By day, she worked in the HR department of a large investment firm, a job which she’d been lucky to land after she finished her degree.

In her dreams, the sky was pink, not blue, and she was naked or wearing a flowing white gown of gossamer fabric and walking barefoot. Water was everywhere—trickling along marble floors, reflecting rainbows rushing down jagged crystals, spraying mist scented with ambergris, and shimmering in deep pools for healing.

And the thing was—she hated the water.

She lived in Michigan, and she was surrounded by it. She had a water-skiing mishap as a kid and she was towed underwater for several feet, too terrified to let go of the tow. She nearly drowned.

He, the man in her dreams, had eyes the same shade of green as the healing pools in her nocturnal home. His sandy brown hair fell to his shoulders. He had a toned surfer’s body with golden skin and a hairless chest like the other males.

She’d never seen him in her waking life.

Until now.

Panic swamped her, and she had to force herself to breathe.

He stood with Doug, her creep of a boss, and a group of people she’d never seen in the office before. He stood taller than all of them, well over six feet. He stared at her and pulled absently on the collar of the white shirt he wore without a tie, business casual style. A faint smile played along his full, sensual lips.

My God, she thought, I know how he tastes.

She wrenched her eyes away from him and dropped her shaking hands to her lap. Cold sweat trickled down her back. He broke away from the group and strode up to her desk.

“Sara,” he said her name with the deep, melodic tone she knew so well from her dreams.

“How do you know my name?” The words flew out of Sara’s mouth before she could stop them. Doug looked pissed and pointedly stared at her name placard that hung on the wall behind her.

“Did you need something, Thane?” Doug asked.

“No, not from you,” Thane said, his eyes never leaving her face. He spoke with an accent different from the Midwestern tones she grew up with.

“You’re from New Zealand, right?” she blurted out.

Doug glared.

“There and other places,” Thane said.

“You all should see our IT division for our North American operations,” Doug said.

He made no move to leave her desk. “I’ll catch up,” he said.

Doug stalked off. She sighed. There would be hell to pay. He was pissed at her for speaking out of turn, or speaking at all, and would likely dump especially tedious, boring work on her. Doug held firm to the belief that new employees should be seen and not heard, especially by clients or company bigwigs.

She figured Thane had to be a client, rather than a company guy, with his longish hair and casual clothes.

He smiled. “Show me the break room,”

Her mouth went dry. He touched her arm briefly as she stepped past him. Electricity singed her nerve endings. She fought the crazy urge to turn into his arms and press her cheek against strong, corded neck.

She winced at her old skirt and blouse. Several eyes followed them as they made their way to the break room. They had to be wondering what a peon like her was doing with him. She knew she looked okay when she put some effort into bringing out her blue eyes and doing something with her auburn hair, which she’d scraped back into a ponytail today.

She worked out a few times a week and her figure wasn’t too bad when she didn’t wear shapeless, baggy clothes like she’d worn today.

“Here it is.” She turned to leave.

He touched her arm again.

“Stay,” he said.

He guided her to a chair and helped himself to two cups of coffee. He set a cup in front of her and she took a tentative sip with shaky hands. It was the way she liked it—two creams and no sugar.

“How did you?” She stared at him and then clamped her lips shut. She had to stop talking or she would tell him she dreamed of him every night and he and everyone she worked with would know she was a nut case.

She decided to change the subject. “How long are you here for?”

Her hand rested on her coffee cup. He reached over and brushed his thumb against her wrist where her pulse raced.

“As long as we want,” he said.

He smelled like the ambergris in her dreams.

She shook her head to clear it. She had to stay in reality. “You must have plans with your colleagues,” she said.

She gulped the hot coffee, burning her throat.

He took firm hold of her wrist. “With you, Sara.”

“Ahem.” Doug stood in the doorway to the break room. He frowned. “Sara,”

“Right,” she said.

She stood up, knocking her coffee over, soaking her skirt. Thane was beside her instantly.

“Are you hurt? Did this burn your skin?” he said.

“N—no.” She held the soiled material away from her thigh, glad the skirt was so baggy.

“Clean up then, come on,” Doug said. “I need to line you up.”

Thane bristled.

She smiled at him at him and shrugged. Real life sucked. When she made to move past him, he stood and put his hand on her shoulder. Her eyes flew to his, the most vivid green she’d ever seen, like emeralds—her mother’s birthstone. Her father had given her all her mother’s jewelry when she died two years before of pancreatic cancer.

“No,” Thane said. “I want her with me.”

Her shoulders tingled at his gentle touch.

Thane smiled at her. “I have staff issues I want her take on.”

Doug looked aghast. “There are more experienced people,” he said. His smirk was cruel. “I would be happy to advise you.”

Thane squeezed her shoulder and waved his other hand dismissively at Doug. “I want a fresh take on this. She stays with me,” he said.

Doug stomped off.

“Get your things,” Thane said.

She felt waves of panic surge through her chest and gasped for breath. “I can’t,” she said.

He stepped closer to her. “Can’t what, Sara?”

She shivered at the way he said her name, musically almost. “Doug’s my boss. I need this job. I just signed a lease on my place. I can’t piss him off.” Her words came out in a rush.

“He’s a jerk,” Thane said. “He doesn’t deserve you.”

She looked down at her shapeless skirt and baggy blouse, which she’d picked up at a thrift store. “You’re sweet, but I’m lowest grade staff member here, nobody really.”

He said something in a language she didn’t understand then took hold of her waist.

She gasped at the relief she felt and embarrassed by the wetness that flooded her core. She had done things with guys, but she was still technically a virgin, mostly because what she felt with the few guys she’d tried to be with didn’t compare with her dreams. And the man of her dreams had his hands on her waist.

He stared at her with those amazing green eyes. “Don’t ever say that again, Sara.”

She went boneless at the sound of her name on his lips. “S—say what?” she said.

He pulled her against his muscled chest. “That you’re nobody,” he whispered before he set her away from him. “Get your stuff.”

People gawked at them as they walked back to HR. Becky, her friend in IT, mouthed “WTF?” when she caught her eye.

Sara picked up her battered purse and the shopping bag with her peanut butter sandwich and grapes. “Where are we going?” She forced her voice to stay steady. “Did you reserve a conference room? They’re strict about that.”

“No, we’re leaving,” he said.

Holy hell. His New Zealand accent was doing things to her. He put his hand on the small of her back and walked her toward the elevator.

“Are you sure this is okay?” she said as she stepped into the elevator and he pushed the down button. “Where are we going?”

“The water,” he said.

She jerked away from him, panic swelling her throat. “I can’t. I don’t swim. I don’t do water or boats.”

He pushed a button and stopped the elevator between floors. He lifted her chin and she swallowed hard. “Breathe, Sara.” He pressed her hand against his hard, muscled chest. “Breathe, with me, now,” he commanded, lifting her chin with his other hand.

She had been staring at the floor. Now she stared at his face and felt his heart thunder. She did as he commanded until her panic dissolved. He kept hold of her hand and chin.

“I will keep you safe, always, Sara.”

Her toes curled at the way he almost sang her name.

“Do you trust me?” he said.

Did she? Did she trust her own crazy brain or her equally crazy dreams?

“Your choice,” he murmured a word he’d whispered to her in her dreams.

Her eyes went wide.

“You can choose to stay here and work for that jerk or you are free to leave.” His hands moved to her waist. “With me, Sara.”

Was she free? Her father had remarried barely a year after her mother died. Irene, his new wife, was kind to her, but she had three daughters of her own. Sara’s college friends, Greta and Livvy, had found jobs on the west coast, and Sara had been her parents’ only child. Irene’s daughters were pleasant but Sara felt like an outsider. She shut her eyes.

He deserved to know what a hot mess she was before this went any further.

“I dreamed you,” she said.

“Open your eyes.”

She shook her head. “I can’t. I dream of you in a place with a pink sky and water everywhere and we—”

“Sara.”

His voice held a bite of command and she opened her eyes, afraid of how he would look at her, but he looked at her so tenderly she went weak in her knees and would have sunk to the ground if he hadn’t been holding her.

“We are together in our dreams,” he said.

Our? He said our.

She nodded. He murmured a strange word and touched his lips to hers. He teased her lips open with his tongue, and she caught his tongue between her teeth. He moaned. She could feel his erection.

He stepped back, breathing hard. “You must choose, Sara.”

She wasn’t right in her head. She couldn’t be. But she wanted him, big time. “All right,” she said.

He shut his eyes and expelled a breath. “Say my name,” he said He laced his fingers through hers then lifted her chin. “Say I choose you, Thane.”

“I choose you, Thane.”

He pulled her into his arms and claimed her mouth again. She raked her fingers through his hair. He pushed her skirt up and backed her against the wall. She was lost to everything except him. He tweaked her nipples into aching points. His tongue plunged into her mouth. Her panties were soaked with her arousal. He slipped his hand over her smooth mound she’d inexplicably shaved that morning then pressed down on her throbbing clit. She came apart, saw stars, and screamed his name.

Then everything went black.

© 2019 by Tara Eldana