Page 38 of A Merman's Tail

Ethan

We ended in a small town south of Miami. The weather was slightly warmer than I was used to, but I liked it because no one knew who we were. Strangers, that’s what we were to everyone in this shitbucket we called our new home. We still had the boat sitting in a wharf that we took out for regular trips, and I still lived the nonworking life thanks to Dad’s inheritance, but now that I wasn’t on a mission to find and destroy merpeople, I’d thought I’d be restlessly bored. That wasn’t possible with Boy around, though. He made every day more exciting than the last.

Boy stretched out where he lay on the deck of the boat and grinned up at me when my shadow blocked his sunlight. He cocked his head and moaned.

“Hello, love of my life.”

I rolled my eyes. “Cheesy motherfucker.”

Boy—not Lyric, he was only Lyric on paper—cackled. He sat up and stared at the bag in my hand. “What have you got for me?”

I smirked and kneeled beside him, making sure to rest my knee on the towel he sat on. The sun was scorching today, and the deck would burn me. Opening the bag, I pulled out the prize I went searching for.

He frowned and reached for it, but I snatched it back so he couldn’t get it. “Is that—”

“Ididtell you I was going to teach you what a dildo is used for.”

“Oh really?” He bounced in excitement. “But that one is flesh colored?”

“Yep.” I winked. “Because if it’s going to be fake, it should at leastlooklike a real cock. Now….” I ran my palm up one of his long legs and stared at the small blue Speedos he wore. “How about you go downstairs and put on some heels and that red dress I love seeing on you, and we give the Fitzgeralds a show?”

Boy shook his head and glanced over his shoulder at the elderly couple in the boat next to ours. When he looked back to me, he waggled his eyebrows. “Your wish is my command. How about I put on those nice fishnets, too?”

“You read my mind.” I captured his mouth against mine and kissed him hard, reveling in the little moans he gave me.

When I broke the kiss, I winked at the Fitzgeralds, who’d stopped what they were doing on their own deck to sneer at us.

Boy laughed again, and I helped him stand, slapping his ass on his way past. He saluted me and almost danced down the stairs.

I shook my head and sighed. The last thing I’d expected was to bethishappy, but fuck, Boy knew how to turn me on in all the right ways. Leaving Loutu was the best thing we’d ever done. As much as I was tempted to find Atlantia again and destroy it, while also proving Dad was right, they really weren’t worth my time. I had what I wanted now.

Before we’d left, we did travel one more time out to the same long and lat where I thought Atlantia was. As though they knew we were coming, Wily and that sea witch met us out there.

“He’s dead,” Wily had said to Boy with a grim face. “And I’m king now.”

“Be better than Father was,” Boy told him.

Wily had nodded. “I promise.”

It didn’t matter what happened to Atlantia in the end. I had my boy and that’s the only thing I needed.

The sound of a throat clearing ripped me from my thoughts and I spun my gaze to the stairs, where Boy stood in a short pencil dress, heels, and the skanky fishnets I loved to see on him.

“Your little whore is ready to please,” Boy whispered.

“Fuck.” I nearly stumbled to my feet and grabbed the paper bag with the dildo. While I dragged him back down the stairs and toward the bedroom, Boy’s laughter made my heart skip a beat.

Yep, it would all be okay.