Cruel Tides (Queen of Tridents #2)

21

Leander

“T he fuck is taking them so long?” I paced the length of the warehouse, fighting the urge to smash a fist into the metal building. I wasn’t actually angry, not really, but I could hardly hold back the raw fury that welled up as my anxiety built.

They’d closed the front of the building for the night at least two hours ago, and it had been about five minutes since the last time a captain came to me on my father’s behalf to ask if I had the trident situation under control.

Control? I had nothing under control. Not even my own fucking emotions. But my lies came as effortlessly as my urge to smash a hole into the side of this fucking building.

My father would have exploded hours ago, bashing metal and any miserable soul who happened to witness his unkingly outburst, but not me. Holding back my rage was probably one of the few useful things he’d inadvertently taught me. No matter what, I wouldn’t let my anger rule me. I wouldn’t end up like him.

I veered sharply to pace another line. What did normal merfolk do to keep from going insane when they were stressed as hell? And more importantly…

Would she actually come back?

Despite the chill in the air, sweat pooled at my lower back, nearly freezing my shirt to my skin. “Poseidon help the next captain he sends out here to check up on me,” I grumbled, rubbing a hand over my knuckles. I didn’t know what I’d do if that side door opened again. There’d been too much whaleshit to deal with today, and none of it fucking mattered one bit. The only thing that mattered, the one thought I couldn’t get out of my fucking head, was—

Twin lights flashed in the distance, and I froze mid-thought. “Claira.” Her name slipped out with my next icy breath.

Gravel crunched as the car pulled up to the warehouse. I dropped my fists and straightened my back, relaxing my shoulders to hide the fact I’d been out here stalking the front of the warehouse like a hungry wrasse for the last two hours, just waiting for them to return. By the time the car stalled, my anxiety prickled all the way up to my scalp, and I ran my fingers through my hair to suppress the odd sensation. She’d still be with them, right?

My fist closed hard around a handful of hair. She had to be with them. Or I—I’d…

A door swung open, and laughter exploded from the space inside. Her laughter.

What the fuck was making her laugh like that?

“No, no, I’ll give it back now. You still have to get back to your hotel,” Claira’s sweet voice spoke, sounding so lighthearted and relaxed it made my pulse skip. Relief surged through my body, but a new annoyance prickled at me.

Her head popped up over the car door, and a dark silhouette of hair swung out behind her.

“Yeah, and you’ve still got to get inside,” a voice answered from inside the car. Kai. Why the fuck did he sound so damn delighted?

“Oh, come on! It’s like five steps, look.”

My feet took me over to the car just as Claira leaned back on the door, her interest locked on to the spikey-haired idiot sitting in the car’s backseat.

Her fingers fumbled with the oversized fabric falling past her wrists. “I feel bad keeping it. It’s your overshirt, not mine, and it’s not really that cold out.” She must have heard me approaching because her gaze turned up to mine. “Oh. Hey, Lee.”

“Hey.” My eyes narrowed as I looked Claira over. His overshirt? With the light from inside the car, I could see now how her entire outfit had changed since the last time I’d seen her.

Was that a fucking shark stretched over her chest? It was small and childish, and I had no doubt it belonged to Kai as well. Fuck him. I forced back a growl as I ripped my own shirt straight off my back. “Thanks for bringing Claira back, but I’ve got it covered from here.”

I thrust my shirt out to her, but she folded her arms over her chest, her back going straight and stiff. “Put your clothes back on, Leander.”

I clenched my shirt with a crab claw grip, not bothering to stop my annoyed growl. She’d take his but not mine?

“Don’t you start looking at him, Laverne!” Kai screeched from inside the car. Something slapped the side of the window, and despite my preoccupation, I felt one of my brows lift. Was that a flipper?

“Thanks again, Kai, Barren, Laverne,” Claira said, leveling her head with the car. Silence stretched awkwardly until she cleared her throat. “The food you made really was delicious. I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow?”

“Yeah, we’ll bring something warm and fluffy for you!” Kai said brightly, shooting a thumbs-up out the door. “Sorry again for forgetting a jacket.”

Nervousness coated her laugh, raising her voice an octave. “It’s fine. Make it something simple if you can, okay? Maybe a solid color. No words, no cartoons, just uh, plain, you know? With long sleeves.”

“Simple, got it! I can still see you looking. Head forward, Laverne! Whiskers back. Well, sweet dreams, you two.” As soon as the door pulled shut, Kai looked me over, head shaking, his idiotic face clearly mouthing one word: “shameless.”

The fuck was his problem ?

Gravel grated as the car sped off, and Claira turned her focus on me with a slow, comfortable sigh. “Can you believe they’re letting them keep a sea lion in a hotel? They even got Laverne her own room.”

“Yeah? That’s crazy.” My brow rose again. “What’s a sea lion?”

Even in the darkness, I knew her lips had curved into a smile. The thought sent a thrill through me, knowing I’d caused it this time.

“Exactly! I can’t believe Kai brought her all the way to the Atlantic. Like, she just wants to find a new man, and I get that, but a sea lion… the Atlantic…” She shook her hands in the air like she just couldn’t comprehend the logic.

“A new man? Now you’ve really got me confused.” But the most confusing thing of all was Claira’s lighthearted mood. Did she really have such a good time with Barren and Kai? My jaw clenched, my heart refusing to let me ask it out loud.

“So,” she started, taking a small step toward me, “you gonna put your shirt back on, or are you afraid those jagged nipples of yours will slice right through it?”

“What?” I blurted, curious about how jagged my nipples could possibly be. I glanced down, only to be greeted by the cuts the glass shards had left behind. Fuck . Those, she’d already seen, but the angry bruise my father’s boot had left over my ribcage wasn’t something I wanted her to notice.

“Don’t like what you see?” I said coolly, angling my sore ribs out of her vision and sliding my shirt back on. “You didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get clothes back on me the last time I had my shirt off.”

Claira snorted, picking up some sort of sack with straps that was sitting at her feet. “Yeah, well, that hardly counts. You exploded that shirt all over me, and I sure wasn’t going to offer you mine.”

“In fact,” I continued, offering a hand to carry the sack for her, “your hands were all over these jagged nipples back on the boat.”

“Yeah, right,” she huffed, whipping her hair out of the way to pull the pack over one shoulder.

“You changed your hair, huh? Eeltail. Looks good on you.”

Her hand went up to her smooth line of hair, and my teeth grated when I noticed all over again whose clothes she was wearing. Fucking Kai.

“Come on,” I said, sweeping an arm around her hip. “Let’s get back to our bedchamber and get some sleep. It’s been a long day.”

“Oh, so it’s our bedchamber now?” Claira snorted, falling into step beside me. “I still don’t remember agreeing to that. There’s hardly even room for you in there. Two people? I seriously doubt it.”

She had a point, but I wasn’t worried. Excited and eager to try, maybe. But definitely not worried. “Guess we’ll have to stack,” I said, shrugging. “There’s plenty of room floor to ceiling.”

The shy little squeak that comment won me was worth the heat on my face from saying it out loud. Before opening the side door, I dipped down until my lips brushed against the back of her ear. “I’m glad you came back,” I confessed, then pressed a kiss against the part of her neck normally covered by thick waves of hair.

Her body shivered underneath my lips, and I couldn’t help but chuckle against her neck.

“Why… why wouldn’t I come back?” she asked, her voice sounding breathless.

Pulling back, I felt the heat from my breath blanket over all the exposed skin of her neck and swallowed hard. That eeltail might prove to be even more dangerous than the real thing . “It’s not a very mermaid-like thing to do, coming back. But I know, I know—you’re not a mermaid. Not anymore.”

“Damn right I’m not,” she mumbled, sliding through the warehouse door. Her hand locked on mine before she made it all the way through, pulling me in behind her.

Captain Maris was already making his way to us on the other side. Fuck. I raised my chin and pulled a dangerous glower I knew would send him reporting back to my father without bothering me for details.

We swerved right past him as he stopped, rubbing at the back of his neck with the long end of his floor brush like I was putting him in a hard situation. Well, too fucking bad. He had eyes and could see that the other kingdoms had been true to their word.

Other than Captain Maris, the rest of the kingdom seemed holed up in their quarters, their blankets and veils pulled tight. The question of why she came back so late shot to the tip of my tongue, but I shoved it back down. That didn’t matter. She was here with me now.

“You first,” she whispered, easing back my bedchamber curtain. Our bedchamber , I reminded myself. I cracked my knuckles as I passed through, my foot finding the edge of my bedroll with the very first step.

Even though I was a prince, I’d opted to stay with the rest of the kingdom rather than in a private room like my father had advised. Storeroom 2B flashed to mind, and my whole body throbbed. Although it was cramped, I never regretted my choice of laying my bedroll here instead.

Especially not tonight .

Claira’s back found mine as the curtain closed behind us, and she dropped her sack at our feet. “Cozy,” she mumbled, her tiny hands anchoring on my shoulder blades so she could twist back around.

“Mmh,” I breathed out, suddenly anxious. The last time I was in bed, I awoke to a blade at my throat. Not a terrible way to wake up—as long as Claira was the one holding the knife.

After her nap earlier, my bedroll was tidier than I ever kept it, so I kicked back a corner of the blankets and settled in. As I laid my legs out fully, she sank to her knees with a small huff I could feel all the way in my groin. Then the sound of laces rustling sent me into a string of silent curses, her fingers going to work on her boots. She pulled off one heavy boot and set it aside, then moved to the other.

I draped an arm back, propping my head up on my pillow and opening my chest up for her arrival. Desire burned hot in my throat, roughening my voice as I watched the second boot slide off. “Do you remember, back when we were merfry, the time we hid underneath my bed for an entire day?”

“ What? No.” Her whispered voice nearly cracked, and I fought back a chuckle at the care she took to settle down on the very edge of the bedroll. “You must be joking. I never even once went down the hall leading to the royal bedchambers, Lee. They have guards there for a reason, you know.”

“The first morning of the Haddock Days festival,” I mumbled, watching the shadows dance over the back of her neck as she smoothed her hair with her hands. “Remember? I’d just accidentally opened the female pen, and the males started lekking before I could get the gate back down.”

Her gasp of realization was sharp enough to ring through the entire warehouse, and I shot up with a silent laugh to press a finger to her lips. “ Shhh …”

When her lips clamped shut, I dropped my finger, letting my hand brush down her jaw, her neck, her shoulder. Ever so gently, I eased us both back, reclining her down with me until she landed snug against my chest. The bedchamber was dark, but I followed her lashes as they fluttered up to look at the ceiling.

“I—I think I remember now. We were both scared, right? You grabbed me, and we hid under your bed.” Her lips moved slowly, carefully, the hint of a smile playing at their corners.

I brushed a thumb against her cheek, then set my arm back behind my head to make more room for her on our pillow. “Something like that.”

It wasn’t quite the truth I was hoping she remembered, but I was still thankful she’d forgotten the part where she caught me swimming into the palace, shaking and dry heaving from the fear of what my father would say when he found out I’d ruined the opening of his favorite festival.

Weak and spineless as I was back then, I hadn’t protested when tiny Nera daringly told me to grab on to her back so she could claw the both of us back to my bedchamber, pulling us along using only the shells encrusted in the palace walls as I squeezed her neck and sobbed into her hair.

When my father finally found us, she was the first to pop out from under my bed, boldly informing him how scared she had been of all the visiting merfolk and how she’d forced me to take her somewhere to hide when all I really wanted to do was confess. “So if you’re here to punish Lee, you should punish me, too!”

Her insistence on helping the shark last night proved she was just as reckless now as she’d been back then. Claira was unfairly burdened and broken in some ways but absolutely fearless when it counted.

My father had taken a long look at her that night, a young merfry fighting for anything within her reach to make sure she always held herself up high, and then at his sniveling son cowering underneath a bed, and turned right back around, leaving without a single word.

I hadn’t realized it then, but my father had likely already had his fill of schrod and ingested enough stonefish venom he could barely swim upright, let alone notice the lekking had started half a day too early. Still, after that night, I’d found myself totally and hopelessly enamored.

“There are lots of things I forgot from back then. Had to forget most things, I guess, so I could adjust to life here on land.” Sighing softly, she closed her eyes.

“It’s fine. You don’t have to remember everything that happened.” Because I’ll never forget.

I rolled up on my side, tugging at the blankets until they covered us both. They were far from warm, but anything helped to cut the chill. With my back settled against the neighboring partition, as long as I tucked her next to me, it looked like we both would fit. Fuck . Some insistent—and uncomfortably swollen—part of me had been hoping we’d actually need to stack.

Hidden under the layers, curious hands wasted no time finding my chest, sliding and exploring until they settled at my waist. Oh, really?

She started fidgeting with the end of my shirt, and my throat went bone dry. Warm fingers barely skimmed over my bare skin—a quick touch, then retreat—like she was toying with the idea of venturing underneath.

“Careful,” I warned, my muscles tightening to give her fingers more to skim. “Don’t want you cutting a hand on one of these jagged nipples.”

She stretched up and caught my lips with a soft kiss. “Shush, you.”

My mouth sealed instantly, inviting another kiss. Fingers spread, then lifted, cautiously moving up the planes of my bare abdomen, bringing my shirt up with them. If this was what being under a mermaid’s spell was like, I never wanted the glamour to end. Her touch was electric, like she possessed some foreign magic my body craved to learn, and I needed more .

Suddenly emboldened, I took her lips for my own, nipping and teasing until a gasp opened her mouth up to me fully. Fuck yeah . She was perfect. More than perfect. Having her next to me was better than any fucking dream. Nails stung into my chest, raking and setting my chest on fire and—

I let out a hiss, breaking the seal of our lips in the most unmanly way possible. “ Fuuuuck,” I groaned out, a fire-hot pain sending me rolling flat on my back. I was barely aware of Claira hovering over me, throwing off blankets, lifting my shirt up to my chin.

Bright lights flashed in my vision. “What in Poseidon’s Deep happened to you?” she gasped, her fingers finding the bruise over my ribs again. Just a light touch was enough to start my eyes watering. “I think they might be broken.”

That would explain the excruciating fucking pain I had when she touched them.

“I’m fine, just… give me a second,” I groaned, pulling my shirt back down.

Full lips tightened up in defiance, and she yanked my shirt right back up to my neck. “You’re not fine. Look at you!” she whisper-screamed back at me. Her touch turned tender as she examined my ribs again. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you go alone. Next time, I’m going with you, ’cause if I had been there, I—”

I stopped her right there, grabbing the hand hovering just over my bruise. “I didn’t want you there.” The sharpness of my words made her flinch, but I held her hand firmly in mine. I would never regret keeping her away from him—I’d gladly die before I let him touch her. “If you had been there, he would have hurt you, too.”

“I’m not as weak as I used to be, you know.” Her free hand slid under the blankets and resurfaced with a knife in her fist. “I wouldn’t let him hurt you.”

Fuck , my dick was hard. I swallowed shallowly, watching the knife turn in her hand. “I know you’re not weak, Claira. You were never weak.”

Content with that response, she nodded firmly, and the hand wielding the knife dipped back under the blankets. “I think you should get some sleep, Lee. You need to heal.”

“Mmh,” I grumbled, carefully rolling back on my side. She lay back down beside me, but to my stupid human dick’s dismay, she was careful not to make any contact.

“You’ll heal up faster if you rest. Especially if we get you back in the water soon.”

Sleep felt like the last thing I wanted, but then Claira curled up beside me, her hands finding my chest and her head nestling underneath my chin, and going to sleep next to her suddenly felt like the only thing that mattered.