Page 10

CHAPTER TEN

BLAIR OPENED his eyes and frowned at the unfamiliar ceiling. What the hell? That doesn’t look like— he groaned as the events of yesterday tackled him. Eyes squeezed shut, he scrubbed his hands over his face.

Exhaustion rolled over him, but that wasn’t surprising considering the hours spent on the plane trying to get back to the continental US. Sleep called to him, but nature was demanding his attention, too.

Opening his eyes, he kicked the sheet off and rolled out of bed. After he used the restroom, he washed his hands. As tempting as returning to bed was, he resisted. He grabbed a pair of shorts and slipped them on.

A quick check of the alarm clock on the side of the bed told him it was late afternoon. He wandered into the kitchen absently scratching his belly. There wasn’t much food in the apartment since he hadn’t been able to give his landlady much of a warning he was coming, but there was coffee.

He fixed himself a cup and wandered into the living area. Curling up on the couch, he stared out of the window that looked over the city without really seeing it. He thought of Marcus and guilt slapped him hard. He just… He wasn’t ready to think about the situation. Carefully he blanked his mind and finished his coffee.

There were things to do, but nothing was going to get accomplished with him sitting around on his ass. But still he sat. He lacked the energy to do much of anything. He picked up the remote and turned on the TV. Was it him, or did there seem to be an abnormal amount of commercials featuring sand, sun, and beaches?

Restlessness set in, finally driving him off the couch. He wandered back into the kitchen, set the coffee cup in the sink, and opened the pantry. He wasn’t hungry, but eventually he would be. Looked like a quick trip out was called for.

After a shower, he dressed then spoke with the landlady, letting her know he was there and he planned to stay for a little while. He had an agreement with her—along with the rent, he also paid her a bonus for keeping an eye on his apartment since he wasn’t there all the time.

Once he’d checked in with her, he picked up a few things to tide him over for the next couple of days and returned to his apartment. He put everything up, and yawning every other breath, finally relented and returned to bed.

THE NEXT few days passed in an endless cycle of erotic dreams and binging on Netflix. Tossing his bedsheets into the washing machine again —courtesy of yet another wet dream—he prowled around his small kitchen.

He glared at the coffeemaker silently demanding it to hurry up. Damn thing with useless. He’d dropped a pretty penny on the stupid thing and it ran slower than Christmas. He gritted his teeth. Come on, come on, come on.

He needed caffeine, and he needed it yesterday, because by God, he was tired. He slept like shit, and the stupid dreams were driving him crazy, not to mention his cock might fall off from overuse.

“Come on already!” Blair yelled at the coffeemaker, fist clenched.

The urge to toss it across the room was overpowering and… whoa. Was he seriously getting ready to beat the crap out of an inanimate object? Flabbergasted, he stared at the poor, defenseless coffeemaker. That wasn’t who he was. He wasn’t prone to such violent outbursts.

Then he cringed. Lately he’d done a lot of things that were out of the norm for him… like being such a colossal ass. He dropped onto the kitchen chair and buried his head in his hands. His temper was frayed, and he was unraveling faster than a ball of yarn.

For the past several nights his dreams consisted of him and Marcus together, making love. Sometimes Marcus had legs, sometimes he had a tail. The thought of Marcus making love to him in his merman form inflamed Blair. Or maybe it was simply the thought of Marcus. Either way he couldn’t get the merman out of his head.

“What have I done?” Blair groaned.

He panicked, pure and simple, and he couldn’t believe he did that. Looking back on it, he saw clearly what he did. Of course, he was also sitting in his apartment in New York City and not in a resort run by one of Marcus’ friends.

Why had he got it in his head Marcus was going to do something shifty? Neither he nor Brett remotely did anything to make Blair feel that way. No, he just took a thought and ran with it… and ran in the stupid direction.

He panicked, and how mortifying was that? He lived for danger, but this time he completely lost his shit. He never panicked. But there was no getting around the fact he most certainly did this go around. But that wasn’t the worst of it.

He stood Marcus up.

“He’s never going to forgive me. And why should he?” Blair lifted his head and ran his hand through his hair. How could he have done that? He knew what it felt like—how mortifying it was. “And I did that to him.”

And as bad as that was? There was the issue of him being Marcus’ mate. He didn’t understand the pull Brett tried to explain to him, but he knew what it and get hurt. Times that by hundred and he still probably wouldn’t come close to what he did to Marcus.

“Shit.”

The coffeemaker beeped, and he fixed a cup. He sipped the lifesaving brew as his thoughts circled in his head. He screwed up. There was no getting around that fact. He let his fear decide his course of action… which was running—after claiming he wouldn’t run around screaming. He was an idiot.

While there were no doubt valid concerns, he let everything get blown out of proportion. He sighed. Panic wanted to sink its icy cold grip in him again, but this time for a different reason. He refused to let that happen, so what exactly did he do now?

Marcus apparently considered Blair his mate, but hadn’t told him. So why hadn’t he? Now that Blair’s thoughts were calm, the reason was obvious. He didn’t tell him because he didn’t want Blair to panic. Which he did anyway.

He also knew Marcus must have told Brett, and Brett hadn’t realized what he let slip when he told Blair. The man ran a multimillion-dollar resort so stupid he was not. Brett probably wouldn’t have told him if he realized Blair didn’t know. It was a good guess Brett wasn’t trying to run Blair off.

And finally, would Marcus forgive him? Or had he screwed up any chance with Marcus? He set his coffee cup down. Now wasn’t that an interesting thought? He hadn’t decided what he wanted to do and here he was worrying about future chances.

“Well, obviously I want one, or I wouldn’t have thought that.”

How did one go about wooing a merman who was probably not only hurt by Blair’s actions, but also pissed off? And how pissed off was pissed off?

“Lord, what a mess.” It wasn’t as if he could Google “satisfying your merman” or look up in a magazine article about “making amends to the merman you pissed off by standing him up.” “What do what I do?”

There were no books or lectures to help him out. There was nothing. Merman didn’t exist. So…? Brooding, he stared into his coffee, the dark liquid surface… dark. His coffee was black since he didn’t normally doctor it like some people, and that darkness reminded him of a certain someone’s black hair and dark skin.

“Hell yeah!” He jumped up, hurried to his bedroom, and grabbed his laptop. “Come on, come on.” He navigated to the site he wanted and clicked through several tabs until he found what he wanted. “Yes!”

He grabbed his cell, and with fingers crossed, made the call.

YEP, THE conversation turned out to be as unpleasant as he thought it’d be. He found the number for Brett’s resort and called it directly. He tried sweet-talking whoever was on the phone, and when that didn’t work, flat out begged to talk to Brett. He finally gave the person his name and promised them Brett would be very interested in speaking with him.

While he was on hold, he mused Brett probably would indeed like to speak to him… to rip him a new one for what he did. Desperation set in when Brett finally picked up the phone… and yes, the coldness in Brett’s voice left Blair shivering. He honestly didn’t think Brett was going to help him, and he finally broke.

A grown man sobbing over a cell phone was never a pretty thing, but apparently that’s what Brett needed to hear. So what if his pride was left in tatters? After what he did to Marcus, he was sure he deserved worse. Brett certainly thought so.

He told Brett he planned to return to the island, and he wanted Brett to help set up a meeting between him and Marcus. His plan was simple. He needed to apologize and beg for forgiveness, which he was willing to do, he just needed Marcus to agree to meet with him.

After some heavy duty begging on Blair’s part, Brett finally relented and said he’d do what he could. Then Brett dropped the bomb that nobody had seen Marcus since Blair left the islands. Apparently, he’d disappeared.

It looked like Blair might have a very long wait.

FORTY-EIGHT HOURS later, he was standing in another suite in Brett’s resort. Fortunately, the clothes he left behind were delivered soon after he arrived. He was lucky Brett didn’t toss them. A knock at his door dragged his gaze away from the ocean that was right outside his window. He crossed the lush carpet and opened the door, unsurprised to see Brett standing there.

“Come in.” Blair stood out of the way so Brett could enter, then closed the door. “I was hoping I would get a chance to see you. I’d like to thank you—”

“Save it.”

Blair gritted his teeth. He knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but rudeness was hard to tolerate, even if he deserved it. “Sure thing.”

Brett strolled over to the window overlooking the ocean view. “This isn’t a friendly visit.”

“Believe it or not, I’m picking that up.”

Brett turned from the window and glared at Blair. “You don’t get to be a smartass. Understand? Nor do you get to act like you were the offended party in this situation.”

Blair sighed. “I know that. I screwed up, and I freely admit it. But what do you want from me? Would you like for me to open a vein? Would that make you feel better? I am sorry , and yes, I know that isn’t enough, but that’s why I’m here. I want to try to make it better.”

“Well, if you can find him you might be able to. But as I said, no one has seen him since you stood him up at the restaurant. And you should know, that date meant a lot to him.”

Blair closed his eyes as shame washed over him. Brett certainly wasn’t pulling his punches. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I am so, so sorry.”

“Marcus doesn’t have an aboveground dwelling like the majority of us since he spends most of his time in the ocean. But for you, he put his pride on the back burner and went to Nisha and Kannon. You see, he wanted to look nice but didn’t have the appropriate clothing.”

Yep, Brett planned to make this as slow and painful as possible. “I don’t care what he wears.”

“I don’t think you’re getting it. He wanted to make a good impression on you, and he didn’t have the necessary clothes, so he borrowed some from Nisha. He needed everything, right down to the socks, and if that wasn’t humiliating enough, he even had to use their bathroom to get ready.”

“God. I had no idea. I didn’t know any of this.” Agonized, Blair searched Brett’s face. “How could I? I just met him, but I didn’t want to… I never meant to hurt him.”

“Really? Because from where I’m standing, I don’t see it that way.” A chilly expression crossed Brett’s face. “What did you think was going to happen when you didn’t show up that night?”

Blair wanted to scream. “I didn’t think. I panicked and ran.”

“Panic? What the hell could he have possibly done to make you panic? Or, for that matter, me?”

“I started getting all these crazy thoughts.” Blair threw his hands in the air. “Come on, man. Do you mean to tell me you can’t see my point at all? You were human at one time! And weren’t you the one who told me you also freaked out when you found out your wife was a mermaid?”

The icy look slipped from Brett’s face. “Yes, I did say that.” He sighed, and his shoulders relaxed. “Look, I apologize for being so abrupt with you, but Marcus is a friend of mine. You hurt him. I honestly don’t think you understand how much that hurt him. You basically rejected him. Having a mate reject you is… I don’t know if I can find the adequate words to explain this to you.”

“Yes well, about that. Marcus never told me he was my mate. I actually found that out from you. And yes, after listening to the description of what a mate was and what it entailed, I was overwhelmed.”

“Wait. Are you telling me…?” Brett gulped. “Oh Jesus, please tell me I’m not the one who… Marcus never told you?”

“No. He never said a word to me about it.”

Brett staggered over to the couch and dropped down on it. “Fuck. Oh dear God, this is all my fault. We couldn’t figure out why you would react in such a way. It never crossed any of our minds… Marcus is going to kill me.”

Blair sat on the couch next to Brett. “If we’re going to take bets on who’s going to be on the receiving end of his temper, I’m sure it would be me.”

“No.” Brett shook his head. “That’s just it. Mates are… He would never do anything to hurt you.”

“Yes, well, as we know there are all different types of hurts. I didn’t stop to think about my actions, and I hurt him—apparently bad enough he disappeared.”

“We’ll fix this. At least I now know you’re not the asshole I thought you were.”

Blair raised an eyebrow. “I’m glad to hear that. Now quit treating me like one.”

Brett suddenly laughed. He held his hand out to Blair. “Deal.”

Blair shook Brett’s hand. “Deal. Tell me, what the hell am I going to do?”

“About that, I have no idea. Nisha checked Marcus’ cave, and there’s been no sign of him. He’s also thoroughly searched his territory too. Marcus hasn’t been here at the resort either, but that’s no surprise. He’s not overly fond of land.”

Blair’s stomach dropped. “How can I apologize if no one knows where he is? It’s not as if I can go look for him. I’m not like the rest of you. I can’t breathe underwater.”

“Well, I have an idea, but it’s not something I can do.” Brett wandered over to the window. He stood staring out at the ocean. “We’ll need Brooke and Nisha.”

“I’m all for it, but just out of curiosity, why do we need them?”

“Because when they’re in their mer form, they have the ability to… sing. I guess that would be the best description. They can talk to other animals like whales and dolphins. The sounds that Nisha and Brooke make are nearly identical. They can sing to Marcus and let him know you’re here and want to speak to him.”

“Oh.” Blair joined Brett at the window. He had a couple of CDs with whale songs on them. The sounds were beautiful. “That’s a… wow. Do you think they’ll help me?”

“You’re going to have to talk to Nisha. There is no getting around that. Marcus is his warrior, and this is his territory. I’ll be honest with you. Nisha’s unhappy with you, and that’s putting it nicely. But…” Brett turned away from the window. “But I’ll talk to him first and explain.”

“Thank you. I’m going to need all the help I can get.”

“At least we understand what drove you away. Hopefully that’ll make a difference to Nisha. There’s only one problem with that.”

“Of course there is.” Why should he be surprised? Nothing else had gone right. “What’s the problem?”

“Kannon and Nisha are not on land right now. Kannon promised Nisha they’d spend the next two weeks in the ocean. They plan to go farther out into the Indian Ocean and do some exploring.”

“Two weeks?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Okay. Two weeks. I can handle that. It’s not as if I didn’t bring all of this on myself, after all. I certainly don’t expect them to upend their plans just for me.” Blair met Brett’s concerned gaze. “But tell me honestly. Do you think Kannon will have a hard time understanding why I reacted the way I did?”

“Kannon was human, and their mating got off to a rocky start—which was due to Nisha’s actions. If anybody can understand why you acted the way you did, it’s going to be Kannon. And trust me when I tell you, Nisha wants his mate happy. You get Kannon on your side and you’re halfway there because he’ll be able to talk Nisha around. And ultimately, Nisha is the one you need to be concerned with.”

There were a lot of “what if’s” in that scenario. “And if I can’t get Nisha on my side?”

“Then you have a problem.”

THE TRIP from New York to the Seychelle Islands was over seventeen hours long. By the time Brett left, Blair was exhausted. Even though he knew he’d regret it, he napped. Two seventeen-hour-plus trips practically back-to-back was more than any one person should have to do. He woke several hours later still fuzzyheaded and tired.

A quick glance out of the window told him he’d slept most of the day away. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat there, elbows on his knees and head resting in his hands, as he replayed the conversation with Brett.

From the sounds of it, he was going to be apologizing from now until the end of time. Kannon didn’t worry him so much as the one called Nisha did. He was the one with the power, and the one he was going to have to win over. Which might be a problem since he wasn’t good at sucking up.

Disheartened, and not particularly hungry, he dressed and headed down to the beach. If this was the only way to be close to his merman, then so be it. Holding his sandals, he walked in the shallows as the sun set.

Shading his eyes, he glanced out across the ocean. Something on the horizon jumped and splashed. A pod of dolphins frolicked in the water. He was tempted to throw his shoes onto the beach and swim out toward them. Then he remembered the last time he saw the dolphins, and his shoulders slumped.

Turning away, he ignored their playful calls and continued his walk down the beach, torches from various beach parties and lights from the resorts lighting his way. Hours passed as he aimlessly wandered up and down the beach, laughter drifting across the sands. Finally, his stomach growled. Taking one last look across the water, he turned from the ocean and walked back up the beach.

For the next several days he woke up, ate, and then spent the rest of the day messing around the beach. As more time passed, he wandered father and father away from the resort. Eventually he rented a car and started going to the other side of the island where he also wandered aimlessly.

Eventually the wandering became too much, and he talked to Brett about renting a very small, privately owned yacht for a week or so. While it wasn’t top-of-the-line, it was more than sufficient for him.

After reassuring Brett that yes, he could indeed handle one of those, he signed a short-term lease, stocked the ship, and made his way out to the ocean. He had the boat for two weeks.

THE SUN beat down as he glared out across the water. “I’m an idiot.”

It finally hit him this morning the only reason he rented the boat was the hunt for Marcus. He’d lost his mind; there was no other rational explanation. But that was the problem. He wasn’t being rational. Somewhere along the way he decided to spend the two weeks Nisha and Kannon were going to be gone hunting for Marcus.

How he thought he’d accomplish that he had no idea, though. It was like hunting for a needle in a haystack… or in this case a merman in the deep blue sea. But doing nothing wasn’t an option he could handle, which was why he was on a rented boat not far from the Seychelle Islands aimlessly floating around.

“Seriously, biggest idiot ever.”

Heartsick and more than a little disgusted with himself, he grabbed his fins and his snorkeling mask. Okay, so he was an idiot, but he certainly was not a quitter. He didn’t know where Marcus was, so labeling his adventure as futile was an apt description, but spending time in the water did relax him. As much as he could relax in such a situation.

So back into the water he would go in the vain hope that somehow, someway, Marcus would know he was looking for him. Yep. An idiot. He strapped the dive knife to his thigh, put on his mask, and slipped on his fins. He slipped into the water enjoying the weightlessness. The feeling of helpless excitement as he floated got his heart to thumping.

Sunlight filtered through the water, and fish swam around him. He loved this, loved the world underneath the waves, but could he live here? Considering Marcus was the creature of the water, it stood to reason their majority of the time would be spent there. Could he do that? Give up the land?

Maybe.

Trying to live without Marcus left him unhappy. So much so that he not only returned to the islands, but he rented a damn boat and took to the waves in a futile search for his merman. The fish darted playfully around him, then fled.

Their retreat was sharp and abrupt and left him wondering what exactly he did to scare them. From the murky depths something swam toward him, coming fast. Blair’s blood ran cold when he saw what it was. Oh shit! Shit! Tiger shark. He tried not to flail around in the water.

Movement caught their attention, he knew that. As calmly as he could, he tried to surface, even as he kept an eye on the fast-moving object heading his way. Had it seen him? Or had he just happened to be in the way it was swimming? He needed out of the damn water before the shark focused on him.

Just as he thought he had a chance, the shark suddenly jerked his head toward him. Oh, fuck me. It was big, very fucking big. Twelve feet maybe? Who gave a shit? It had teeth, and that’s all he was concerned with. It came straight at him, swimming fiercely.

Blair pulled a knife from his holder and prepared to fight the shark. Drown or be eaten alive? What a fucking choice. Okay, you bastard, I’m not going to go easily. A sharp trill blasted through the water, and the shark did the unbelievable—it passed him. It swam close enough Blair saw one eye looking at him.

With all his strength Blair swam toward the surface. Get to the yacht, get out of the fucking water… now! He didn’t know what distracted it, and frankly he didn’t care. A scream cut through the water, and Blair’s heart missed the next couple of beats.

That… that didn’t sound human. Suddenly getting to the surface wasn’t the most important thing. He stopped swimming and glanced back down through the depths. He blinked once, then twice, unable to believe what he was seeing. There, quite a distance below him, two figures fought.

Both had long tails and a fin, but only one had a human torso.