Page 4

CHAPTER FOUR

“I DON’T know why. You’re the merman.” Blair knew he was blushing. Hopefully Marcus couldn’t see it, but he had a feeling he could. He was sitting here talking to merman. A merman. He still couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Maybe he should’ve been terrified—okay, he was a little afraid—but not of Marcus. He hadn’t been anything but nice and quite helpful. There was something about him, something that spoke to him, reassured him.

Blair felt not only comfortable, but safe. Which was hysterical. But then again, maybe not. That jaguar shifter certainly never inspired such feelings. There was a sense of primitiveness about the man which had unsettled Blair and sent the hair on the back of his neck bristling.

He didn’t get that from Marcus. Oh, there was little doubt Marcus was a predator. There was a wildness to him, a sense of otherworldliness, but he didn’t feel threatened by Marcus, whereas he had by the jaguar shifter. No, what Marcus made him feel was something totally different. Stiff, hard, or aching would be good descriptions, but not afraid.

“And you’re the human. I still think you’re fascinating.”

Him—fascinating. Ha. That was hysterical, considering Marcus had a tail a few moments ago. That was fascinating. And oh dear God, was Marcus flirting with him? Blair thought he was, but did mermen flirt differently than humans? He couldn’t believe he thought that either.

Speaking of mermen, Marcus’ long hair was fabulous. It was azure blue with dark blue highlights. Apparently, no matter what form he was in, it stayed the same color. His eyes were a pale, pale blue, and he had a scar running through his right eyebrow, which was blue, too. Wonder where he got the scar?

Was all the hair on his body blue? A closer look revealed no hair on Marcus’ arms or legs. Interesting. Marcus had a swimmer’s build—not surprising, considering—and was ripped. Blair licked his lips. He could spend hours tracing Marcus’ abs with his tongue.

“Do you spend a lot of time around humans?” Blair asked, trying to get his mind off of the sexy, tight body next to him and the possibility of blue hair… everywhere.

“It depends on what you mean by that. There are a few I’m acquainted with who are mated to other mers. I spend time with them. They split their lives between the ocean and the land, but I tend to stay more in the water. It’s where I’m the most comfortable.”

“Oh wow, that’s…” Blair shook his head trying to imagine a life underwater. “You refer to yourself as mers?”

“Merfolk. Or mer for short.” Marcus shrugged. “As you can plainly see, I’m male. The females of our species are mermaids. More often than not, we mate each other, but sometimes we do mate with humans.”

“You guys can do that? You can be with humans?” Excitement shot through Blair. He wanted to know everything. He had so many questions, especially concerning humans.

“Yes, but I’m not going to go into exactly how. That’s not information you need.”

Blair sighed. Ah well, he should’ve seen that coming. Marcus didn’t know him, and he was human, to boot. Of course he’d be leery of giving away too much information on their species. He held onto the fact Marcus said they could be with humans.

Blair still had a hard time believing Marcus sat there so calmly talking to him. “I guess I can understand that.”

Now that he thought about it, he was surprised Marcus was willing to talk with him at all . He mentioned they weren’t supposed to tell humans about their existence. Which begged the question of why Marcus was talking to him.

“I will say we can mate humans. And by mating I mean something similar to a human marriage. Kind of.”

“But, how does that work? I mean, I’m assuming you guys can breathe underwater, right? And you can obviously breathe air.” Blair waved his hand at Nisha. “You said a minute ago that some of you split your time between the land and water, so…?”

“Yes. We can breathe underwater. As far as our human mates, I’m not really comfortable going into that.”

“Of course. Sorry. I’m not trying to meddle, seriously. Okay, I am, but I won’t push you on things you don’t want to talk about. Huh. You probably shouldn’t even be talking to me, right? Not really sure why you are.”

“Once I fished you out of the water it became a moot point.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Blair scratched his head. Ugh. He loved the ocean, but now it felt as if he was covered in a fine layer of salt. He really needed to shower. “Thanks for that, by the way. Fishing me out of water, I mean.” Good Lord, could he sound like more of an idiot?

Marcus patted Blair’s hand. “It was my pleasure.”

Tingles shot up his arm from their contact. “Sure was a pleasure. I mean it was my pleasure, too. No, I didn’t mean that, what I actually mean was I’m glad.” Obviously he could sound like more of an idiot.

Feeling a flush climb up his face, he focused on Marcus’ hand. Such lovely, slim long fingers that could probably reach interesting places… He shifted on the towel they sat on. That train of thought certainly wasn’t helping matters below the belt.

It looked like a normal hand but not that long ago there’d been a fin on Marcus’ wrist. Blair glanced up at Marcus. Those unique light blue eyes of Marcus’ intrigued him. He truly was a beautiful man with an androgynous, fey face even in this form.

His glimpse of Marcus in his merman form was brief, but he had noticed the long, pointed ears and the gills at his neck. He didn’t have a “type.” He liked all kinds of guys—short, tall, gym bunnies, not-so-athletic, leather daddies, bears, twinks, jocks, geeks. He didn’t care about race either.

What was important to him was the guy’s personality. If he was loyal. Honest. Trustworthy. If he wasn’t a gold digger. Now suddenly he was attracted to a long and lean man, who wasn’t even a man, with long blue hair and light blue eyes. And when the mood struck… he had a really awesome tail. Blair wanted more than a quick glimpse of it. He was dying to explore the thing.

In fact, he wanted to get to know Marcus— all of Marcus. He gulped. He wanted Marcus. Desire curled in his belly. Jesus, he had a bad case of lust… but even that didn’t feel right. Lust didn’t exactly describe what was coursing through him. He wasn’t sure what he felt, only that there was no way he was letting this fascinating man out of his life.

“So…?”

Marcus raised an eyebrow. “So…?”

Marcus was going to make him say it, was he? Oh, what the hell. No pain, no gain. Wasn’t that the saying?

“So what are we doing here?” Blair asked.

“What do you want to be doing here?”

Blair thought about smacking Marcus on the shoulder but decided not to. He wasn’t sure how Marcus would react to that. “Are you like some sort of merman lawyer? What’s up with answering a question with a question?”

“Merman lawyer?” Marcus snorted. “No, I’m not a lawyer. Don’t humans compare them to sharks? I’m no shark.”

Blair eyed Marcus’ form. “No, you most certainly are not a shark.”

“No, I’m not, but I am a warrior.”

Blair waited, but Marcus didn’t speak again. “Oh come on! You can’t throw something out there like that and then leave me hanging.” Blair huffed. “Don’t think I didn’t notice what you did there, too. You still haven’t answered my question.”

“I’ll make you a deal.” Marcus shoved his hair back over his shoulder. “I’ll answer your questions if…”

Blair waited and then groaned when it became obvious Marcus wasn’t going to continue. “You’re a tease, are you?”

“You have no idea.”

Oh yeah, he did, too. His cock twitched. Just how much of a tease was Marcus? Blair had a flash of himself under Marcus, groaning and writhing.

“Blair?”

“Huh?” Blair blinked. Great, now he had that image seared in his mind. “Oh. Sorry, I was… never mind. Okay, if what?”

“If you promise me a date.”

“Date?” Excitement pricked Blair’s skin. “You mean like getting together and going out and doing something? That kind of date?”

“That’s my understanding of the word date, yes.”

Oh man, was there a smartass lurking underneath that calm exterior? It was rare he found someone with the same cutting humor he had. “You do stuff like that?”

“I’ve spent time among humans. Just because I prefer to live in the ocean doesn’t mean I don’t know how to interact with your kind. I’d like to take you on a date. Take you out to eat, maybe go to the movies. Or we could hang out on the beach. Something.”

“Wow. I would love to.” Would he ever.

“Excellent.”

“Exc— oomph !” Blair suddenly found himself with a merman wrapped around him.

Oh yes, Marcus spent time around humans if his ability to kiss was any indication. And whoo wee, could he kiss. Marcus buried his hand in Blair’s hair. He didn’t yank, but Blair shivered anyway. Blair’s eyes closed as he sank into the kiss.

Marcus rested his other hand on Blair’s hip. Having Marcus’ hands on him was like lighting a firecracker. He lit up. The threat—that lovely possibility—of what Marcus could do with his hand buried in his hair was there.

Blair looped his arms around Marcus’ waist as Marcus’ mouth slanted over his. His lips were soft and full… and warm. Blair had no idea why he thought Marcus’ skin would be cooler than his, but he had. No, Marcus was as hot as he was. Marcus moved against him, a silent demand. Blair opened and Marcus slipped his tongue inside, dueling with his.

His body tingled, and his toes curled. Marcus broke the kiss and leaned back. Seconds passed as they stared at each other. Blair licked his lips, enjoying Marcus’ taste. He wanted more. Moaning softly, he focused on Marcus’ mouth. Marcus tightened his fingers in Blair’s hair, pulling his head back slightly.

Oh yes! Blair whimpered. Marcus nipped his throat, his breath hot and moist against Blair’s skin. God, he was hard. He’d been kissing guys since he was old enough to understand how good it could be, but nothing had ever felt like this.

Marcus kissed his way down Blair’s throat and focused on the skin at the base where his neck and shoulder met. He groaned happily when Marcus closed his mouth over that patch of skin and sucked hard.

He squirmed on the towel, unable to sit still. It was only a hickey, for God’s sakes. Certainly not the first one he ever had, but it was damn sure the first one to make him lose his mind. He tightened his arms around Marcus, trying to pull him closer.

He broke the kiss, suddenly he was flat on his back with Marcus above him, looking down. He lifted his hands and cupped Marcus’ face. All that blue hair fell over Marcus’ shoulders, and he wanted nothing more than to wrap it around him.

The intensity in those pale blue eyes pinned him to the sand better than brute strength. Marcus removed his hand from behind Blair’s head and stared down at him. Blair stretched out on the sand letting Marcus drink him in.

A small smile tipped Marcus’ lips up into a barely discernable curve of pleasure, and he leaned down, brushing his lips over Blair’s. Blair sank his hands into Marcus’ hair and pulled him down. He moved restlessly, silently begging. As Marcus kissed him again, he ran one of his hands down Blair’s stomach.

Blair’s breath caught as Marcus’ hand slipped into his trunks and wrapped around his cock. “Oh yes. Oh, oh please.”

Blair strained into Marcus’ touch, and his breath spiked. Marcus certainly wasn’t wasting time. He set a fast pace, jacking Blair off as they kissed. Everything ceased to matter to Blair except for Marcus’ lips on his and Marcus’ hand wrapped around his cock.

With his orgasm threatening, he pulled back desperately from Marcus. “Going… going…”

Marcus shoved Blair’s swim trunks down the rest of the way. Blair kicked them off, and his legs trembled then tightened. Any second now.

“Come for me.”

Blair arched as his body obeyed Marcus’ demand. He groaned, his hips thrusting as he came. Everything whited out.

“Beautiful,” Marcus whispered.

Blair heard him, but the voice was far, far away and he gasped for breath. Good God, had he stopped breathing while he came? No wonder it felt like his head was going to explode. He floated happily.

Had he ever felt like this? Had it ever felt this good? He didn’t think so. He heard of mind-blowing orgasms, but he thought it was only a saying. Nothing more than words. Boy was he wrong on that account. It took a couple minutes, but finally his brain fired up again.

He lay limply on the sand, blinking lazily up at Marcus. “Ho-ly shit.”

Marcus’ indulgent smile warmed Blair. I could really get used to this. Just curl up and go to sleep right here.

Then it struck him what he hadn’t done. “Oh man, did you… Want me to… Will you let me…?”

Marcus smoothed a strand of hair off Blair’s face. “I came when you did. Watching you got to me.”

Blair’s eyes widened. “You mean you came because I did?”

“Yes.” Then Marcus hesitated. “Well, I’m might have been stroking myself off, too.”

Blair snickered. “Next time you have to let me get that.”

“That’s a promise I’m going to hold you to.”

Blair sincerely hoped Marcus would as they cleaned up.

“I guess we better get you topside. I’m sure they’re in a panic on the boat since they can’t find you.”

Blair groaned, beating his head against the sand. “Shit. Shit. Shit. I completely forgot about that.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Blair peered up at Marcus. “You should.” But that didn’t excuse the fact he’d forgotten there were probably people ready to tear this island apart looking for him. “Dammit. I need to get back before some stupid shit gets started.”

Marcus stood and helped Blair up. “Do you have a way to call someone? And you might want to change back into your clothes.”

Blair walked over to where his clothes were laid out on the rock and picked them up. He wore a pair of khaki shorts and a nice shirt on the cruise. They were both still wet, but no longer dripping. Good. There was nothing grosser than drippy, soggy clothes. He stuck his hand in the pocket his cell phone in and wasn’t surprised to find it missing.

“I’ve lost my cell phone, and yuck, I’m not looking forward to putting these things back on, but I guess I’d better. I’m sure it would raise all sorts of questions if I showed up in a pair of swim trunks.”

Marcus nodded. “Most likely.”

Blair hesitated when it became pretty obvious Marcus wasn’t going to turn around. Blair shrugged. He wasn’t overly modest, and Marcus jacked him off a couple minutes ago, so why not? Blair struggled into his wet clothes, and yup, what a gross feeling that was.

“I guess I’m ready.” He started up the beach holding the pair of trunks he’d borrowed then stopped. “Here.”

Marcus returned the item to the waterproof bag then hurried back to Blair where he nonchalantly took Blair’s hand. Together they started up the beach toward the back of the cave.

“By the way, what about this date you mentioned?” Blair asked. “I lost my phone, and you obviously don’t have one. How are we going to do this?”

“I assume you’re staying at a resort.”

“Yes.”

“Which one?”

“Um, the name is Blue Waters Resort, I think. I checked in yesterday.” Marcus’ laughter surprised Blair. He had no idea why Marcus would find that so funny. “Okay, what?”

“I know that resort. I won’t have any trouble finding you, trust me. What room are you in?”

Blair told him. Later, he promised himself, he’d find out what Marcus found so funny about that.

Marcus escorted him to the path that took them out of the cave. “Stay here please. I’m going to shut the lanterns off, and it’s going to get dark in here. I can see better than you, so hang tight.”

“No problem.”

Blair watched as Marcus extinguished the lanterns one after the other. He was right. As the lights went out, the cave grew darker. Soon only moonlight lit the cave, but he waited patiently.

“Okay. That’s the end of that. I’m coming toward you now.”

Blair was glad Marcus spoke to him once the lights went out. Maybe because they were close to the water and moonlight caressed the beach there, but he didn’t remember it being this dark. A moment later he felt Marcus next to him.

“Okay, let’s go.” Marcus took Blair’s hand again.

Blair followed Marcus up the winding path. Once they were out of the cave, he glanced around. They weren’t far from the ocean, but the exit was clearly in the jungle. He still had no clue where he was.

“We’re not far from the resort, but it is a little bit of a walk. I’m only going to go halfway with you, is that okay?” Marcus asked.

“Oh. I assumed… That’s fine. Once I get my bearings, I’ll be okay. You don’t have to come, if you don’t want to.”

Marcus laid his hand own Blair’s arm. “It’s not that I don’t want to come with you, but keep in mind I’m not human. I’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen when you return, but if the authorities get involved and start asking for ID… Do you see what I’m getting at?”

“Oh. Yes. I see. I hadn’t thought about that. And yes, the authorities are probably going to be involved. Will I see you tomorrow?”

“Yes. How about we get together late afternoon? Say maybe six o’clock?”

“Okay. Should I meet you somewhere?”

“There’s a restaurant attached to the resort called Sandals. I’ll meet you out front. How does that sound?”

“Sounds great. Thank you. Oh, I don’t think I mentioned my last name. It’s Estes.”

“Krill is my last name.”

Blair didn’t say anything about the fact Marcus still held his hand as they walked. As they drew closer to the more occupied part of the island, Marcus stopped. With a quick kiss, Marcus told Blair good-bye.

Blair watched Marcus return to the jungle. With a sigh, he turned and headed toward the resort and the insanity that was going to ensue as soon as he was recognized.