Page 3 of Time to Stirrup Love (Harmony Glen #10)

Chapter

Two

F inn was trying very hard to focus on steering his boat to a remote spot on the lake where he knew the pickerel liked to spawn, and he was also trying to ignore the delectable Dr. Davis, which was proving harder than he thought.

The trouble was, since he'd met her, he really couldn't get her out of his mind.

When Jim Mason had approached him about hiring out his boat periodically on a contracted position, there was a part of him that was conflicted.

The money would be good for the family. Ever since his father died, as head of the household, he was the one responsible for his mother and his little sister Pearl.

On the flip side, he knew it was a marine biologist coming to study the health of the pickerel in the lake and watershed, something that could make or break his sportfishing business.

Indeed, his whole business.

If sportfishing was shut down, then people wouldn’t rent boats from him or buy bait or tackle.

His whole livelihood depended on the lake.

Yet, he cared about the lake because it was his life.

The government contract was a fixed income during a slow part of his year.

In the end, the money was too good. It was a guaranteed contract for the year. He wanted to hate it, but couldn’t.

Then Finn had thought that it would be easy to deal with a scientist, and in his mind, he pictured someone a bit like Jim Mason.

An outdoorsy kind of guy. What he didn’t expect was a curvy, redheaded, freckled, sexy, bubbly biologist adorned in the cutest horn-rimmed glasses that had little sparkles in the frame.

It sparked something deep and primal in his blood.

Glashtyns were often portrayed as womanizers.

Looking to carry off women to their underwater kingdom, which was ridiculous.

They didn’t have underwater kingdoms. Sure, he could swim underwater and hold his breath pretty long and knew a few of the creatures that liked to lurk under the waves of the lake, but as far as he knew, none of his family had underwater lairs.

Most of his family spent their lives in human form when out in public, before the Great Revelation happened.

Though, they weren’t always the niftiest shape-shifters.

He completely sucked at it. Which was bizarre, because he had the body of a man and didn’t have a tail.

Still, it was not his specialty and he hadn’t shifted in years.

First, he always kept his paint colors on his skin, except his face, so definitely chameleon behavior was not a strong suit, and second, he always kept his horse ears and would have to tuck them under a hat. It looked ridiculous.

How he was supposed to carry off a lady looking like that was beyond him.

So he was glad that he could just be himself and didn’t have to hide.

As he glanced down at Margaid leaning against the side of his boat as he chugged across the lake, his blood heated as he admired her shapely backside and long legs.

For one brief moment all he could see in his mind’s eye was her in a long flowing dress, barefoot, heaving bosom and waiting at the edge of the water for him to take her away.

He just wanted to grab her hips and sink his cock into her tight, wet cunt.

What’re you doing?

Which was a very good question indeed. It was those lothario ways which had cost him so much.

He was too busy chasing the ladies when monster kind was outed.

He wasn’t here to help his dad when the storm hit.

A lightning strike and a fire killed his father and made Finn realize that he had a lot more responsibility than getting laid by curious women.

And being used by them, after a time, didn’t feel good. He wanted more, and women didn’t want to be with a monster longer than a night. In his experience anyway.

There was no time to think about any kind of other needs or urges.

He owed it to his father to take care of his mother and Pearl.

Besides, his father always said not to mix business with pleasure.

Even if his body was screaming at him that it could be very pleasurable with Margaid, in spite of her bubbly personality and her profession.

As if she knew that he was lusting after her, her spine stiffened and she looked up at him in the helm.

More like stared him down with reproach.

Not that he blamed her, he hadn’t been the most friendly to her when she first arrived, but it was for the best. The way he kept thinking about her, it was just best to keep her at arm’s length.

Finn tore his gaze away and focused on pulling into the small inlet where water flowed into the lake through a small stream in the surrounding woods. It was in the shallows where the pickerel liked to spawn and where the young ones like to swim.

He shut off the engine and then dropped anchor. His flat-bottomed houseboat meant that he could get a little bit closer, and he saw that Margaid had waders. It would be easy for her to do her studies along the shores.

“Is this the place?” Margaid asked.

“Yes,” he replied tersely as he dropped the anchor. “This is the closest I can get to their spawning location, but the water isn’t too deep.”

“No, this is perfect. I’m used to this.” She pulled out her waders and sat down on a bench, kicking off her steel-toed hiking shoes.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as she pulled on her waders, covering her long legs and her curves. And she still was sexy in her green neoprene waders.

I have a serious problem.

It had been a couple years since his father died and Finn quit the dating scene. Those were fun days, casual and carefree, with curious women wanting to cut out the middle man and ride the horse instead of the cowboy. There were a few times he helped a cowgirl embrace her inner rodeo star.

Maybe he was a little hard up. If Margaid wasn’t here, he’d strip off his clothes and go for an icy dip in the lake to cool his lust.

Not exactly appropriate business kind of relations at this moment. Maybe this was the perfect time to go farther up the shore and practice some of his fly-fishing. Then he could put some distance between her and him. Maybe that would quell the naughty thoughts running through his head.

There was a splash and he realized that she had climbed down the small ladder and was in the shallows.

“You okay?” he asked.

She glanced back at him, a net over her shoulder. “Perfectly. I’m heading into the littoral zone because that’s where the pickerel spawn will be.”

“The…what?” he asked, confused.

She quirked an eyebrow like she couldn’t believe that he didn’t know the scientific zones of the lake. He didn’t exactly have the chance to go to school. It’s not as if he could go to university like the humans had. Especially, given his flawed shape-shifting abilities.

“Closer to shore,” she explained. “Right here, it’s part of the limnetic zone. Light still penetrates enough for organisms, but littoral is where the plants grow. It’s a safer spot for young.”

“Right. Sure, sure.”

“Are you just going to stand there and watch me?” she questioned. “I mean, if you want to help…”

“No thank you,” he bolstered. “I’m going up the shore farther. There’s a stream there, and I have some new flies to try out.”

“It’s not fishing season yet,” she reminded him. As if he needed it.

He frowned and crossed his arms. “I know this. I’ve been in this business for a few years. If I catch anything, it’s a catch and release, but as someone who makes their own tackle, I have my own research and development to do.”

A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “I didn’t mean any offense. My apologies.”

“Thank you.” He picked up his gear before splashing down into the ice-cold water. The water didn’t bug him. “I’ll be up the shore. I’ll be back in an hour.”

“Okay. I might be longer.”

He shrugged, feigning indifference. “That’s fine. You have the entire afternoon.”

“Great.” She turned her back and made her way slowly, sloshing in the water. He watched her, just for a moment, fighting the urge to go and scoop her up and carry her to where she wanted to go, and instead made his way up the shore to where the larger stream flowed into the lake.

That’s not in the job description.

There was safety in distance from her. As he found a nice spot in the sun, he sat down on a rock and readied his fishing rod, pulling out a new tie, but he really couldn’t get into the excitement of it.

Usually, he loved trying out his new ties.

It was one of his favorite things to do in the winter, when the lake was frozen and all his rentals were put away for the winter.

He would spend time prepping for the summer season and he’d work on tying new lures and thinking about better ways to entice fish.

He did have a slightly secret dream of patenting a fishing lure, and then he could buy a great big house in Harmony Glen for his mother and his little sister Pearl. They would want for nothing.

Maybe then Pearl could go away to university, because she could.

The thing about female glashtyn-human hybrids is they mostly kept their human form and without the ears.

They could shift into a horse, but usually they were a beautiful pearlescent color, with violet eyes, and most had a horn, like a fabled unicorn.

The problem with Pearl going away was the full moon cycles, where she had no control over her shifting. But he didn’t want to hold her back either. If he could afford to send her now, he would in a heartbeat.

Then there was the worry of hunters. Even though the world was trying to be more tolerant of monsters, it wasn’t always.