by Eve Langlais
“Because I’m not the devil you think I am. Yes, my agreeing to sell you was in poor taste.” Jett growled. Chimera amended. “Very poor taste. But would it help if I said you were worth ten million dollars?”
Her eyes widened. “That much?”
Jett’s gaze narrowed. “That is a lot of money to give up.”
“But even more to gain now,” Chimera explained. “A mermaid is an oddity with very little practical use. But someone who can breathe water or air…” His face lit with excitement. “Can you imagine the market for such a thing?”
She could. The applications to not only aquatic activities but off planet, in places where air might not be in plentiful supply. If Chimera could manipulate lungs to adapt to any condition…he was right. It would be epic. Revolutionary medicine worth more than ten million, or even ten billion, dollars.
And she might be the start of it.
“I don’t know if I want Red being your personal guinea pig.” Jett’s arms crossed, and he glared.
Adorable.
“You’d be here to keep an eye. Paid of course. Can’t have anyone stealing the world’s first mermaid.”
“I am not going to live like those patients. Locked away or kept in a coma,” Becky added.
Chimera waved a hand. “Those are difficult cases, completely different from you. I see us more as partners. Yes, you’ll have to do some tests and give some blood, but I want you to keep on working as my assistant. Discover with me.”
The temptation dangled. Better than any carrot.
“I don’t believe you. I tried to kill you,” Jett said flatly.
“You’re not the first. But I’m not a man to hold a grudge.”
Becky wasn’t entirely sure she believed that; however, she did know that Chimera valued one thing above all others. Discovery. And with Jett by her side, she wanted to be a part of it.
“Do we have a deal or not?” Chimera asked.
For her, there was only one answer. “I’ll stay. But on a few conditions. One, Jet and I get the biggest set of rooms you’ve got.”
“Done. I have a suite just vacated by Dr. Jackal, who moved to our European division.”
“I’m not done. The second thing I want is the exclusive scoop when the clinic goes public.”
“That might not be for years,” Chimera warned.
Years…not something she thought she’d get many of. Now, she might get a lifetime.
With the man she loved.
When the deal was hammered out, Chimera released the locks on the door. Not that Jett trusted him. The portal slid open, and he said, “After you.”
“Such suspicion,” Chimera grumbled, stepping through. Jett followed next before he allowed her to join them in the hall.
No soldiers waited to greet them.
And the suite they were assigned was bigger and nicer than any apartment she’d ever lived in.
The bed a true king-sized with fresh sheets.
But first, a shower. Not just because she needed to cleanse herself but because her body craved the moisture. She might be breathing air again, and yet the core of her remained changed.
Jett didn’t seem to care. He laid the gun he’d filched from the aqua lab on the counter, suspicion keeping him tense.
Watchful.
“Aren’t you going to join me?” she asked, letting the warm spray run down over her body, leaving it slick and glistening.
“I don’t trust that bastard,” he growled.
She turned her face into the warm shower, eyes closed, enjoying the clear freshness of it, the heat. “I don’t either. But there is no other choice.” No other doctor could help with her condition. No one else in the world could help keep the cancer at bay and give her more time with this man.
“We can still escape. There are ways.”
And live a life on the run? Always looking over her shoulder. Wondering if the serum she’d taken would one day fail.
“I want to stay.” She pivoted and leaned her back on the shower, offering a sultry gaze to him as she ran her fingers down the length of her torso. Teasing her own skin while remembering the touch of his fingers. The heat of his mouth and the tease of his tongue.
A pulse started between her legs. A hunger for the man who stared at her.
And only stared.
It seemed only right to give him a show. Grabbing the soap, she rubbed it between her palms, creating a frothy lather. She stroked those soapy fingers over her skin, sliding them with sensual languor over her already sensitized body, holding his gaze the entire time. Getting slicker between her legs the more his eyes smoldered.
She cupped her breasts, squeezed them. Rolled the nipples between her fingers. Saw him swallow when she said, “Are you sure you don’t want to join me?”
“I need…” He couldn’t finish the sentence. A war raged inside him, one that demanded he remained responsible and stand guard, while another part of him obviously longed to touch her.
So she made it even harder—his decision and his cock—by sliding a hand between her thighs. Slicks fingers slid across a clit already swollen and sensitive. She gently rubbed it, back and forth, her hips twitching with each pass.
Jett uttered a noise, a groan of surrender, and then he stripped before joining her finally, his naked body big and beautiful, pinning her to the wall.
“You drive me crazy,” he said in between hot kisses.
Whereas for Becky. “You make me feel safe.” Protected. Cherished.
And yes, worshipped when he dropped to his knees before her.
She ran fingers through his slick hair as he parted her thighs and then nudged one with a shoulder, getting her to lift it over him. Exposing her that he might lash his tongue against her swollen button. An electric current of desire thrummed through her, and she gasped. Trembled. Grabbed him by the hair, fingers digging in as she bucked.
He snared hold of her hips and held her steady. Held her that he might lick her, sliding his tongue back and forth across her sex, slipping it between her lips, stabbing deeper.
The pleasure engulfed. Made her feel alive. Warm. Feverish even as she leaned against the cold tile of the shower wall. Soft moans and gasps escaped her lips as he licked her and stroked her. She uttered a sharp cry when his lips caught and pulled at her clit.
Her body tensed and coiled. Her orgasm hovered. A wave pulled back from shore, waiting to crash.
But he didn’t let her come on his tongue. He stood, the bigness of his body shadowing her. His lips caught hers, a fiery kiss where she could taste herself.
His hand slid between their bodies to finger her sex. Whereas she grabbed hold of his cock, feeling the velvety strength. The firmness. The pulse as he throbbed. Eager and ready.
She lifted a leg around his hip, an invitation he understood. The tip of his shaft penetrated, pushing and stretching. Filling her. Filling her deeply. Giving her something to clench.
Together, they rocked in rhythm, a grinding and rubbing motion that stimulated all the right places, had her squeezing him tight.
And when he came in hot splashing spurts, she followed, the tsunami unleashed, her body rippling in waves, her orgasm wet. So very wet.
Satisfying, too, leaving her boneless in his arms. But she didn’t have to fear falling with Jett. He swept her into his arms. Wrapped her in a big fluffy towel then carried her to the bedroom. She protested when he didn’t immediately join her, but he returned a moment later, gun in hand. A sobering reminder that their life remained tenuous.
Yet, she didn’t care. For the first time in a long while, she had hope. Felt alive.
Best of all, she had Jett. A man who held her close and whispered, “I love you.”
Epilogue
Over the course of the next few weeks, Jett never lowered his guard. Nor did he go anywhere unarmed. Yet, Chimera remained true to his word—or as true as a mad scientist could be. He made no move to sell her. No one threatened them. Nor did they become prisoners.
The me
dical studies of her body fascinated as she learned of the changes happening within. The cancer was gone. Not a single trace of it remained. She’d never been healthier as a matter of fact. So what if she needed to submerge every few days? She was a mermaid-human hybrid. The first and only one of her kind.
I am the big scoop. As such, she wanted to learn everything she could. Took great interest in the changes of her body and cells. With practice, she learned how to switch between breathing water and air without the panic. Began to enjoy her cravings for raw fish. Even made friends with the creatures living in the lake.
Most of all, she loved life. Loved Jett. Even if he grumbled at her decision to remain at the clinic. Despite the clean bill of health, she preferred to stay. They were doing wondrous things here. Epic things. And Dr. Chimera had promised her the scoop of a lifetime when he was ready to tell the world. She’d already begun writing the book. A book that would one day make her famous, not that she really cared about such a thing anymore. She had bigger things to concentrate on.
She pressed her hands to her stomach. The ultrasound showed a pair of tadpoles in there, literally, but the doctors didn’t seem concerned. After all, a mermaid was special. Her babies, of course, should be special, too.
Jett, her loving husband, who’d married her in a lovely ceremony on the shore of the lake, would guard his children like he guarded his mermaid. Or so he claimed once he picked himself off the floor.
And if Chimera and his associates ever tried to use her babies in a way she didn’t like… If Jett couldn’t kill them all, then there were always her new friends in the lake she could call on. They were so very hungry. Especially the thing with long arms and a hearty appetite for flesh.
Adrian Chimera played the ultrasound video again and smiled.
“You look awfully pleased with yourself,” Cerberus said, entering his office.
“Can you blame me? We succeeded.” Not only in creating their first true mermaid, but babies, too.
“I thought you had another father planned for her.”
At the reminder, Adrian shrugged. “This is actually better. I never thought for a moment my stern guard would fall for her.”
“Jett almost killed you.”
“I’m not that easy to kill,” Adrian reminded. “And things worked out in the end.” Becky had chosen to stay, which meant he got to monitor every step of her changes and pregnancy.
“What of Luke and the other nurse? Have the hunters located them yet”
That brought a scowl. “No. Seems they managed to not only disable their trackers but they’ve completely hidden their trail.”
But they’d be back. His projects, the ones his staff called his pets, always came back.
He watched from the woods. Biding his time. Doing his best to not forget.
I am…The name eluded him for a moment. Who he was was a thing of the past. An almost forgotten memory.
I am Marcus.
But at the same time, he wasn’t. And as he watched, he saw one of those who’d changed him. The doctor with ebony skin and a friendly smile.
A liar.
The helicopter landed in the distance. Every day, sometimes twice a day, it arrived, disgorging new passengers, carrying away others. Guarded by the men in black who carried guns.
He remembered guns.
Bad things.
Stay away.
Far, far away.
He knew this, and yet couldn’t help but be drawn to the place that created him. A dangerous place to be if he was caught.
About to leave the edge of the forest, he paused. Blinked as he saw the passenger on the helicopter disembark.
Smiled wide as he saw the doctor hugging a dark-skinned woman. Then kept his arm around her.
And a few days later, when that woman—younger than expected, with the most riveting blue eyes—went for a jog, Marcus kidnapped her for revenge.
* * *
Find out what happens next in The Lionman Kidnapping
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