by S. K Munt
‘Sure,’ Lincoln glanced at Sherri. ‘You’ll be fine.’
She shrugged. ‘I trust you.’
‘Then it’s settled. If you want to come over when you finish tonight, that would be nice. But for now, I just want to sit, eat a big breakfast, and pretend the last twenty minutes haven’t happened.’ Ivyanne sat down in her seat once more.
‘Of course I’ll come over tonight,’ Lincoln said, kissing her cheek. ‘But if you want to accompany me now, I won’t mind. It would be lovely.’
‘Working all day? No thanks.’ Ivyanne looked over at Sherri. ‘Besides, it’s unnecessary. I’m her princess now too-she’s got no choice but to be respectful-which means keeping her hands to herself.’
‘Of course,’ Sherri whispered, bowing her head slightly.
Ivyanne smiled sweetly, glancing back up at Lincoln. ‘Then I’ll see you tonight.’
⁓
Ardhi had thought he was beyond the point of being shocked, but the revelations of that morning had shaken him. He hadn’t expected Sherri to show up with Lincoln-the plan had been for Ardhi to claim ‘accidentally’ changing her. He still didn’t know how she’d managed it, but he supposed it would do. He smirked, wondering how long it would be before Lincoln worked out that his newfound ‘gift’ was a farce. You couldn’t change what was already altered-they’d be scratching their heads over that one miracle for years.
His mother had knocked him for six too with her little tirade and grand breeding scheme. And although he’d agreed with her whole-heartedly, he’d had to at least attempt to shut her up, especially when he saw how horrified everyone else looked at the mere suggestion of his coupling with Ivyanne. Besides, he liked being the most powerful, and he was in no hurry for the other Marked families to interbreed and create mers to rival him -there were flaws in the system, yes, but at the moment they just weren’t his priority.
He smiled, thinking of how Ivyanne had handled the situation. It never ceased to amaze him with the coherent way she could break down every issue to its very cause. It was like her mind worked twice as fast as any other-which was precisely why he had to play his hand very carefully. He was powerful and sneaky-but she was smarter. She would make a terrific ruler one day.
Ardhi had thought the subject was closed for the day when both Ivyanne and his parents headed upstairs after the recently turned mers had left for the day. But he was wrong.
‘I don’t like it,’ Joakim said, draining the last of his glass of milk, still staring out the window. ‘Did you see the way she was looking at Lincoln?’
Ardhi looked up, interested. ‘That Sherri girl?’ he asked.
Ash Court nodded grimly. ‘Something about her rubs me the wrong way…’
‘I totally saw that,’ Saraya pointed out. ‘Those are the eyes I make when I’m trying to manipulate someone.’
‘You’re just being protective,’ Vana said softly, looking up from her computer. She’d been typing away all morning. ‘When they’re married, you’ll relax. Ivyanne trusts him.’
‘Ivyanne trusts everybody. She’s naïve.’ Ash glanced at Ardhi. ‘I wish your father hadn’t told me that. There are certain things a man doesn’t want to know about his future son-in-law. I respected Lincoln, and didn’t doubt his loyalty for a second. Now I’m not so sure-he seems to be as much of a potential player as Tristan was.’
‘That makes two of us,’ Ardhi was glad to admit. Finally, something was going his way! He’d forgotten that Ash had never liked the Loveridge family much, although why was unclear. ‘He wasn’t exactly pushing her off him, was he?’
‘No,’ Ash said stonily,‘he wasn’t.’
‘You’re making too much of this,’ Vana said to her husband, her tone light. ‘Ivyanne was passing time with Tristan then, remember?’
‘But Ivyanne had serious feelings for Tristan,’ Saraya said softly. ‘I sincerely hope that Lincoln doesn’t actually care for this Sherri girl.’
‘He very well could now, even if he didn’t then,’ the king said solemnly. ‘She’s his charge now. He’s responsible for her. It could muddy the waters.’
‘Well let’s just hope it doesn’t,’ Vana glanced at Ardhi quickly before looking away.
Ardhi had to fight back a smile. Vana was still clearly on edge about discussing Ivyanne’s love life in front of him. Was it possible that he intimidated the queen? Was she secretly afraid that despite everything she’d done to keep him out of power, Ivyanne might choose him in the end anyway?
‘I’ll give him a fair chance,’ Ash said, turning his back on the window. ‘But if he messes up again, if he causes my little girl a drop more of pain now that she’s finally given her heart to him, I will pull the plug on the entire engagement.’
Ardhi’s heart began to race with excitement.
‘But then what?’ Saraya asked.
Ardhi was suddenly very aware of three sets of eyes on him.
‘Then we’ll know who the worthiest candidate truly is,’ he heard Ash say gravely. ‘And I’ll do no less than order her to marry Ardhi.’
There they were. The words Ardhi needed to hear to rejuvenate his spirits.
‘I think I’m going to go for a shower,’ he said, not looking at anyone as he left the room, feeling the weight of his phone in his pocket as he jogged up the stairs. When he got to the empty bathroom, he leaned against the wall, and whipped his phone out. His mother had fetched some of his personal possessions for him the night before, in his old leather bag. When he got a chance, he’d have to retrieve his wallet from where he’d hidden it on Tristan’s boat.
‘Green flag,’ he texted Sherri. ‘Do everything within your power.’
After he’d sent that, he texted Adele. ‘Be ready-I may need you here very soon.’
Grinning, Ardhi sauntered into the bathroom, regarding his reflection with pleasure. Lincoln would fail because he was weak. Ardhi could practically feel Ivyanne’s tears on his shoulder already.
21.
When Adele’s phone went off early on Sunday morning, Tristan reluctantly rolled out of bed. He was never going to take a soft mattress for granted again. It had been three nights since he’d arrived on Norfolk and was already feeling a lot better.
He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and looked down at the little screen.
P: Be ready-I may need you very soon.
Tristan sighed and put the phone in his pocket, making his way into the bedroom he’d imprisoned Adele in since Friday afternoon. Aside from letting her up to do her business and eat some fruit and water, he’d barely paid her any attention, sleeping around the clock and monitoring Adele’s phone. Ardhi had started texting the night before from a number not saved as a contact, asking for weird things-like photos of the tree outside or something else random...obviously for proof that she hadn’t bolted. Tristan had responded on her behalf.
‘Good morning,’ Tristan said, going to her bedside and sitting on the side of the mattress. ‘How do you feel?’
Adele stared at the ceiling. There were bags under her eyes and her jaw had turned a purplish color. ‘Can you just kill me please?’
Tristan moved to the end of the bed, and began working on the nots of the rope he’d bound her to it with. ‘I’m going to undo these only because I know you’re not stupid enough to take me on a second time. And because by now, you’re probably too weak to even consider it, yeah?’
Adele nodded. ‘Where did you learn to do that anyway? Those knots are tight.’
‘Sailing.’
‘And the punch?’ she asked. ‘Ardhi slugged me once-but it didn’t knock me out. And I didn’t feel it half a week later either.’
‘I’ve dabbled in some training during my travels,’ he said loftily. ‘Japan, Taiwan…. a stint in the Israeli army for kicks….I probably fractured your jaw.’ He glanced up at her. ‘I am sorry, but not really sorry, if you catch my driftwood.’
Adele looked at him. ‘Likewise.’ She eyed him. ‘Will you take me for a swim later?’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘That might be pushing it.’
‘What about the withdrawals?’ she asked, pouting. ‘I mean, it’s not like I’m going to hook up while I’m in this position, am I? I’ll lose my mind if this goes on for too much longer.’ She looked him up an down. ‘Unless you feel like throwing me a crumb….’
Tristan laughed. ‘Um, no. That’s pretty much the worst idea I’ve heard in a while.’
‘Not even a long kiss?’ she asked pleadingly. ‘To take the edge off?’
‘I’d sooner give you codeine.’
She huffed out a breath. ‘Well what about you? You’re going to need something too-I can’t imagine that you’ve hooked up recently. No offense, but you looked like shit when you came in the other day-even if you had been in the water for over a week.’
‘Two weeks actually-and I got badly hurt,’ Tristan reminded her. ‘But no, I didn’t hook up. I just don’t have that in me at the moment.’ Now that he thought about it, Tristan realized that his lack of contact with another person was probably the cause of his mental fatigue.
‘Well, we could help each other out,’ Adele said. ‘No strings. Just two mers, letting off some steam…...’
‘Yeah, because that worked out so well the last time we did that,’ Tristan rolled his eyes as he unfastened the second knot, smiling in empathy as she instantly began to massage her wrists, wincing. ‘Shake this off and I’ll make you a deal-if you don’t try to do something stupid, like kill me, I’ll let you get up and have a shower.’
Adele eyed him warily. ‘And what do I have to do in return?’
Tristan smiled enigmatically. ‘Tell me everything you know. And then listen as I tell you how we’re going to remedy this situation before the week is out.’
⁓
Lincoln had been exhausted by the time he got to Ivyanne’s on Sunday evening, but the sight of her opening the door wearing nothing but a teal half-bra and skimpy panties had revived him.
‘Why hello Mr Grey…’ She’d purred, stretching seductively along the door jamb. ‘It’s about time you showed up. I’ve been looking forward to this all day.’
‘Oh my god!’ He exclaimed, rising to attention. ‘You own stuff like that? And you’ve been hiding it this whole time?’
She giggled. ‘This whole time? We’ve been together twenty-four hours Link!’
‘Yes but I’ve mentally stripped you four thousand times in those twenty-four hours. Only it was a bikini I was tearing off not…’ he reached out, hooked his finger around the wire between her breasts and yanked her close. ‘Not this. This is different.’
‘Good different?’ She whispered. ‘I went shopping for heels to wear with the dress Saraya is making for me in River City this afternoon and I stumble across this little lingerie boutique, and thought of you…’
‘I’m glad.’ His throat was tight.‘So glad that I’m inclined to get a camera out…’
She laughed, looking self conscious. ‘Oh come on. They’re just boobs.’
‘Are you kidding me?’ Lincoln dumped his bag at the door and yanked her against him, carrying her inside and kicking the door shut behind him. There was a wide mirror across the top of the mantel and he deposited her in front of it, holding her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at herself from the waist up while he concentrated on looking down. ‘Look at you,’ he whispered. ‘Ivyanne I was dead on my feet two seconds ago but now-’ he pressed himself into her. ‘I’m awake. And hot as hell.’
‘Mmm…’ Ivyanne reached around behind him, slid her fingertips under the waistband of his work slacks and squeezed his ass. Her face turned into his neck and she whispered: ‘I’ve been hot all day. And waiting. And eager.’
‘How eager?’ He teased.
She reached up and took his hand, then slid it down the front of her stomach until delicate lace brushed the back of his hand and his fingers sank against something delicate and wet. So wet. ‘This eager.’
‘Ohh…’ Lincoln moaned, flexing his fingers and closing his eyes as lust made him tremble. His other hand fell from her shoulder and slipped under the thin strip of lace at her hip, one lone finger curling around it, following the fabric in a gentle slide until his knuckle rested in the dent at the top of her ass. ‘I think I’m going to have to take advantage of how eager you are-by sliding in first and working every other luscious part of your body later.’
‘Mmm...please do,’ she whispered. ‘I’ve felt so empty all day baby. Now that I’ve had you inside me-every second you’re not is agony.’
Lincoln almost blacked out from the way his blood rushed to his cock at her words. He grunted, tearing her panties down and shoving her forward, bending her with one hand flat against her back as the other reached inside his pants to pull himself free.
‘You’re going to regret saying that,’ he teased, angling himself between her legs. ‘I won’t abide you being in agony for a minute if I can help it.’
Knock knock knock knock knock!
Lincoln groaned.
⁓
‘It’s time to reveal your hand.’ Tristan said to Adele across the battered dining table he’d presented her with dinner on. Only it was more breakfast because of the lack of food he’d encountered. ‘And start by telling me why Ardhi messaged you this morning to say that he might need you soon.’
Adele’s eyebrows lifted as she nibbled on the edge of an orange segment. ‘He did? He must have a phone again. He’s been calling from pay phones for a week.’
‘Well I need to know why.’
She chewed her lip. ‘It means Sherri failed.’
Tristan leaned closer. ‘Sherri? Who’s Sherri?’
‘The girl he found when he went to New Zealand. He was actually scouting for a good-looking, lonely hearts type to recruit for whatever half-cocked plan he had then, and then he found Sherri drinking at some Tavern we stumbled into for dinner. She was drinking a lot, and complaining about how lonely she was to the bartender. Turns out, she worked there. Ardhi made me follow her with him when she left, to see where she lived and get a better idea of what she was like-and to our shock-she walked straight to a bluff and threw herself off it!’
Tristan paused looked up from the bagel he was buttering. ‘Off a cliff?! How does she have a face left?’
‘It wasn’t the rocky kind-just a straight drop into the water. Freezing cold water, while drunk, so her intention was to drown-not shatter herself. And she would have succeeded, if Ardhi wasn’t such a stalker.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘He fished her out pretty quickly and revived her, and when she came to, she was glad he had. Apparently she’d had second thoughts on the way down. Now she thinks Ardhi’s a god.’ Adele’s face twisted in a grimace. ‘She’s deluded, and has been brown nosing since day one!’
Tristan was confused. ‘Why did he want someone like that around?’
Adele stirred her freshly squeezed orange juice. ‘Well she’s cute, I guess, and a seasoned hospitality worker. Ardhi got the brilliant idea of sending her ahead to get my old job and put the moves on Lincoln.’
Tristan’s eyes widened. ‘And she agreed?’
Adele shrugged. ‘Well she had nothing going for her in her life, so she was eager to start a new one. Ardhi dazzled her with promises of gorgeous men and a dream job in the tropics, not to mention a community of mers who would come to accept her in time...so long as she did her part first.’
‘So she’s at the resort?’
‘Yep! And she’s seen you twice. Pissed Ardhi off to no end when she reported back about how hot you were-though she’s already got it bad for Link, by the sounds of it.’
‘Not hot enough, if she decided to help get me killed anyway.’ He muttered. Suddenly, he remembered teasing Lincoln about the new hire. ‘Is she a little blonde?’
‘Yep. Now, anyway. She was a ranga, but Ardhi made me dye it for her, given Link’s penchant for the fairer maidens.’
Tristan screwed up his face, trying to recall the pixieish girl he’d glimpsed shaking Chase
Grey’s hand. ‘She’s not hot the way you and Ivyanne are-Ardhi’s nuts to think she could tempt Lincoln when his other options are that much more...’ he cut himself off, not certain that he wanted to rev up the ego of someone who’d made it her mission to wreck his life.
‘Why thank you,’ Adele purred, with a quick grin. ‘And it’s true. Ivyanne and I are in a higher league-but look at what we’ve done to him because of that. Sherri is cute, for sure-but she’s using devotion as bait, not her looks. And that’s what Link craves above anything else-to feel safe and adored.’
‘That’s actually smart.’ Tristan said, thinking of how Lux had rendered Lincoln mute within five seconds of meeting him, just by complimenting him. ‘And Sherri won’t be the only one trying, either. He’s been turning heads, ‘ol Link.’
Adele peeked up through her lashes. ‘How, um, how good does he look?’
Tristan tapped his bagel on his plate, blowing out a breath as he thought it over. He lifted his eyes to Adele and answered, rather reluctantly: ‘Let’s just say that he had me on the back foot, and hopping.’ He smirked. ‘When you see him next, you’re probably going to kick yourself.’
Adele pouted. ‘Damn, I wanted that for him when I returned-not the other way around.’
‘Well you look good too.’ Tristan rushed to change the subject. ‘So does Lincoln know that Sherri is mer?’
Adele shook her head. ‘She and I have to keep this to ourselves for now, so we don’t give Ardhi away. He plans on taking responsibility for us eventually-confessing about me and begging forgiveness, but possibly staging Sherri’s transformation once he’s gotten everyone’s trust back. For now, he just wants her to distract Lincoln, and make him look bad by seducing him.’ She furrowed her professionally arched brows. ‘But if he wants me back, it means she’s failing.’
Tristan was confused. ‘Why doesn’t Ardhi just kill him?’
Adele shrugged. ‘He’s got that earmarked as a last resort. Naturally, Ardhi doesn’t want his return being tied to Link’s death-so he won’t play dirty until all else has failed.’ She licked her dry lips. ‘But if Sherri hasn’t gotten it done, then I won’t either. I hurt him too much. Still, I was looking forward to the opportunity to try, just for the chance to get there and whisper in the right ear. I mean, someone was bound to help me, right? Relocate my folks so I could come clean?’