To Shackle a Shrew (Southern Sanctuary Book 7)

by Jane Cousins

  “Now you know what they say about assumptions, fish boy?”

  Gulp, was Devon saying what he thought she was saying, was the Princess sans underwear this lovely Sunday morning? Damn, she was a she-devil. And he might just be falling in love with her acid tongue and snarling ways.

  Running a quick glance over the headlines Devon folded the paper and pushed it away, she felt too antsy to read. For some reason her attention kept getting hung up on the way the soft breeze was playing with Liam’s rapidly drying golden blonde hair. Several strands teasing his long dark eyelashes, forcing him to flick his head to keep it out of his eyes. Her own hair tugged at the knot she’d tied it in, wanting to reach out and help him.

  “Anything interesting in the news?” Liam asked, taking a sip of coffee.

  “No.”

  Resting his elbows on the table he leant forward towards her. “We should probably talk about the other night then, what happened at the town square.”

  Devon instinctively leaned back. There was a long list of things she never wanted to talk about and the events surrounding the other night pretty much sat at number one. She didn’t want to think about her beautiful little car that was now nothing but blackened scrap metal. She certainly didn’t want to discuss her irrational jealous reaction to seeing Liam hug and chat with Elisabeth Bright. And above all else she didn’t want to chat about the kiss. The really, really hot kiss they’d shared. Nope, there was nothing she wished to discuss regarding any of the events from Friday evening.

  “Someone did try and kill you, Devon. And that someone is here, at the Southern Sanctuary and having failed to off us both they will doubtlessly try again.”

  Oh that. The tension in Devon’s neck and shoulders eased instantly. “Okay, for arguments sake let’s narrow the pool of would-be killers down to the obvious. I doubt anyone I have pissed off in Sydney would have bothered to go to all the effort to follow me up here just to exact their revenge. And since I’ve been here, I don’t believe I’ve ticked anyone off enough that they would wish to see me dead…” She thought about that some more. “…well, not yet anyway. So that just leaves your father and your half-brothers.”

  Liam heaved a sigh. “I think we can cross off my father. He lives and dies by money, offing you would impact his cash flow and he’d never risk that.”

  “So that only leaves the Merrow Royal pricks… oops, I meant Princes. You know them, which one of those idiots is capable of murder?”

  Liam rolled his eyes and gave her a – you’ve got to be kidding me – look.

  Devon shook her head in wonder. “You can’t narrow it down at all? Just how big of a group of assholes are your relatives? No, don’t answer that. I thought Case was bad but having recently met idiot, gay, slick, sleazy, pompous, unconscious and shyster, I can use my imagination to visualise the remaining seven.”

  Liam chuffed a laugh. “I’m guessing I’m unconscious, why thank you, Princess, I think that’s the nicest compliment you’ve paid me so far. As long as we’re clear that being unconscious and drooling, your words, do not make me husband material.”

  Devon amped her glare up to a solid ten. “Please. You are not in any world husband material.”

  Liam locked his easy smile into place with effort, it was one thing for him to say it, another thing entirely for Devon to agree so whole heartedly and with such enthusiasm as she began to list his deficiencies.

  “No home, skeezy irregular job, irresponsible, too young, no shared interests, smile too much, seem to think you’re irresistible-”

  “Hey, I get it.” Liam snapped his fingers to halt the flow. “Enough already, you don’t want me to get a complex do you?”

  “I don’t think anything could shake your confidence. Relax, I’m just attempting to point out that you and I have nothing in common.”

  Liam’s aquamarine eyes flared with heat. “Except for perhaps a bone melting kiss.” A cocky dimpled smile tugged at the sides of his mouth.

  Damn him, he really went there. No way. “That kiss was an aberration.”

  “Aberration? Is that another word for hot?” He couldn’t help but tease. He knew she was throwing him her best haughty glare because he had her genuinely rattled.

  “No. You need to forget about the kiss, I have. Just put it down to too much champagne and a long day at work. Now, back to those half-brothers of yours. Why would any of them want me dead? My death would only delay the wedding until one of my cousins is old enough to step up and take my place.”

  “Maybe a delay is all they need. Time to finish whatever deal or con they have cooking.”

  “Which still doesn’t narrow down the list of suspects.” Devon complained. “Grrr, I can’t believe my Grandmother ever agreed to a betrothal contract with the Merrow.”

  Liam opened his mouth to defend his family, then paused and really thought about what Devon had said. “Actually, that’s a really good question. Why did your Queen agree? The Merrow don’t have much to bring to the table, trade wise, and my father is notoriously tight fisted when it comes to money. Most of the underwater clans wisely distrust the Merrow but we do own large tracts of deep water. I can understand why they would want hunting rights, but not the Makura. In fact, I can’t think of a single thing my family has that a Makura would want or couldn’t take for themselves.”

  Devon suddenly looked pale, her normal haughty expression wooden and forced. Liam recognised that look, when family fucked with you it was the hardest betrayal to swallow.

  Devon pushed back her bench seat and shot to her feet. “I need to make some phone calls.”

  Hmmm, Liam watched her go, somehow feeling this whole thing was going to come back and bite him on his still slightly tender ass. Throwing Devon’s family up as possible suspects was not going to win him any bonus points. Which was both good and bad. It was one more nail in his potential bridegroom coffin but it also probably meant there would be no more aberrations in his near future, where Devon’s lips would be touching his.

  He should pull back, be satisfied with saving the Princess’s life and not push for anything further. But the idea of not kissing her again, it caused a physical ache to set up shop in his gut. Damn the snarky Makura, he still wanted her, perhaps now more than ever.

  He wasn’t one for elaborate plots and machinations but he was a Merrow, and blood would tell. So all he had to do was figure out a way to lure Devon into his bed without incurring any nasty messy emotional entanglements. Which shouldn’t be too hard, she was a Makura, and he didn’t get attached to people, no matter that she made him hard with no more than a fleetingly raised eyebrow arched high in derision.

  Fuck, maybe he was in deeper here than he realised… and yet he still wasn’t making a swim for it. Poseidon help him.

  Chapter Ten

  Devon climbed out of the inky black river on to the still warm wood of the dock. For a moment she paused, surprised, before her eyes narrowed with suspicion. What was that sneaky Merrow up to now? The dock was lit by two rows of flickering hurricane lanterns. With hardly a thought she shed the water clinging to her and was bone dry. One of her long glossy curls handing her the gauzy black sun top she’d dropped before diving into the water an hour ago.

  As she took a few steps towards the house, Devon found herself tugging absently at her top, suddenly conscious of how sheer the fabric was and that its hemline only managed to cover her bather bottoms by two inches, and that the one piece black bathing suit was decidedly on the strappy and skimpy side.

  Hesitating at the edge of the outdoor deck she looked slowly around at the dozens of flickering candles decorating the railing and then at the large mass of them grouped together on the table that was set for two. Overhead the night sky was dark and clear, hundreds of stars twinkling in the heavens. It almost felt like the universe was conspiring with the Merrow to make this a picturesque and romantic scene.

  Every instinct she had was on high alert, except it seems for her hair, as curious curls sneaked peeks over h
er shoulder before dropping down her back, wriggling with excitement. No, no, no! What was Liam up to? Something sneaky and underhanded no doubt, probably trying to get her to drop her guard, lull her into compliance… to what? Seduce her? Trick her?

  It didn’t matter, did it? There was only one suitable response to a situation like this and that was attack, attack, attack.

  “Haven’t you had enough of fire yet? There are perfectly good electrical lights out here?”

  Liam rose slowly from his seat at the outdoor table where he’d been waiting for her. “And be inundated by every bug for a mile? Nah, let the citronella candles do their job and keep the mosquitos at bay. Here.” He held out a glass of white wine. “You look like you could use this.”

  Devon automatically accepted the glass. Um, what had happened to her plan of attack?

  The flickering candlelight did great things for Liam’s tanned skin, burnished his hair with gold highlights and made his eyes look like deep pools of beckoning tranquility.

  New plan, hide, hide, hide. “I should go change…”

  “No need.” Liam took her by the elbow and led her to the empty bench seat across the table. “It’s not like I have an extensive wardrobe on call.” He gestured to the fact he still had on the same cargo shorts and disreputable t-shirt he’d been wearing earlier in the day.

  “Er…”

  “Marinated calamari?” Liam scooped up a bowl and offered it to Devon.

  “Yes, thank you.” Devon popped a piece of calamari into her mouth. Noting an array of other small dishes in the middle of the table. Seems Liam had arranged a tapas treat for the two of them as starters this evening. He really was a man of surprising depth. She could smell tantalising aromas drifting her way from the kitchen, she knew he could cook but she hadn’t expected him to go to such an effort. Wait. Why was he going to all this effort? What did he want?

  “So, did you enjoy your swim?” Liam resumed his own seat, picking up his wine glass. The woman across from him looked beautiful in the candlelight, but it wasn’t her looks that he was enjoying the most at the moment. It was the warring emotions skidding across those green flecked eyes of hers that had him the most intrigued… surprise, suspicion, confusion, anger and reluctant attraction.

  “My swim was fine, thank you.”

  “Here, try one of the tomato and basil bruschetta.” He offered her another plate.

  “You made all this?” Devon picked up a bite sized piece of bread loaded with aromatic tomato and basil. “Why? We could have just ordered take-away.”

  Liam shrugged. “I was bored and I like pottering around in other peoples’ kitchens, I find it relaxing.”

  Devon swallowed, hmmm, the man had added just the right amount of balsamic vinegar to the topping, damn him. “Not me. I think it goes back to med school, I never really had the time… or the interest. But I do enjoy eating.”

  “So… did you manage to speak to the Queen, your grandmother?”

  Devon released a frustrated sigh. “No.” Taking a sip of wine. “She was mysteriously unavailable… as was my mother. I did speak to a wide array of my cousins and Aunts though, but all they did was give me the run around.” Devon frowned as she recalled the little nugget of information that Great-Aunt Meffi had dropped.

  “What? You found out something.” Liam enquired, reading her expression.

  “It was something one of my Aunts said. Meffi is my Grandmother’s younger sister and she likes to drink, Yami love her. When I asked her why we’d made a contract with the Merrow she said something about how my Grandmother had taken one look at me in the cradle and knew I’d be trouble.”

  “Trouble?” Liam couldn’t imagine a newborn giving the queen of the Makura pause for thought.

  “There’s a story my mother tells how my killing nails appeared within hours of my birth. I always thought it was just my mother boasting, you know.”

  “That’s unusual?”

  “Yes, most don’t see them until they are eight or nine, old enough to control them. Meffi made a comment how I’d taken a swipe at my Grandmother from the crib. That she knew it for what it was… a challenge.”

  “A challenge? For the throne? By a newborn?” Liam chuffed a laugh.

  “I think that’s why she sought out a Merrow betrothal contract. Why she caved so readily to my request to study and work in Sydney. She’s keeping me as far as possible from her throne for as long as possible.”

  “Hold on. Do you even want the throne?”

  “Rivers and Lakes, no.” Devon shook her head emphatically. “To rule the Makura? No way, they’re a bunch of hot-headed stubborn bitches who practically invented the word catfight. If they’re not arguing then they’re not breathing. I have better things to do with my time then try and keep them under control and listen to their griping twenty-four seven.”

  “So, your Grandmother feels her position is threatened and that’s why she’s pushing hard for you to finalise your betrothal contract. And with a Merrow in tow it’s unlikely you’d be making many court visits in the foreseeable future.”

  Devon nodded, picking up an olive and popping it into her mouth. “Which provides her with a ten year grace period to come up with a new plan to block me, silly old cow. If she’d ever bothered to take the time to ask me I would have told her I wasn’t interested in being the Makura Regent. Seriously, I could kick myself, betrothal contracts are a way of life for the Makura but I never once stopped to question why mine was made with the Merrow.”

  Liam gave her a sympathetic look. “Family, killing them would be easy, it’s the living with them that’s supposedly the character building element.”

  “I have enough character, trust me. So that brings us back to having no idea who wants me dead… I should probably rephrase that, as a lot of people want me dead. The question should be, who is willing to get off their backside an actively try and kill me?”

  Liam shrugged broad shoulders before leaning across the table to top up her glass. “Sounds like we are circling back to my half-brothers… but…”

  “But, what?”

  “If it is one of them, why try to take me out first? If you are dead, fine-”

  “Hey!” Devon protested.

  “Fine for them I mean, Princess. They earn a reprieve until one of your unattached cousins comes of age. Problem is, with me dead, they don’t stand a chance of avoiding an eventual contractual marriage. There are fourteen contracts and fifteen brothers. Case has already bitten the bullet, thanks to your rejection of him. That still leaves thirteen contracts, including yours. Subtract me from the equation and there are no free passes, every single one of my half-brothers will have to step up to the altar… eventually.”

  Devon sipped her wine. “And I know a few of the clans involved. Not to speak ill of the genetically unblessed but several of the brides-to-be remind me of the before photo in all those makeover shows on TV. Plus a handful of those contract terms are a lot more rigid and binding than my decade long commitment. Some of your half-brothers will be looking at not only relocating but taking an unbreakable lifelong vow of being faithful to their bride. Underwater clans tend to be very tight knit, lots of close male relatives hovering to ensure the new Merrow in their midst follows the letter of the contract signed.”

  Liam shuddered, topping up his own glass almost to the rim. “I hate my father.”

  Devon almost made a casual joke but then it registered how emotionless Liam’s statement had been. This from a man who made a joke out of everything. “You said something before… about meeting your dad for the first time and that he lied to you?”

  Liam shifted on his bench seat, his features slipping into a grim tight mask of stoicism. “For the first five years of my life it was just my mother and I. She was young when she had me, barely seventeen. She’s one of the Reed folk, they tend to live on the water’s edge, connected to both the river and the meadow… harmless. Well, long story short, naïve pretty farmer’s daughter meets the king of all liars. He
sweet talks her and nine months later, ta-da, I arrive. He broke her heart when he tried to steal me away, but the reeds in the river bound him in place. She ran, taking me with her.”

  “She managed to hide you for five years?” Devon was surprised, the Merrow King would have spies in every waterway covering the earth’s surface.

  “It wasn’t easy. We moved a lot. Nevada, Ohio, Nebraska. Anywhere there was a drought. She took a lot of pay nothing jobs just to feed me. Being away from the water, it was hell on us both, but we managed.”

  “But he found you?”

  “When I was four my mother met a guy in Ohio, a farmer, nice man, they fell in love. She wanted to stay with him, I could tell even then. So I convinced her we were safe. Few months later, they got married and for a while everything was fine. Then one day, my father blew in, a water spout forty feet high. Asshole knew how to make an entrance.”

  Devon had to resist the urge to reach across the table and cover Liam’s hand. “What happened?”

  “He took me. Told me there was no need for me to fight him that he just wanted me to meet my brothers, see the Merrow kingdom, and then I could decide… to stay or to go.”

  “And?” Devon prompted.

  “I was so weak when I arrived at the Merrow Court, my first taste of salt water was both invigorating and debilitating. My powers kicked in immediately. It was a lot to handle for a five year old when most Merrow boys are born to the water. I hated it there… my father immediately set about ignoring me. I was his son, I was where I belonged, his interest in me from that point onwards was negligible. My so-called brothers, however, took great delight in teasing and taunting me. By the time I was ten, each of them had tried and failed to kill me at least once.”

  “What about your mother?”

  “It took me three years to build up the strength to be able to leave the ocean and breathe air again. Every day I would head to the surface and force myself to stay there just a little bit longer. By then I knew my father would never let me leave, not because he cared but because I was his blood and his son. Essentially in his eyes, I belonged to him. Don’t look so sad Princess.” Liam suddenly smiled. “Every year from the time I was eight my mother and her husband, Paul, would hire a beach shack on the Florida coast for the Summer and I would join them. I bet you didn’t know I have two younger half-sisters, they helped greatly in making me the humble man that sits before you today.”