by Devyn Quinn
The ship shifted a little beneath his feet. For an instant he considered turning around and walking away, pretending that he’d seen nothing. Instead, he held his ground.
He cleared his throat. “Sorry to interrupt,” he said, fighting to keep his tone even and neutral, “but we should return to the Sea Horse.”
As if caught in the middle of doing something illegal, Addison pulled out of Jovon’s embrace. She turned. Her mouth was moist and bruised with kisses.
She blinked as if his presence surprised her. “Sorry,” she murmured, swiping at her mouth as if to conceal the evidence. A flush of embarrassment colored her cheeks.
Mason shrugged, fighting to project nonchalance. “No big deal.” He eyed the Nyx, consciously sizing up his competition. “Looks like you two found plenty to talk about.”
Jovon, not the slightest bit embarrassed, inclined his head. “Indeed, we did.” He lifted one massive hand to Addison’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “In case you are wondering, I have asked Addison if she would consider an alliance between the Mer and the Nyx by becoming my breed-mate.”
Barely aware that his heart was pounding hard against his ribs, Mason wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly. “I’m sorry—I didn’t catch what you said.” Inside, he refused to acknowledge he was upset.
Addison folded her arms across her chest, her movements uncomfortable and self-conscious. “Jovon has asked me to consider becoming his wife.”
“Is that so?” Mason countered, surprised by the tightness of his voice. His heart continued to thud against his rib cage, driven by a hot burst of emotion.
“He believes we’d have a better chance of deposing Magaera if our people reunite,” she explained, avoiding his eye.
Her words hit like a punch in the stomach. “I see.” Mason stared at her through narrow eyes as resentment and jealousy melded into a single ugly emotion. He wanted to lash out at her. Make her feel his hurt.
Addison stepped back as though physically struck. “I haven’t decided anything yet,” she added in a rush.
Mason barely spared her a glance, focusing his gaze on Jovon. The rat bastard, he inwardly raged. He has no right to her.
Clearly sensing his spiteful thoughts, Jovon let his hand drop from Addison’s shoulder. “I will let you think it over. Perhaps now would be a good time for us to say good night,” he suggested. “I will return to my people.”
Addison glanced at him. “Will you be nearby?”
Jovon reached for her hand, pressing it briefly to his lips. “Of course, my lady. You can rest assured the Mer will not get near your ships.”
As he struggled to tamp his anger down, Mason’s brows rose. My lady? What kind of bullshit was this? Treating Addison as if she were some kind of princess…
He swallowed thickly. But she was royalty. Jovon was treating her with the deference and respect rightfully hers in their hierarchy.
Bidding them both good night, Jovon strode past him with all the reassurance of the male who’d marked his territory.
Mason forced himself to slow down and think. Sorting through his emotions wasn’t a pleasant task, but it was a necessary one nevertheless.
They’d shared an attraction and had made love, but that was all. He’d cut her short after the Mer had attacked. After all, what kind of future did a mermaid and a man married to his job have together?
At least that was what he’d believed until he saw Addison in the arms of another man. The idea that she might accept Jovon’s proposal sent him over the edge with jealousy.
He briefly closed his eyes, refusing to acknowledge he was upset. He was a big boy. He’d slept with women before, knowing full well that another man would slip in between the sheets once he left port. That came with the territory of being a man with no real place to call home. The sea was his calling, and he’d always given it preference over the women who drifted in and out of his life.
But he didn’t want to repeat this pattern with Addison.
Mason clasped his hands behind his back. “Looks as though you two are getting along well,” he said coldly. Jovon had stopped to speak to the others in the adjoining room, which irritated him to no end. Despite his odd looks and manner of dress, the Nyx was polite and well-spoken to the nth degree.
Addison seemed to pick up on his mood immediately. “Why do you care, Captain McKenzie?” she said evenly.
“I don’t,” Mason said, trying to remove the edge from his voice but failing. “I just marvel at your ability to have sex with one man and then move on to another, just like that.”
Addison folded her arms across her chest. “You’re one to talk. Seemed to me you were just trying things on for size. After Magaera’s soldiers attacked, you didn’t exactly seem interested.” Her tone was laced with a tinge of bitterness.
“It wasn’t like that at all,” Mason said tightly.
“What was it, then?” she demanded. “I thought we had something there. You know, that little spark that says this is the one for me.”
Her words caught him short. Guilt punched through him. That spark? Yeah. It was there. He’d felt it, too.
And then he’d told himself that it wasn’t the real thing; that love at first sight was often a hormonal attraction otherwise known as lust; that men such as he didn’t commit.
But it suddenly occurred to Mason that having no place to call home didn’t mean he was independent. It meant he was alone—always alone.
And he hated it.
Now that he’d met a woman he could possibly commit to, everything about their getting together was totally messed up.
He stared at her for an interminable minute, secretly loving her to pieces even as he wished he’d never laid eyes on her. “It’s there,” he said slowly. “But it’s nothing we can take advantage of. We both belong to different worlds, and we have different responsibilities to fulfill.”
It was the sensible, sane, and logical thing to say. With the mission foremost in his mind, he couldn’t let his personal feelings get in the way. Whether he liked it or not, he’d have to let Addison make her own decisions. If she wanted to mate with Jovon in order to unite their people, then that was her prerogative.
He didn’t like the idea, but he’d accept it.
Addison’s gaze darkened. “I see. It’s always duty first with you.”
Mason wasn’t sure how he found the strength to nod, but he did. “I’ve got twelve years in the navy,” he said. “I can’t be like Whittaker and risk everything for what I think my heart wants.”
Tears shimmered in her eyes. She blinked hard. “I guess that makes sense.” Her voice was little more than a whisper.
I love you, he thought. But I can’t have you.
Addison offered a tremulous smile. “I feel the same way.” She shook her head sadly. “If it’s any consolation, I wish things had been different; that we could have met under other circumstances.”
Because he didn’t want to break down in front of her, Mason turned away and started walking. He had to get back to the Sea Horse, to a familiar environment where the rules made sense. He forced his limbs to move, bidding his host good-bye stiffly before boarding the skiff that would take him away from Addison.
He was barely aware that he’d left her behind. He couldn’t even begin to wonder how they’d come to this point. He hadn’t meant for anything to happen between them. It just had. But with every action came a consequence. For now it was better that they spend some time apart.
Tomorrow they could go on pretending nothing had happened.
Thick clouds lumbered overhead, and the night sky glowed eerily. Gusts rocked the smaller vessel, and a spray of cold salty water drenched him.
“Looks as though we’re getting the tail end of the storm,” one of the seamen called over the lashing wind.
Tightening his hold, Mason nodded. “Steady on. We’ve seen worse than this.” A sudden hard gust snatched his words away and carried them off.
Retreating back into silence,
he marveled at the eerie beauty of the Mediterranean Sea. There were times when it seemed to resent man’s arrogance in assuming they could conquer its depths. Tonight was definitely one of those times when he’d have preferred to be on dry land. Singapore. Yeah. That would be all right—trolling one of those shady little out-of-the-way bars where the drinks were cheap and the women were beautiful.
Trying to distract himself from thinking about Addison wasn’t working. No matter how hard he tried pushing her out of his mind, the memories of that stubborn little mermaid refused to budge. She was the best thing that had ever come into his life. He admired her courage and tenacity, her loyalty to family, and her determination to do the right thing, even if others didn’t always agree with what she had in mind.
She’d opened up a whole new world to his eyes, showing him all the wonders of the sea in an entirely new way.
An inner voice deep inside niggled at him. You, my man, are a fool, it said. He’d mapped out a course for his career, but he’d forgotten to allow for the one vital element that made any man’s life worth living—having someone special to share it with.
It suddenly occurred to him that he’d viewed his parents’ marriage in the wrong way. He’d always assumed his mother was weak because she’d continually deferred to his father’s wishes. Looking back as an adult, he realized she’d been strong in so many other ways; she had been a quiet feminine presence in a house full of domineering males. Where his father had been a rough-and-tumble man who demanded his sons toe the line, she’d been there to soothe their anguish, bandage their wounds, and offer gentle words of encouragement that turned defeat into victory.
Hindsight, as it was always said, was twenty-twenty. It was as if he’d been walking around half blind. Seeing Jovon with Addison had opened his eyes. The image of him touching her went all over him like a bad rash. The thought of her being with another man was unacceptable.
At that moment he made up his mind. The next time he saw Addison, he was going to throw all his hesitations to the wind and tell her how he really felt. And then he was going to spend every day after that making up to her for being a jerk. Somehow they’d find a way to work through their differences. If you want it bad enough, he reminded himself, you can make it happen.
He wondered what Jovon would think of that.
But he never had a chance to consider the answer.
Just as Mason was about to climb aboard the Sea Horse, all conscious thoughts vanished in a detonation of multicolored lights…
Addison stared in Mason’s wake. Watching him walk away was the hardest thing she’d ever done; yet she didn’t have the courage to speak up to tell him how she felt.
A single tear streaked down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away, refusing to acknowledge the ache deep inside her soul.
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Gwen said from behind, “but that sure looked like a lover’s quarrel.”
Feeling lost, confused, and utterly lovesick, Addison quickly shook her head. “You heard wrong. We’re not lovers.”
Folding her arms across her chest, Gwen frowned. “If there’s one person you can’t lie to, Addled Brain, it’s me. The vibes are all over you.” She narrowed her eyes. “You slept with Captain McKenzie, didn’t you?”
The sound of her childhood nickname jerked Addison’s head up. “Slept with? No. Had hot sex with… ? Yeah, that kind of accidentally happened.”
Her older sister’s jaw dropped. “How do you accidentally happen to have sex with a man?”
Confused, Addison turned and paced to the opposite side of the atrium. Her heart thudded against her rib cage. Regret stormed through her. Even though she wouldn’t admit it out loud, she’d liked Mason on sight. Tall, blond, tanned, he was obviously a man of the sea. If ever a perfect match was brewing, she was sure this was it. But her attraction to him went beyond the physical. McKenzie was a man who valued the same things she did: dedication, honesty, and the integrity that came with serving a greater purpose, even if it meant putting aside one’s own selfish needs.
She frowned. Except I can’t have him.
Mason had made it clear he was a career officer, wedded to the US Navy first. He had no inclination to be anchored to a woman, even if she had ten times his skills in the water and a tail to boot.
Addison threw up her arms in frustration. “You know how it is, when you just meet a man. Suddenly the sparks fly and your clothes fly and you’re just having wild monkey sex.”
Gwen’s brows flew halfway up her forehead. “No,” she said, shaking her head, “I really don’t know how that goes. I’ve only ever been with one man, and Blake’s the only one I’ll ever be with.”
Addison pulled in a breath. “Prude,” she muttered under her breath.
Gwen shook her head. “Waiting to have sex doesn’t make me a prude,” she said. “It makes me careful and responsible. I’m not like you and Tessa, you know. Flashing your tail in front of every man who gives you a wink and a tingle in a certain place isn’t the way to find your mate.”
Addison barely spared her older sister a glance. “How you kept your legs welded together for twenty-seven years, I’ll never know. Haven’t you ever heard the old saying? That you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince? At least Tessa and I have lived a little.”
“You’ve both kissed a lot of frogs, too. As for Prince Charming, it looks like he just turned on his heel and walked out on you.”
Addison felt her words like a red-hot poker being shoved straight through her heart. The agony was intense, as if her life’s blood flowed from a wound that would never heal. “We had agreed it was just a one-time thing, you know. An itch to be scratched.”
Gwen made a face. “Sounds like poison ivy.”
Addison offered a weak smile. “It felt right, though. When we were together, it seemed as if we just fit together in all the right ways. I’m not a stupid little virgin—”
“I’d rethink those words,” Gwen broke in drily.
Addison rolled her eyes. “I’m aware you think I’ve been a little generous with my affection, but I know the difference between just sex and something else…”
“And it’s something else with McKenzie, isn’t it?” Gwen asked quietly.
Feeling like a miserable fool, Addison felt the sting of tears all over again. “Yeah.” Her head dropped. “I think so.”
Gwen crossed to her, throwing an arm around her shoulder and pulling her close. “What about him? Does he feel the same way?”
Closing her eyes against the barrage of emotions trampling through her, Addison leaned her head on her sister’s shoulder. Even though she and her sisters often picked at each other and squabbled unmercifully, when push came to shove, they’d always stuck together. That was the way it had always been, even before their parents had died. If you messed with one Lonike girl, you messed with them all.
“He says he doesn’t,” she admitted, “but the vibes I picked up when he saw me with Jovon said something else.”
Gwen pulled back. “You were with Jovon?”
“It was nothing,” she hastened to add. “We were talking, and he, uh, he kissed me.”
Gwen took her arms and gave her a shake. “What the hell were you doing locking lips with Jovon? You just met him a few hours ago, and he put the moves on you?”
For several long seconds, Addison stood, breathing hard. Her mind was muddled, as if she’d pulled off her head and tossed it into the dryer. All her thoughts tumbled wildly, oddly incoherent.
“I don’t know why I was kissing him,” she said, crestfallen. “We were talking, and then one thing led to another. The Nyx are our natural mates, and they want to be able to return to Ishaldi. Jovon had just asked me if I would consider being his breed-mate when Mason walked in.”
Gwen let her hands drop. “Oh, little girl,” she lamented, shaking her head, “you certainly do have a talent for putting your feet in deep piles of shit. First, you sleep with Captain McKenzie, who, I should add, is in no position to
be sleeping with you if he’s any kind of an officer. Then, when that doesn’t work out, you trot off into the arms of the next male who happens to find you attractive.”
Addison’s palm connected with her forehead. “By the goddess, I’ve really made a mess of things.”
Gwen shot her a disgusted look. “Yes, you have. If McKenzie happened to have any feelings for you, you probably strangled them right then and there. All he probably saw was a tramp who couldn’t keep her legs closed and her panties up.”
Back to the wall, Addison slid to the floor. She drew up her legs, resting her chin on her knees. “I’m not really sure what happened with Jovon,” she admitted. “I mean, yeah, I think I find him mildly attractive, and maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Mer and the Nyx to get back together.”
Gwen sat down beside her. “And did you happen to forget what Jovon mentioned?”
Addison shook her head. Right now she wouldn’t recall being run over by a truck, even if it had reversed and backed over her twice. Jovon, Mason, the alcohol she’d consumed, her emotions… Everything was one big muddled mess. “I don’t remember.”
“Apparently you weren’t listening when Jovon mentioned that the Nyx exude a pheromone to help calm their females. I’m going to assume that pheromone also puts a Mer in the mood for love.”
Addison stared back. “You mean that bastard put the moves on me?”
Gwen clicked her tongue. “Appears so. As a Mer, you know we’re susceptible to those kinds of things.”
Addison lifted a hand, fanning herself. Somehow I have the magic touch, she thought. Taking a good thing and screwing it up. On one hand, she wanted Mason. But he’d made it clear less than ten minutes ago that he wasn’t interested. On the other hand, Jovon had indicated he would be more than happy to have her as his mate.
Except what she’d felt for the Nyx was somewhat dishonestly produced, seeing as he’d whammied her senses with some Nyx love potion. In contrast, she had no doubt about what she’d felt when she was with Mason.
That was real—very real.
Hands down, there was no contest.