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Take me home? That was a bit forward. We didn’t even know each other yet. Maybe I should have let Gellian eat him up.
“Merrum, please.” My words rushed out.
“Back in a flash.” The Sharkrider gave me a cocky smile and left to order our drinks.
Damn. He was just as handsome from the rear. Well-built shoulders and back. Thick, powerful tail and long fin. A body finely honed, most likely from all the work he did, catching and training sharks.
When I turned around, Taura and Gellian gave me four thumbs up.
Soon, the Sharkrider returned with my merrum—a much larger offering than the shots Taura had been plying into me.
“Spank you,” I said.
He laughed again, and I gasped, clasping my mouth.
Shellfish. That was a little in-joke with my girls. Damn this liquor. It was loosening me up and making me even more shameful than usual. I prayed to the sea god to end my streak of embarrassing myself.
He leaned into me, and my pulse scaled ten beats.
“You’re into that, huh?” he asked.
What? No way! Not that I’d ever tried. But getting my ass spanked didn’t sound pleasant.
“No,” I said, a little too fast and dismissive.
The Sharkrider’s thick black brows pinched.
Poseidon. Just shut up now before you say something stupid.
“Haven’t seen you ‘round here before, Sugarfins.” He took a sip from his seaweed beer. “Where you from?”
Shellfish. It wasn’t like I could admit I was Triton’s daughter. Second in line for the throne after my eldest sister. Fastest way to kiss a merman like him goodbye. The Sharkriders were wild and did not bow to the king…the equivalent of human pirates…but for the right price, their services could be bought in times of war.
My mind seized for answers. I glanced around the bar, desperate for a reply, landing on the bartender. “Barmaid,” I said the first thing that came to mind, and sipped on my drink, wincing at the fire raging down my throat.
He brushed hair from my eyes. “You’re too pretty for that. But you’ve got the tits for it.”
Excuse me?Sure, I snuck out of the kingdom to drink and party with my friends, but I still appreciated respect and loathed mermen who did nothing but leer at my body.
“Sorry, Sugarfins,” he said, flashing that smile that hooked me like a fish. “I speak my mind. And I like what I see.”
Shellfish. I decided to give him another chance. Blame it on that sexy voice of his.
He ran his long, calloused fingers along my wrist and up my forearm, and I trembled with excitement.
The swinging door burst open, and the music suddenly stopped.
I glanced over, and my heart practically exploded out of my chest.Shellfish. What was my younger sister Nimian doing here? How’d she find me? She was going to hold this over me for life. She’d threaten to tell Papa unless I did as she said.
Taura and Gellian disappeared behind the crowd at the back of the bar. Cowards. Leaving me behind. Taura didn’t suffer fools well. She considered Nimian to be self-obsessed and a right royal pain in the tail. Best if I kept those two apart to avoid arguments.
Nimian’s eye makeup was smeared from her workout. Normally, she wouldn’t be caught dead swimming around like that. She ran her disapproving gaze over the bar and its patrons. Her nose wrinkled with disgust. As she trailed deeper into the bar, she made sure to avoid contact with anything. But the couple dancing bumped into her, and she jumped backward, dusting her skin as if she thought they had the black rust plague.
If I weren’t so shocked at her entry, I might have laughed at her. My younger sister wasn’t adventurous like I was. She preferred the luxuries my father’s palace had to offer.
Everyone in the bar stared at her. The scales winding along her temples and down behind her ears had turned a shade of dark blue from anxiety. Royals like my sister and I possessed different markings from the regular merfolk, who had green and aqua scales. My grandmother always said it had something to do with our blood. Whenever I journeyed to Shark Bait bar, I colored my scales in green with coral pastel to conceal my true identity.
Adding to the mystery of my sister’s arrival was her hair, all curled and pinned to her head with pearl-shell combs. Coral ink stained her small lips and her rounded cheeks red. She was wearing her favorite golden bodice decorated with aqua beads. The one she reserved for special occasions like balls and feasts. My suspicion peaked. Was she going to try to drag me on a double date? If that was the case, the answer was a resoundingno. The last merman she’d set me up with had been more interested in talking about himself. I couldn’t get a word in. No, thanks.
