Tatiana gasped and her eyes grew momentarily before she centered herself. How dare he manipulate her when all she wanted was her mate?
“You weren’t able to contain me then and you won’t now,” she hissed and took up another trident leaning against the wall, aiming it at his chest. “Move aside.”
Jacob’s hard expression softened as he eyed the trident. He shook his head with a peculiar grin.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes—” but before she could attempt to use her weapon, Jacob pulled the trident from her hands and swiveled her around, pinning her hands to her sides. He placed his other hand over her mouth. His body, hot and strong, pressed up against hers. A flicker of want sparked inside her. She’d never had a merman hold her like that. Only fabric from her dress and his man skirt was preventing them from accidentally…
“Don’t,” he whispered in her ear. “You’ll wake the household.”
Her breath caught in her throat until guilt overcame her fantasies. She pushed out her claws from her fingertips. With a flick of her wrist, she tried to swipe at his body when the door behind them scraped against the floor, opening. Jacob let go and distanced himself, falling into a bow.
“Captain.”
“What’s going on in here?” Azor commanded, his gaze darting between the two of them.
5
: : :
Sting
In relief, Tatiana swam up to Azor’s side, taking his hand. “I’m so glad you’re here. Tell this guard that he isn’t allowed to touch me again. Ever!”
Azor scowled. “Jacob—explain yourself.”
Jacob raised his head. “The Princess wanted to leave the compound against your orders and she wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer, sir. I restrained her.”
Azor turned to Tatiana with a fierce look and dropped her hand. “Is this true?”
The smug smile melted off her face. “What orders? I had no knowledge of this.”
“You’re not allowed to leave, especially not when our kingdom is at war, hence the reason I’ve assigned Jacob to watch over you.”
She sucked in a startled breath at the words “watch over you.” “This is ridiculous. War?”
Not to mention the occupants in the compound are far more hostile than anyone in Natatoria could be,
she thought
.
“Yes, Tatiana. War. And my father, thanks to Jack, is fighting for his life at this moment. And if he dies, Poseidon help us all. No one will forgive you after that, even if it does make you Queen.”
The water whooshed out her gills and she moved backward in the current, stunned.
Azor caught her surprise. “You didn’t know yet?”
“How would I know? You haven’t told me anything since the explosion, and then you just disappeared earlier today. How did my father injure the King?”
He laughed acrimoniously. “Jack’s explosion freed the sharks and one took off half the King’s fin.”
She shook her head, sinking to the floor. This couldn’t be true.
Off to the right, Jacob shifted his body in the current, his eyes downcast. Did he know and chose not to fill her in? Tatiana wanted to scream at both of them, at the injustice, at how things kept putting a bigger wedge between her and Azor’s happily-ever-after. A sad moan escaped from her lips instead.
Azor yawned and arched his torso. A cracking sound prickled across the water. “I’m tired and hungry, and don’t want to argue about this anymore. Jacob is here to stay, so you had better listen to him. And bring food to my room. Now.” He swam past her toward the second story porthole and disappeared.
She gulped down the bile crawling up her throat and caught Jacob’s apologetic eye. She turned away with a loud humph, maddened by his pity.
“Good night, Princess,” he said as she swam toward the kitchen.
She almost told him he could stick his sympathy up his vent, but bit back her retort. She swallowed her tears and searched through the rock shelves for something to serve her mate, finding nothing. Her eye caught the barely touched meal she’d left on the table earlier.
She grabbed a tray with utensils and swam up the porthole, not before eyeing the naked maiden in the foyer. A tempting thought to remove her dress and serve her new mate topless, like the servants often did, crossed her mind. Too embarrassed, she decided against it.
As she approached the door, her stomach lining ground together like sandpaper. Was it too much to hope he’d pull her into his arms, say he loved her, and promise everything would work out after this horrible unending day? If not, she’d have to live with the constant ache she felt from his disapproval. And now with the King’s injuries, how could he forgive her?
Dumb sharks.
Why did Azor have them at all? Did he never think they might break out of their cage at some point? She groaned and vowed to make things right again, beg for forgiveness, something.
“Azor?” she asked as she entered the doorway. The idea of spending the night in his creepy room wasn’t on her list of places to have their first romantic encounter together. Determined, she lifted her chest and ignored the gargoyles, vowing she’d be a dutiful mate and enjoy herself anyway.
Azor’s head was tilted against the granite headboard, eyes closed. His dark fin spread over the end of the bed. He’d removed his skirt and armor, lying there practically naked. Tatiana’s heart thudded harder and she looked upward, not ready to gaze upon the part that made him a man.
“I’m here,” he said, annoyed.
She swam up with an eager smile. “I found you a lobster and an orange.”
He grunted and took the tray, placing it on his lap. She blew out a sip of water, glad the tray covered him at least. Without a thank you, he pushed aside the knife and fork, and cast off the lid. With wolfish bites, he ripped into the flesh of the live lobster, ignoring its wriggling fits of pain. Then he sent the empty carcass flying into the current, before grasping for the orange halves.
“Someone’s eaten off this.” He crushed the delicacy in his fist. Tangy juice filled the water, making Tatiana’s stomach sick. “Get me a fresh one.”
She opened and closed her mouth, wanting to tell him that it had been her orange and she’d only had one slice, but she didn’t want to anger him any further.
“Okay,” she muttered.
She returned to the kitchen and checked more thoroughly, finding nothing. Apparently, the army had devoured everything in sight, including the entire shark carcass. She fisted her hair.
Where is Xirene when I need her?
What was she going to do?
After a few minutes of fretting, she returned to the second floor empty handed. Quickly, she unbuttoned the back of her dress and wriggled out of it. She placed her palm on the door, ready to push it open, when an idea hit. She unfastened a long section of tulle from the dress’s train and wrapped it around her back and over her breasts, making a bow in front.
With her homemade lingerie on, her heart thumped wildly.
“Azor?” she whispered with a coy smile, pushing open the door.
He’d shifted to his side and his tail zigzagged over the width of the moss. Gills ruffled on his neck between each loud snort.
With a small flick of her tail, she glided over and let her gaze rake over his sculpted body. Tiny iridescent scales covered his torso and thickened at his waist, spreading into a shiny ebony tail—powerful and muscular. But now that she could finally see his
thing
, she wasn’t all that impressed. Though she’d never witnessed a merman’s privates before and had only seen drawings of male parts in Ash’s health book, she’d expected something larger than a tubeworm. How did something so squishy work anyway? Sure, Ash had explained the birds and the bees to her, but fishy style? That appeared to be something completely different.
She bit her knuckle and waited for him to stir. When imagining her first time, she’d hoped Azor would be lucid, at least. And besides gyrating her hips in a mating dance to sweeten the water with pheromones, she was clueless in what else to do to seduce a sleeping merman. With the gargoyles looking on, dancing was the last thing she wanted to do. Then a horror story from mermaid class came to mind. Rumor was Ms. Gumboot’s ear mishap hadn’t been an accident after all. Someone said her mate let his sharkish side take over and he bit her during a moment of passion. Would Azor do the same if she tried to tickle his
thing
?
She gasped, semi revolted and chose to sit next to him. She gently raked her fingers through his lustrous hair, fanning out the dark strands in the current. All they needed was time together and all doubts she had about their differences and compatibility would vanish.
Azor rolled over with a grunt and pinned her down with his heavy tail. The spikes of his pectoral fin dug into her lap, cutting her scales. She muffled a gasp and unpinned herself from his appendage, rubbing at the bleeding cuts on her tail.
Maybe sleeping in separate beds was a good idea.
No,
she told herself.
This is part of being a dutiful mate.
She swam to the other side of the bed and gathered her courage. Spooning next to him, she nuzzled her nose to his ear this time.
Finally, he chucked and reached for her, mumbling something under his breath. Hoping he’d take her into his arms and give her the grand experience everyone was always so hush-hush about, she positioned herself.
His hands made contact with her tulle covered boobs first. She willed away her trembling limbs and held her breath, waiting for him to pull her in tight, ushering her into bliss. But Azor squeezed, too hard.
She yelped and jerked away.
He continued to grope with his hands as if looking for something, eyes still closed.
“Riri,” he mumbled, “get back over here, you vixen.”
Riri?
Tatiana floundered, confused at the name, but assumed he was dreaming. Protecting her chest with one arm and her closest ear with the other, she slid her fin over within his reach.
His eyes fell open and he groggily stared at her, half-lidded. She smiled and revealed her chest to him, hoping he’d undo the bow.
“I’m here for you,” she said, her mouth dry and her heart doing jumping jacks on her empty stomach. “Wrapped as a present.”
He stared at her chest for a beat, and then his lips pulled down. “What are you wearing?”
Wide-eyed, Tatiana felt her insides jolt. He didn’t like it—how could he not? She suddenly wished she’d at least looked in a mirror first. Was she hideous? She glanced down at her breasts, confused. They appeared perky and presentable, as far as she could tell.
However, in the time exchange, Azor’s eyes flipped shut and he flopped backward, rolling away from her. Tatiana stared down at him, trying to process what had happened, her self-esteem crushed. Bubbles made their way up to the ceiling from his backside vent, bathing her with a fowl stench she could taste on her tongue.
He started snoring again and the creatures on the walls mocked her disgracefully again. Then, from out of nowhere, his tail whipped around and wacked her in the backside, nicking her with his poisonous barb. Like a car without breaks, her body careened sideways through the water toward the leviathan on the door. She squealed and held her hands out, bracing for the impact.
As she stopped herself from narrowly missing the monster’s teeth, fire spread down her tail and ignited her fin on the inside. She whimpered, withholding her sobs, and rubbed out the burn. She glared at Azor. He’d slept through everything. Cursing under her breath, she took the hint and pulled at the water with her hands, dragging her dysfunctional tail out the door, never feeling more humiliated in her life.
6
: : :
Priorities
Tatiana rolled over and opened her eyes at the murmurs coming from the first floor. Her ratty dress floated above her like a ghost, minus the gem-covered overlay that was resting on the floor. Pain from her dorsal fin flared once again.
“Holy crawfish.” She reached for her aching appendage and had prompt flashbacks from the night prior. Did Azor even remember what happened?
On her mental checklist of things never to do while trying to seduce Azor,
WEAR TULLE
was listed on top.
What a sack of sea slugs
.
But he did like Grandma’s shell encrusted bra I wore at the top-secret meeting.
Imagining the jangling top activated the synapses of her brain. Maybe a secret dinner for two, in a secluded place where Azor could get his mind off of work—without eyes and ears invading their privacy, was the key. And chocolate covered strawberries. She tapped her lips with her finger. Where would she find those in Natatoria? Maybe Sandy could help or she could pull some strings with her old buddy Dorian.
Then, after Azor’s appetite was sated for both food and other things, she could promise to cook food like that for him all the time and serve him topless—with an air bubble installed, of course. She could read and write, not to mention paint.
Sea stars,
at the thought of cooking, her untransformed human toes curled. He’d love her forever just for her pancakes.
The creak of the iron door made her heart hiccup. She looked up, hoping Azor had come to apologize, and bit her lip so she wouldn’t spill the crabs about the magnificent dinner she’d planned.
“Princess?” Xirene asked before she entered the room.
At her voice, Tatiana’s hope deflated.
“Yes, come in,” she said with a huge sigh, then remembered she still wore the tulle bow across her chest. She swam up, snagged the dress, and held it over her homemade lingerie.
“Breakfast.” Xirene carried in a plate of food and set it on the bed, the same tray Tatiana had used the night prior. Her stomach soured at the embarrassing memory.
“You didn’t have to. I could have come down.” She turned her back to Xirene and shimmied into the dress, reminding herself to pick up more clothing today.
“The morning has been busy with the planning meetings. I assumed you didn’t want to eat with all the guards wandering about, since you slept late.” Xirene swam over and helped fasten the buttons on her dress.
Slept late?
She glared at the dim lighting outside, angered she had no way to tell the day or time.