“What were you doing there?”
He shook his head again. Okay, maybe hedidn’tunderstand as much as I thought he did because now he smiled at me.
“What’s your name?”
Another shake of his head.
“Fuck.” I shoved myself to my feet and stalked to the window to stare outside. The Marina Hospital had the perfect view of the ocean, with the waves rocking boats of all shapes and sizes in the harbor. I could see The Mermaid Hunter from here, and Joey, too, but he was more of a dot than an actual person.
Hands touched my arm, and I jumped, turning toward John Doe as he stepped closer to me. He wore a white hospital gown that reached his knees, but his feet were bare. Smiling at me, he pressed his hand against the glass of the window and looked at me again with a tilted head.
“Yes, out there. I found you out there.” I shifted closer to him, like an instinct I couldn’t deter, and his gaze traveled down my body with an intent I couldn’t quite work out. His stare jerked back to my face and he stepped closer, bringing a strange crisp scent of the ocean with him. How was that even possible?
He reached up and touched my mouth with his finger, pulling at my bottom lip, and his smile grew wider.
“Who are you?” I mumbled, a strange sense of recognition stirring in my belly. It was like I knew him, but didn’t. Maybe I’d met him before.
He pushed himself up on his tiptoes, and his mouth was so close to mine that it didn’t take a genius to figure out what he was about to do. A stranger—amale—was about to kiss me. It was at that point I should have taken a step back, told him off in my typical asshole way, but I stood there instead, let his lips touch mine in a gentle, inquisitive kiss that felt both strange and attractive. He was a dude, yet his mouth was so soft, and it didn’t last long before he pulled back. A flush filled his cheeks and his mouth curled in a wide grin, almost like he was laughing without the noise of it.
I frowned down at him, at the way his chin dipped in embarrassment, and moved with an outrageous need that I’d never felt in my whole life. I didn’t do anything gentle, so I grabbed his face between my hands and slammed my mouth against his in a kiss that would have made whores blush. Kissing wasn’t the right term for what I did. I fucked his mouth as hard as I could, tongue shoving between his lips.
By the timeIwas satisfied, his cheeks were flaming red and his knees nearly gave out. I grabbed him before he could fall and carried him back to the bed, dumping him there.
“That’s how you kiss, Boy.” The name for him slipped out so easily, like that was what it was always meant to be.
He touched his lips, staring at me with wide eyes.
“Are you going to tell me who you are?” I growled, gripping his chin in a rough grip. “Tell me how you got there.”
He tried to shake his head, but he couldn’t move it much with how I was holding him.
“You don’t want to, or you don’t know the answer?”
He held up two fingers to me, and I thought that meant the second answer. I could work with that.
“Fine. Listen to me very carefully, Boy. If any memories of who you are come back, you’ll tell me immediately. I don’t care if you have to use charades or if you write it down, but you will tell me.”
Blinking, he nodded.
“I leave on my boat this afternoon. I’m a hunter, Boy, and I hunt merpeople.”
His eyes widened again and those big blue globes stared curiously at me.
“Yes, you heard me right. Merpeople. They’re real, and I’ll prove it. I lost two days because I saved you, so you’re going to come on The Mermaid Hunter, my boat, with me this afternoon, and you’re going to help me and my crew. Do you understand?”
Hesitation passed over his face, and he glanced down at his bare knees. The gown had ridden up his legs, and I couldn’t help but follow his gaze. I placed my hand on the inside of his right knee and slid it up his thigh, and he swallowed, the small apple in his throat bobbing.
I stopped midthigh, tickling the unblemished skin there. “Do you understand?”
He glanced up at me with a passionate gaze that made my belly turn. Fuck. He was aguy, with a dick and balls, and one I didn’t even know. Why the hell did I want to kiss him again? No, I wanted to do more than that. My cock twitched in my pants at the feeling of his heated skin under my fingers. I wanted tofuckhim.
He reached out nervously and cupped my cheek, smiling. His nod was the only answer I needed.
Convincing Nurse Cassidy to let him go would be harder. Usually they needed proof to who he was and then insurance, but everyone felt sorry for me in this town. Getting him out of the hospital would cost some cash, but it could be done.
“Are you insane?”Taylor asked from where he’d perched himself on the side of the boat. His gaze jumped from me, to Joey, to Boy, and back again.
Boy sat curled up on the bench against the port side of the boat, his legs bent beneath him and his head tilted curiously as he stared at Taylor. I’d gone out to buy him a few sets of clothes, some jeans and T-shirts, and some shorts for the hotter days. It was spring going into summer in Florida after all. We had scorching days that left sunburns on our skin, the reason I managed to get a dark tan. I’d spent years out on boats, searching for the existence of mermaids with Dad. At the time, I’d loved the tan because it made the girls swoon. Now, the only thing I cared about was getting the job done. Nevertheless, you could still get cold out on the ocean as the boat powered along.
