Austin cast him an incredulous look.
“As my guest,” the merman quickly added. “You can recuperate from your travels first, of course.”
Austin wasn’t in any state to get back into the water and swim home, and even if he was, Wilbur Riley had already tracked him down. Austincouldn’tgo back. But even so…Liam. Would he be okay? He could easily take on one old man and his injured son, but were there others? People Austin didn’t see?
Austin considered the merman standing before him. He didn’t seem to know what to make of Austin, and their interaction lacked the familiar antagonism he was accustomed to from other mermen. Sam’s accusation that the mermen were unfriendly to Austin because he was unfriendly to them first echoed in his ears.
“I would like to visit,” Austin said, if not in a friendly tone, then at least not in an unfriendly one either. “As your guest.”
A hint of warmth softened the merman’s eyes. He hesitantly extended a hand to Austin, non-intrusive enough that Austin could have ignored it if he liked—as if he was taking extra care to show he didn’t think Austinneededthe help but would like to offer it anyway.
Austin let his mind fold back in time to when he’d been Connor’s boyfriend: to when the way he got what he wanted was through honeyed words and smiles.
Austin placed his hand in the merman’s and smiled.
“Carry me,” he said sweetly.
The merman stared at Austin in total surprise. Austin knew from practising in front of a mirror that he looked gentle and soft, apart from his eyes, which he’d always struggled to disguise the edge in. Austin gave the merman’s warm hand the softest of squeezes. He let the request linger between them.
At length, the merman nodded and moved a considering eye over Austin, clearly figuring out how to lift him.
Austin leaned to the side, giving the merman the room to slide an arm under the back of his knees, bracing the other around his back, holding on to his waist. The blanket bundled around him, keeping it all modest with no skin-to-skin contact. The merman straightened with Austin without any effort whatsoever, arms firm with muscle.
Austin hissed as his knees unfolded, the pains in his body annoyingly excessive. Held bridal style against the merman’s chest, Austin’s head collapsed against the merman’s shoulder. He managed to drape an arm over the opposite shoulder, intending to adjust his position, but all the arm did was dangle. Pained breaths puffed out of him as they walked up the beach.
The sift of sand became a soft slap of foot on stone, and the blazing sun disappeared behind a thatched trellis roof. The merman came to a stop, and Austin wondered at how quiet ithad gone. On their approach, he’d heard voices, which were now absent.
“Would you prefer to rest? Bathe? Eat? I do not have appropriate attendants on hand”—it seemed to pain the merman to admit this—“but I will request my brother to send some over.”
“Bath. Andyoucan attend me.”
The merman tensed at that, and Austin wondered if he’d pushed his luck too far. But the man nodded, and they set off. Painted walls, slightly green windows, many trellises, fine brickwork—everything Austin glimpsed was carefully maintained. He zoned out.
The merman leaned forwards, and Austin’s heel lowered into frigidly cold water. He startled to full awareness, the arm that had been draped over the merman’s shoulder now hooking around his neck to cling on. “It’sfreezing!”
The merman startled upright.
“What is wrong with you?” Austin glared, but strangely, the merman’s confounded expression indicated that he hadn’t tried to dump Austin in freezing water as an insult. Austin peered at the bath—set in the corner of a room that was genuinely larger than his entire cottage—and saw a cart of oils and soaps laid out next to it in corked bottles of green and blue and red. A privacy screen woven with the same large leafy green plant as the trellises outside separated it from the rest of the room.
The merman sat on the edge of the bath, arranging Austin on his lap, and tugged a chain that led to the bathwater draining quickly. He turned a spout that spat out water that steamed, and Austin clung on in genuine shock when the merman tried to lower him intothat.
“Are you crazy? Put me down! Not into that, for Christ’s sake, you’ll burn my skin off.”
The merman lowered Austin carefully to his feet, and Austin had to set his hand on the edge of the bath to keep from teetering over. The metal lip of the bath burned hot against his palm. He glared at the merman, who had backed up, looking suitably chastised.
“I haven’t attended a siren before,” he said, a defensive note in his voice.
“You should attend a lesson in common sense,” Austin said acidly. “Nobody wants a bath that will give them hypothermia, and they want one that will burn them even less.”
The merman didn’t lower his eyes from Austin, but he didn’t argue with him either.
Austin gestured to the door. “Go. I’ll sort myself out from here.”
Austin glared at the merman until the man’s head inclined in akindof submission—those eyes still didn’t break from Austin’s. “Very well.”
The merman left Austin alone. Austin stared at the shut door for a few minutes, waiting to see if the merman decided he wasn’t going to let Austin speak to him like that, but he didn’t reappear. So Austin worked the dials to get the bathwater to anormaltemperature and climbed in. He carefully cleaned the cuts on the side of his neck. They were open and raw, but there didn’t seem to be any blood. The hot water was utter bliss on his taxed muscles, and Austin massaged himself as best he could until the water turned tepid.
When he got out of the tub, he unsteadily circled the large room in search of a mirror. He found clothes for a large man, books, and even a selection of swords in what he first thought was a wardrobe. But no mirror, or anything that could give him a reflection. He briefly glanced at the door, but his feet refused to go in that direction.
