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Her body shivered underneath my lips, and I couldn’t help but chuckle against her neck.
“Why… why wouldn’t I come back?” she asked, her voice sounding breathless.
Pulling back, I felt the heat from my breath blanket over all the exposed skin of her neck and swallowed hard. That eeltail might prove to be even more dangerous than the real thing.“It’s not a very mermaid-like thing to do, coming back. But I know, I know—you’re not a mermaid. Not anymore.”
“Damn right I’m not,” she mumbled, sliding through the warehouse door. Her hand locked on mine before she made it all the way through, pulling me in behind her.
Captain Maris was already making his way to us on the other side.Fuck.I raised my chin and pulled a dangerous glower I knew would send him reporting back to my father without bothering me for details.
We swerved right past him as he stopped, rubbing at the back of his neck with the long end of his floor brush like I was putting him in a hard situation. Well, too fucking bad. He had eyes and could see that the other kingdoms had been true to their word.
Other than Captain Maris, the rest of the kingdom seemed holed up in their quarters, their blankets and veils pulled tight. The question of why she came back so late shot to the tip of my tongue, but I shoved it back down. That didn’t matter. She was here with me now.
“You first,” she whispered, easing back my bedchamber curtain.Ourbedchamber, I reminded myself. I cracked my knuckles as I passed through, my foot finding the edge of my bedroll with the very first step.
Even though I was a prince, I’d opted to stay with the rest of the kingdom rather than in a private room like my father had advised. Storeroom 2B flashed to mind, and my whole body throbbed. Although it was cramped, I never regretted my choice of laying my bedroll here instead.
Especially not tonight.
Claira’s back found mine as the curtain closed behind us, and she dropped her sack at our feet. “Cozy,” she mumbled, her tiny hands anchoring on my shoulder blades so she could twist back around.
“Mmh,” I breathed out, suddenly anxious. The last time I was in bed, I awoke to a blade at my throat. Not a terrible way to wake up—as long as Claira was the one holding the knife.
After her nap earlier, my bedroll was tidier than I ever kept it, so I kicked back a corner of the blankets and settled in. As I laid my legs out fully, she sank to her knees with a small huff I could feel all the way in my groin. Then the sound of laces rustling sent me into a string of silent curses, her fingers going to work on her boots. She pulled off one heavy boot and set it aside, then moved to the other.
I draped an arm back, propping my head up on my pillow and opening my chest up for her arrival. Desire burned hot in my throat, roughening my voice as I watched the second boot slide off. “Do you remember, back when we were merfry, the time we hid underneath my bed for an entire day?”
“What?No.” Her whispered voice nearly cracked, and I fought back a chuckle at the care she took to settle down on the very edge of the bedroll. “You must be joking. I never even once went down the hall leading to the royal bedchambers, Lee. They have guards there for a reason, you know.”
“The first morning of the Haddock Days festival,” I mumbled, watching the shadows dance over the back of her neck as she smoothed her hair with her hands. “Remember? I’d just accidentally opened the female pen, and the males started lekking before I could get the gate back down.”
Her gasp of realization was sharp enough to ring through the entire warehouse, and I shot up with a silent laugh to press a finger to her lips. “Shhh…”
When her lips clamped shut, I dropped my finger, letting my hand brush down her jaw, her neck, her shoulder. Ever so gently, I eased us both back, reclining her down with me until she landed snug against my chest. The bedchamber was dark, but I followed her lashes as they fluttered up to look at the ceiling.
“I—I think I remember now. We were both scared, right? You grabbed me, and we hid under your bed.” Her lips moved slowly, carefully, the hint of a smile playing at their corners.
I brushed a thumb against her cheek, then set my arm back behind my head to make more room for her on our pillow. “Something like that.”
It wasn’t quite the truth I was hoping she remembered, but I was still thankful she’d forgotten the part where she caught me swimming into the palace, shaking and dry heaving from the fear of what my father would say when he found out I’d ruined the opening of his favorite festival.
Weak and spineless as I was back then, I hadn’t protested when tiny Nera daringly told me to grab on to her back so she could claw the both of us back to my bedchamber, pulling us along using only the shells encrusted in the palace walls as I squeezed her neck and sobbed into her hair.
When my father finally found us, she was the first to pop out from under my bed, boldly informing him how scared she had been of all the visiting merfolk and how she’d forced me to take her somewhere to hide when all I really wanted to do was confess.“So if you’re here to punish Lee, you should punish me, too!”
Her insistence on helping the shark last night proved she was just as reckless now as she’d been back then. Claira was unfairly burdened and broken in some ways but absolutely fearless when it counted.
My father had taken a long look at her that night, a young merfry fighting for anything within her reach to make sure she always held herself up high, and then at his sniveling son cowering underneath a bed, and turned right back around, leaving without a single word.
I hadn’t realized it then, but my father had likely already had his fill of schrod and ingested enough stonefish venom he could barely swim upright, let alone notice the lekking had started half a day too early. Still, after that night, I’d found myself totally and hopelessly enamored.
“There are lots of things I forgot from back then. Had to forget most things, I guess, so I could adjust to life here on land.” Sighing softly, she closed her eyes.
“It’s fine. You don’t have to remember everything that happened.”Because I’ll never forget.
I rolled up on my side, tugging at the blankets until they covered us both. They were far from warm, but anything helped to cut the chill. With my back settled against the neighboring partition, as long as I tucked her next to me, it looked like we both would fit.Fuck. Some insistent—and uncomfortably swollen—part of me had been hoping we’d actually need to stack.
Hidden under the layers, curious hands wasted no time finding my chest, sliding and exploring until they settled at my waist.Oh, really?
