“ANGEL? WHERE ARE YOU?”
Logan. Angel’s chuckle was half-groan. Talk about karma, the universe, whatever.
She swung her legs off the edge of the lounge and toed around for her shoes. “Right here, Logan.”
He rounded the corner before she could get her sec-ond shoe on and stand, which left her gaze at thigh level. His thigh.
So not where she needed it to be.
She sprang to her feet—and teetered on the new ap-pendages that were now at uneven heights, thanks to the one-shoe thing. Gods, when would she learn?
Then Logan reached out to steady her and didn’t let go, and she figured she’d learned fairly well.
No no no. The job. She had to remember the job. “Are you okay?”
If she could find her voice, she’d answer him. As it was, she could only nod.
“Oh. Good.” He let go of her arms.
Thank the gods she managed to stay upright. Some learned scientist she was—cool, professional, able to maintain distance when dealing with her subjects—
Yeah, she was fooling no one. Least of all her-self. Wanting, falling… Was there really that much of a difference?
“How about a walk on the beach?” He held up a white
plastic box. “I’ve got the monitor on in Michael’s room so we can hear if he needs us.”
“Oh. O…okay.” Well, good. She was getting her voice back. That was a plus. Now if she could just get the tummy flutters to settle down, she’d be in good shape. Then Logan held her elbow while she kicked off the other shoe, and continued holding it the entire way down the flagstone path to the steps leading to the beach, all the while, her stomach was dancing the mambo.
It was a good thing they were going on a walk. As opposed to oh, say, hanging out in the kitchen…
A walk was harmless. It would give them a chance to get to know each other better. She could learn more about his world. Hear his thoughts. Practice walking on a new surface, and chalk it up to experience in prepara-tion for her argument to Rod. It’d be a good argument.
So good that she almost convinced herself that was why she was going on the walk—until the cool grains of sand slid beneath her feet and squelched between her toes, and she had to grab Logan again to catch her balance.
When his warm skin met hers, and his muscles flexed beneath her fingers, her balance became seriously com-promised as shivers ran up her arm, and toe-tingling became toe-curling.
Angel wasn’t sure which rocked her world more off-kilter, the sand or Logan.
Or the wave that was headed right at her.
She hopped to the side to avoid it, glad she still had hold of him so she didn’t go down—more than an em-barrassment, that would have been a disaster. Her tail nondisclosure loomed large between them.
“So, um, what did you want to talk about?”
“You.” Logan’s voice swirled her tummy like high tide in an inlet.
“Me?” Her voice, on the other fin, sounded like a sick seal pup. She’d never squeaked before. It wasn’t attractive. Logan took her hand and headed down the beach away from the inlet on the other side of his house. “Me,
too, of course.”
“You?” Eloquent, wasn’t she? “And last night.”
Her stomach did that squirmy thing again. “What, um, about it?”
Another wave flowed up the beach, a little too close to them for her liking, and Angel took another step to the side.
“You don’t want to walk in the surf?” Logan didn’t let go of her hand.
So she didn’t let go either. “Not really. I saw some sharks offshore and would rather not tempt them.”
“Sharks don’t come onto shore, Angel.”
“Well, you never know.” Okay, it was lame, but what was she going to say? I don’t want to have my legs liter-ally swept out from under me?
Besides, the hand-holding was already doing a fine job with that, and she could only imagine what talking about last night would do.
“So, about last night.” Logan kept his eyes straight ahead.
She knew because she kept stealing little glances out the corner of her eyes. “Yes?”
His grip on her hand tightened. “I promised you I wouldn’t come on to you, yet today I did it again.”
And how was she supposed to respond to that? “But you didn’t back away.”
Oh. That’s where he was going with this. “Um, yes… I mean, no.”
Hades, she didn’t know what she meant.
Logan stopped then. He turned to face her, his eyes searching hers. “Why didn’t you, Angel?”
Angel’s heart thudded. “I…”
A breeze swept around them, tossing her hair all around. Over her shoulders and wrapping it around her neck. Wrapping it around his. She reached for the bunch of hair that rested on him, but Logan beat her to it. He gathered the strands and swept them across his lips.
“Your hair is…” Logan’s whisper melted into the sound of the waves. “It’s beautiful.”
And she melted into the sound of his voice.
Another wave slid onto the beach while the moment became supercharged.
Angel looked away first. There was something so honest in his gaze and, well, the guilt of not telling him the truth got to her.
But he’d never be able to fathom the idea of a Mer. No Human could. Mers had been relegated to myth status in their world, and that’s where both races were comfortable with them being right now. She wasn’t here to upset that balance. Just nudge it a little.
Still, she didn’t like not being able to be herself with him. Her true self.
She gathered her hair, twisting it at the nape of her neck and knotting it over on itself, finding any place to look but at him. “Um, thanks.”
Then he held out his hand and cleared his throat. “So… should we continue?”
Continue what?
She took his hand, knowing it wasn’t the safest move on her part. Knowing she was going to have to answer his question—especially to herself.
But she knew the answer. She was attracted to him. She knew what it was like to kiss him. What he felt like pressed against her. The way his hair felt. The catch in his breath when she flexed her fingers against the back of his neck…
Oh yeah, they should continue. Because she wasn’t going on a walk to learn anything scientific about Logan.
She was going on this walk to learn all about Logan for purely personal reasons.
The differences between them be damned.
“Son of a Moray!” Harry thrashed his tail. She was walking on the beach with the Human. Walking! And the sun was down! How in Hades was she doing this? By rights, the Mer ought to be running for the ocean, diving beneath the waves in a desperate attempt to get her tail back, but no. This Tritone was waltzing noncha-lantly along the beach as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
And A.C., damn him, was reminding Harry, port and starboard, that this was supposed to be a quick job. As if Harry needed the reminder.
He didn’t know what she thought she was doing, but he knew he wasn’t going to let her get away with it. She was the first royal he’d been able to get close to in recent
months, and he wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip through his gills.
He turned to Lou. “Keep an eye on them, but don’t touch her. I want to check out a few things. I’ll be back in the morning.”
Somehow, some way, she’d slip up. And then he, and the guys, would pounce.