Shark Bait (18 page)

* * * *

Nereus watched the city pass out the window of the Dendric company car. Every day since his capture he’d dreamed of the day when he’d be leaving for good, but he felt strangely empty. David’s finger thrummed on the armrest between them, his hand a quiet temptation.

Nereus reached out and held it. When he squeezed, David blinked away the glassiness in his eyes. There were so many things he wanted to say, but “thank you” was all that came out.

“You’re welcome, baby.” David’s lip twitched as he said it, and Nereus felt a weight settle in his chest.
His lips pressed tight, not wanting to spill too much in front of the couple in the back seat. The shark shifter stared straight ahead, the cords in his neck tensed. They both stank of sex, and if her heated expression as she tried not to lay eyes on his body was any indication, they’d be at it again the second they left the car.
David called to the back seat. “The boat you stole was retrieved by our people when you were captured.”
Both the dragon and the shark’s brows furrowed at David’s words. Nereus smiled. They were like an old couple.
“And?” The shark spoke in his usual aggressive tone, but Nereus detected a hint of fear.
“And it turns out the owner’s been trying to sell it ever since the economy turned south. They were happy to accept what we offered them for it.”
It was hard to tell, but Nereus though he heard the shark breathe a sigh of relief. “And our stuff?”
“Your belongings are onboard.” The shark swallowed hard, and Nereus could have sworn he sniffed. Crap, they would all be crying by the end of this car ride. Only the female seemed to be keeping it together, lying against her vicious-looking lover and petting her coffee-colored hand down his tan arm.
The harbor appeared at the bottom of a hill, and David’s thumb stroked Nereus’s hand. Not giving a crap about what the folks in the back thought, he raised David’s hand to his mouth and kissed his open palm.
The Civic pulled to a stop, and the shark threw open the door and pulled his girlfriend out after him. David rolled his window down. “Hey! Don’t forget your stuff!” The shark took the satellite phone, netbook, and wallet David offered. “I want to hear from you at least every other day to start.”
“Want to keep me on a short leash, Dr. Weber?” The shark’s bearing shouted threat, but the crinkles in the corners if his eye told a different story.
“Undoubtedly.” David stuck his hand out the window for a handshake, and the shark looked at it as if unsure what to do. Then he reached out his own hand, far more tentatively than Nereus would have expected, and shook David’s.
“Thanks, Doc.” He glanced at the dragoness, who was skipping down the dock. “For everything.”
Nereus felt a lump rise up in his throat as the couple walked away. “He’s got a decent ass, huh?”
David’s watery chuckle answered him. When the doctor turned back to him, Nereus feared he would break. David’s hazel green eyes cut into him, asking for nothing, promising everything. “I guess this is goodbye.”
Nereus pulled him in close, pressing his lips into David’s mouth, gentle, tasting the salt of his tears. “I’m going to miss you. Crap that sounds dumb, right?”
Instead of answering, David hooked a hand around his nape and slanted his mouth. Nereus let the salt run faster down his face as David kissed him with everything he had.
The doctor pulled away just far enough to speak against Nereus’s lips. “I’m so sorry…”
The merman nodded and bit his lip. He opened the car door and walked toward the water as fast as he could, not looking back. Part of him wanted to run back, find a fishing boat offshore and love David one more time, but he knew if he did that he wouldn’t have the strength to leave.
When he reached the end of the dock, he dove straight in, not even bothering to undress. It would be a long time until his human-form body didn’t crave David’s. The waves accepted him like a mother, and he kicked hard back out to sea.

* * * *

David watched until he saw Nereus dive. For long minutes after, he wondered, imagined, hoped that he’d come climbing out of the water again, rivulets running down his smiling face. But he didn’t.

It may have been minutes or hours later when David wiped his eyes and placed his fingers on the key to the ignition. He paused, picked up his phone, and dialed.

His mother picked up right away.

“Hi, Mom. Yeah, I’ve been doing well…The job is fine, better than fine…”
He pinched his forehead between his thumb and forefinger as she chatted.
“Hey Mom, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you…I’m gay.”
He barely heard her next words, his heart thumped so hard in his ears. Then he smiled, tears welling up anew.
“Someone special? Well, not right now, Mom. But I did.”

* * * *

The outboard rumbled, vibration strumming through Raider’s body as he motored through the harbor. He slid the windows open and breathed in the sultry ocean air, growling in satisfaction.

“You look…happy.” He turned to see Sophia smiling at him. Her adorable white teeth shone against the burgundy of her lips. She was right, he was.

A question hung in his throat. As much as he looked forward to finding a nice cove to settle in and screw her non-stop for several days, he needed to know something.

“Sophia…” He didn’t know how to start.

She’d chosen to leave with him rather than stay for the dragons, but perhaps that was all part of her plot, and she was still hoping to get “saved” and leave him.

“Listen, Raider…” Her face went grave.

He braced for what she might tell him, but the sound of an approaching boat pulled his attention. He held up a hand and cocked his head to the side.

They were moving fast, whoever they were, their ship clocking far more horses than his. Over the waves he heard the faint sound of a loudspeaker.

“We’ve come to rescue Lady Sophia Aleahar. Surrender, shark!”

Sophia’s face lit up as she too heard the sound. The sight of it drove a hot spike of pain right through his heart. Part of him wanted to floor it, run with her, even against her will. But even if he wanted to keep her prisoner forever, he couldn’t.

Sophia might not always realize it, but she was the stronger of them, likely the smarter one too. In fact she might be better off back with her own kind.

* * * *

Sophia watched Raider’s face harden into the mask of disinterest she knew so well. She’d meant to have a good laugh with him that Aydes Reeves, of all dragons, had come to her rescue, but clearly that wasn’t going to happen. It was perfectly obvious that the shark shifter didn’t want her to leave, but as usual he acted like he didn’t care.

And she was sick of it.

Sophia had spent way too long being unwanted to stand for playing games like this with the one male who did want her.
Raider turned back to the steering wheel. In a sarcastic growl, he said, “I guess it’s time for you to meet your savior.”
She scowled at his back, tempted to hit him. Then she furtively smelled herself. The scent of her heat still lingered. It had dampened some since her time in the cell, but it should be enough to draw in Aydes. Since Raider didn’t seem to care enough to fight for her.
Aydes’s voice boomed over the loudspeaker, self-assured, confident. Clearly, he didn’t have a doubt in the world that Sophia would run to him.
She peeked at Raider, stealing her emotions to lay a fraction of them on the line. “Um, I’m going to miss you.”
His jaw hardened, and he nodded once. “Yeah, good times. I guess you got what you wanted out of all this, huh?”
Sophia didn’t have the strength to tell him that she no longer knew what she wanted. Before, all she’d really hoped for was someone to love her. Now the dragon of her dreams stood before her, and a sharkshifter out of her nightmares slouched at her side. She couldn’t even tell if she was making a choice. “Did you? Um, I mean…get what you wanted out of this?”
“Fuck if I know.” His curtness thickened the wall between them.
She found herself rising in anger. “Well, thank you then. It’s been…” Tears blurred her vision. They’d gotten within a quarter mile of the dragon’s ship, and not wanting him to know how much his indifference upset her, Sophia started for the door. “I can just swim from here. You may as well have a head start.”
“Fine,” he bit out.
When she stepped out onto the deck, her body shook with fear. What if Aydes decided he didn’t really want her? What if her heat wasn’t enough to draw him in? Before she’d had nothing to lose, but now…She peered in the windows to where Raider stood at the wheel. He didn’t meet her eyes, but when he noticed her stare, he shooed her with his hand. “Get the fuck off, I need to leave.”
His words stung like a whip. Sophia ripped her dress off over her head and dove off the bow.
Her body shifted to dragon, dulling the sharpness of human emotions. She batted her tail hard and tried to outrun her anger and hurt. The huge gray hull divided the green-blue of the water. As she approached, she heard Aydes’s servants call to her. A broad metal walkway splashed onto the surface. The sound of it echoed like a death toll. Her claws scraped on the ridged steel, pulling her dragon body out of the water. Here in the tropics she could hold her reptile form all she wanted. The humid warmth was perfectly suited for her cold blood.
The platform cranked upward, and water poured off its sides as it rose to the deck. When she reached the top, a human-form male she’d never seen before ran toward her.
“Sophia. Darling, I’m so glad you’re alive!” Long, shiny black hair hung in glamorous waves. The male stood nearly seven feet tall, and was clearly aware of every inch of advantage he held over the shorter mere deck-hands scurrying around him. Green eyes shone out from his dark-bronze dragon skin.
Aydes Reeves in human form was a sight to behold.
“Alert the Council immediately!” he shouted to someone nearby. “And make sure we keep after that shark.”
Sophia let off a soft yelp. “That’s unnecessary, Aydes, he didn’t hurt me. He was just, um…love-struck.” She felt odd speaking to him still in dragon form, but Aydes didn’t offer her any clothes and her naked human body was not something she felt ready to share with anyone but the male she’d just left.
“Well?” Aydes cocked a jaunty eyebrow. “Are you going to stand there all scaly or are you shift to your human form?”
“I don’t have anything to wear.” She realized how silly that sounded. Sophia just expected to deal with all this in dragon form.
His lip curled into a smile that she only now realized bypassed confident and crossed into conceited. “Hmmm…You smell out-ofthis-world, Sophia.” His eyebrow recommenced their wagging. “You don’t need clothes for what we’ll be doing.” He must not have registered her wide-eyed look of disbelief or her gasp of outrage, because he kept talking. “I’m unbelievably skilled at human-form intercourse techniques. You’ll be very impressed.”
Sophia didn’t know whether to run away screaming or laugh out loud. This was the male she’d spent years dreaming of? She’d never noticed before that behind his size, his money, and his shiny scales he was a complete dolt. When her thoughts came spilling out her mouth, she made no effort to stop them. “I seriously doubt that.”
His eyes narrowed, giving his face a cruel and petulant cast. “No wonder no one can stomach you.”
Once his insult would have crushed her, but now…meh.
Shouts sounded as mere ran across the deck to their dragon master. “We’ve caught him!” Sophia swung her large dragon head to see a shark-form Raider being hauled up in a wire net. “He came swimming right back this way. Stupid shark!”

Raider’s body morphed. The wires bit into his thinner human skin, but he didn’t peel his eyes from Sophia.
The dragon standing by her was in human form, but he still looked formidable. He had a foot of height on Raider, and was probably trained in all manners of fighting.
Good thing Raider fought dirty. Because so way in hell was that asshole going to lay a hand on his female—no matter what form she was in.
Sophia pushed past the male and ran toward him, her slinky dragon body wiggling as she scurried. Just because he couldn’t do her in that form didn’t mean the sight didn’t get him hard. He stood up, shoving off the net.
A half dozen mere grabbed his arms, one held a gun to his head. “My sister was raped by a shark-shifter you cock-sucker,” the man snarled in his ear.
“So was my mother,” Raider replied
The mere pulled back a hair but kept the gun cocked and trained.
The monstrously tall dragon behind Sophia laughed. “So this is who fell in love with you? This is my competition? A mutant shark? Your parents are going to love hearing about this.”
Raider could give a fuck about what the dragon thought of him, but he lunged forward anyway. No one talked to Sophia like that. But when the mere dragged him back, he saw Sophia thumping toward the tall, dark male, her dragon tail waving enticingly. Raider almost thought she’d smack the human-form dragon with her taloned claw, but she stopped inches from his face. To his credit, the male dragon didn’t shift forms.
“He’s not a mutant.” Sophia started. “He’s um…well, he’s a…high ranking employee of Dendric Research. Have you heard of them? Hmmm, I thought not. They’re a human company, Fortune 500.”
Raider bit back a laugh as Sophia the Honest lied her ass off.
“And we’re together, so…we’re going to leave now. I just came by to let you know that…and he followed…in case I needed him to sign something.”
She really needed to learn that the key to bullshit is brevity.
“Sophia, you know your parents won’t accept this,” the male drawled at her.
She raised her eyebrows. “Well, they’ll have to. Because I went into heat and he…Claimed me.”
Raider’s mouth fell open at the same moment the dragon’s did.
“Sharks don’t Claim females.” The male dragon sounded not completely sure.
“Sure they do!”
“Then where’s your mark?” The large male’s eyebrow rose in challenge.
“It’s somewhere you can’t see.” Her comment was so offhand that if Raider didn’t know better, he’d think it was the truth. “They do, and he did, and that’s all there is to it.” She stood up on her back legs so her reptile form towered over the male’s human one. “And he
fucks
like a monster.”
Raider tugged his arms away from the mere surrounding him. “Excuse me!” He imitated the male dragon’s haughty expression. “My mate and I will be leaving now.”
Sophia bounded toward him, and he readied to dive in the water. Raider took in the deck full of rag-wearing mere and the Armani-clad dragon who all but owned them. He leaned to the mere closest to his left. “If you’re looking to make some easy money, drop me a line. It’s mereshark, all one word, at Dendric Research dot com. Tell your friends.”