Page 44 of Magic Potions and the Merman's Lure

Her smile slips and suddenly she goes pale as she slaps a hand over her mouth. “Oh fuck! I thought you knew. Especially if you two got busy. I thought maybe that whole lovey dovey stuff you were just talking about was because he confessed.”

“But you knew?”

“Of course! I had him in my shop days before even taking him over to the library and saw the way he interacts with women. He is always polite but distant. Yet when he met you that all changed. Hell, he was following you every day and loitering around my shop whenever you came to visit as if he couldn’t bear to have you out of sight. I would have to be completely blind not to notice.”

“I didn’t realize,” I murmur, my eyes falling to the book in front of me. I run my fingertips over the cover to distract myself from the way my heart plummets at her words. “I know he insisted on being assigned to me for the study, but I thought that it was because I was female, and he felt safer that way.”

That doesn’t make me feel any better, either.

Adiele covers my hand with hers in a comforting gesture. “I’m not surprised that you didn’t notice. Outside of being a little paranoid about his species despite your obvious fascination, I don’t think it would have even occurred to you to pay attention to the way he interacts with you compared to everyone else. Or you simply would have written it off as Ro being more comfortable with you since starting the study.” She hesitates, her mouth twisting in a grimace. “About the study... Ro didn’t hear about the study until you mentioned it. I had brought him there solely so we could find out more about the supplement but when you said that he just went along with it.”

“But... but why?” I ask, unable to wrap my mind around it. I know I’m gaping at her like she just grew a second head, but I just don’t get it.

The whole study was a sham? No, not the study itself because he did cooperate with me fully with every single thing the council requested. But I always assumed that we were working together because it was mutually beneficial on an interspecies level. Never in a million years would I have suspected that he was there for any other reason.

She smiles and squeezes my hand. “Probably because once he recognized who you are to him, his desire for the supplement instantly became secondary to his need to be closer to you. Especially after the way you reacted to his song,” she adds, and I grimace in embarrassment.

Okay, she has me there.

But why didn’t he tell me before now? Did he change his mind and decide not to mate me after all. We’ve been having sex whenever we can sneak away and find someplace private. It makes it a little difficult since he has to return to the water by sundown every day, but it’s not like we aren’t enjoying our intimacy. Maybe it’s not enough. I didn’t make him any promises and he didn’t make me any either. He could just be waiting for me to work out the formula for his replacement supplement so that he can strike out further inland to discover his options. I don’t want to think that he would use me that way, but I’m struck with an uncomfortable uncertainty that threatens to drown me.

“Don’t overthink this,” Adiele gently cautions. “Knowing you, you probably are busy cooking up all the worst case scenarios. You just said that things have moved forward in a positive direction for you guys. You like him, and obviously he must like you. Why not see where it takes you?”

Sucking in a deep breath, I nod. She’s right. I should trust Ro at least a little and see where this thing between us goes. He should at least have the chance to properly ask me to be his mate. Either way, whatever this is won’t have the chance to grow if we can’t figure out how to join our worlds. I need to find the core ingredient that I need. Mom hasn’t been of much help, which leaves one person that I know I can count on. Giving Adiele a shaky smile, I pull out my phone. I open my email app and notice the curious glance she gives it.

“What are you doing?”

“Emailing Aunt Katherine,” I reply.

Chapter 28

Keri

I fidget a little as I spread the notebook in front of me in an attempt to hide my hyperawareness of the Aquana beside me in front of my aunt. Now is not the time to be acting like a flustered teenager. It doesn’t help that I can feel the weight of Ro’s presence as he leans over me. Though his body doesn’t brush mine, his powerful hand is planted on one side of me and his arm stretches up like a column of heat and strength. The definition of his muscles is distracting. That may have something to do with my hyperawareness of him. Or it could be all the sex.

I struggle not to blush at the thought.

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