Page 33 of Echoes of the Tide

“An undine?” came a woman’s voice, filled with surprise. “What do you mean there’s an undine hanging around?”

“I saw him against the glass. Gave me the stink eye and then swam away. Some other people have seen the same one. Damn bright bastard. Seems to be circling the building and watching all of us.”

“Should we get the guns?”

“And what? Shoot it through the glass? We can’t do that, you idiot.”

They wandered away, but she had the sudden realization of why she was having such an issue getting to the office. She had a bodyguard who was looming over her shoulder and unknowingly drawing every single person in this damned pavilion right in front of her. The idiot had no clue what he was doing.

“Tera,” she whispered, getting her droid’s attention. “New plan. Where’s the closest room with no one in it with big windows? I need to talk to this stupid undine.”

Her droid clacked together twice, its usual answer for a yes. Which meant it also had made the connection that the undine was the problem.

She followed the glowing beads into another room and closed the door behind her. Ace winced at the slight click, knowing thatif anyone was nearby, they would hear it. But that didn’t matter, because she was in some poor soul’s old office, which happened to have an empty bed in the corner, and a large window that looked out to the sea.

There he was. Already. A giant idiot in yellow, with his arms crossed as he glared through the window at her. Like she was the one doing something wrong. Like he was the one who was angry with her.

Stomping up to the window, she pointed at him and then pointed away. “You need to go!”

He pointed at his ear like he couldn’t hear her.

“I know you can hear me, you stupid ugly... Ugh!” Ace dragged her hands through her hair to calm herself. “Get away from the windows if you’re going to watch me. You’re drawing a crowd.”

Once again, the infuriating man pointed to his ears and then shrugged. He even had the audacity to follow that movement with pointing up, like he was asking her to keep going.

Even Tera clacked at the sight before them. This undine was going to get them caught, and he didn’t even care. To him, it was more important that he be involved rather than her actually getting this shit done.

Grumbling under her breath, she yanked the map out from the back of her pants and slapped it against the glass. She jabbed the paper where she was going, hoping he was at least smart enough to read a map.

“This is where I’m going. This office. It’s on the twenty-second floor, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an entrance into the pavilion near it, considering there is a partial drainage system nearby. Get there, and then you can watch me all you want. But let me fucking get there without you looming over my head. Got it?”

He frowned and shook his head.

“Maketes, you have to trust me to do this. You have to let me find the office. Otherwise, people are going to find me here. If you don’t leave, they will continue trying to look at you because they think you’re going to attack the city. You’re following me, and they’re following you. This won’t work.”

He seemed to waver. She could see it in the way his gills froze for a second before they started breathing for him again.

Ace planted her hand against the glass. “Please,” she said. “Please trust me to do this.”

He gave her a nod before flicking his tail and disappearing out of sight. He’d headed to the higher levels, and that was good enough for her. Now, she just had to figure out how to get there herself.

CHAPTER 14

He didn’t like that he wasn’t with her. Maketes was the only thing standing between her and injury, if not death. He’d seen how she reacted to those people who were going to attack her. She’d hidden. If he hadn’t been there, she would have died. There was no question in his mind about that. She would have been shot in the head and no one would have known she was even dead.

Then she’d slept on him. He could still smell her on his scales, and it was driving him mad. He needed to be in there with her.

But she’d asked him not to be. She’d asked him not to watch over her while she was so far from his reach, and he hated every second of it. She’d pressed that etched example of where she wanted him to go up to the glass and he wasn’t an idiot. He knew when to say yes to a woman and when to say no.

She needed to do this. Hadn’t he been working on her fear? He’d gotten her to pet a shark. He’d gotten her to pet him.

That memory was seared into his mind. All he could think about was her tiny hands rubbing his chest, the way her thick thighs had straddled him, and how badly he’d wanted to squeeze it. He wanted to grip every part of her just to see his hand againsther bare skin. Her lovely, freckled skin would dent around his strong grip.

He wanted her all the time. And that was quickly becoming a problem, because he couldn’t focus on anything else.

Sighing, he swam in a circle around the building one more time, trying to figure out what that map had meant. It was pretty clear there were markings on it, but he had always been terrible at following directions. Maps were more guidelines, anyway. He trusted the ocean to get him to where he needed to go, and usually she was kind enough to kick him in the right direction when he forgot what he was doing.

Today, the goddess of the ocean had abandoned him. Even the sea had a flavor of disappointment, as though she was reminding him that it was important to pay attention. Especially in times like these.

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