Page 11 of Riding the Tide

“Of course. Sorry. I’m not trying to meddle, seriously. Okay, I am, but I won’t push you on things you don’t want to talk about. Huh. You probably shouldn’t even be talking to me, right? Not really sure why you are.”

“Once I fished you out of the water it became a moot point.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Blair scratched his head. Ugh. He loved the ocean, but now it felt as if he was covered in a fine layer of salt. He really needed to shower. “Thanks for that, by the way. Fishing me out of water, I mean.” Good Lord, could he sound like more of an idiot?

Marcus patted Blair’s hand. “It was my pleasure.”

Tingles shot up his arm from their contact. “Sure was a pleasure. I mean it was my pleasure, too. No, I didn’t mean that, what I actually mean was I’m glad.” Obviously hecouldsound like more of an idiot.

Feeling a flush climb up his face, he focused on Marcus’ hand. Such lovely, slim long fingers that could probably reach interesting places… He shifted on the towel they sat on. That train of thought certainly wasn’t helping matters below the belt.

It looked like a normal hand but not that long ago there’d been a fin on Marcus’ wrist. Blair glanced up at Marcus. Those unique light blue eyes of Marcus’ intrigued him. He truly was a beautiful man with an androgynous, fey face even in this form.

His glimpse of Marcus in his merman form was brief, but he had noticed the long, pointed ears and the gills at his neck. He didn’t have a “type.” He liked all kinds of guys—short, tall, gym bunnies, not-so-athletic, leather daddies, bears, twinks, jocks, geeks. He didn’t care about race either.

What was important to him was the guy’s personality. If he was loyal. Honest. Trustworthy. If he wasn’t a gold digger. Now suddenly he was attracted to a long and lean man, who wasn’t even a man, with long blue hair and light blue eyes. And when the mood struck… he had a really awesome tail. Blair wanted more than a quick glimpse of it. He was dying to explore the thing.

In fact, he wanted to get to know Marcus—allof Marcus. He gulped. He wanted Marcus. Desire curled in his belly. Jesus, he had a bad case of lust… but even that didn’t feel right. Lust didn’t exactly describe what was coursing through him. He wasn’t sure what he felt, only that there was no way he was letting this fascinating man out of his life.

“So…?”

Marcus raised an eyebrow. “So…?”

Marcus was going to make him say it, was he? Oh, what the hell. No pain, no gain. Wasn’t that the saying?

“So what are we doing here?” Blair asked.

“What do youwantto be doing here?”

Blair thought about smacking Marcus on the shoulder but decided not to. He wasn’t sure how Marcus would react to that. “Are you like some sort of merman lawyer? What’s up with answering a question with a question?”

“Merman lawyer?” Marcus snorted. “No, I’m not a lawyer. Don’t humans compare them to sharks? I’m no shark.”

Blair eyed Marcus’ form. “No, you most certainly are not a shark.”

“No, I’m not, but I am a warrior.”

Blair waited, but Marcus didn’t speak again. “Oh come on! You can’t throw something out there like that and then leave me hanging.” Blair huffed. “Don’t think I didn’t notice what you did there, too. You still haven’t answered my question.”

“I’ll make you a deal.” Marcus shoved his hair back over his shoulder. “I’ll answer your questions if…”

Blair waited and then groaned when it became obvious Marcus wasn’t going to continue. “You’re a tease, are you?”

“You have no idea.”

Oh yeah, he did, too. His cock twitched. Just how much of a tease was Marcus? Blair had a flash of himself under Marcus, groaning and writhing.

“Blair?”

“Huh?” Blair blinked. Great, now he had that image seared in his mind. “Oh. Sorry, I was… never mind. Okay, if what?”

“If you promise me a date.”

“Date?” Excitement pricked Blair’s skin. “You mean like getting together and going out and doing something? That kind of date?”

“That’s my understanding of the word date, yes.”

Oh man, was there a smartass lurking underneath that calm exterior? It was rare he found someone with the same cutting humor he had. “You do stuff like that?”

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