Page 13 of Surfaces
He chuckled and I whipped my head to the side so I could glimpse one of his rare smiles. “True. I am disappointed to learn, though, that if they participate in the next competition, their dicks will return to normal. I rather like the idea of them having to live with a little critter down there forever…”
“I keep imagining them trying to explain it to a woman.”
We both collapsed into such a fit of humor that we had to stop swimming. I doubled over, shaking with laughter until I gasped, pain shooting from my stomach because my diaphragm was literally heaving. I couldn’t catch my breath. Reflexively, I reached for Felipe’s shoulder for support since my wings were hidden. The feel of his skin instantly transformed my mood and my laughter died on my lips as I glanced up. Then I couldn’t breathe for a different reason.
His smile dimmed but the fire in his gaze doubled. The water around us seemed to tremble with the intensity of the moment and I was caught up in it, this blissful second of connection.
But Ugo’s figure appeared around a corner, and I yanked my hand away as if I’d touched hot coals.
Not in the tournament,I reminded myself.
“I need to speak with Watkins,” I said, trying to gain my bearings and put my head back on straight.
Felipe nodded. “I’ll take you to his chamber.”
As he swam off ahead and Ugo guarded my back, I berated myself. I had to stop this foolish mooning.
I just didn’t know how.
The trip to Watkins’s room was far too short for my liking. I’d have preferred to get a handle on myself and prepare what I was going to say to my worst enemy, try to rummage up a few quick verbal jabs. But apparently, the wing of the mayor’s mansion containing the men’s dormitories were not far from my rooms. Drat.
Gazing around, I noted the coral here was not as vibrant as those in my room. Here it was brown and dull, not for show. Part of me wondered if these might normally be servants’ quarters, but I didn’t ask because, in the scheme of things, such details were unimportant. They were a distraction from my real purpose: Confronting the man I believed responsible for the attack on the arena.
Dammit all, I wish I had proof. Then I could lock him away.But if I did it without proof, then I’d be no better than Radford and his cronies believed.
Maybe he’d confess.
Maybe he’d gloat.
One can hope.
I took a deep breath, wondering how I could possibly still feel a nervous pounding inside my chest when I no longer had a heart.
Felipe swam just past the door before halting and turning, gesturing with his hand toward it to let me know we’d arrived. Ugo stopped on my other side, and I turned to face the door that hid the suitor who hated me above all others. Probably even more than those with shrimps for dicks.
I stared at the wooden door for far too long, gathering my thoughts, trying to predict what he might say. Every confrontation I’d had thus far with the shark shifter had been explosive. He drove me to madness with just a look.
And that was part of my problem. I couldn’t even think about him without rage filling me up and blocking my good sense, making it impossible for me to plan what to say. That was a rarity for me. I liked peace, typically got along with most people. Or so I’d believed back in Evaness. The room full of men I’d just left, combined with Watkins, made me wonder about how I defined myself. What if I was wrong?
What if I was unlikeable? Cruel? Selfish? I agreed with their naive comment. But how far did their truths extend?
I couldn’t allow myself to believe them, or self-doubt would invade.
Ultimately, I shoved aside philosophy, planning, all of it. I decided that I just needed to get this over with. Thinking wasn’t helping anything.
I raised my fist to knock, noting my skin was coming back in rough, splotchy patches. But before my knuckles rapped on the wood, the door flew open, and there stood Watkins, his black brow raised as his dorsal fin erupted from his back upon seeing me and my guards. The rebellious shark shifter was shirtless as always, his pec muscles corded tightly as he dropped the door and his hands clenched into fists. Tight black breeches covered his legs, which backed away from me on the soft sea sand that made up the floor of a room that was hardly more than a cell, fitting only a sea sponge bedroll and a small writing table.
“What’s this ambush for? Let me guess …”
“Don’t.” I cut him off. “You know why I’m here. Let me in.”
My eyes locked onto Watkins’s face. The shock of white hair that broke up his black mane fell across his forehead, and he brushed it away as his black eyes went from narrow to mockingly wide. “Of course, Majesty. I’d be so delighted if you came in.” Sarcasm was an understatement. Watkins’s words were brutal cuts.
The water between us grew charged with animosity and energy as wildly bright and uncontrollable as lightning.
He took a step back into his room, grandly gesturing for me to follow him in.
I did, though there wasn’t far to go since the room was little more than a cell. The tension built until it felt like the water was thickening between us. Perhaps our hostility was slowly freezing it. I turned and closed the door behind me, my gaze avoiding both Felipe and Ugo’s steady expressions as I shut them out.
