Page 103 of Cursed Waters

Cold black eyes found mine, and Laverne shuffled sideways with a snort, blocking the little blue fish from view like she was trying to protect him fromme. Like I’d been the one to gobble him up and spit him out, not her.

“Shameless.”

The word shot in my mind like she was hocking another wad of spit between my eyes.

My teeth gritted, my fingers digging deep pits in the sand. Fury it was, then. “Me?You thinkI’mshameless?”

Laverne’s head snapped forward, and she raised her nose high in the air. Oh, so she’d said what she’d said, and now she thought she could ignore me?

“You act like I wanted to come here,” I shot back, but she kept her back to me, her tail planting itself in the sand. “Wanted to be forced away from my home just so I can perform little curse-breaking tricks for these kingdoms. So they can use me and use me anduse me some moreand then toss me back to the humans when they’re finally done with me! I didn’t choose this. I would never choose this. You thinkI’mshameless, but I’m not the one who flew across an entire freaking country just to try to pick up some men!”

It was petty, so petty, throwing the words Kai had said to me back at Laverne, but I couldn’t stop the words from falling out.

Laverne hated me. She’d hated me before she’d even met me, before I’d even had the chance to know her, so why not give her a reason?

“You—You want to talk about shameless…” I felt the weight of more venom resting on my tongue, ready to throw out, but my breath became ragged, my anger suddenly dimming.

Though it was true Laverne wasn’t just some animal, I was still arguing with a sea lion. Sure, she had more personality than some humans, but she was like a sister to Kai.

My mouth clamped shut. She’d been rejected by her kind, too. Whether I wanted to admit it, that made us kindred.

Rejection was a feeling I knew all too well, and although it had affected us differently, at least Laverne had the courage to fight for what she wanted—even if what she wanted seemed impossible.

“I’m sorry, Laverne. I really shouldn’t have—”

Pop.

Laverne bounced on her belly as Kai’s naked form appeared, sprawled out on the sand like an overturned horseshoe crab.

Then she jumped a little too high in her excitement, and I caught more of Kai than I’d ever seen before, his thighs parting wide as he scrambled to get his limbs back under control.

Wow. He was smooth, too, just like Leander. Wereallmermen hairless down there?

Wait—Barren had a shadowy patch, didn’t he? I’d tried so hard not to notice, but I seemed to recall feeling short hairs scraping against my belly when I slid free from his arm…

“Y-you got my sh-shirt.” Kai had brought himself upright during my daydream and was trembling from the cold. My eyes snapped up to his, and a bright pink flushed his face.

He hugged his arms around his body, and it instantly reminded me of the awkwardness of changing for gym class in high school. Because although we were all taking our shirts off, heaven forbid someone else noticed you had boobs.

Only Kai didn’t have boobs. He had pale skin and tight pink nipples and,oh, the look of pure horror on his face said hereallydidn’t want me looking.

I covered my eyes and tossed the shirt as it was, ripped from his fins and covered in brown mush from being dragged through the sand.

Pop.

My tail split, and I squeaked as the cold wind hit me. “Don’t look!” I cried out, scrambling to my feet. Kai was too focused on covering up his chest and trying to make heads or tails of his shirt to notice, so I ran for the cover of the pier.

Diving into my pile of clothes, I barely remembered to put my panties on first. My skin was still salty and damp enough that everything clung, and jerking my pants up my thighs nearly sent me tumbling backward in the sand.

Kai’s voice rumbled down the beach, and I looked up as I turned my shirt around, wondering what it was he was saying to Laverne.

From his dark tone and clipped body language, it was safe to say he was pretty mad. Not Leander-mad, but madder than I’d expected from Kai.

Was it because she’d nearly swallowed him up trying to get him away from me? Or because she’d interrupted us when we were about to…

I paused to touch my lips, then shook my head.

Gathering up my boots and Kai’s pants, I walked back to them just as Laverne stormed off. Whether it was because of something he’d said to her or my approach, who could tell?

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