Page 9 of Cruel Tides

Claira

“You could just wrap yourself in a towel,” Leander suggested from the other side of the bathroom door.

I vented a huff as I pulled on one of Kai’s shirts. Did he really hate the idea of me wearing another man’s shirt so much? The doorframe creaked, and it was easy to imagine Leander rolling his forehead against it on the other side. Even though I’d told him I needed a minute alone, he’d been pouting since the moment I kicked him out of the bathroom.

Yeah—sorry, notsorry. With the way things were going earlier, neither of us was ever going to get clean or dressed or out of this bathroom.

“So you want me to just go around naked,” I answered, buttoning up the front of the longest button-down Barren had brought for me to try on. “Maybe that look works for you, but I think I’ll pass.”

I definitely needed something on. Now that Leander had his energy back, he couldn’t seem to keep his hands from roaming. Not that I was complaining—well, not until he’d summoned a freaking thunderstorm and forced enough water out of the plumbing to drench the entire bathroom. That warranted some complaining. So I made the call, and out he went.

Plus, there were some things a girl just had to do in a bathroom alone. Like taking the necessary after-sex pee. Leander seemed to enjoy looking at me, and that certainly wasn’t a task I required an audience for.

When Gram had first given methe talkand told me about this necessary peeing after the deed, I’d wondered why the cleanup portion of sex was never talked about or shown in movies or books. Now I knew. No one needed to see or read about the stuff that had just worked its way out of me. No—gravity was a cruel mistress, and thanks to her, there was a lot of stickiness down there to clean up.

Thank goodness I was about 99% sure I couldn’t get pregnant. There were so many things about being a mermaid I’d never learned, but that was one thing I’d managed to figure out thanks to the maids that worked in the palace.

One of the things they liked to talk about the most was what they would do when they were old enough to deliver a merfry and be free from their service to the kingdom. I hadn’t known quite what they meant then, but the memories had stuck with me because of the way the maids giggled together as they schemed, arguing over which captain would be easiest to seduce when the time came. Naive as I was back then, I’d thought that they were looking forward to finding love and starting a family of their own. Now that I was older, I knew it was never a family they were after. Mermaids wanted their freedom, and leaving a merfry behind for a captain to raise on his own was apparently the easiest way for them to get it. Disgusting.

Looking down at my bare legs, I hoped the no-merfries-until-you’re-older rule applied to the reproductive organs of mermaids in their human form as well. Like really,reallyhoped.

“I’m okay with you coming out naked,” Leander’s low voice rumbled from the other side of the door. I couldn’t keep from rolling my eyes again. Of course, he was Team Naked. Leander hadn’t even bothered asking for some of Kai’s or Barren’s clothes to try on—though it would surprise me if either fit.

While Kai’s shirts fit me well enough, it was his pants that were the problem. My hips were just too wide. So while I wasn’t quite Team Naked, I was yet again a member of the No-Pants Club. I swear, I needed to start hiding pants like I hid knives.

Maybe we should get T-shirts,I thought with a snort. If any club deserved a T-shirt, it was the No-Pants Club.

Although making light of the situation helped, Barren was probably still out there—not to mention Kai and Laverne. And though Kai still hadn’t awoken, Laverne would no doubt have something to say about me parading around without pants. I could almost hear her shrieks of disapproval knocking into my head already. “Shameless!”

But what choice did I have? I’d like to be dry for once, and thanks to Leander’s new water tricks, everything I’d worn into the bathroom was soaked. Apparently, he was now a thunderstorm god—or something. So that was fun. Definitely not the outcome I’d expected when he stabbed himself in the heart with his father’s trident.

I’d even cracked the door open to ask Barren for more towels, and one long, awkward pause later, he’d brought us a couple of fresh towels from his room. I’d been grateful, but it was hopeless. After a second in the literal water closet, they were soaked, too.

My hand rested on the doorknob as I cast a quick glance at my reflection. The mirror was still foggy, but I could see my reflection enough to verify that Kai’s shirt covered most of my ass.

Sighing, I toed one of the soggy towels away from the door and turned the knob. “How’s Kai doing?” Cool air hit me as soon as I was through the door, but it barely had time to register. My jaw dropped. “What are you wearing?” I gasped, taking Leander in. He’d been naked when I kicked him out of the bathroom, butthis… This was something I never expected to see.

“They’re Barren’s,” Leander said with a grin. He shifted, smoothing out the bottom of the pair of maroon boxer-briefs he was wearing with his palms. It was a fit loose on his legs, but the band miraculously held to his waist. “He made me put them on.”

“Barren wears underwear?” I said the thought aloud, and practically jumped out of my skin when a ceramic plate clanked against the countertop of the kitchenette across the room.

“I do,” Barren announced before clearing his throat. His expression stayed even until one of his dark eyebrows slowly rose. “Would you prefer it if I didn’t?”

My jaw unhinged, gaping open, but before I could stammer out some foolish comeback, his head inclined back to the countertop. “A joke,” he said simply, and he started picking at the grapes on his plate.

Ajoke. Of course—a joke. I let out a nervous laugh. “Sorry, you just surprised me.” My face felt like an inferno. “I didn’t know mermen knew about underwear.”

“Mmh,” Barren hummed as he snapped a sizeable grape from the bunch.

Something about Barren was off since our time in the water. He seemed more present, more open. Like, for once, he wasn’t trying to shrink away from us. Or that maybe he was confident or comfortable enough to finally let himself take up space. I wasn’t sure what had changed, or why, but…

Suddenly, Barren’s eyes cut back up to me as he passed a grape into his mouth. The squared edge of his jaw moved in a slow beat as he chewed it. One corner of his lips lifted into a smile, and I nearly fell over.

Barren wassmilingat me?

And not a normal smile. The way he’d moved almost felt…flirty.

But there was no way. Even though he’d kissed me briefly under the water, it had been just that. A brief kiss. Nothing more. Nothing since then. And now that we were out of the ocean, he had to have known about Leander and me, and all the time we’d wasted getting distracted in the bathroom together. Sure, the shower and the bathroom fan had both been running, but we hadn’t exactly been quiet. Plus, he’d been there when Kai had declared himself my mate. It would be crazy for him to feel for me what I… I…

---