Tempted by the Forbidden Mate, page 9
“What color gown is Annabelle wearing?”
“Get a new suit.” She pivots out of the dining room.
Fucking hell. I storm down the corridor to Kai’s old pod room. I knock, and when there’s no answer, I go in. The bag with the gown is hanging on the valet rack. I untie it. It’s an exact match for the suit I always wear. Hanging beside it are several other gowns from a competitor, one that Kai and Mother think is too expensive, but someone has arranged for them for Annabelle. They’re lovely too, but in much lighter blues. Colors I never wear. But they would also bring out the bright blue of Annabelle’s eyes. In typical Ophelia style, she’s trying to get what she wants by giving Annabelle something even nicer than she chose for herself.
It’s past dinner time. I expected Holter and her to be back a long time ago.
Nico’s been in the gym for the last three hours. Even when he’s in the city, he’s never far away from the Centauri. He’s going through withdrawal for sure.
“Castor?” Annabelle’s in the doorway.
“How was your trip into the city?”
She places a small cloth package on the pod bed. Holter’s behind her. He moves the package to the coffee table. “It was good.” She scowls at the package.
“Don’t leave it on the bed,” Holter says.
“Unless you’re fucking someone with it.” I’ve never heard Annabelle curse before.
“Belle, that was a ceremonial one. Nico was presented with it after the battle of Hestertåtten.”
“It felt pretty real to me.” She rushes to the valet stand. “My dress is here already?” She runs her hand over the silken trim of the dark dress. “What are these? I only bought one gown. They’re pretty, though. I did ask for some everyday clothes. But these aren’t everyday clothes.” She holds up one of the lighter blue gowns.
I hold my hands up. “It looks like my mother wanted to add to the selection.”
“Are these real diamonds?” Annabelle fingers the top of the dress.
“Yes, along with silver leaves and pearls. She’s playing it up to get you a mate from each of the original dome houses.”
“It’s pretty.” She glances up, her mouth hanging open. “Ten mates?”
I laugh. “No, there are four original domes.”
“Somehow four seems a lot better after I was thinking ten.” She lets out a sigh. “This really is gorgeous.”
“Prettier than anything she bought for Kai,” I add.
“But I like the one I bought. It’s not that these aren’t pretty.”
“I’m sure she’ll understand. Ophelia likes to be in charge, but she’s also understanding. She wouldn’t have sent you out if she didn’t want you to have a choice.” I’m not going to mention that the gown she picked is the exact one I would have picked for her. I’ve caused enough confusion in the female for a lifetime. “Have you eaten lunch?”
“Yes, Holter took me to the Reef Club.”
“Reef? That’s an experience.”
Holter gives me the side-eye. It clearly wasn’t his idea. Being seen at the Reef Club is a popular thing for young mermaids looking to expand their pods to do. It’s loud and smelly.
“It was. We didn’t stay long.” Annabelle gives a shudder. Goosebumps rise on her bare arms. “I’m not sure it’s somewhere I’d want to go again.”
“I’m not taking her there again without both you and Nico,” says Holter. “Where is Nico?”
“He’s working out.”
“Working out.” Annabelle jumps over to her package. “We should go find him.”
“What is that?” I point to the only item she brought back from her shopping trip herself.
“She bought a trident.” Holter steps back.
“What? No.” I stomp over to the white bag, but Annabelle snatches it up before I get there.
“I want protection.”
Fuck, I want to say she has me. But she doesn’t. “Holter will protect you.”
“Holter works in the military, and from what the people at the Reef Club said, they’re not exactly home much. How is he going to protect me when he’s on the Centauri?”
“I’ll find something else to do. I can always cook.” Holter rubs the back of his neck.
Now it’s my turn to be shocked. Sure, Holter cooks on the Centauri, but that’s more of an honorary role than his job.
“You are a good cook.” Annabelle smiles, like she hasn’t insulted one of our most decorated military mermen.
“I like cooking for you.” Holter touches her shoulder.
“Let’s go find Nico. He can show me how to use this.”
“First you have something else you have to learn,” I tell her.
“Dancing.” She spits out the word like old fish skin.
“My sister loves dancing.” And it’s true—Kai was always begging us to teach her dances.
“Well, I’m not your sister.” She glares up at me.
Holter laughs. “That’s a good thing. But he’s right, Belle. You need to learn how to dance. Grab a ball gown and we’ll start.”
She fingers the gowns on the rack, taking the least decorated of the ones my mother has added into the mix. It’s sky blue. “Don’t you have to change too?”
I shrug. “I know how to dance. Our suits aren’t much different from our everyday clothes.”
“Right, just like human men.” She grabs the gown, scoffs, and bounces angrily off to the adjoining room before I can stop her.
“What did that mean?” Holter’s holding the trident.
“She’s thinking we are practically men from home.”
“In a way, she’s not wrong.”
“We’re nothing like them. Trust me. You may have had some interaction with human men, but I’ve been dealing with them for years.” My breath hitches. This morning I received a forwarded message from Nole, my brother and the governor of Glyden. He’s on the Omicron, but he still gets full daily reports. This one isn’t good. “I’ve had a dispatch from the hospital. Alder is doing better, but he’s not awake. They have no idea when.”
Holter nods. “They contacted me as well. I’m not going to lie. I’m worried. I’ve been worried since we returned to the city. If someone attacked Alder, it’s because of Nico. And after all these years, all the controversial things he’s done, for that to happen now? It has to be because of Belle. She needs more than one guard when we go out again.”
“You really think it was one of our own attacking Alder? That’s not the way we work.”
“Belle said it. Maybe we are becoming more like the humans than we would like to admit.”
I see it all the time on land, people looking out for themselves over their fellow citizens.
“I’m going to go see him tomorrow,” adds Holter. “Sit with him for a while.”
“I’d like to come too.”
Holter shakes his head. “If you come, Belle is going to want to visit too. Family is important to her. And after the Reef Club, we can’t take her out alone. We need more back-up than one of us when we’re out with her. I don’t want anything to distract me from keeping her safe.”
“The hospital isn’t exactly the Reef Club.”
“No, you don’t get it. There’s a buzz in the air. Me taking her out, being a geminae? There’re males out there who never dreamed of having a mate. They were all over her like a war hero.”
“So, a war hero and a war hero went to a club. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.” I raise my eyebrows at him.
“It was bad all right, but no joke. I’m surprised we got out of there in one piece. And I wished we hadn’t had to check her little trident at the door.”
“Little, huh?”
“Small enough. It’s actually well-sized for her hand.”
I open the cloth bag and peer inside, before taking it out. It’s the telescoping kind with tines that retract. Gold, of course, and lightly weighted. “Impressive.”
“Yeah, she picked it out herself, with some help from the trident clerk. You should have seen his face when she asked to carry it out.” Holter chuckles.
I hand him the weapon, and he puts it in the bag. But as he does, I catch a glimpse of Annabelle standing in the doorway. My eyes snap to her, and my jaw drops. I thought she looked beautiful this morning. But she looked nothing like this. Her hair is swept up high in a ponytail. The light blue gown on the hanger appeared simple. Nothing to it. On Annabelle’s form, you can see swirls, each one representing a dome. Pale versions of the dome’s colors are represented in the swirls of the dress. But it was mostly gold. The sort of dress that says I’m open to all. I want to rip it from her shoulders. I want her to be for us only.
“That’s exactly how the clerk looked,” Holter mentions.
“What?” I walk toward her, but he beats me to it.
“Belle. You are the most beautiful mermaid in the ocean tonight.” Holter steals the words from my lips. He takes her hand and kisses it.
“Thank you.” Her eyelashes flutter. “But you’re not going to be thinking that after you see how I can dance. Which is not at all.”
“You will do amazing. It’s all about mindset.” I take her other hand.
“Should we get started?” She steps into the room.
“Not here.” I nestle her hand into the crook of my arm. “The ballroom.”
“Oh, of course you have a ballroom.”
I smile. After today, I’m never going to be able to use the ballroom again. Not without thinking about how lovely she was today.
“Wait, my trident. I can practice my weaponized footwork too.”
I nod. How bad can it be?
14
Nico
I’m three hours in, and my muscles are just starting to loosen. Everything about the last week is exactly like me and yet not like me at all. Each punch of the bag that I want to bring me clarity hasn’t. With each kick, I’m no more focused on an answer that brings the Veiled City into the future and leaves me with Annabelle. I can’t find a solution where I get both: the mermaid and a new beginning for my nation. If I was a better male, I’d be satisfied with giving my life for the benefit of my people. If I was an even better male, I’d let Annabelle go home. But I’m neither. I’ve been with her now. I want her, and she gives me a reason to fight. To save myself, even if it hurts the Veiled City in the process.
I’ve just finished a quick shower and stepped into the hall. Music floats from the ballroom, not recorded but full music from the grand piano. I ease down the hall, hopeful to not run into any of Castor’s fathers. I’m not in the mood for their version of wisdom. I follow the trail of sounds. It’s a piece by Arnaud, one Holter knows by heart.
“It’s fine,” says Castor. “Don’t get discouraged. My feet are fine.”
“There’s no way your feet are fine.” Annabelle’s voice is full of frustration.
“Do you want to try with Holter again?”
“I don’t know. Maybe?” She drops her hands to her sides. What in the hell is she wearing? The gown has symbols from all the domes, like it’s some sort of trashy chum for any merman from any dome. Her head hangs low. I hate seeing her cry. This is worse. She’s full of insecurities.
Her back is to me, her shoulders slumped. In a few strides, I’m behind her. I slide my left hand onto her hip. My right hand holds her arm out straight.
Annabelle twists her neck, her lips inches away from my chin.
“I’ll guide you,” I tell her.
“Okay,” she whispers.
“You can do this,” Holter says from the piano bench.
“What are we dancing?” I ask Castor.
“The minnow. We’re keeping it to the basics.”
“Indeed.”
“Ready, Belle?” Holter nods at her from the piano.
“I guess so.” She looks over her shoulder at me and then back at Castor. “It’s a dancing sandwich.” Her voice lilts with laughter.
The music starts, and I push and pull her hip, remembering the steps backwards as we go. “I learned to dance in this room,” I say over Castor’s counting into her ear. “And Castor stepped on my feet more times than you ever could.”
It makes her laugh, and she’s three steps behind where she should be, but her shoulders relax, dropping from the spot they’ve been holding under her earlobes. I’m not going to make her stop. We’ll just keep going until she gets it. The third time through, she’s still a few steps behind. But I’m sure she can do this even with a lack of rhythm.
The tenth time, her feet glide into place. And when we come back to the starting positions, she’s giddy. I can’t see her face, but I can see Castor’s eyes are mimicking her emotions.
“I did it.”
“You did.” He smiles.
It’s one of ten or more dances she will need to know. But perhaps I can keep her at the food table most of the night.
Then again, I’m not going to be there. Unless things go strangely long. The ball is tomorrow. I thought by now I would have been hauled in front of the judges. But I’ll take a few more minutes with Annabelle.
She drops Castor’s hands and turns to me with a jump. “I couldn’t have done it without you. Although, I suppose I should do it again. I’m not exactly a ShifterChat dance star yet.”
“I don’t know what that is,” I respond. “But if they don’t consider you a star, I can take care of that.”
She laughs. “You don’t know what ShifterChat is? It’s a social media platform for shifters.”
“I’m not a shifter.” I understand that what she’s talking about is probably one of the silly things that humans and shifters spend time on. I’ve never found it useful or entertaining myself. But some males on the sub have modified their blocks to be able to monitor human networks.
“Are you ready to try again?” Holter asks from the piano. She nods. And twenty minutes later, we’re all convinced she knows the minnow and move on to another dance.
After the third dance with Annabelle’s ass rubbing up against my hardening cock, I’m finding it hard to even move in my workout pants. When Holter and Castor switch and we have to listen to Castor pretending he knows how to play the piano, my ears are on fire.
It’s not long before she’s mastered the third dance. She drops Holter’s hands and turns to me. “Now let me dance with just you.” Her tone is significantly more upbeat than when I arrived. I’m grateful as Holter takes over the piano again.
Annabelle’s steps are bright and crisp. With me not behind her, unlike the other males, I’m able to grasp her in the appropriate way. As we move through the jumps and the little hop step, I’m finding it harder and harder to separate myself from the mission. Her damn enthusiasm and her grit to try things she’s not good at are even sexier than the hideous dress she’s wearing. “You are doing wonderfully, Little Krill.”
“I am. I’m really getting this whole dancing thing.” She smiles. The next ten steps are wrong, but she does them with such authority that if you didn’t know the dance, you wouldn’t notice.
I lean in and whisper into her ear. It’s not that I care that Holter or Castor hear what I’m going to tell her. It’s that I want her to know how much this means to me. “I’m not talking about the dance. I’m talking about you.” I’m not coming up with this correctly. I lift my head to Holter and Castor at the piano. “How would you say elkian in English?”
Holter makes a face.
Castor stops playing. “Fortitude. Oh, I think the new word is grit.”
“Yes, grit. You are a special female, Little Krill. Smart, sexy, and flexible in all the right ways.” I nod to them at the piano, and the music starts again. We finish the dance, and I stare into her blue eyes. I can feel her heart beating against my chest.
“That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
I hold her to me, pulling her along my erection. Her eyes glaze over.
“It’s true, but you’re welcome.”
“The music has stopped.”
“It has.”
“I don’t want to dance anymore.” She tilts her head up to mine.
“Me either.” And as I back her up to the piano, our lips meet.
It’s a flurry of male clothing flying off around the room. I carry her to the lid of the piano and lay her down, still in the absurd dress. The yards of fabric are bunched around her waist. Her undergarments are gone, and Holter’s spread her legs wide as his tongue is already thrusting deep into her. Castor pulls her breast out of the gown.
Fuck the gown. I’ll buy her a thousand better than this. I might not have Drakos gold, but I’ve got more than enough. “This comes off, Annabelle, or I’m ripping it.”
“Wait.” She rolls to the side, and I undo the laces. Castor’s holding her leg in the air, and Holter is a male focused on his job. Her skin is glowing and not because of the dancing. When I pull the last lace loose, I slide the bodice off her, her pale breasts gleaming against the golden piano. Last time was too much about us. It wasn’t enough about her. This has to be about her. I kiss her lips until she’s shaking me off. “Please. Please now.”
Holter’s got his cock in her before she asks a second time. Her lips are back on mine, and she’s gasping as I fuck her mouth with my tongue.
Castor’s got a breast in his mouth, and his hand is on the other one. Her orgasm builds quickly, and soon her body is convulsing on the lid, the strings vibrating in a cacophony of sound that is better than anything Castor has ever played. The softest of sighs shakes from her chest when she comes down.
Castor is moving in.
“No. She’s had enough.” I wrap her torso in my discarded shirt, letting the skirt fall back down, and carefully carry my mate back to her borrowed pod room. I want nothing more than for her to have her own. It won’t be this grand, but it will be nice. Nicer than my apartment, but without the Picassos of the Drakos home.
Her eyes are closed. And seriously, what she’s been through today is more than any male I’ve ever met could tolerate. We don’t have fated mates. But my world stirred the first time I laid eyes on her.
