Page 81 of Hunters and Prey

“What’s complicated about it? It’s not like you fell for one of the fi—er, merpeople.” Antonio raised his bottle again and sipped. When Matteo didn’t answer, his twin fixed him with a hard look, staring. “Right? Oh shit. Christ. Tell me it isn’t a fish.”

“Don’t call her a fucking fish,” he growled, the sound rumbling from his chest.

The alarm on his twin’s face told him everything he needed to know about his expression. “All right,” Antonio said, speaking slowly. “Sorry. Tell me about her then.”

“Don’t know how to describe her. She’s…incredible.” Matteo slouched back in the seat and summoned a vision of El to his mind, of her generous smile, that gold and red hair free around her shoulders and glittering with mother of pearl clips and starfish pins. Her smile haunted his dreams. “Honest, compassionate, loyal.”

“And not human.”

“So?”

“You know as well as I do that relationships between humans and…others… It just doesn’t work, bro.” In a gentler voice, Antonio said, “You’re wasting your time, and I don’t wanna see you get your hopes up over something that can’t happen.”

Matteo grunted.“Do I look like I’m wasting my time right now, Antonio? I’m sitting on my couch with a cold beer in my hand. I’m enjoying the game. I’m resting ’cause I just spent six weeks underwater getting the shit beat out of me by merpeople.”Matteo turned away to focus on the screen. Then he thought back to that last evening aboard the Salamander, a night he couldn’t forget no matter how many times he tried to drink Elpis out of his head.

9 Days Earlier

When Elpis showed up at his stateroom door, Matteo didn’t expect to end up drinking the night away with her. She’d had a bottle in each hand and a smile on her face, so who was he to deny her a visit just hours before his team’s scheduled departure from Cyrene?

“Two bottles?”

“You enjoyed this so much at the coliseum it only seemed fair to send you off with a gift for home,” she’d said, appearing innocent as a newborn lamb.

“You’re my goddess.”

The intention had been to pack one for home, but the reality was they drank themselves silly while sitting on his bed and reliving the most amusing highlights of their training together. At first, El was beside him, but then she was on his lap, a warm and sturdy weight with soft curves and sweet-smelling skin like lilies and creamy vanilla.

“Did you just sniff me?”

“Um…” Matteo paused, a lie on the tip of his tongue. “Maybe?”

With her next shift, both of her arms wrapped around his neck and violet eyes met his. She straddled him, placing the crux of her thighs just over his groin.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Life wasn’t fair.

“A little risky, isn’t it?” she breathed, raising the hairs on his arms. “What if sniffing a woman has a different meaning in my culture? You could be bound to me, beholden to be my mate under the sea for decades to come.”

And there went his dick. He made a valiant effort to ignore it. “Mm.” He could think of worse fates but didn’t think that was the answer she wanted. “You’d only be disappointed. That short lifespan thing would throw a kink in your plans.”

“Mm. I could get at least forty more years out of you before replacing you with a newer model,” she teased, canting her head. “Maybe fifty. You’re young enough.”

“Fifty?” he barked out a laugh. “Seriously. How old are you?”

“You’ll laugh if I tell you.”

“No, I won’t. I’ve met non-human beings before, remember? Part of the job.”

“Seventy-three.”

Matteo maintained his poker face while his cock did the exact opposite and telegraphed his arousal with an undeniable throb. El settled more firmly against him, all wicked heat and temptation. “Wouldn’t have thought you to be a day over fifty.”

“Ha ha.”

“And me?”

Her lips pursed as she studied him. “Twenty-eight.” When he shook his head, her smile faded a little. “Thirty?”

“No.”

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