Page 22 of Seduced By the Mermen
Chapter 10
Clark
“It’s not like I have anything else I need to be doing right now, Zion.” He can’t hear me, but I glare as the door to my Huber opens. It’s a much better brand of solo than the Gorsca. Better design for the same price.
“I’ve been waiting.” Zion’s got his arms crossed over his shirt. Except it’s not his shirt.
“Is that mine?” I pull at the fabric of the tunic as he sits.
“Is what yours?”
“The shirt you’re wearing. Although I’m glad you’re wearing a shirt. Alexei keeps going on and on about how humans are weird about nudity.” I’m watching the flow of traffic going around the Glyden docking dome, maneuvering my Huber out into the line of solos making their way through the airlock. From the corner of my eye, I catch the weird expression on Zion’s face. “What in the hell are you smiling about?”
“Nothing.” He clicks the safety harness into place, and I snap to him.
Everyone thinks I’m the outgoing, social one of our pod. That I’m fun and irresponsible. But it’s not me, it’s Zion. I take in a deep breath, ready to let him have it for taking my clothes without asking, when I get the scent of a female on him. And notthe he-gave-her-a-hug kind of scent. “That’s not nothing. You fucked her. Blair Portsmouth.”
“No, I didn’t, but I can say she’s sweet. I’ll tell everyone tonight. While I wouldn’t mind telling the story over and over, I don’t think my cock could take it.”
I’m not sure where to go with that information. Anger, jealousy, frustration at him being so careless that he could ruin us being able to pursue her as a pod together. Maybe a little of all of them.
“Didn’t your firm redesign the airlocks on the Glyden dome?”
“Not this one. The one out back for the Glyden residences.”
“You were late because you went to look at it,” he says. It’s definitely not a question. He knows. As much as Zion frustrates the shit out of me, he’s not only a pod brother, he’s my friend.
“I was here, and yeah. How often do I have the chance to look at something after it’s been working for a while?”
“Every fucking day. You could come look at it any day you want to. But you made me stand— Never mind. Thanks for coming to get me. How was it?” Zion crosses his ankle over his knee. “I like the shirt.” He’s holding it out in front of him like he’s never seen it before.
“You can’t have it.”
“Grayson grabbed it. How’s the airlock look?”
“Better than this piece of shit we’re waiting to go through now.”
“That’s good.” Zion leans back in the seat and closes his eyes.
“Didn’t get much sleep, or is your leg really bad?”
“No, and I’ll tell you at dinner.”
I’ve never wanted to trade places with him before. My brain is spinning. It’s hard to think about what I was doing. Her scent on him has me on edge. And I’m never on edge. I try to shake it off. Focus on what I was planning on doing. Out of the Glydenairlock, I swing the Huber back around, piloting between the buildings in the financial district.
“Where are you taking us to?” Zion cocks his head at me. Fucking hell, why does my tunic look better on him than it does on me?
“I’ve been cooped up in my study all week, and I need to check a couple of job sites that are down here.”
“It’s fine. I don’t need to get to work.”
“You could have swum home.”
Zion puts his hand on the thermal sprayed bandage on his leg.
“Oh, for Poseidon’s sake, you’re fine.”
“I know I am. But I don’t want it to get back to the Portsmouth pod that I just took off from the airlock like nothing was wrong.”
