Page 23 of A Merman's Tail
“We need to go back out,” I said, turning in Boy’s arms and grabbing his face between my hands. I tilted his chin back and stared into his rounded face and flushed cheeks, or what little of it that the moon’s light let me see. He’d taken off the heels, but he still wore the stockings and dress, which seemed to glimmer under the glow of the moon. “We need to find more mermen, give them all the proof they need. Maybe keep one alive.”
He stared up at me and took my hands into his. He kissed the back of one and then did the same to the other, and nodded.
“Joey probably won’t come,” I said, frowning down at him. “He was pretty pissed off about what we did today. Never saw him that angry, to be honest.”
Boy worried his bottom lip between his teeth, and shook his head, pointing at himself. He didn’t speak, because he couldn’t, but he mouthed a word I understood. “Me.”
“You?”
He nodded again, raising his chin in determination.
“You want to go out with me and hunt them?”
He curled his arms around my neck and dragged me closer, kissing me on the lips. If he’d been anyone else, I would have told them to fuck off, that I didn’t kiss outside of sex, but something inside me craved him with a weird sense of need that had some of my anger seeping away.
“You really would do anything for me,” I whispered, and Boy smiled. “Okay. We’ll go out first thing in the morning.”
He seemed satisfied with that because he flashed me his straight white teeth. I dragged him as close as I could, wrapping my arms around his slim body and burying my face against his shoulder. Breathing him in, I sighed.Fuck. This could get dangerous very quickly. It was one thing to fuck a man, but another to let that same man be so close to me. Not even the women got that luxury. Yet, I wanted him in the bed beside me, although I kind of wished I’d bought him silk pajamas to sleep in now. Maybe some lingerie too.
“Let’s go to bed. We need all the sleep we can get.”
I led him back into the house, and like the good slave that I felt like he was, he let me take him to the shower. We bathed together, and I washed his back and chest before he did the same to me. The entire affair felt domestic and the thought made my stomach clench.
When we got into bed naked, Boy cuddled close to me and rested his head on my chest. His legs entangled in mine, and I let him get close because I enjoyed the warmth more than I should have. We fell asleep like that, entwined as though we were one person instead of two.
