Page 45 of Don't Bait Me (Nora Jacobs 3)

“I suppose it keeps you paid,” I say, scrolling through the next page of disgruntled faces. I’m starting to lose faith that I’ll find my guy. I knew it was a long shot, but still, I had hoped.

“That it does…if you can call my pathetic salary getting paid.” Ren looks toward the front door. “Parker, honey, are you okay over there? You want some coffee? Snacks? A coconut oil massage with a happy ending…?”

Oliver chooses this moment to come out of his office. “Ren, we’ve been over the sexual harassment policy a million times. You can’t say stuff like that. Hey, Parker. What are you doing—oh, hi, Nora. What areyoudoing here?”

I look up when he calls my name and give him a grin. “Nothing. Certainly not anything related to the fey murders.”

Oliver shakes his head and chuckles but doesn’t ask me any more questions. He heads over to me and drops a file folder on top of the other files on Nick’s desk. “Good to see you awake.” He combs his fingers through his hair, raking his eyes over my features, looking for signs that I don’t feel well. “You slept a long time. Are you okay?”

I lean back and smile up at him. “Last night was intense, but I’m all good now.”

He leans down and pecks my lips with his. “Good.”

I’m surprised at the casual ease he kisses me with and also that it was such a public display of affection. Ren sighs. “You two are so cute. Can wepleasetalk about your man problems now? I’m dying over here. Why are you mad at me?”

I narrow my gaze on Ren. I’d forgotten all about myman problemswhile sifting through a sea of supernatural criminals. “You know, don’t you?” I accuse Ren. “You know, and you didn’t tell me.”

His brow wrinkles in confusion. “Know what?”

I go back to looking at mug shots. “Rook and I went to see Giselle this afternoon. We learned a few things about sirens.”

“Oh!” Ren claps with glee. “So you finally know about your harem? Goody! I’ve been dying to talk to you about it.”

It’s all I can do not to jump up from Nick’s desk and thrust an accusing finger at him. “Iknewyou knew and didn’t tell me!”

Ren flashes me a grin. “Of course I knew. Have you seen Giselle’s harem? As if I wouldn’t know about that. I didn’t know for sure about you, but when I started to see what was happening between you and all your scrumptious admirers, I figured since sirens and mermaids are so closely related, you’d have the same deal as her.”

“Harem?”Oliver asks, eyebrows, rightly, high up on his forehead.

“It’s a siren thing,” Nick says. He’s back and leaning against the wall, sipping on a cup of coffee. The bastard isn’t surprised at all, either. He laughs when I frown at him. “I’ve been around long enough to remember the last known siren in the Great Lakes area.”

I blink at him, momentarily sidetracked. “Just how old are you?”

He smirks over the top of his coffee cup. “I’m young at heart. Plus, Giselle and I used to be good friends. She even asked me to join her harem once.”

Sothat’sthe deal with Giselle and him. He once mentioned she doesn’t like to be rejected. I hadn’t realized she’d asked him to be one of her plethora of lovers. I’m curious, but mostly I want to know how that would work—a mermaid and dragon. I resist the urge to ask about the mechanics of mermaid mating. “And the reason neither of you bothered to mention this to me is…?”

“You were raised human,” Ren says, as if that explains everything. “I wasn’t going to be the one to break it to you. You seem like the type to shoot the messenger.”

I roll my eyes and shake my head before turning my accusing stare on Nick. He’s not at all repentant. “It was already happening naturally. I figured if I brought it up, it would have scared you off of the idea, and you really need to embrace it.”

Oliver raises his hand as if he has a question, his eyes flittering back and forth between the three of us. “Um…does somebody want to clue me in? What’s all this about a harem?”

Ugh. I don’t want to have this conversation again with yet another man I’m going to hurt, but there’s no point delaying the inevitable. “Pull up a chair,” I say with a sigh.

He grabs a chair from Darla’s empty desk and moves to sit beside me. I quickly explain everything Giselle told me. Oliver seems as shocked as I was. I go back to looking at mug shots because I can’t meet his eyes. I don’t want to know what he thinks about the idea. Or me, for that matter.

“So…you’re saying Nora should become lovers…with all of us?”

I glance up just in time to see his face turn bright red. He looks at Ren and Nick warily. “Isn’t that a little perverse?”

Ren shrugs. “Not really. It’s just a siren’s nature.”

I cringe away from Oliver’s burning gaze.

“Shedoeshave to embrace it,” Nick says, “if she wants to stop being mauled by every man who gets near her.”

“That doesn’t happen as much anymore,” Oliver mumbles.

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