Shark Bait (9 page)

Shock and excitement lit a sparkler inside her body and she could barely hold still. Her hips snapped like a firecracker, and she flew through the water, circling the lake partway before dashing back to her and Raider’s cove. The shark fell behind at some point, but as she pulled her dragon body out of the water and shifted to human, he appeared, his fin rising out of the water before a human body rose, first head, then wide shoulders, then arms and waist, then…

Her chest felt like a popcorn popper, and her throat went dry. “That was fantastic!” Her voice sounded breathy, hoarse. And the look in his eyes stole the air from her lungs.

He stalked toward her, tiny explosions inside her becoming more frequent. Suddenly she became very aware of her nakedness and how cold the night air felt on her wet skin. She yearned to press up against the crisp hair trailing down his body and bask in his heat.

Raider didn’t stop until he was much too close, and then he grabbed her shoulders and crushed her breasts against his chest. His one hand hooked behind her neck and tangled in her hair, dragging her mouth to his. The other hand took her breast in a rough hold, twisting the peaked nipple between two calloused fingers.

She gasped, and a thick tongue speared into her mouth, licking her along the palate until he took her top lip between his teeth and bit. His fingers plunged past her ribcage and down to her hip, then took hold of one side of her bottom and squeezed hard. He molded the flesh, pulling her tight against him, his engorged sex organ a searing imprint at her belly.

His tongue spread her lips again as he stroked hard once, urging her mouth wider. Digits reached into the cleft of her rear and lower. A panicked squeak left her lips.

He broke away. His muscles jumped and bulged with strain. He strode to where the dry bag hung on a rock wall and pulled out his pants. “Um…yeah, sorry about that. You’re okay, right?”

The excited thumping in her chest hardened, slowed. Mercy, if he was rejecting her too…Tears welled up. This was ridiculous. Was it too much to ask that a shark-shifter who probably hadn’t seen a female in years would find her attractive?

He walked to where she stood and held out her dress. “Listen, I didn’t mean to…”
“What is so wrong with me?” She knew it was pouty and pathetic to ask, but here in this little beach, she couldn’t stop the words from escaping.
His head pulled back as his eyes shot wide with fear. Clearly, the idea of being exposed to her feelings terrified him. “I’m not sure what you’re asking me.”
She snatched the dress from his grasp and hastily pulled it over her head. “Nothing. I’m not asking you anything.” She pulled on one, then another sock, then her boots and stood up, testing the tread on the sand. She started walking toward the rocks when his thick fingers wrapped around her arm. “Tell me why you’re mad at me. I didn’t think I hurt you just then. I stopped myself.”
She pulled her arm away from his grasp, exasperated. “Yes, I know. But why? You seem to be attracted enough to me!” Sophia held her eyes determinedly at his face, making sure not to scan lower to check.
He grabbed her hand and pressed it, open palmed, onto the heavy stalk bowing forward in his jeans. “What do you think?”
Something at the base of her body melted, but his fierce gaze stopped her from leaning into him.
“But why do you even care if I want you? I’m just a monster you’re using to lure your hero.” He threw her hand back, and she clutched it to her chest. His footsteps sounded between the rocky crags, and with a strange emptiness in her heart, she swung her dry bag over her shoulder and followed.

* * * *

Adrenaline spiked at the blare of the siren. David tugged the labcoat wearing merman through the door and down the long driveway leading from the main building behind the staff housing. He heard Nereus curse as his soles met gravel. Without shoes and not spending much time on legs the guy’s feet must be killing him.

“I’ve got to go back!” Nereus rasped as he pulled his arm from

David’s grasp.
“Shit no. You’re getting out of here.” He didn’t know where this
sudden certainty came from, but he wrapped his fingers around the
merman’s arm again, urging him into the passenger side of his ragtop
Jeep Cherokee.
Shouts carried over the paved sidewalks, but as David started the
engine and curved into a small trail in the foliage, the trees muffled
the voices. The Jeep bounced over roots and through mud. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
To be honest, David didn’t quite know. He’d barely explored
further than the surrounding chicken grills and sundry stores, and he
had no idea where this little trail he’d seen staff walk down to smoke
cigarettes led. “Can you tell which way to water?” he shouted over the
noise of the engine.
“Of course! Can’t everyone?” The jeep launched over a
particularly thick branch and almost sent both of them flying. For some reason, Nereus’s comment struck David as hilarious.
“No—human, remember.” He swerved to a grinding halt when they
reached a chain link fence. “Fuck me!”
The merman slammed a hand on the dash. “I have to go back. I’ll
die.”
David started the engine again and pulled Nereus to him, kissing
his mouth hard. “Put on your fucking seatbelt.”
They shot forward, and David drove along the inside of the fence.
With any luck, security had followed them far enough into the forest
that they couldn’t easily get to the main exit. The vehicle jostled them
into the fence, then into the foliage, but David punched the gas at
every ditch.
Finally the main gate approached. No guard stood at the entryway,
but it was locked. David rifled through his pockets, hoping that for
once in his life he hadn’t lost his key card. His fingers landed on the
hard plastic rectangle.
He reached out the window and swept it through the reader and
the metal bars started pulling open automatically. He sped through the
doors and out into the street beyond.
His blood thundered in his veins. Panic started to creep in. What
the hell had he just done? Nereus squeezed his hand. “So what’s the
plan? Drive through the streets of Panama City with a dehydrating
mere in a lab coat?”
David’s hysterical laughter bubbled up. Nerves made his head feel
like it was being crushed in a vice. Everything seemed surreal. He
shoved back the druggy feeling of adrenaline withdrawal and tried to
think clearly. “We need to get you to water, the most direct way
possible. Do you think they’ll send the police?”
Nereus seemed to note the hysterical edge to his voice, because
long pale fingers stroked down his arm, calming him. “Yeah,
probably. I think they’ve paid off the local cops. But I doubt law
enforcement around here is terribly fast.” Nereus laid his head back
against the seat, starting to fade.
David swung the Jeep toward the city lights. DORC perched up in
the hills, so he had a good view of the harbor. “Hey, baby. Once we
get into town I need you to point me in the right direction, okay?” A thick voice spoke from beside him. “Did you just call me
baby?”
David snorted. “Yeah, I guess I did.” He thought his passenger
might tease him for the term of endearment. When no snappy
comeback was forthcoming, David urged, “Hey, heads up. I need you
conscious.”
“Don’t need to use my eyes to find water. Opening dehydrates
faster. Same with mouth.” His slurred speech stopped.
David made a note not to ask any more questions. With the wind
going by, Nereus would lose water through his skin faster as well.
David pressed hard, adding more gas and positioned his body in front
of Nereus’s as best he could to bear the brunt of the wind. Once they reached the busy, twisting streets, David’s concern that
they’d been followed evaporated. Nereus nodded one direction, then
another, leading him through the maze toward the ocean.
The humid air became marginally cooler, and David smelled salt.
Next to him, Nereus sighed, his body relaxing. The remnants of
anxiety changed to another type of excitement as David noticed the
merman’s sculpted muscles revealed by his open lab coat. City docks loomed directly ahead and David pulled up to the
parking lot and parked behind a dumpster. He turned to Nereus,
whose pale, sunken skin slowly regained color and turgidity. The merman took his hand, and pulled him toward a set of stairs,
leading down from the docks to the water below. David followed him
to the areas under the pilings, noticing the dark corners where
indigents huddled.
“Come swimming with me.”
This is the part where the merman drowns the evil scientist.
“Um…I don’t know that I can.”
Nereus tugged at David’s shirt, popping a couple buttons, then
tore at his trouser zipper. David looked around in fear, worried that
the homeless under the docks would… Well, he didn’t really know
what they would do.
As if Nereus heard his thoughts, he said, “Oh please, you think
those guys haven’t seen this before?”
David clutched at his pants, stopping their descent down his legs.
“I hate to state the obvious, but I can’t swim like you.”
A pale hand pulled his shirt off his shoulders. “But you can swim
a little, right?”
He finally relented, stripping his clothes off. “Yeah, a normal
human amount. But I can’t breathe under water.”
Naked except for his checkered boxers, David watched as Nereus
shrugged the lab coat off his shoulders and walked to the water’s
edge. That ass was…
“Hey, are you coming or what?”
David folded his clothes and placed them near a piling where he
hoped he might find them again later, but knowing they’d be gone by
the time he returned. If he returned.
Nereus held out his hand and broke into an absolutely devastating
smile. “I’ll have you back in a few hours.”

Raider’s legs burned and his feet scraped on the jagged rocks lining the shore, but he refused to slow down. Sophia gasped for breath a few steps behind.

If his pace bothered him, it must be hurting Sophia way worse, and that was exactly as he intended. He wasn’t a guy a female like her would ever consider as a mate, but he wished she could at least pretend he was a person.

They rounded a large boulder and he spotted the town nestled in the valley below, with a little dock protruding from the sandy shore. The houses and shops were dark, with only dim street lamps to light the way. He paused, eyeing the most hidden paths through town and the most poorly protected boats in the harbor.

“Mercy!” she panted, catching her breath. The hitch of her voice set his blood pumping.
He cursed that he cared if she wanted him or not. The feeling pretty much sucked. “We gotta keep moving if we’re going to get provisioned and out of here by morning.”
Sophia let out a high-pitched “huh!” that had his cock rising to attention again.
He grabbed her arm and dragged her forward. Much as Raider wanted to believe it was to punish her or scare her, he just wanted to touch her again. “I see the perfect boat.”
The dirt path into town led to cobblestone pathways. The oldfashioned streets wound through plaster cottages with thatched roofs and imitations of them.
“This could be romantic under different circumstances,” Sophia muttered.
Raider reached for the handle to a small grocery and calmly tore the knob from the door.
She yelped
He gave her a stern look. “Shut. Up.”
Her face screwed in outrage. “Don’t tell me to shut up. You’re stealing! Not just that, you’re breaking and entering to steal! You know, these people probably haven’t had a crime in…”
“You wanted to be kidnapped by a shark-shifter,” he snarled, closer to her face than decency allowed. “I want to make sure you get the full experience.” The broken door gave way under his hand, revealing a little food boutique with organic non-perishables and a basket of fruits and vegetables. “I love tourist towns.”
He snatched her dry-bag and opened it, loading everything in arm’s reach into the bag.
“At least let me leave them some money!” Sophia pulled at his arm and reached inside the bag. Her excitement rose off her skin like the scent of hard liquor.
He bowed his head to her hair.
Sophia made little noises of consternation as her hand met with various objects that were not her wallet.
“For the love of fuck!” He pulled the bag away and drew out his own wallet, then tossed it to her. “Here.”
Her face pinched, “Don’t you think it’s a bit rich to pay for stolen goods with stolen money.”
He plucked a final few items from the shelves. “Oh please, stolen from a boat full of pirates! Where does your money come from?”
She tossed a few of his larger bills to the counter.
He shoved her out the door ahead of him. Snatching back his wallet, he gripped her arm in one hand and the heavy dry bag in another. He searched for a store where he could grab some shoes.
“I work in accounting for my father.”
Spotting a shop with several pairs of men’s topsiders in the window, he replied absentmindedly, “Eh, a numbers girl.”
She started talking again as he fiddled with the door handle— something about human-world schools. The metal gave way without his needing to break it. He placed his fingers over her mouth. “This is the loudest robbery I’ve ever taken part in. You need to shut the fuck up.”
She pressed her lips together. Damn, he wanted to pinch them between his teeth. Instead he grabbed a pair of size eleven boat shoes off the display. He turned to go, but reached for a polo shirt and a pair of khakis in his size just in case.
“You planning on playing golf, shark?” Apparently, Sophia couldn’t resist speaking for more than a few seconds.
He scowled and threw a few bucks on the counter.
They scurried down the street to the dock just as the sky purpled with morning light. The dragoness yawned.
“Perfect timing.” No one would wonder at a boat leaving the harbor at this hour. The dock was unguarded and unlocked. He searched out the little Dory at the end. The small cruiser looked local, so with any luck it might take a day or two before someone noticed it missing.
“Please tell me we’re not stealing a boat!”
Gods, he wanted to gag her. “Let me clarify this for you, sweetheart. I’m a pirate. I pretty much live on boats. Currently we have no boat, hence…”
He reached with one foot to stabilize the boat at the dock, and then placed his hands on her waist, hoisting her into the aft. “It should only take a few days for the dragons to find us. And then the noble dragons can return it to the poor helpless humans.”
He could tell she wanted to argue but chose to ignore whatever it was she said next. He jostled the ties free. They were settled into their cleats, a sure sign that no one had moved the boat in a while. Unwinding the ropes, he turned to Sophia. “Start the motor but in neutral…quiet!”
She did as he said. That was the nice thing about the dragoness, she might argue and fret, but she followed orders well. That damn monster between his legs thickened again at the thought of all she might do if properly directed.
The boat eased forward, and Raider kicked off the dock with his new shoes. It had been a while since he had shoes. They felt a little uncomfortable and fancy.
The vessel motored slowly out of the harbor, and Raider breathed a deep draw of satisfaction. The floor swayed lightly under his feet, the feeling so familiar. That mild nausea he’d experienced while on land passed, and his equilibrium returned. He pulled aside the door and came into the cabin right behind Sophia who stood at the steering wheel.
Her short height forced her on tip toes to see through the windshield.
His arms wrapped around her, and without thinking, his lips found that spot where her shoulder met her neck. Out on the water he didn’t feel his desperation or his poverty. The Dory was twenty-two feet of his own damn boat. His female, if only for a few days, drove it out to sea.