Chapter 28

Hunter Leslie was barking and growling non-stop when he saw Adrian walk inside the apartment. He literally bared his teeth and growled which was so unusual for Les. He was the friendliest dog I knew, never making a big fuss over the guests. I’d always wondered if Les would casually hand my wallet over to a burglar if he brought his favorite snacks.

“Leslie....Adrian is my friend.” Blue cooed as she kneeled down to pet him.

The stupid dog padded over to brush his cute little wet nose at Blue. She looked at Adrian. “Isn’t he just so cute?”

“Yeah.” Adrian replied.

He joined Blue on the floor; his hand raised towards the animal, an open invitation to the dog growling at him. “Come here...I won’t hurt you.”

Leslie continued to growl. “It’s okay, Les, he won’t steal anything from the house.” I assured the dog.

Adrian threw me a look. “Merfolk never steal anything from anyone.”

Yeah, like you aren’t trying to steal my girlfriend right now.

Heck if I let that happen.

I faked a cough, “Point taken.”

It seemed like no matter how much unfriendly Les was being, Adrian wasn’t going to give up. He kept his hand raised towards him. Slowly Les walked to him and licked a bit of his hand, Adrian took that opportunity to pet him on the head and just like that they were friends. Adrian grinned as Les stared at him and I realized they were doing the same weird communication thing.

“See. I told you. He’s a sweet doggie.” Blue said proudly. “Les and I sometimes bathe together and he lets me shampoo him. And I feed him too, a total of four times a day and guess what...” Blue rambled on excitedly. She totally resembled a kid who was telling her classmate about her very first trip at the zoo.

Maybe...that was exactly what Blue thought this was. Maybe she found this amusing, and I was just another fascinating creature for her. A human.

I imaged Blue growing old and telling her dozens of children a very interesting story. All her children had either golden hair (like Adrian’s) or blue like hers. And she said, “My little ones, did you know that when I was young, I went to the land and met this really foolish human boy who fell in love with me. It was hilarious because I really made a total idiot out of him, right, Ade, honey?’

I shook the thoughts away, but I couldn’t ignore how she was acting with him, constantly smiling and giggling. How selfish of me to want to be on the receiving end of those smiles and giggles. My hands were balled into fists but I counted back from ten and slowly the anger began dissipating.

I had to be confident that Blue would choose me over him. Then again, choosing me would mean leaving her world for good. How could I ever make such a selfish request just because I couldn’t let her go? Wouldn’t it be so much easier on her to listen to Adrian, forget about coming here, forget about me and marry Adrian the way her family had planned?

“What is that on your hand?” Adrian was making his way towards me and before I could roll down my shirt sleeves he got hold of my wrist and turned it.

His eyes went wide when he saw it. He saw the red markings that had appeared a few nights ago just below my wrist. I pulled my arm away abruptly.

Adrian looked at me and then glared at Blue. “What the hell did you do?”

How had this gone from zero to hundred real quick?

Blue looked between me and Adrian. “What now?”

I hadn’t told her about this because I didn’t want her to worry.

Adrian looked like he could use a bag of ice to cool his head. He was completely scandalized. “You branded him!” He said through gritted teeth.

“She what?” I asked, baffled.

He caught my hand and showed me the red markings that resembled a mermaid’s tail. He traced his finger over it. “This is a mark of a mermaid. Do you know what she’s done to you?”

Blue had miraculously stopped chattering and was looking a bit guilty and avoiding eye-contact. The question was, why?

“What has she done?” I inquired.

“She’s marked you as her own!” Adrian bellowed, as if that was even a bad thing.

Blue had marked me as her own.

Hallelujah!

Maybe I should open that bottle of champagne.

“I don’t know what gibberish you’re talking about. Yes, she said she loved me, and I don’t understand how that is even a problem.”

Adrian yelled something to Blue in a different language sounding like greek. Blue responded with silence.

“Do you know what this mark means?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t care.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.” Blue said finally.

“Brother, can I talk to you alone?”

Blue looked at me once before looking away, she seemed to be so nervous and fidgeting which was unlike her. Why was she letting what Adrian said get to her head? We were so much happier when he hadn’t barged into our lives, when things hadn’t gotten so complicated.

Something told me that Blue was lying about not knowing anything. She wasn’t meeting my gaze and that was proof enough that she was guilty.

“It’s none of your business.” Blue said softly.

“Of course it is. You’re going to get him—”

Blue passed Adrian a death glare which stopped him from completing his sentence. He placed a hand on my shoulder. “Can we please talk without her being around?”

“She has work in a couple of hours. She won’t be here to listen to our conversation.” I said.

“You even got a job in the human world?!”

Maybe I shouldn’t have said a word.

“Yes, I did.” Blue snapped. “Again, none of your business, Adrian.”

Feisty.

I think I’d never seen this angry side of Blue before, and I kind of liked it. Had to admit that she looked downright adorable when she was angry and all I wanted to do was pull her against me and kiss her until all the anger and tension had left her body.

“You’ve changed.” Adrian said.

She shuffled through the wardrobe we shared, and pulled out some clothes. Grasping the clothes close to her chest she said, “yes I have, and I don’t regret it.” She looked at me from The corner of her eye before walking into the bathroom and slamming the door hard behind her.

We heard the shower turn on. Adrian sighed and settled into the bean bag. “This is nice and soft.”

* * *

I dropped Blue at the club, she wouldn’t say a word or even answer to my questions. I wanted to ask her to stop working at the club, it wasn’t very safe even with Phoenix keeping an eye on her. And I did not trust Alec to keep his hands to himself, what with the way he was lusting over my girl.

I didn’t have the balls to say it to her.

She started to leave the car but I locked the door. I touched her soft cheek and leaned in to kiss her. I kissed her mouth open, and my tongue entered her mouth. I groaned when she sucked on my tongue desperately. She pulled away and began a trail of kisses down my jaw and collarbone.

She was trying to distract me from saying what was on my mind. Her fingers flew to my jeans front, but I quickly grasped her wrist. “No, sweetheart.”

“Hunter...” she whispered. “I know what he’s going to tell you.”

“It doesn’t matter what he tells me. I’ve told you this before. I love you and whatever that he’s about to tell me is not going to change my feelings for you.”

“You promise?” She asked with swollen pink lips.

“I promise you.”

“I’m sorry I never told you about it before.” She apologized. “I was scared about your reaction. I still don’t think that Adrian should tell you.”

“Let’s just get it over with. I’ll hear what he has to say and let me be the judge.” I said.

I unlocked the door for her. She opened the door of the car and before stepping out she said, “Just remember how much I love you.”

* * *

“You could die.” Adrian said when I came back home that evening.

“What are you saying?” I asked him.

Adrian brushed the long blonde locks out of his face, “You’re going against nature, you know that right? Mermaids and humans are not meant to be together, and that’s why when the species from those two worlds come together, it’s considered a sin.”

“I remember she mentioned the sin part.” I said. “Look, man—”

“No, you look here.” He touched my hand and pointed at the mark. “This happens when a mermaid marks a human as her own, which Blue has already done by telling you that she loved you. But as you can see the mark is still incomplete.”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “It means the mark can be undone. If the mark completes its circle, that would mean you can’t undo it and you’ll be connected to her and it also means you could die with or without a natural cause.”

“How do I stop from the circle from completing?”

“Tell her to come back to the ocean.” He said simply. “Tell her you don’t love her.”

I laughed. “You’re crazy if you think I’ll do that. I prefer dying over telling her that I don’t love her. I’ll just take the risk, I guess.”

“Brother...you’re taking this too lightly. If the circle completes your fate is tied to hers.” He paused as if he couldn’t imagine of such a thing happening.

“If you die, Hunter Brantley, she suffers too!”

“What?”

“If the circle completes than she’s chosen her soulmate, but you’re a mortal and human lives are very delicate and short. God forbid if you died, she will live forever in misery missing you, wanting you back.”

The thought of Blue being sad for me made me a little elated, but that didn’t mean that I wanted her to live her life feeling unhappy and not smiling at all.

“There was such a case with one of the other merfolk in our community. The merman fell in love with a woman on land. He almost branded her.”

“What happened after that?” I asked curiously.

“He undid the mark by wiping her memories of him and by leaving her.”

“Why? If he did that, I’m sure he didn’t love her enough.” I said.

Adrian gave me a heated look. “He loved her a lot, alright. The woman’s life was in danger and he decided that he would rather take away her memories and let her live her life than watch her die. It was painful for him but he let the woman go. She married a human like herself and had kids, and he married a mermaid in his community.”

“Well, that’s fucking tragic.” I said.

“That’s the right thing.” Adrian said, “Blue is being stubborn, I’m sure she doesn’t even love you but she’s in love with the idea of falling in love with a human. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I know, and I’m still not convinced I should give her up.” I looked him over. “Is it possible that you’re convincing me to let her go because you’re in love with her and want me out of your way?”

He gave out a sarcastic laugh. “She looks at me as just a friend, and I know she’d rather marry a sea turtle than me.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. “Yeah, she’s stubborn to a fault.” We were actually bonding over our affection over Blue. “If she’s curious about something she doesn’t let it go until finds out every little detail about it.”

“Did you guys...what’s it called here? The love making humans do. Did you do it with her?”

My cheeks probably turned bright red. “Nah, man. I wish it was that simple.”

“So it means it’s not simple?” He asked. “How...how do you do it?”

I didn’t think I was ready to start the sex-Ed speech again. Maybe the mermaids could join a sex-ed classes with me just in case they decided to try the most controversial thing with humans.

“I’ll explain you maybe later. You can have a real experience too.”

“You mean with Blue?” He asked.

I stared at him incredulously. “Where the fuck did you even get that idea? Of course not! I meant with some other willing female, who is looking forward to a casual fuck.”

Adrian nodded, something told me he didn’t understand one word of what I’d said.

“So what’s your decision?” He asked.

“I’m willing to take the risk.”

“You’re a foolish man.” Adrian said, leafing through a stack of magazines. “You’ll be sorry, but suit yourself.”

* * *

Hannah dropped Blue home from work that night. I’d already prepared dinner. Spaghetti and chicken roast.

Adrian ignored Blue and she ignored him right back, and somehow the tension in the room was getting toxic. They were also fighting for Leslie’s attention like he was a Duke of some country.

The real problem came when it was time to go to bed. Normally, Blue and I shared a bed, but with Adrian here I realized it would be awkward.

“Adrian and I will sleep on the floor. You take the bed.” I told Blue.

“You won’t sleep with me? Why?” She asked.

Adrian was staring at our exchange with interest.

“Why do we have to change our sleeping positions just because Ade is here?” She complained.

“Sweetheart...”

“Sleep on the bed, Hunter. I’ll sleep on the floor.” Adrian said.

Blue smiled in triumph, and I kind of felt bad for the dude for being so ridiculously friend-zoned.

She began taking off her t-shirt, with Adrian still staring. I stopped her from doing it. “No. You cannot do that with other men around.”

“But Adrian’s my friend. He’s already seen me—”

“Blue.” I warned her.

“Fine.” She said and lied down on her side of the bed.

When the lights went out she came closer to snuggle with me. I threw a glance at the joined living area space where I could see Adrian’s large form sleeping with his face turned to the other side. Then I heard the sounds of soft snores, guess he was really tired.

I pulled Blue closer and reached for her t-shirt. Keeping her covered with a blanket, I pulled her nightie over her head and unclasped her bra and stared at the glorious full breasts. I squeezed one, it was exactly the size of my palm. I took the other one into my mouth and suckled, no feasted on it. I heard her low moan, so I pressed my hand on her mouth and the mermaid bit me, literally sunk her teeth into my hand.

I chuckled and continued to lick and suck her breasts. When I came up for air, we kissed for a long time.

“What did he say to you?” Blue whispered.

The Bad Boy And The Mermaid Chapter 27 In My Desperate Time Chapter 637: You're the Best Gift in My Life 19 “He told me what the mark means, and the risk that I’m at.” I said truthfully.

I could see her blue eyes smolder with desire and some unknown feeling that I couldn’t even name, something far more fierce than love or lust.

“Hunter...” she whispered.

“Yes, my love.”

“What’s your decision?”

If I told her that I wasn’t going to take a risk, that I would rather live my life than die, I knew she who’d understand and maybe even return to her world just like Adrian wanted her too.

“I love you, and I want you to stay, regardless of how much danger I’m in.”

She stared at me in the darkness for so long that I wondered if she had slept with her eyes open or if she had forgotten about our conversation all together.

“I think there is one way that maybe we could avoid it.”

“I’ll do it.” I said without even thinking or asking about it.

“Maybe you wouldn’t want it.”

“Just tell me what it is.” I pressed her.

“They can’t take me back, or force me to leave. If I...well if you...”

“If I what?”

“If you married me.”