Chapter 22
“Are you punishing him?” Audrey asked with a laugh as she tossed some protein bars in her backpack.
I shrugged as I leaned against the doorway to her bedroom. “Maybe a little bit. But also, he would end up collecting trash with me regardless.”
“That’s true.” Audrey nodded as she grabbed her hoodie and zipped it up.
She and Liam were heading back to Enhavenn to formally announce Audrey as his mate, per Ada’s suggestion.
His sister wanted to give them space to enjoy their new mating bond in peace, but the prince of Enharra finding his mate, was newsworthy to his people.
Audrey and Liam would spend the next couple of days conducting interviews, visiting families in his territory, and engaging in general royal activities.
Plus, they had to delicately handle the PR aspect of announcing Audrey’s true lineage, without also announcing how they discovered this news.
Audrey already had a target on her back from Ilia as is. Liam’s sister agreed that they would wait to tell Hyvenmere Audrey’s real identity. Until it was a more stable time to be half siren and mated to the Fae Prince.
When I asked if they’d heard from Hush yet, Audrey shook her head.
“Maybe I’m being irresponsible,” Audrey said.
“But I need to not focus on Ilia or the nereids or the gates. I just want to keep focusing on the fact that Liam and I are mates for a little longer, no matter how selfish that makes me sound.” I did not envy Audrey.
The relationship that she had been yearning for, for years, suddenly got a thousand times more complicated.
I, however, was just grateful to be casually dating a basic human man.
Part of me wondered how Drustan would react to the knowledge of my situationship with a human, since he seemed to be hitting on me. Though, most of his flirting felt like a mockery. Like a handsome popular kid in middle school teasing the nerd with braces and acne.
Mine, one of the first words Drustan ever said to me. But then I reminded myself that it didn’t matter how Drustan felt about me. Who I dated was no one’s business but mine, and mine alone.
So, when Audrey and Liam waved goodbye, promising to be back the next day, just in case Drew (hopefully) decided to take our relationship to the next level, I focused on which swimsuit I wanted to wear when I took him out on the boat.
Most of the ones I had in mind would show off my many tan lines—the cost of being a white woman who perked up like a flower as soon as direct sunlight touched her skin—so trying to hide those was out.
Which swimsuit successfully portrayed the message that I wanted Drew? I respected his boundary, but as soon as he gave the green light, he could take me right then and there on the boat.
Pulling my hair back into a braid, I checked my phone one last time.
The last message we sent was me texting him the address of where to meet up. Just outside the docks. Slipping my sandals on, I did a little happy shimmy with my shoulders as I grabbed my backpack and headed out.
Later that day, Drew and I were out on my boat, rocking with the gentle waves of the ocean on a clear, sunny day.
Our relationship was burning slowly, which wasn’t something I was used to. I was a proudly sexual woman. I didn’t mind jumping into bed the first night if that’s what felt right for me. However, Drew putting up some clear boundaries at the beginning of all this didn’t upset me either.
Taking things slowly made me feel like what we had could become special. It felt like he intended to gain a deeper understanding than men usually wanted to have with me, while still being super horny for each other.
“Ready?” I asked as I slid my cutoff jean shorts down my legs. Obviously, I did it as seductively as possible. Just because we hadn’t gotten naked in bed yet didn’t mean I wasn’t ready to do so whenever he gave the okay.
His dark eyes tracked the movement of my shorts as he replied, “Yes.”
I grabbed a mesh bag before snapping goggles over my eyes.
I had oxygen tanks and masks on the boat in case of an emergency, but I had also spent time training my lungs to hold my breath for longer periods.
I could do it for almost a solid minute.
Plus, the ocean floor wasn’t that far beneath the boat on this spot.
I wouldn’t have to dive as deep to pick out trash from the coral.
Following my lead, Drew pulled his shirt off, folded it, and gently set it on the bench seat next to him. I smiled and shook my head, not surprised at how much he cared for his clothes.
His sculpted chest was…magnificent. Perfectly sun-kissed, not a farmer’s tan in sight. He must have shaved his chest, because there wasn’t any chest hair on it. Maybe he’d be willing to grow a little out for me. Focusing back on our date, I walked toward the ladder before waving him over.
“Cannonball?” I asked him.
He tilted his head at me as he inspected the goggles I gave him. “What?”
“Want to do a cannonball?”
“What’s that?” he asked with a smile.
I shook my head and laughed. “Shut up.” I stepped up onto the edge of the boat, surprised when he dropped the goggles on the boat floor, and stepped up next to me, clasping our hands together.
“No goggles?” I asked.
“I can see just fine in the water,” he assured me with a smirk. Men. Always wanting to show off. I shrugged before pulling my hand free of his and launching my body off the boat.
Seconds before I hit the water, I shouted, “Cannonball!” I couldn’t see it, but I had a feeling I made a decent splash. Maybe I soaked him, too. I popped up out of the salty surface, grasping the mesh bag in my hand as I wiped loose strands of wet hair from my goggles to look up.
Drew was standing right where I left him.
He smirked before shaking his head once and saying, “I think I can cannonball better.”
“Those are fighting words, Drew,” I taunted.
He chuckled before launching his large body off the boat and folding himself up, splashing right next to me.
I was laughing and scraping salt water off the bottom half of my face where the goggles didn’t protect, when he popped his dark head out of the water.
He turned to grin at me, a beautiful, happy grin—that quickly morphed into a grimace as he squeezed his eyes closed.
“Are you okay?” I asked, paddling toward him. Drew lifted his hands to his eyes, which were blinking rapidly and struggling to stay open.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“Oh, no.” I rested a hand on his shoulder. “You forgot to take your contacts out.”
He turned away from me, his hands raised to adjust his contacts. Drew gave me his back and swam back toward the boat, swiftly pulling himself up the ladder with his strong arms.
Something small grazed my shoulder in the water, and when I reached my hand up to grab what I suspected was a small piece of trash, I was surprised to see his contact in the palm of my hand.
“Oh, I found one!” I clasped it in my hand as I made it back to the ladder, pulling myself out carefully. I didn’t want to bend or warp his contact. I had no idea how expensive these were. Drew was hunched as he stood in the middle of the boat deck, still messing with his eyes.
“We have to go,” he grunted.
“I found one of your contacts.” I raised my palm as my feet landed on the deck. After removing my goggles, I glanced down to make sure I didn’t damage it.
That’s when I noticed something.
It wasn’t a typical contact. It was a contact that changed the color of someone’s eyes. A type of contact that actors used. His dark brown eyes were clearly not actually dark brown, because I could see the ring of color on the small disk.
“Take us back,” Drew said again. His tone was off. He sounded angry and irritated.
I frowned. “Seriously? What’s wrong? Let me see.” I stepped forward, dropping my mesh bag from my other hand to rest it on his large shoulder. Drew shouldered me off, turning away from me again.
“Let’s just go!” he demanded.
Unfortunately for him, I’d rather die than let a man tell me what to do. Especially while he was angry.
“Don’t talk to me like that,” I replied. “Did you scratch your eye? Let me see. You might need a doctor—”
“I don’t need a doctor, Van—” Drew cut me off. “I need to go.”
“Let me see—”
“—It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine.” I frowned, raising my voice. “You’re being a dick and barking orders at me. If you’re in that much pain, I need to see what happened to your eye!”
“Van, stop.” He was struggling to compose his voice, which I appreciated, but when I rested my hand on his shoulder, he shrugged me off again. He just kept hiding his face from me.
“Drew, you’re freaking me out.” I grabbed his shoulder, fighting off his shrug to pull him toward me. “What the hell is going on?”
“Please, Van, please—”
“Let me see!” I yelled at him, finally getting his body to face me, but he kept one hand over the eye that didn’t have a contact in it. Then he grumbled and shoved away from me, giving me his back. I hopped on him, like a koala.
“You’re freaking me out, Drew!” I yelled in his ear.
He grunted and tried to throw me off, so I bit down on his shoulder in irritation.
Shocked that this situation brought that urge out of me, Drew yelped and dropped his hands to grab my arms. I kept my legs locked around his narrow waist, which made him slide me to the front of him.
I grinned because both of his hands were on me to support my body, wrapped around his. But then my smile immediately fell when I looked at him.
He realized what he did, then. He practically dropped me to cover his eye, but it was too late. I had already seen it.
A gold, otherworldly iris.
With a gasp, I dropped to my feet and stepped away from him. His hand released my waist, but he clenched his hands into fists after.
“Van—wait—”