5

THE SEAGULLS WERE LAUGHING AT HER.

Atop a lighting fixture at the end of the dock, the birds started making noise the minute Angel stepped off the rocking boat.

They could cut her some slack. So she was a little un-steady. This was the first time she’d ever had legs, and disembarking a rocking boat wasn’t easy. Not to men-tion, she was still floating over the fact that she’d pulled it off. Logan was letting her stay. She had an excuse and an opportunity to test out her plans for the Coalition.

Now she just needed to figure out how to pull off a disappearing act every other night to ensure the return of her tail so she could stay for more than a day or two. Much as she wanted to learn about Humans and get the directorship, she didn’t want to sacrifice her tail to do so, which is what would happen if she had legs for more than two consecutive sunsets.

“How long have you had the boat, Logan?” She turned around as he climbed over the gunwale. “Do you use it often? Have you ever lived on it in the marina? The ocean? What does it run on? Diesel? Biofuel?”

Logan stepped onto the dock. “What’s with the twenty questions?”

Damn. She had a bad habit of wanting to know the answer to everything right away.

“Oh, just curious.” Then she tripped over some

loose mooring lines, and, on cue, the birds erupted with more laughter.

At least she stayed upright. As long as they didn’t start speaking to her, she could pretend they were squawking that signature caw Humans found so annoying—and would find even more annoying if they knew the gulls were laughing at them. Seabirds just loved bathing-suit season.

Then her heel came down awkwardly on a hose some-one had left out and, this time, she couldn’t manage to keep her balance and fell—right into Logan’s arms.

Suddenly the seagull noise faded into the background. So did Michael’s laughter, the creak of the boat against the dock, the motor of someone’s charter leaving the marina, and all her twenty questions.

Everything faded into the background except the feel of Logan’s arms around her. The flexing biceps beneath her palms. The tightening of his stomach against her chest. That delicious blended scent of sea breeze and man…

Angel looked up—he was so much taller than she was. So much bigger. Yet he wouldn’t hurt her. She knew that. How she did, she didn’t know, but some-thing… almost a quiet strength about him told her, in one instant, that she could trust him with her life.

She blinked. Now that was ridiculous. He was a Human. Humans were the last beings a Mer could trust. But when Logan raised her chin to stare into her eyes, Angel knew that wasn’t true about him.

“Are you all right?” His voice was lower than before, the words breathless.

“I…” She licked her lips. Talk about breathless. She tried again. “Yes. I am.” She tried to prove it by standing,

but she wasn’t exactly proficient with legs after such a short time and fell back against him.

Logan’s head lowered. Or did she raise hers? Did it matter?

All that did matter was that his lips were just above hers and if she stretched a bit more—

“Hey! Come on!” Michael’s voice broke into the moment.

Oh, gods. She’d been about to kiss him. “Are you guys coming or what?”

Angel looked away. What had she been thinking? He was a Human, for Zeus’s sake. She couldn’t be attracted to him. That went against everything she believed in. All her scientific protocol and everything she wanted for herself. Hades, she’d broken up with her last boyfriend because he’d started getting serious. She didn’t want that; she wanted to focus on her career. On the Coalition. On bettering their worlds. She didn’t need to have an attraction to anyone, least of all a Human. Besides, Logan was married.

Wait a minute. What had he been thinking? Or… maybe she’d just imagined it.

Yeah. That was it. She had to have imagined it.

Embarrassed, surprised, mad at herself, a whole host of emotions plaguing her that she didn’t want to examine, Angel made a concerted effort to regain the use of her legs. Logan helped by steadying her—although steady was a misnomer because there was nothing steady in the heat zipping through her fingers, up her arm, and all over her body.

No. No. No. Mind back on your purpose here, Tritone.

“Thank you,” she said, yanking her hand off him. “You’re welcome,” he said, his voice still raspy. “Hurry up!” Michael bounced on a loose weathered

plank, hitting the beam beneath with a thud, thud.

Kind of like her heart was doing.

No it wasn’t. That was just surprise. Embarrassment.

She was imagining things.

Then Logan slid a hand under her elbow, and her knees got a little jellyfish-like.

She had one Hades of an imagination. “Angel.”

She really had to focus on walking. Legs took some getting used to. That’s why hers were wobbly.

“Angel, do you want to make a call?”

Bird calls? Humans did that? Her research hadn’t given any indication they practiced this old sys¬tem of communication. Did they even understand the language?

“Um, all right. What breed?”

“Breed? You mean brand? Of cell phone? Does it matter?” He held his black box out to her.

Cell phone. Oh, crappie.

She stared at the black thing. She knew about the device, especially the mercury from discarded ones that leeched into the environment, but unfortunately, she didn’t have a clue how to use one. She also didn’t have anyone to call. Cell service wasn’t exactly pos¬sible in Atlantis.

“Actually, there isn’t anyone I can call. No one knows I’m doing this and, well, I’d rather keep it that way. They wouldn’t approve, and if they heard what happened…”