Marriage & the Mermaid (Hapless Heroes) Read Online Free PDF

sight of all that bared flesh jolted him into a pounce–ready state where even his fingernails seemed to be throbbing. He couldn’t stop himself leaning forward. “No,” he said, staring at her breasts, unable to work out whether he meant No I don’t want you or No I’m not sure. The 1% brain function was fading.
    She opened her legs.
    Baz was at tipping over point: wanting to rip his own clothes off and dive on her from a height, but also wanting to go back in time to before he’d met her so he could not be the person she’d breathed that drug onto. He was so far beyond confusion he wondered if he should have left a breadcrumb trail, because at this point it seemed highly unlikely he’d ever find his way back to who he had been when he’d woken up this morning. Still, some relentless good part of him was forcing him to try.
    “The police are coming,” he breathed, which reminded him that Matt had been helicoptered out to Bundaberg with the mutilated remains of his beloved brother. This was not a good time to be lusting over a complete stranger, even if he had been drugged. It was inappropriate and selfish and … the most exhilarating sensation he’d ever experienced in his life.
    Fuck.
    Commonsense felt a sparrow flying into a cyclone, but he had to try. “They want to ask questions about what happened in the water.” Then he gestured at the sheet again. “Up. Please.”
    She sighed and dragged the sheet back up over herself. “I am here for such a short time,” she said. “If you will not provide me with a baby, can you recommend someone who will? Someone safe,” she said and then shuddered as though remembering something unpleasant.
    She was sounding more like an illegal immigrant all the time, but Baz wasn’t about to ask her outright because why would she tell him the truth? “So where are you going when you leave?” he asked, focusing on the pillow beside her head because when he looked at her face he kept getting distracted by her mouth which was wide and luscious and —
    “Home,” she replied.
    Baz could see her breasts rising and falling underneath the sheet and it was incredibly distracting. “Where is home?” he asked.
    She said nothing and Baz looked back at her face. She was frowning. “I cannot say,” she replied, and “Why you are asking so many questions. My sisters who have come before me have encountered no such problem. Are you same–sex oriented?”
    “No!” Baz said far too loudly. “I’m straight, but that doesn’t mean I have sex with random girls… who…”
    She was pulling the sheet down again and Baz suddenly realised he couldn’t cope with this. If he didn’t get away from her — soon — he’d be eating his words. Among other things.
    He needed a reason to walk away. Something simple. “I’ll get you water to drink while you have a shower.” He managed to take another step back, closer to the door. “There should be a bathrobe in the cupboard,” he said, and pointed at the nineteenth century silky–oak monolith in the corner, then decided he’d better not leave that to chance. Unfortunately, when he walked over to the cupboard it was bare. “I’ll get you clothes,” he said, imagining he’d have something she could borrow, and trying not to think about the clothes he’d worn caressing her naked body. It was so intimate, so …
    “I feel uncomfortable,” she said, the husky accent more pronounced now, convincing him she was definitely foreign. Then, “Perhaps I need to urinate.” She sat up and the sheet fell away.
    “Sure. I’ll …” He pointed towards the door but she wasn’t moving off the bed, although she had managed to wriggle to the edge of it.
    “I can’t …”
    “Oh. Wear this,” he said and pulled his T–shirt off over his head. He held it out as he edged closer to her, averting his face.
    She took it out of his hand but otherwise didn’t move.
    “Can you get up?” he asked. Maybe she was dizzy or sick.
    Then why the