Jamie accepted the glass and sipped slowly. He didn’t think there was anything physically wrong with him, except for wanting the woman he’d met only moments before. Wanting her badly enough he was tempted to return to the other room and take her, kissing the mouth that had pouted at him and Braden as they retreated. Rip up her tank top to suckle the breasts that arched against him as they’d tumbled onto the couch. Bury his face between her legs and…
Shit. Maybe there was something wrong with him—this was not his usual behavior. While he liked the ladies well enough, he was a reasonable man. Attacking a woman at a potential job site was not his modus operandi, especially not in front of an obvious guardian the size of a tanker.
He rubbed a hand over his forehead then gave a tentative shrug. “I’m really sorry. There’s no excuse for my behavior. I’m thankful you didn’t throw me out of the house. I have no idea what came over me.”
Braden gave a wry smile. “Seriously, forget about it. No harm done, and trust me, it wasn’t your fault. I’ll make sure Chelsea behaves herself while you’re around.”
Chelsea rolled off the couch and fled down the hall to her temporary bedroom, spinning past the doorway and clutching the dresser as her heart continued to race. Every nerve was sensitized to the point of aching and she took long, slow breaths to regain control.
Damn merfolk hormones were going to kill her.
Once her heart rate dropped, she slipped to the door to listen for the men to return from the kitchen into the main part of the house. Even though he wasn’t speaking to her, Braden’s deep husky voice made her shiver. The stranger—Jamie—answered and she peeked out her door to try and sense if he was okay. Guilt flushed her. She hadn’t intended to hit him with the sexual mojo, but damn it, she was so frustrated it had leaked out involuntarily. She’d never had an accident like that before, and she regretted her actions, unintended as they were. He’d responded way faster and harder than the last human she’d been around. The chain reaction between them had been impossible to shut down.
Curiosity made her sneak out to watch the men wander the living room. She leaned on the wall in the shadows, staying out of sight but enjoying the view. The visual feast not twenty feet from her was mouth-watering. The two men were very different, but the contrast was appealing and for a minute she was tempted to go and try to seduce them both.
Holy shit. Her out-of-control libido was talking again. Insanity lurked from staying in the same house as Braden, trying not to let him know how much she really wanted him.
She let her gaze trail over the object of her obsession. For ten years she’d watched him. From her first crush as a teen, to her current insistent urge to jump his bones, there was more to appreciate every time she looked. His broad shoulders stretched his shirt to the point of ripping the seams. His sheriff’s uniform fit to a tee, snug in the most interesting places, his crotch drawing her attention even when he wasn’t aroused. His solid thigh muscles flexed the fabric as he led Jamie to another section of the room, pointing something out along the wall. Tall, smooth, infinitely edible. Damn, she wanted a piece of him even though he was the stubbornest son of a bitch alive.
Jamie knelt to touch a pile of books, and Chelsea admired him as well. He wasn’t as big as Braden but just as firm, just as intriguing. Shoulder-length blond hair, made slightly messy when her fingers had run through it. Blue-gray eyes, fair skin. The feel of his body under the expensive clothing he wore—there had been nothing wrong with his reaction to their bit of mutual groping. She sighed. Too bad it probably had been chemically induced on his part.
Her sex throbbed for a second as she thought about being pressed between both men. A wave of jealousy hit as she remembered her new best friend, Alexia, was currently off sexing it up with her two lovers.
Some people had all the luck.
The sound of the front door shutting woke her from the distraction of imagining what Alexia and her husbands were currently doing. She took a deep breath and stepped back into the living room to face the music.
“What the hell was that about?” Braden stormed up to her, all but shaking his finger in her face.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose. I’m frustrated, and I lost control.” She kept her head down, her eyes away from his. She bit her lip to resist moaning as the scent of his skin hit her. Her reaction to him was getting tougher to resist, and she didn’t want to be shot down again. It had hurt too much the last time.
“Well, you need to work on better control, especially for when you leave Jaffrey’s Cove. I’m certainly not going to blame Jamie for reacting to you, and I think I managed to cover it up, but what if that situation arises when you’re away at college? You cause that kind of reaction and someone is going to start asking questions. You could expose yourself as a merfolk.”
Chelsea stared at Braden’s feet, his legs set in a wide stance. Since the chance of her getting to do anything other than stay in Jaffrey’s Cove had dropped to zero, there was little probability of her causing trouble.
“Right, college.”
She turned to go hide, take a cold shower—anything to get away from the man she wanted with a hunger close to pain. If she didn’t know better she’d think she was addicted to him, which was ridiculous. They might have an animal side to their natures, but their shifted form went for casual, not commitment.
Braden stopped her with a gentle tug on her shoulder. “When do you leave for your first semester?”
She froze. He obviously wasn’t aware she’d had to cancel her registration. She took her time to pivot, trying to come up with a suitable answer to throw him off the truth. Something he might believe.
“I…didn’t get in. I scored too low on my SATs.” The lie stuck in her throat. He stepped back, a frown creasing his face with clear disappointment, and a touch of annoyance. Great, he really wanted her to go away.
“Dammit, Chelsea, I thought that’s why you’d waited years to apply—so you’d figure out what program was right for you. I know people offered to help you study.”
She stared at the wall and ignored the knot forming in her belly from lying to him. Playing dumb might hurt her ego, but it stopped the questions.
If only she understood why Braden wasn’t willing to get involved with her. She’d tried to convince herself it was time to move on. Time to let a little pressure off the powder keg of her sexual frustrations by dating someone else. Only that option had been cut off from her too as Braden’s silent disapproval scared away all the eligible men.
Damn controlling bastard. He didn’t want her, but he didn’t want anyone else to have her either.
Suddenly she was angry. Unspeakably upset, and while it wasn’t completely Braden’s fault, he was there and part of the cause of her troubles. She crooked her head back to stare up at him.
“So, the researcher. He’s cute.” She left her facial expression wide and vacant, as innocent as a newborn lamb. Driving Braden crazy seemed a suitable revenge. “I think he likes me.”
Braden slapped a hand to his shaved head and groaned loudly as he paced before her.
“Chelsea, you’re going to be the death of me. Of course he likes you, everyone likes you. Especially when you turn up the hormones until all the males within striking distance have hard-ons. Damn it, how am I supposed to keep you out of trouble? You’ve been deliberately taunting the humans in the community at every turn since the matriarch left on her honeymoon.” He stalked closer. “You’re asking for trouble you don’t want.”
How dare he act like her actions were by design? Chelsea glared at him. “I haven’t asked for trouble. It’s my damn merfolk hormones and I’m not ‘turning them up’, I’m frustrated. Period. It’s not a matter of using more control. I’m twenty-three and I haven’t had a sexual partner for over a year, ever since you started scaring away the merfolk who could satisfy me.”