Cursed Waters (Queen of Tridents Book 1) by Shana Brooke

Author:Shana Brooke [Brooke, Shana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

23

Claira

“Oh, come on!” Kai drew a hand over his face in frustration, his other hand relentlessly tugging at the passenger door. Impatient fingers strummed over the steering wheel. Barren released a gruff sigh before moving to flick the unlock button for the hundredth time. As soon as the posts on the doors popped up, Laverne’s snout poked hers right back down.

Outside, the handle jostled wildly. “Be a good girl, Laverne,” Kai’s muffled voice pleaded. Laverne’s nostrils flared with a sharp intake of breath. The doors unlocked again, and down her nose tapped.

A battle of wills. They were an amusing pair to watch, and considering their struggle was eating up the time I would have spent “learning to swim,” I hoped it lasted several more hours.

Kai shifted his strategy. He was putting his entire body weight into it now, desperate to pry open the door. He made a good show of it—complete with exaggerated grunting and straining. That is, until his hands slipped and his back found gravel.

To his credit, he wasn’t down long. Kai sprung to his feet, his cheeks puffing. A sternly pointed index finger wagged at Laverne through the glass. “Bad—bad girl!” Oh, she didn’t like that tone at all. The sea lion shrieked at the affront, the rapid rolling of her tongue sending a barrage of spit across the window.

Okay—now it was getting painful to watch. Even if Kai got the door open, it was obvious Laverne wasn’t moving. Leaning over, I rolled my window down. “I mean, like I said, it really doesn’t bother me if she comes along. You don’t mind either, do you, Barren?”

I cut a glance over to the back of Barren’s neck, but the bulk of his shoulders drew my eyes like a magnet. Man, I really needed to stop that. He’d already caught me looking at his shoulders once, and although I hadn’t meant to hurt him, the pained look he gave me after our first meeting made it clear I had. I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

Barren’s thumb flicked over the button—click—and Laverne continued her game of whack-a-mole. Two more failed clicks later, Barren shrugged. “It’ll be fine.”

Surprise jolted me upright in my seat. The way he spoke fascinated me, his voice thick with an accent I couldn’t quite place. He’d barely let out more than a grunt of affirmation or two all morning, even when I’d praised him for the breakfast he’d made. Honestly, I’d been wondering if he was ever going to acknowledge me at all. Now that he had, I felt strangely eager to hear more.

My arms tightened around the bags in my lap. Shopping for clothes with a couple of mermen had been an experience. Especially with one of them ignoring me the entire time. Barren had remained at the entrance of every storefront, standing around like a bouncer guarding the doorway.

At least Kai had been there. He was the complete opposite of Barren and acted thrilled to take me around, tugging me from shop to shop like looking at ladies’ clothing was the most fun he’d ever had.

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