Mermaid Read Online Free Page A

out of that costume, Jillian? I could find you someth—”
    “No!” Her sharp, almost panicked word cut him off, and he waved a hand as if to calm her.
    “All right, all right. It was only a thought.” Maybe she needed help getting out of it and didn’t have anything on underneath. The thought made his breath catch in his throat.
    “I...Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you. But I’m fine like this. I’d rather keep it on, and really, I’d rather have someone else come and get me. I hate to bother you, and I’d make sure they were discreet about where you live and—”
    “Jillian, I said I’d take you home. It’s no bother at all.”
    “Thank you. I’m grateful. It’s just that if you’re going to drive me home, it’ll mean you’ll have to carry me to the car and...” The thought of being lifted into those muscular arms of his again, being held against that solid, warm chest was almost too much I much for her. Weakly, she forced herself to go on. “So maybe it would be better if...” She let the sentence trail off as he shook his head.
    “I’ll drive you home, and I’ll be happy to carry you to the car,” he said. In fact, he thought he would be happy to carry his mermaid in his arms for the rest of the day. Or maybe even the week. Hell, why not go whole hog? What about the rest of my life?
    The thought slammed into his brain, and he shook his head. It was one thing to be so damned sexually aroused by the woman that he could hardly keep his hands off her, but it was entirely another to be thinking in terms of the rest of his life.
    “I, uh, how in the world did you ever get to be mermaid?” he asked quickly, making conversation to occupy his mind because he felt as if he was on the verge of tilting into insanity once more. “That has to be the most unusual occupation I’ve ever heard of. And how long have you have been doing it? Where?”
    “Just for the past two years, in a place called The Pearldiver’s Club. I did a lot of water ballet when I was younger and was on a synchronized swimming team,” she said, “not that I ever expected it to be anything but a sport, but when I—needed a change from my regular job, my former training was what got it for me.”
    “Your regular job?
    “I’m a...I was a teacher.”
    “What kind of a teacher?”
    “I was a guidance counselor and taught phys-ed.” She bit her lip, then said with a wry smile, “If I’ve lost my mermaiding job, I guess I’ll have to go back to teaching.”
    Mark got the impression she was of two minds about it and wondered why. He smiled. “If you’re as good a teacher as you are a mermaid, I don’t see why there’d be any problem.”
    “I’ll never go back.”
    He leaned forward slightly. “Why not?” he asked, as if it really mattered. “Didn’t you like teaching?”
    Suddenly she had the most absurd impulse to move closer and bury her face against the warmth she knew she’d find between his muscular shoulder and his strong neck, to feel his arms encircle her, hold her again, make her feel secure and unafraid. Instead, she leaned back and pulled the robe more closely around herself, pulling her tail in as tightly to the front of the chair as she could, telling herself that she could take care of her own life and didn’t need to lean on anyone.
    “I loved teaching,” she said. “It’s the most rewarding job in the world.”
    He raised his dark brows. “But you left it? Why?”
    “Oh, I decided I needed a break,” she said with a bright smile that he didn’t believe for a minute. But he did believe that she had loved teaching. “I’d been at it for more than ten years, and it was for something new. I’ve done some tutoring on the side these past two years, just to keep my hand in and my license active.”
    He smiled as she spoke of her former job. He was surprised at how long she’d been a teacher. It had been twelve years since she’d graduated from college, counting the two she’d been out of