“Riordan,” Ailín said with a nod. “We’re reserved for launch.”
“Thanks,” Riordan said.
Ailín eyed Wade intently, but there wasn’t any malice in his gaze. Riordan didn’t know what his siblings had been gossiping about with the clan, but Ailín’s focus told him they’d probably mentioned Wade. “You must be the lad our clan chief is spending time with.”
“Is that a bad thing?” Wade asked.
“Not unless you mean harm.”
Riordan sighed. “I get enough teasing from my siblings. You don’t need to start.”
“Boyo, the whole clan is going to start” was Ailín’s cheerful response before he turned on his heels. “Come on, let’s get on the water.”
The Boston Harbor Sailing Club was open to the public for lessons and sometimes tours, but being members meant they could head directly for the water. Riordan spotted the launch boat at the small pier, manned by an employee of the club. Directly beyond it, sailboats and small yachts of all kinds bobbed gently in the water, moored away from the shore.
“How many boats do you have?” Wade asked as they approached the small pier.
“We try to keep at least three on hand, moored or anchored in different locations. It was easier to shift on the shoreline when Boston wasn’t so built up. These days, if we’re swimming as a clan, some of us will shift at the shore, and the rest of us will do so in open water,” Riordan said.
The sailing club employee gave them a cheerful hello once they reached the launch boat. They checked Ailín’s paperwork for the appropriate mooring location and then set about releasing the boat from the dock to ferry them to the clan’s yacht. TheNeptunewas thirty-five feet in length and capable of being handled by only one person if they knew what they were doing.
Everyone in the clan knew what they were doing in the water and on a boat. Ailín didn’t need any help getting theNeptuneunmoored once they were onboard. The launch boat pulled back with a dull roar of engines, heading back to shore. Riordan guided Wade to a bench near the cockpit so they could stay out of the way as Ailín went through the launch prep procedure before he finally untied the yacht from its mooring.
Ailín retreated to the cockpit, and a few seconds later, the engine roared to life, the sound of it vibrating through the deck. Wade looked around curiously as Ailín steered them out of the mooring area and into the open harbor waters, engines propelling them forward through the Boston Main Channel. Riordan had seen it all plenty of times before and was more interested in watching Wade. He manfully ignored Ailín’s chuckling at the controls.
“This is pretty cool. I can see why you like Boston,” Wade said, twisting around on the bench so he could take in the Boston skyline as they sailed away from it. Riordan couldn’t help wrapping his arm around Wade’s waist, holding him in place. “How far does your clan territory stretch?”
“We share the water with kin. No one owns the sea,” Riordan said.
“Niall wants to.”
“Yes.”
Wade turned back around to better see him, the lenses of his sunglasses carrying a few stray droplets of water from the breeze. “I won’t let him.”
Riordan smiled, trying to choke back all the twisted emotion tied to the bitter position he’d been put in. He wanted to believe Wade could help, but Riordan wasn’t going to let the younger man risk himself in any way. He couldn’t live with himself if he let that happen. So he said nothing in the face of that promise, merely closed the distance to kiss Wade, letting himself catalogue the taste of him, the way he felt pressed so close.
It didn’t take very long until they made it out of the Boston Main Channel and were far enough from any nearby boats and barges before Ailín gave him the all-clear signal. “You can shift now.”
Riordan reluctantly pulled away from Wade and stood, the movement of the yacht something he easily compensated for. Hetook a moment to scan the horizon, mentally placing where the yacht was in relation to where he’d be swimming. The Boston Harbor Islands and National State Park was an area his clan and the whole kin in Boston knew well. The clans shared patrol duties, and Riordan knew he wasn’t the only one who’d been sensing something off in the waters lately. Lady Caith’s warning had been enough for him to sound the alarm with every clan that no one should swim alone.
It was why he had Ailín with him, even though the other man wasn’t going to join him below the waves. He’d follow along behind Riordan’s underwater trajectory, sticking close and keeping an eye on Wade. “I’ll do a circuit around Spectacle Island first and then Long Island. I don’t want to go too far out since we have plans tonight.”
They were still expected to meet with Abhartach at the master vampire’s absinthe bar, and Riordan knew they couldn’t miss it. But neither could he shirk his duty as clan chief, not while he still held them.
He shrugged out of his jacket, some deep part of him wanting to turn and hand it to Wade for safekeeping for the handful of minutes it would take him to undress. He swallowed against the urge, doing the expected thing instead and handing his jacket to Ailín.
“I can go with you,” Ailín said.
Riordan shook his head. “Stay above with Wade. He doesn’t know how to handle a yacht.”
Ailín nodded, not arguing his order the way Donal might, but not looking comfortable with it either. Riordan pulled his T-shirt off and stripped out of the rest of his clothes with a perfunctory ease he didn’t really think about, not until he clued in to the flush on Wade’s face and the way he jerked his gaze away from Riordan. The fact that he’d been looking and hopefully liked what he saw made Riordan want to preen.
Focus.
“Good hunting,” Ailín said, handing back his jacket. Riordan slipped his arms through the sleeves, warmth bleeding into his skin.
“Yeah, don’t let anything eat you,” Wade said.
