“I gaveyouafright.”Priddy scrambled onto his knees.He threw his arms roundKit, who grabbed him ferociously.“I’m so sorry.”
“What the hell are you doing out here?Why are youundressed?”
“It’s a long story.”He looked around the sunny bay.“What timeis it?What day?”
“It’s Wednesday.I just emailed you yesterday.Oh,Priddy!”
“It’s not the meds.I’ve been taking them, okay?The box youmade me really helped.”He sat back, casting around for a storythat would fit the facts.“It’s a nice morning.I thought I’d gofor a swim, and it’s such a short walk down from the lighthouse, Ididn’t think I’d bother with...”
“Your clothes?They’re nicely folded on that outcrop overthere, with a stone on top of them.”
“Oh.I must’ve brought them down with me forafterwards.”
“They’re soaking wet.”
Time fora change of subject.“How long have you and Geoff beenhere?”
“We only just arrived.We were putting our gear down in thekeeper’s cottage when I looked out of the window, and...Look,mate, are you really, truly all right?”
Priddydidn’t know how to reassure him.He could hardly straighten histie.He picked a long strand of seaweed off his face and hoped thatwould help make him presentable.Then he understood that it didn’treally matter how he looked—that, although Kit loved him, it didn’treally matter if he was okay or not.Geoff was disappearing overthe brow of Hagerawl Rock towards the lighthouse.Kit glanced afterhim, and Priddy understood from that one look that his friend’swhole world had changed.That Kit would give Geoff anything.“I’mfine.”
“Right.Good.I’d better get after him—he’s dying for histea.”
He setoff at a run.Priddy managed to get to his feet after a couple ofungainly attempts.“Right,” he told the empty air.“I’ll just makemy way back on my own, shall I?”
Hedidn’t really mind.He’d told Kit the truth when he’d said he wasfine.In fact, outside of sex, he couldn’t recall ever feeling thisgood in his life.He picked up the stone from on top of hisclothes.They were, as Kit had said, neatly folded and soakedthrough.Merou must have put them there.
Will I ever need them again?
Don’t tempt me.
Priddyscanned the shoreline for signs of feet or scales.Other than Kit’sfootprints and Geoff’s, the sand was unmarked.The outcrop waswithin the reach of a long, elegant arm.Priddy tried to rememberbeing brought back home, but his mind was empty from the sea-cavernchamber to here.The blank was pleasant, restful, like looking outonto a snowy field before any creature came to mark it.He wantedMerou.He missed him, needed him, desired him wildly despite themajestic seeing-to he’d been given a few hours before.
But none of these wants was painful.They rose up likelaughter in Priddy, big and delicious.Merou would be back.Whenwas irrelevant:Priddy didn’t have to worry about that, or how, or where, or whatit signified that his lover had gills—sensitive gills, rippling inanguished joy at the brush of a tongue-tip!—and a tail.
And Merou wasallhe wanted.Maybe a cup of coffee and some breakfast too, butthat was the extent of his longings.The background scratch in hisbrain was gone, the constant awareness of what he couldn’t have,the dross that had become gold to him.He didn’t want a hit, noteven of Huddy Jones’s finest Dreamworld Kush.God, he wasn’t evencold.
I can wipe away the addictive pathways in yourbrain.
Hegathered up his clothes.He didn’t want wet cotton or denim on hislovely newborn skin, and if anyone had a problem with that theycould talk to the man with the tail.He stretched, yawned, andbegan to make his leisurely way up the beach.
Outsidethe keeper’s cottage, he halted at the sound of his name.ProfessorGeoff appeared briefly in the window, waving, and then to Priddy’ssurprise came striding into the cobbled yard, holding out adressing gown.“Mr Priddy?Do come inside and have a cup of teawith us.And lovely though you look just as you are, do put thison.”
Priddywould have declined, but Kit had appeared in the doorway, noddingand mutely semaphoring thumbs-up signs.He put out a hand to Geoff,half-wishing he had a retractable wrist-spike.“It’s justPriddy.”
“Of course.I’m Professor Geoffrey Blades of the NortheastAtlantic Institute, but...well.It’s just Geoff.”
He had a very potent smile.And maybe ithadjust been the travel that hadupset him—that, and finding his boyfriend weeping by the corpse ofa former lover on the shore.Enough to set anyone off on the wrongfoot, and Kit shot Priddy triumphant I-told-you-so glances as themighty professor escorted him into the cottage, found him a seatamongst the piles of boxes and cases, and went to put the kettle onwith his own hands.Kit pulled a chair out and thumped down besidehim.“See?He’s lovely!”
“Did I say he wasn’t?”
“I swear to God, Prid, I don’t know where to put myself.He’sso handsome, people turn and watch us as we go down the street.Probably wondering what a little fat-arse like me’s doing withsomeone like—”
“Kit!”Priddy stared at him in horror.Even in the worst oftheir teenage years, he’d never known his mate to be anything otherthan secure and happy with his solid Cornish frame.“You’re not afat-arse.And even if you were...”
“Oh, I know, I know.Geoff says the same.He just thinks peopleought to make the best of themselves.Speaking of which, you lookamazing.But for the love of God, put that dressing gown on, willyou?”
Itwasn’t Priddy’s style—a neon tartan probably visible from loworbit—but it felt very expensive, and even in his Zen-like newstate, he could see that sitting naked at the breakfast tablewasn’t the thing to do.Merou could have carried it off, but notPriddy, not yet.He wrapped himself up.“Thanks.I feel a lotbetter these days.”
