Chapter 5

"I've only got one thing to ask of you, no, actually make that two." Byron interrupted my dizzy, blinding hope that I still had running through me at his comment.

"Um, what are they?" I managed to reply.

"I'd like to meet your friends tomorrow night when they visit the aquarium. The second thing is that I'd like you to keep the information I told you to yourself for awhile. There's a third thing." He pointed a cheeky grin my way that I never expected.

"I'm fine with doing these things you've mentioned. What's the third thing?"

"Would you hold my hand?"

I watched as he opened his hand and wiggled those fingers at me. Once again, I had frozen in my seat. If I touched his fingers, the mating bond would come to life between us. Dare I encourage a mating bond with a human?

"I didn't mean to pressure you," Byron pulled his hand away before I had made my decision. "We can take as long as we want in getting to know each other, if that's what you want to do."

"I'd prefer not to rush things." I said on a breath of relief.

"Then that's how we'll move forward."

"If you're the boss, why are you selling tickets?" I decided that a change of subject was my best approach now.

He sat back and pondered my question. As much as I enjoyed having him close to me, it made it hard to focus. I had a lot more questions about why he had bought up all of the aquariums, including where I worked.

"I like to get to know most of my employees before I go through and make any changes in a new aquarium. I'll change positions every week or so. That's when people try to figure out who I am. Once I've met everyone, then I'll introduce myself as the owner of the aquarium." He explained.

"I see. What's the end goal? If you own all of these aquariums, what do you intend to do with them all?" I asked still a bit confused over his motives.

"I intend to release the animals healthy enough back into the oceans they come from. My most important goal is to make all of my aquariums into rehabilitation centres for aquatic life. Once the animals are well enough, we'll return them to the ocean. If any animals are too injured or sick to return, we'll provide a home for them." Byron laid out all of his plans and I'm sure my mouth popped open.

He intended to look after my friends and no longer exploit them. That made me weak with gratitude and relief that somebody besides me cared. I had a desperate need to hug him, but I stayed where I was.

"That means you won't make any money from the aquarium anymore." My thoughts tumbled out of me.

"We'll still have displays of the animals that we can't put back in the oceans, but we will make less money. I want the public to see that rehabilitation is a great idea. Plus, I'm much like you, Coral, I don't need or want money." He shrugged.

"You're going to look after all ocean life." I stated and he nodded.

"That's my intention, and I'm going to do the best I can to achieve that goal."

"I'm not sure what to say."

"Do you think it's what I should do?" his eyes darted away as if worried over my opinion.

"I think it's a brilliant idea, and it works in with what I made as my life new goal in life too." I murmured the last part.

"What's your new goal?"

"Huh?"

"You just said you have a new goal. Are you going to tell me what it is?" he nudged my arm with his.

"Not right now." I ducked my head and hid behind my hair.

"I want you to know that you can talk to me. Being the boss isn't what's important between us. You can trust me with anything you want to tell me."

His words made me edgy instead of comforting me. Was he expecting me to confess things to him? I knew I would confess anything to him that he asked of me. Right then I couldn't breathe. I had a desperate need for my salt water.

"I can't... I have to go now." I stood and rushed for the door.

"Coral, wait! I didn't mean anything by saying that. I just want you to know that your secrets are safe with me."

More words that only managed to scare me into running faster. Mer and running didn't go together well, but I managed to dodge around the odd things blocking my way until I reached his front door. Tugging on the door handle didn't make it yield to me. I whimpered in panic and yanked harder.

"You have to turn the handle, Coral." His soft words drifted over me.

Byron reached his hand towards the handle I clutched in a white knuckled grip. I jerked backwards and thudded into his chest. Byron made no other move but to turn the door handle, and crack the door open.

"I can't open it any further unless we move backwards." He advised.

The trouble was, he had managed to distract me with his body being so close to mine. A heady aroma of the ocean drifted from him in this warm way that enticed me. I could feel the heat of his body so close to mine and it made me crave things that I couldn't have from him.

"I guess we, um, need to move back." I stuttered out the words.

"Whatever bothered you about what I said, I didn't mean it in the way that you seem to have thought." His voice rumbled through his chest that almost touched my back, and I didn't want to move away from him.

"I see."

He reached a hesitant hand to my shoulder, stepped back and turned me around to face him. Breathing became impossible and I couldn't think. When his finger lifted my chin to face him, my resistance died.

"I want to take you on a date. Would you like that?" he asked in the softest voice.

"What's a date?" I pondered his words and made no sense of them.

"You don't know what a date is? How have you never gone out with any other men, Coral? I can't believe that someone as beautiful as you has missed out on dating." He sounded amazed and that made me instantly edgy.

What did a date mean? Had I just made a fool of myself by not knowing? I had this happen a lot with human things. One word often has different meanings. To mer, a crab is always a crab and not a disease or the way someone acts.

"You still didn't tell me what a date is." I said, determined to get an answer.

He went still and stared at me. In the next second, the most spine tingling smile filled his features and stole my breath with its intoxicating beauty. I now stared at him, stunned by his astonishing smile.

"A date in our circumstance is when a man," he pointed to himself. "Asks a woman out," he now pointed to me. "It's an invitation to take thing between them further." He explained.

My mind cleared as I realised he must be talking about the human bonding process. Blinking up at him, I wondered how I should answer. The excitement inside of me bubbled to the surface. I forced it down as the original question of whether I wanted to bond with a human returned to me.

"I'm asking all of this stuff too soon, aren't I? We've only known each other for two days and I'm being to forward in asking you out." Byron closed his eyes and stepped back.

"You, uh, surprised me a bit." I admitted.

"I can understand how this seems so sudden. I'm sorry about that, but I can't ignore what's between us when it keeps on growing stronger." His hands started to tug on the ends of his hair.

"I know." I admitted in a whisper.

Byron looked at me wide eyed, "you do feel it too?"

"I don't know what to do about it."

A sigh escaped him and another of those glowing smiles appeared on his face. I wanted to keep that smile of his tucked away inside of me.

"Okay, we won't do anything about it for a while. I'm going to back away and let things be. I don't want to pressure you into a date when you're not ready." He raised his arms and stepped backwards.

Did I say thank you, or did I keep quiet? I still wasn't fully sure of human expectations. I'd never spent as much time with one human as I had with Byron and it scared me. The truth had come out of me, I truly didn't know what to do about this situation between us.

"C'mon, I'll walk you home." Byron said.

He pushed open the door that I had tried to run through earlier. I stepped out of his house at the gesture of his arm. An odd hue of purple covered the sky. I stilled to peer around me.

A purple sunset meant only one thing, change was about to wash through the ocean. I walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down at the deep water beneath me. One last gleaming ray of sunlight hit the ocean and I saw something jump out of the water in that very spot.

Realising that the tale I saw slide back into the water seemed quite mer had me leaning further over the cliff. The tale flipped again in a dazzling hue of deep blue. Excitement and desperate hope had me backing up a few steps. I took a running jump off the cliff edge and dived into the water.

I heard someone protest my motions as I dived towards the water, but I ignored them. Slipping off the human clothes took effort but I wasn't going to let any mer presence get away from me.

I swam as fast as I could with the current helping me alone. Nothing, there was nothing. No presence, no evidence of anyone let alone mer. I asked a passing school of trout, but they told me I was the only mer they'd seen.

Bobbing in the water, I frowned and tried to figure out what had just happened. No mer could out swim a member of the royal family. We were the fastest and always had been.

Only then did I hear my voice called out by a panicked voice that I recognised as Byron's. I winced when I realised that I had jumped off a cliff face into the water with no explanation. This had become quite a batch of pickled kelp.

I couldn't leave the water without him seeing my mermaid form. My clothes were also unusable once they'd been dashed upon the rocks. Humans required much outer wear for reasons I still had trouble understanding. I wore what seemed appropriate by copying other humans.

Dragging my mind back to my present dilemma, I considered what to do. I'm sure Byron would assume that as a human I would've drowned with how long I've been underwater.

With a quick dash, I swam towards my cave. I would have to give Byron a mermaid kiss so he would forget what had just happened.

Taking a deep drink of the salt water, I let it flush through my gills. I would need that if I intended to get close enough to kiss Byron.

I stepped out onto the sand at the base of my pool. With a flick of my hair, it dried instantly and formed its usual bobbing curls. My body reverted to its human form, so I went to my pile of human clothes to grab a suitable outfit. I took a quick glance down at myself and decide that I appeared human.

Walking out of my house, I told myself that I could do this, I could make Byron forget with one little kiss. Making myself continue forward came with a bundle of nerves, a roughly dragged in breath and a gummy stickiness of my hands.

Slowly I made my way towards Byron's house, but I didn't make it far before stumbling into a frantic Byron. He stared out to sea as much as he marched across the shore. The panic on his face made me realise his actions were because of me. He expected my drowned body to come washing up on the shore.

"Byron, stop shouting." I ordered once I moved back from him.

He stared at me with an expression so shocked that it almost seemed comical. Reminding myself that I had to initiate a kiss between us brought back my nerves.

"Coral? What the hell?" Byron's relief turned to confusion as he stared disbelieving eyes my way.

"Thanks for walking me home, Byron."

I tried to make up a simple plausible story and hated that this was quiet a big lie. How I detested lying! I leaned into his space. He didn't move away, but he did drag in a huge breath. I needed to kiss him to cement this story in his mind. My nerves flared up and stopped me.

"Coral, you need to explain to me what just happened." Byron grasped me lightly by the shoulder.

"You walked me home and I'm saying thank you." I could hear how terrible a liar I was when my voice raised as if questioning him.

"You just dived into the ocean, your clothes floated to the surface and then you disappeared for ages. I thought you had drowned!" he began prattling off the truth, so kissing him became even more vital to blot out those memories.

"Byron."

"What?"

He stopped talking only because I'd leaned up to kiss him. I tried to leave a soft peck on his lips and then back away, but he moved closer. His hands went to my waist, tugged me to him and wrapped around me. Those lips of his entranced me as they moved on mine.

The small peck I'd left against his perfect lips led into something dreamy, passionate and the most wonderful kiss of my life. I never wanted to see it's end.

The waves lapped closer to me, teasing me with its watery truth. That made me pull away from Byron's embrace. I didn't want to show my mermaid self to him because it might change how he saw me. A breath of fresh, salty air reminded me of why I had kissed him. My addled mind began to see past our delightful kiss back into reality.

"Byron, you walked me home and I wanted to thank you for that." I dropped my voice into the timbre required for the mermaids kiss to work.

"I did?" his confusion appeared as a frown.

I'd never had a human contradict my words after the mermaids kiss. They only ever believed me before and wondered off in a bit of a daze. Every other human had continued their lives without any knowledge of my existence. Byron had to be the difficult one.

"Have you changed your mind about the date situation? You did just kiss me." Byron's cheeky comment worried me.

He shouldn't have recalled the kiss at all. Had I lost my mermaid kiss ability? That could make my life a lot more troublesome.

"I said I wouldn't pressure you, so ignore that question." Byron turned serious so I focused back on him.

Glancing up into those aquamarine eyes of his, I found something I'd never expected, hope. Along with the passion from our shared kiss, Byron appeared so hopeful.

Dread filled me as I realised that he hoped for the human bonding process to continue with this so called date. I still hadn't decided if it was something I wanted.

To give up my mer bonding to be with a human suggested to me that I had finally given up on the future of my species. As much as I tried to convince myself that I accepted my loss, I truly hadn't. To bond with a human meant accepting that I was alone and would always be alone.