Sam stared into Whitney’s eyes and tried to read what was going on behind them. Normally she was an open book, even when she tried to hide her feelings. Sam had spent over a year watching her. He knew when she was sad. He knew when she was mad. He knew when she was happy. No one else might have noticed, but after studying her enough, he did. But now her eyes were guarded. She was purposely hiding her feelings from him.
“Are you saying that because you really like me, or are you saying that to piss everyone off?”
Sam couldn’t help the corners of his mouth from starting to move on their own. Just one more reason he liked her: she was smarter than anyone ever gave her credit for. She had noticed the effect of their relationship. Most girls would not have picked up on it, but she did.
“I’m not trying to upset the sirens. That’s me refusing to go home for my birthday. That’s trying to upset them. You …” Sam trailed off.
He just didn’t know how to put it without coming off as creepy. He had been watching her over a year and wanting to have her as his the whole time. Then again, she probably already found him creepy. He had been feeding on her for over a year under the guise of teaching her how to swim, which he actually did very well, and he had been the person to change her back into a monster. She probably didn’t want to actually be his girlfriend.
Looking back into her eyes, he made the choice. He was brave when facing hunters. He was brave when facing his father, King of the Sirens. He was brave when facing his older brothers who had beat on him unmercifully when he was growing up. He was going to be brave while facing Whitney, the hardest thing he had ever had to do.
“Whitney,” Sam said slowly as he thought of the words to say.
She was staring down at her fin as it flapped in the water. Again, he found himself smiling. She was a siren now, and no one could stop them if she actually wanted to be with him, too. And based on the kisses she had given him just moments before, he had to hope that meant she wanted him, too. He reached over and touched her chin gently, turning her face up so that their eyes locked.
“I’ve spent my whole life in the mer world, looking and searching for a mate. It’s tradition that if you don’t choose by your eighteenth birthday, your parents will choose a mate for you. You get no say, and you get someone you are stuck with for the rest of your life. I knew from the time I was dropped off in the Pacific I wasn’t going to let my parents choose. They haven’t ever had my best interest at heart. I needed to find my own mate. So I searched. I’ve looked and looked. I’ve been on hundreds of dates to know that each girl I ever met wasn’t for me. I went outside of the sirens knowing my parents would be upset, but they would eventually get over it as long as she had a fin. My life has been a series of work and dates, and yet I never found a girl that I felt even an ounce of what I feel for you.”
Whitney’s eyes went wide as he admitted his feelings. She didn’t reply or run away shrieking, and he took that as a sign to continue. Okay, she couldn’t exactly run away with her fin sitting there in the water, but she wasn’t shrieking.
“When you came to school here, it was like I felt as if I had met you before. I was drawn to you like I never had been to a girl before. Something about you was familiar, and I wondered why. I began to watch you.”
Quickly, Sam put a finger on her lips to keep her quiet. He didn’t know if he would have the nerve to say more if she interrupted him, and he needed to get it all out there. She needed to know this wasn’t just a ploy to upset the sirens; she needed to know what he felt was real.
“The more I watched you, the more I wanted to know you better. When you asked to do swimming lessons and the school assigned you to Mark, I made him switch. I’m kind of in charge here, so I just had to say I wanted to teach you, and he had to obey. He thought it was because of how beautiful you are, but in reality, I saw much more of you beyond your looks.”
Whitney bit her lip as he talked—a nervous reaction of hers. Sam rubbed his finger on her cheek, hoping to send calming vibes her way.
“You are beautiful, but you are also smart, caring, funny, and clever all rolled into one. The mer don’t look at day humans as anything but food and I should have done the same, but I couldn’t with you. More than anything, I wanted to get to know you better. I wanted to spend time with you. I wanted you to finally look at me and see me for me as you did your friends. You are the first day human they have ever befriended. And I knew that was because it was you. Something about you makes the mer see more in day humans. You are special.”
Whitney tried to avert her gaze, but Sam kept firm and held her face up looking at him. She didn’t like being complimented on anything but her appearance. He needed to finish up because it was torture to not know what she thought.
“I’m not here asking you to be my mate. That’s a commitment I can’t ask of you.” At least not at this time, he thought to himself. “What I’m asking is that if you feel anything for me, to give me a chance to prove to you I should be your boyfriend. I’m sorry that I’m the one who turned you, and if you just want to stay as friends because deep down you can never forgive me, I’ll understand.”
Sam let go of her face and turned to the spray of water. He hadn’t meant to add the last part about turning her, but he needed to give her an out in case she didn’t have feelings for him like he thought she did. He might have imagined the whole thing with wishful thinking.
Stretching and wiggling his toes, he let his fin appear next to hers. Her fin wiggled a bit beside his. Old legends had said that when you found your destined mate, you would know. That’s why the sirens put such an emphasis on finding your mate before you turned eighteen. Sam sucked in a breath as her fin brushed against his. Even if she didn’t want to date him, he couldn’t stop wanting her. That was impossible. He had found his one and only.
“I like you, too,” Whitney whispered, the words barely audible over the sound of the water hitting the shower around them.
Sam thought he must have been hearing things as his head snapped up, but then he felt it inside him like he had when they touched back at the pool. She had said it. She really had. Sam didn’t think further and let his siren take over as he pulled her back onto his lap, back where she fit perfectly in his arms. Back where he hoped she would never leave.
Whitney walked around school the next day in a daze. The night before still seemed completely unreal. She had pinched herself more than a dozen times on her walk home, and even made Sam pinch her once for good measure. It wasn’t a dream. Sam really liked her. She now had her first ever boyfriend. Her fake boyfriend was her real boyfriend. That wasn’t easy to believe.
They hadn’t had much time to talk since most of the time they’d spent with their lips already busy, but he did have a chance to explain that the sirens would see her only as a snack and play toy. He was sorry that it would be that way, but they would leave him alone, and he could now spend as much time as he wanted with her without anyone catching on to the truth. His plan got them alone time whenever they wanted. She had to admit she was sad he hadn’t thought of it earlier.
Now that everything was out in the open, she saw Sam a lot more at school than she realized. They didn’t have any classes together, but it seemed like they had a lot of classes right next door to each other. She found that out as Sam walked her to each class and then was waiting outside the door when she left. When he said he’d been watching her since she came to the school last year, she now saw how he did it without her or anyone else knowing.
They didn’t say much as they walked the hallways; Sam, being the gentleman he was, carried her books. She could feel the eyes of everyone on them as they went between classes. She couldn’t remember a time that Prince Sam had a girlfriend. She had wanted to ask her friends as far back as last year, because they obviously knew the school and all the people in it better than she ever imagined, but she didn’t want them to know she had a crush on him. In hindsight she didn’t hide it that well as they already knew before she told them.
Her friends took the news and Sam hanging around in stride. It turned out that while they made comments about him behind his back, they didn’t actually dislike him as much as they pretended. Without his normal group of friends around him as he walked her to classes—sometimes with Tina or Trudy—Sam actually fit in well with her friends. They also seemed to notice the difference and lightened up after their first day of warnings.
“Do you work tonight?” Sam asked when Whitney stopped at her locker before their last class of the day.
“No. Mark has off, and it seems like I’ve only been scheduled when he works,” she replied.
She hadn’t noticed when she started, but now that she knew who Mark really was, she kept better track of when he would be there since she had to be extra careful around him. Going through her schedule, it really did look like he only scheduled her when he was there. Whether that was on purpose or not, she wasn’t sure. Since she had started dating Sam, he had stopped asking her out. At least there was one siren who respected that they were dating. Amber was a whole other story. She glared at Whitney every chance she got.
“Good. Want to come with tonight?”
“I thought we were grabbing dinner and a walk on the beach,” she replied. At least that was what she remembered him mentioning somewhere between kisses forty-two and sixty-four.
“I was hoping we could get a walk in before we have to catch the bus,” Sam replied. “Someone canceled, and we got booked in their place. Short notice, but we tend to not turn them down if they’re in the area.”
Now she knew exactly what tonight meant. He had another gig. Whitney smiled. Hearing him sing the first time had been amazing, but hiding in the bus was a pain. She wasn’t sure she wanted another trip sitting under the bench seat.
“Come with me as my guest,” he clarified, as he also probably remembered their trip only days ago.
Smiling, Whitney nodded. She had been smiling all day and figured eventually her cheeks were going to hurt too much if she didn’t stop soon. Sam smiled back at her and quickly kissed her cheek like he knew exactly what she was thinking.
“Have fun at class,” he said as they had already reached the door.
She nodded in a daze and went into the room to find her seat. Unfortunately for her, her last class of the day was shared with Amber. She knew from the brief conversation with Sam that he didn’t like Amber at all, but she could also tell that Amber really liked him. Whitney would have felt bad for her if she hadn’t seen Amber throw herself at Sam the day before. Now she was more than a little fed up with her.
Whitney ignored the scowl on Amber’s face as she passed her on the way to her seat. It was going to be a long class, emphasized by scowls from Amber every five minutes when she had some sort of excuse to look around the room. Whitney squared her shoulders and did her best to ignore the unhappy siren and pay attention to class, which was considerably harder than normal to do as her mind drifted to Sam again. At least thoughts of Sam made the class go faster, and it was done before she knew it. Then again, she was pretty sure she missed everything the teacher had said. It was going to mean more reading to catch up on, but so totally worth it.
Packing up her bag slowly, Whitney made sure she would be able to leave the school right away without having to go through her locker while Sam waited. It was a good day with very little homework, and she had gotten almost everything done in class. Even with the book chapter, she needed to read she’d be able to fake in English the next day, because she had read the book before. Certain she was ready to go, Whitney made her way back out of the classroom, expecting to see Sam waiting.
Well, he was waiting, but not as she expected. Amber was leaning toward him and trying to wrap her arms around him. Sam was expertly untangling himself as he spotted Whitney. Amber must have known that Whitney would be there as she tried a second time to get Sam cornered. Sam ducked and got away, leaving her in mid-sentence.
“Ready to go?” he asked, not so much as glancing back at the extremely ticked-off Amber.
“Yes,” Whitney replied, half tempted to turn and give Amber a little wave as they walked away, but then thought better of it. She didn’t need to be on her radar for anything other than just being with Sam. They both agreed the less the sirens wanted to know about her, the better off they would be.
“Let’s hit the beach while the guys pack the bus,” Sam suggested, leading her to his car.
Whitney raised an eyebrow at his ditching of his friends to do all the work.
“They already know I’m bringing you with,” Sam explained as he opened the car door for Whitney. She hopped in, and he went around to his side.
“And they’re fine doing all the lifting?” Whitney didn’t need his bandmates angry with her, either. She already had one siren she was sure hated her guts.
“As long as we get back in an hour, they’re fine. They think I’m feeding on you and luring you to the beach to do just that,” Sam explained as he drove away from the school.
Whitney giggled. It was kind of amusing how wrong everyone was about it. Her life depended on them all thinking about it that way, but it was still funny. It was like living a double life. At least in each version, she got to be with Sam. He grinned like he knew why she was laughing as he drove down the street and to the beach they had gone to before.
“No wonder they know you by name,” Whitney said as he parked at the diner and led the way down to the beach. “I’m surprised they haven’t named a sandwich after you already.”
“Ha, ha, ha,” Sam said, pulling her behind him on the small pathway.
Taking her hand, Sam led the way to the beach. They weren’t ten feet in when Sam paused and then pulled Whitney to the right side of the path. She didn’t ask what was going on and trusted him. Just around the tree line where the tall grass started, a blonde head popped up as someone walked toward them. They stood to the side to let the leaving person pass. Sam didn’t look at the man, but Whitney did. His blond hair was cut short, almost in a military buzz, but that wasn’t what made him stand out. His blue eyes stared directly at them as he walked by. Sam gave him a friendly nod of the head, but the guy didn’t even look at him. He continued to stare at Whitney. Whitney looked to Sam’s back as he tugged her forward and that was a good thing. Suddenly, she was very cold. Blondie’s stare had given her the shivers.
Sam didn’t talk any more as they neared the waterline. Whitney walked toward the enticing waves, but Sam turned and took her down the beach instead. She looked at him, but he didn’t talk; instead, they just walked hand in hand in the warm sand. When they made it around the bend, Sam finally slowed down and found a place to sit.
“No swimming today?” Whitney asked, finding the change in his character weird.
“I was planning on taking you into the cove to answer more questions, but sometimes you have to change your plans.” His non-descriptive speech made her wonder if more people were around. Maybe some siren had followed them. She didn’t see anyone on the beach, but she had the feeling she wasn’t going to get more question and answer time, at least not right now.
“Did I do something?” Whitney really had no clue why the sudden change in his attitude.
Sam seemed to shake out of his thoughts and turned to smile at her.
“No. You’ve been perfect. It’s nothing to worry about. I’ll tell you all about it later. Now let’s just enjoy sitting here in the warm sun,” he suggested, pulling her to his lap and letting her lean back into his arms.
“Can I at least hear more about your family or this birthday you’re avoiding? Maybe you can tell me more about where you’re from. I haven’t been allowed to travel since I’ve been living with my aunt,” Whitney said, trying to keep things very non-specific.
Sam chuckled, making her bounce with his laugh. He pulled her close and kissed her cheek before threading his fingers through hers.
“Well, where I’m from is kind of small compared to the cities around here,” Sam began. Whitney settled back to listen to him talk. “I think my city is maybe a couple thousand people at most. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows everyone.”
“And where parents expect you to hook up with their best friends’ kids,” Whitney supplied for him. Amber had been on her mind a bit since she was still throwing herself at him.
Sam laughed a second time and Whitney decided she really liked hearing him laugh. She was hoping they would get more time together so she could hear more of it.
“I’m going to guess you’re talking about Amber. She doesn’t compare to you, and she knows it. Don’t let her get to you. I’m not going to allow them to decide my fate. I’m going to decide what I want, and my father will just have to learn to live with that.”
“Sure,” Whitney added. While it all sounded great—making your own choices—she had been a night human. They weren’t always up for choices. But she did admire his determination.
Sam wrapped his free arm around Whitney’s middle and pulled her closer.
“You can’t imagine how long I’ve been looking for someone like you. Even if you’ve never met my family, you get it. You get the whole world I’m from without being there or being corrupted by them. My family …” Sam trailed off, and Whitney listened to the waves crash as he thought. “My family aren’t good people. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love them. But they just aren’t good people. Where I’m from there aren’t a whole lot of nice people. I’m guessing it’s because they think they’re better than everyone around them, but for whatever reason, they treat everyone they think is too different as being lower than them. It’s not how I wanted to live, and I was happy to move away.”
“Is that why you don’t want to go home for your birthday?” Whitney asked. She had heard it mentioned more than once that he was boycotting.
She could feel him shrug without looking behind.
“I decided weeks ago I wasn’t going back because that’s when your parents decide who you’ll marry if you didn’t already choose someone. There’s no one back there I want to marry, so what’s the point? I know my father will be mad, but at the same time I have a job to do, and I can’t do that from home. I figured he can get mad about me not coming home, but he can’t get mad about me staying around to do my job.”
“And what exactly is your job, besides teaching swim lessons and singing songs for fans that are throwing themselves at you?” Whitney asked. She didn’t blame the fans one bit. She had thought he was gorgeous the first time she met him.
Sam didn’t answer, but turned her around in his arms and met her with a kiss before she could ask more. He pulled back and grinned.
“I’d think you might be a little jealous of those fans,” he teased.
“Jealous?” Whitney replied, raising an eyebrow. “I think you have that in reverse. Those fans should be jealous of me.” She reached her hands up and pulled his face back for a kiss.
Sam leaned back in the sand, pulling her with him without breaking the kiss. Whitney was never one for large displays of public affection, but that didn’t matter with Sam. There was just something about him. Every moment she saw him, she wanted to throw her arms around him and make sure everyone knew he was hers. And then as soon as she touched him, the whole world around them disappeared anyway.
His phone beeped in his pocket, bringing them back to reality. Sam sighed and pulled back from their kiss.
“Time to be responsible and go do my job,” he complained as he stood up, brushing sand off him before helping Whitney back up, too.
Whitney grinned as he took her hand. There were worse jobs to have than a rock star. Only someone like Sam would see it as only a job and not a fun time.
The bus ride, this time, was shorter, and Whitney was glad. The guys all seemed really curious about her and asked a whole lot of questions. She did her best to answer, but some had to be deflected. Mostly they were looking for how she won Sam over. They let it slip more than a few times that Sam was too devoted to his family to think of dating. They really were curious as to how she changed his mind. And it was mostly Mark. Leo asked a few questions here and there, but Mark was the one that wouldn’t let up. It took a hard glare and a bit of an order from Sam to get him to let it go.
After the question and answer session, Whitney spent the remainder of the time pulled to Sam’s side while he and the guys discussed the set for the show. She had almost no clue what they were talking about and found it fun to simply watch them.
When she looked at Sam’s two friends, she didn’t see the siren in them. They looked and acted much like day humans; she couldn’t fault herself for not seeing it before. Mark was your typical surfer guy with a laid-back personality that seemed to agree with everything being said to him when he wasn’t asking a question. Leo was much quieter. He thought more about things, but again would never question Sam. Both guys seemed more than willing to follow Sam’s lead, and that was the only night human trait she saw in them. Where she was raised, there was always an alpha that people followed. Sam kind of filled a role like that now that she listened in and saw it.
As they finished their plans, Sam pulled her tight into his arms, and she got to spend the last half hour snuggled up to him. It was definitely a better ride than the last time.
Once they reached the place they were playing, the guys were all busy. Whitney was given a backstage pass, and she watched from the sidelines as the guys set up and did voice check. She was content to sit and watch, and once they were done, Sam pulled her back to the bus to be alone with her as the audience arrived. This time, the guys left them alone.
“Are you sure they won’t come back here?” Whitney asked for the tenth time as Sam was hopping in the hot tub in their bus.
A hot tub in the bus seemed weird only days ago, but now completely normal. The band was part fish, so, of course, they needed a hot tub on their bus.
“I promise. I ordered them to stay out, and they have to listen to me.” Sam offered his hand to Whitney. She looked at the front of the bus one last time and then decided that she trusted Sam wouldn’t let her get caught.
Sam held her waist as she threw both her feet over the edge at the same time, knowing they would be an instant fin. She didn’t want to see if it was painful to turn one foot at a time. Knowing her luck, it wouldn’t be painful but snap her second leg into place, and she would crash into the water as ungraceful as she could be at times. Sam didn’t need to see that side of her yet.
“Have you tried to will them to stay legs?” Sam asked.
How did he know she had been practicing each morning in the shower?
“Still not working?” Sam guessed.
Whitney hung her head and shook it no. She had been trying, and it stunk. She was normally a natural at things. Even the mer stuff was easy. After her first swim with Sam, she didn’t even question breathing underwater. Or swimming underwater. Or swimming with a fin. Those things just felt right. But managing her tail wasn’t one of those naturally easy things.
Sam tipped her face back up with just one finger on her chin. Whitney did her best to hold in her sigh. His touch was more enticing when she was in her siren form. Something about either being a half-fish, or maybe it was being wet in the water that made it all feel different. Sam must have noticed as his eyes flashed to their sea color as he transformed also. Whitney’s sigh caught in her throat. He was a beautiful human, but he was a stunning merperson. The deep brown lines on his arm almost shimmered, but the intricate tattoos that ran from his shoulders down to his fin were fascinating. Whitney tried to keep her face from blushing as she looked at them and then realized where she would be looking if he were still in his swim trunks. Sam grabbed hold of her and pulled her to his lap, his blue fin rubbing against her pink one, sending a whole new sensation to the tip of her tail.
“I wish I could sit in here with you all day,” Sam told her, his hand tracing the lines on her skin and stopping as he traced all the lines on her shoulder.
Whitney had looked at the lines that appeared on her as a mer and was more than happy to see it covered all the basic upper body parts to not leave her naked and he only stopped because of where he would be touching and not that they had disappeared. The shimmery purple color of the lines complemented her pink fin nicely as they swirled around her body. Now she knew what her back must have looked like also as Sam’s fingers trailed over her shoulder. She had yet to be able to get a mirror behind her to see what it looked like.
“You amaze me every time I see you transform,” Sam said quietly, his voice barely audible over the noises around them.
“Haven’t you seen like a million girls turn into fishies?” Whitney teased.
Sam chuckled. He at least found her term “fishies” funny, but the other mer would take offense. With their view on order and being at the top, the siren didn’t like being compared to mere fish, not quite the bottom of the ladder, but pretty close. Sam didn’t take offense to anything. He was helpful and tried his best with everything she was going through.
“No, I have not. I don’t know a million girls. But yes, I’ve seen others transform.” Sam thought for a moment. “I don’t know what’s different, but you are different. I mean the pink fin is one thing, but beyond that. There’s something else that just seems amazing.”
Whitney glanced at her salmon-colored fin and wondered what it meant. He had explained a bit about the blues and greens in the siren world, but he never told her about the other types of mer. Was he leaving something out? He did say he would marry any type of mer.
“Could it be I’m not a siren?” Whitney asked. She had been wondering that since she got her siren anatomy lesson, or rather, levels of power lesson.
“No. I’m certain you’re a siren. Besides, you already told me that you put your cousin into a trance while singing. That should prove it to you.”
Okay, that much was true. She was pretty sure she was a siren also, and she had kept her mouth locked shut when she got the urge to sing with any song on the radio. Now that she might snap and eat someone, she refused to sing outright. She wasn’t about to tell Sam she was listening to his orders, even though she was.
“There’s just something magical about how you transform. It’s almost like you sparkle as you do it, and you should see your eyes. They turn the most beautiful shade of purple I’ve ever seen.”
He was now staring intently at her. Whitney tried not to smile, but she couldn’t help it. The awe she saw in his eyes was exactly the same as she felt when she looked at him. She wanted to pretend it was a siren thing, but she was pretty certain it was a Sam thing. The more they were together, the more she realized she was falling hard for him. It wasn’t just the awesome kisses. It was beyond that. There was something that made her not want to let him go anywhere without her.
Sam broke eye contact and tilted his head to the side. He shook his head disappointedly.
“I have to head back with the guys. We have to go over the set again and everything,” Sam told her as he turned and lifted her out of the hot tub, leaving her tail in the water.
Whitney flicked her tail over the edge and let it drip as Sam jumped out of the tub with legs. She really needed to learn that trick. Sam waved his hand, and all the water went back in the tub, including the last drop falling from her tail. That was another trick she needed to learn. Sam reached for a towel and handed it to her. Whitney blotted off the few damp spots left on her tail, and her legs reappeared.
“You can hang out on the bus if you want or backstage. The pass will basically work anywhere to get in,” Sam explained, slipping a shirt on.
“Can I go into the audience?”
“You might want to stay closer to the stage. The people toward the back are always drinking and spilling their drinks when they have too much. And since the stage is covered, even if it starts to rain you should be safe in the front of the arena. The back isn’t covered.”
“Played here before?” Whitney guessed. Sam grinned as he nodded, offering her a hand to go with him.
Whitney took his hand and let him pull her out of the bus. She looked up to the darkening sky and knew it was a combination of night time and possible storms. At least the bus was under some sort of awning that they could go from the stage to the bus without getting wet if it rained. She really needed to learn how to control her fin. That was priority number one.
Mark was waiting just inside the doors as they passed two very large security men. They didn’t look at the pass around Whitney’s neck, but then again, she was walking in with the lead singer of the band that was going to go on soon. It was chaos as people ran from place to place backstage, but Sam didn’t seem to notice. He took the guitar from Mark and slung it around his neck.
“Stay safe,” Sam whispered in her ear as he leaned down to kiss her and give her hand one last squeeze before he turned to Mark. Whitney nodded, giving him the reassurance that she would be as he walked away.
Whitney didn’t follow Sam and Mark as it was kind of fun just to watch everything around them. She passed through an open door and around a corner to follow the noise she heard from people. Signs pointed to the backstage and security dotted the hallways, so she wasn’t worried about getting lost. Sam had mentioned on the ride that there was a VIP section near the front of the stage that her pass would get her into, and his warning of the rain coming was enough to keep her from going out to the main audience.
Following the signs, it wouldn’t be difficult to find the VIP section, and she made her way up the stairs. She realized that the maze she was walking around had been underground which explained why the noise was muted. As she opened the door above ground, she heard the voices increase ten-fold. A large, beefy man stood behind the door she had just opened. He looked down at her pass and nodded to her, pointing to a door on the right. Following his direction, she made her way to the VIP lounge.
Opening the red door led to an unexpected lavishly decorated room. There were red velvet couches that a few people lounged on and a table set up on the far wall filled with a variety of foods that looked almost as artistic as edible. Whitney wasn’t hungry. Actually, since she had turned into a siren she had found her need for actual food decreased a lot. She looked over the room and didn’t glance at the people. It wasn’t like she was going to know anyone. Passing the couches, she continued toward the noise. A hallway on the right side of the room was actually a connection to seats right at the edge of the stage. Whitney smiled. She was going to get the best seats in the house to watch her boyfriend sing. Yep, her life was beyond surreal now.
Whitney sat down and pulled out her phone. There were no messages from her aunt. She probably didn’t check if she was home. At least her cousin knew she was out, so she wouldn’t get in trouble in the small chance that Aunt Marissa came looking for her. It was only a very small chance. There were messages from both Trudy and Tina. They obviously didn’t approve of Sam taking her out of town, but wanted to know where they were going on a date. When she had texted them earlier about it being a concert, they both agreed that was a cool date to go on and were a bit jealous. She left off the part of Sam singing, as she didn’t know if she was supposed to tell them. She’d have to ask Sam after the show if they or any of the other sirens knew.
The lights dimmed around her to tell everyone that the guys were going to take the stage soon. The audience’s excitement was almost palpable. Whitney tucked her phone away and grinned along with all the energy that was building. She had caught a little of the guys singing before, and she had heard of the group without knowing it was them, but to be there sitting and seeing it live was much more exciting.
The stage cut to black and from her seat she could see the guys enter, even if those further away couldn’t. She didn’t need to be told which one was Sam because she just felt it. The audience screamed as the drums began their beat with Mark’s bass strumming along with it. The energy around them grew as the beat grew louder. Whitney wondered how she would hear over the crowd, but it was like someone was slowly turning up the volume. She felt the music reverberate inside her all the way down to her bones, but the part that took her breath away was when the lights turned to the stage. Sam was standing there in ripped jeans and a tight black shirt, showing off every perfect chest muscle he had. He looked absolutely flawless, and Whitney wasn’t the only one who thought that. Practically every female in the audience gave a collective sigh.
Sam leaned forward to the mic and began to sing. Whitney leaned forward at the same time and closed her eyes. His voice was perfect. She let it flow over her and listened to the words of the song. It took until the second song in to realize all his songs were about love. Really? He was a rock star singing about love. How more cliché could he get? Whitney opened her eyes as the song changed, and Sam had stepped back to play a solo on his guitar. A guitar playing, perfectly chiseled, rock star merman boyfriend. Whitney’s life was never going to be the same. Any kind of life after Sam was going to be dull.
Whitney’s heart ached a bit. She already knew it was true. There was going to be life without Sam at some point. He was a siren, and he had explained that they all went back to the island eventually. She wasn’t part of it. She was an outsider, and someday he would have to go back. She shook her head to try to get rid of all the sad thoughts. Sam seemed to sense her and pointed at her to get her attention as he sang. He winked and that brought a smile to her face. She was going to just live in the moment and enjoy it.
The guys finished their set, and Whitney stood to go back downstage to meet them. The rain had luckily stayed away, and she was happy to not have to worry about that. The crew came on and began changing out the gear for the next group.
“Leaving so fast?” someone said from beside her. Whitney hadn’t noticed all the VIP seats by the stage were filled.
Turning to the person speaking, she stopped in her tracks. Sam’s older brother, Tim, was sitting there beside her, maybe he had even been the whole time. He looked eerily similar to Sam; it would be hard to not guess they were related, but what got Whitney was when she looked in his eyes. Sam’s always took her breath away. His eyes were kind and gentle. There was nothing like that behind Tim’s eyes. Tim smiled in a welcoming manner, but his eyes were anything but friendly.
“I need to get backstage so I don’t miss my ride home,” Whitney said. Well, they weren’t going to leave without her, but it sounded like a good excuse.
“Oh, I’m sure Samuel won’t leave his girlfriend behind. Then he wouldn’t be a good boyfriend,” Tim replied, not moving and letting Whitney by. “Why don’t you sit down and chat a bit with me? Has Sam told you anything about his wonderful older brother?”
From the tone of his voice, she understood it wasn’t a question. In fact, there was a slight melody to it. That alone made her pause. Sam said that siren can control day humans with their voice. If she wanted to keep playing the part, she had to do what he asked, even though being near him made every fight or flight sensor inside of her go off.
Whitney sat back down in her seat. She couldn’t leave and let Tim be suspicious of why she didn’t listen to him.
“My sources say you recently moved to town,” Tim said to her. Whitney didn’t say anything. If it wasn’t a question, she wasn’t going to provide information.
Tim must have noticed as he smiled and tried to be friendlier. It didn’t matter. She saw in his eyes he was anything but friendly, and from Sam’s few comments, everything she suspected was true and probably worse.
“Have you lived in Florida long?”
“Just a year and a half,” Whitney replied, looking to the stage and trying to will Sam to appear and see she was cornered by his brother.
“And you must be into music, or is it just musicians?”
Whitney shrugged. That wasn’t much of a question either.
“Has Samuel told you he has to go on vacation this weekend?” Tim asked, leaning back like they were old friends chatting.
“He hasn’t mentioned anything, but we did just start dating. Not really at the stage of telling each other everything and schedule details to the minute. I think that comes at stage two in the relationship, but once we get there, I’ll let you know.”
Tim raised an eyebrow to say he wasn’t sure if he believed her. “But you are at the stage where you spend lots of quality time alone.”
Whitney kept silent again. He could ask any of the sirens how much time they were spending together. She was pretty sure they all knew. Tim didn’t need an answer from her.
“Has Samuel told you about having an older brother?” he asked, still trying to gauge her.
Whitney shrugged again in an attempt to make it vague. “He said he had siblings when I mentioned I have a brother.”
“I suppose he didn’t mention I was older, cuter, and a much better kisser.” Tim fake pouted.
He was older, and also drop-dead gorgeous, but she wasn’t about to say he was cuter. Sam looked at her with wonder and kindness; Tim looked at her like he wanted to drain her blood. Very big difference. She wasn’t about to let that happen. Whitney didn’t look back to the stage, but stood up again. She had sat long enough to play his game, even if she didn’t know what it was. Just his eyes on her made her want to take a shower. Tim maybe looked like Sam, but he was nothing like him.
“The guys tend to head out quickly after these things. Something about not wanting fans to find out where they live. If they left without you, I can always give you a ride back,” Tim offered, this time standing with her.
Whitney knew Sam wouldn’t leave without her, but she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, Tim had done something to try to make that happen. She hurried from the seating gallery and back into the waiting room. As she pulled open the door to leave, she ran right into Sam. He grabbed her arms quickly as he looked over her shoulder, patting her down like she might be missing an arm or two.
“Crazy seeing you here,” Tim said as he wandered up behind Whitney. She didn’t turn to see his face, but could feel the anger between Sam and Tim, and it wasn’t a one-way thing.
“Considering this is my concert, I could say the same to you,” Sam told his older brother. He glared at him as he added, “I’d love to stay and talk, but my bandmates are under the impression they need to leave immediately.”
Whitney finally saw Tim’s face as Sam pulled her to his side.
“I’m guessing you all have a lot of schoolwork to get done. I hear that makes people want to get back home. You know, to study and all.” Tim smiled with his sparkling white teeth.
“I’m sure that’s it,” Sam replied and turned Whitney to the door.
“What, not even a goodbye hug?” Tim called to them. “Oh, yeah. That’s not needed since you’re coming home this weekend.”
Sam didn’t turn around and kept nudging Whitney going out the door.
“I prefer you don’t head home. It will be much more fun that way.”
Tim’s last words were muffled as they left the room, but they both still heard him. Under his friendly façade was certainly a threat. Whitney had no idea what she gotten in the middle of, but she was happy there were be a few hours of a bus ride to talk to Sam about it, as long as his friends were busy in the hot tub with the girls they liked to pick up.