Folding her arms over her chest, Tessa nodded smugly. "Serves him right to try to take advantage of us like that."

Listening quietly to their conversation, Kenneth raised a brow. "He told people about you?"

Though there'd been no real reason to include him in their meeting with Jake, there hadn't been a reason to exclude him, either. After all, he did know they were mermaids.

"He did it purely to advance his career," Gwen said, answering his question. "Fortunately, it seems to have backfired on him."

"Man, did it ever." Addison rolled her eyes. "According to the last gossip I heard around town, he'd gotten a job working as chief archaeologist with a group called Recoveries, Inc., which is supposedly working toward the recovery and conservation of underwater artifacts."

Tessa frowned. "In other words, he's a f.u.c.king treasure hunter."

Addison patted her arm. "Don't worry. Whatever he's got up his sleeve, we're here to cut him off at the pa.s.s," she said, unintentionally mixing her metaphors.

"Jake's e- mail said he has proof beyond a doubt about our origins," Gwen warned. "He promised we'd be the first to see what he's found." She pressed a hand to her forehead. "If something's about to break, we need to know."

Tessa shrugged. "I see no reason to panic, Gwen. I really doubt whatever his so-called discovery is even concerns us. If it were really anything groundbreaking, he'd be front and center on the six o'clock news."

"Oh, an expose on the secret lives of mermaids." Addison giggled and grinned. "We'd be stars."

"I don't think it's funny," Gwen huffed through a deep frown. "I have a business to run and a reputation to uphold. That's the reason we keep things on the QT. In this world, different is not acceptable to most people." She shot a glance at Tessa. "And it's why we should keep our tails tucked away out of sight."

Tessa shrugged helplessly. "I was going to marry the man," she started to say in her own defense. "How was I supposed to know he'd be a total mercenary b.a.s.t.a.r.d?"

"Uh, excuse me." Gwen pointed at Kenneth. "So this is your next husband?"

Tessa elbowed Addison. "Big mouth."

Grinning, Addison elbowed back. "She wanted to know how you two were getting along." She tried to affect an angelic expression, but it came out as all mischief. "I simply told the truth."

Kenneth lifted his hands as if to ward off blows. "And I'm not saying one freaking word about anything. I'd like to keep my job, thanks very much."

Tessa covered her face with her hands. "Great," she muttered. "Just great." This was already shaping up to be a h.e.l.l of a day.

Everyone watched as Lucky guided the skiff up to the dock. This time the old boat wasn't carrying supplies, but a single pa.s.senger.

A tall man clad in slacks, a crisp white shirt, and a trendy blazer stepped onto the dock. His face was all hollows and angles, male-model perfect. He had shoulder-length blond hair tied at the nape of his neck in that trendy metros.e.xual style, and a day's worth of stubble covered his face. He looked like a preppy academic slumming among the regular folk.

Tessa's stomach did a dozen fast cartwheels. Oh, man. Jake Ma.s.sey was so hot-and so not her type. When they first started dating, she'd been impressed by his intelligence and well-spoken manner. But darkness lurked behind his hundred-watt smile and charming facade. She'd learned the hard way that the only person Jake was interested in taking care of was himself.

Jake slipped off a pair of expensive designer sungla.s.ses, tucking them in the pocket of his blazer. His piercing gaze regarded her with intimate familiarity. His smile beamed out of his deeply tanned face. The power behind it was meant to send a woman straight to her knees. "Tessa, darling, it's been so long since I've seen you."

Tessa's back stiffened. There was something distinctly phony in his greeting, as if they'd parted on the best of terms and were the dearest of friends. It was all she could do not to rip that pretty smile off his face and toss it in the bay.

Acrimonious feelings welled up from all sides, swamping her. How dare he, she seethed.

The liar. The hypocrite. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

Her fists clenched, fingernails digging into her palms. "As I recall, that was entirely your choice." An undertone of rebellion sounded clearly in her voice.

Jake stepped forward and pulled her toward him. His touch seared into her skin. "Let's just forgive and forget, shall we?" His lips brushed her cheek. "I've been dying to see you."

Tessa twisted out of his grasp. "There's only one thing I've been dying to do to you!" Before she could think the action through, her hand flew straight for his face. Her open palm connected with his cheek. A sound like a shot echoed across the bay.

Man, that felt good.

Rubbing his stinging cheek, Jake eyed her from head to foot. A slow grin parted his sensual mouth. "I suppose I deserved that."

"You're f.u.c.king right you did, you conniving b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Jaw thrust out, Tessa's voice chilled with offense. Suddenly, she felt filled with a torrent of indefinable strength and anger.

Her words seemed to amuse Jake. His sardonic grin lit up his electric blue eyes. "Did it make you feel any better?"

Tessa refused to back down or let him see her waver. What the h.e.l.l is he grinning about? She gritted her teeth. "Yes." She lifted her hand again. "Just as soon as I get a few more licks in."

Gwen caught her hand. "Let it go, Tess. The damage can't be undone. It's time to move on."

Jake grinned at her. "Once you see what I've got, I think all will be forgiven."

Tessa's pulse picked up speed. "That's not likely."

His smile faded. "Putting you and me aside-"

Tessa resisted the urge to roll her eyes, then decided the action perfectly suited the moment. "Considering you walked out on me the night before our wedding, that's kind of hard for me to do."

Jake bent, closing the distance between them. "I'll admit up-front that I made a mistake, Tess. At least give me the benefit of the doubt. I've come back to try to make things right." He spoke with tense directness. A bit of his former bravado seemed to have faded.

Frowning, Tessa stepped back and skewered him with her most scathing look. On the surface Jake was so d.a.m.n appealing, with those blue eyes and cleft in his chin. But looks were only skin deep. On the inside, he was a manipulator. A user.

The last thing she needed was for Jake to try to walk back into her life. She'd been fooled once. She didn't intend to be fooled a second time.

Tessa hit her forehead with the heel of her hand. "You'll never be able to fix that one, Jake. As it is, it'll take a h.e.l.l of a lot of work for you to earn back everyone's trust."

"That's not as far-fetched as you may think, Tess," he said. "Just give me a second chance."

"Like you deserve one," she sniffed.

Addison stepped up. "I heard you got bounced out of the university on your a.s.s." She waggled mocking brows. "Everyone thinks you're a nut now."

Jake regarded Addison through a cool gaze. "It's not going to be that way much longer, Addie. The one thing archaeology absolutely demands is hard evidence. It took a while to get it, but this time I've got solid proof."

Gwen interrupted. "I've told the girls about your discovery. As you can imagine, we're all eager to see it."

"Of course." Jake gestured toward the skiff. A large wooden packing crate had been lashed in the center of the boat. "I've actually been very anxious to get the artifacts here for you to examine."

Gwen nodded. "Let's get them unloaded."

Jake shifted his stance. "Well, then, let's not have any further delays." His gaze fell on Kenneth, taking in the plainclothes of a workingman. "You, there." He snapped his fingers like the lord of the manor. "Get that crate, will you?"

Kenneth shrugged. "Sure."

Jake watched him go by, stepping down into the skiff. Lucky helped him heft the crate onto the dock. "Careful now, you-" He snapped his fingers again. "What is your name?"

Kenneth clamored back onto the dock. "Kenneth Randall," he said affably, offering his hand. "I'm the handyman."

Jake ignored his offering, rubbing his hands together. "By the looks of these rotten boards on the deck, you're not very handy."

Tessa's jaw tightened. Jake had always flaunted his superior att.i.tude, treating people who worked blue-collar jobs as though they were a lesser species. Their only function was to serve him. In other words, he was just plain rude. She wondered what she'd ever found attractive about the man. The old saying of love is blind must be absolutely true. Amazing how a little time and distance could open a person's eyes.

Her mouth quirked down. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty. There was no way she was going to let Jake treat Kenneth like a doormat to be walked all over. Tessa cleared her throat. "Actually Kenneth's my boyfriend."

The lie popped out easily and naturally. Walking up to join him, she put her arm around his waist. "He's just moved in."

Jake's brows rose. His expression darkened subtly, taking on strain and tension. Her statement had clearly taken him by surprise. "Well, this is quite something I hadn't expected."

Kenneth's mouth curved in a slight smile of befuddlement. "You could have knocked me over with a feather." Patting her on the rear, he eyed her closely. "In fact, I'm always wondering what she'll do next."

The feel of Kenneth's hand on her a.s.s jolted Tessa. Earlier she'd told him she needed her distance. Now she was pawing all over him. Thankfully, he seemed willing to go along with it.

Jake had done her wrong, no doubt about it. She wanted him to see she'd gotten over the heartbreak, had moved on. Kenneth's arrival had helped jolt her out of lethargy. It was time to drain the black pool of her depression and get back to walking among the living.

"We've got a ton of plans for the house," Tessa added, verbally pushing the thorn a little deeper into Jake's side. "It's just come to the point where it was easier to move in together."

Jake's knee-weakening smile brightened, albeit reluctantly. "Lucky man," he said, detouring around her news by refusing to address it. "But let's get back to the subject at hand." He gestured toward the crate. "If Ken will just give me a hand with this, we'll get it inside."

Sliding a crowbar in between the seams of the crate, Kenneth gave the tool a sharp upward jerk. Nails holding the lid in place gave way to the pressure, separating from the wood.

Jake, of course, was supervising. "Try not to crack the wood when you lift the lid." Staring down his nose, he delivered his instructions in a crisp voice untainted by any local inflection.

Shooting Jake a quick glance, Kenneth narrowed his eyes. I don't see a d.a.m.n thing in him. Of all the men he'd imagined Tessa might be attracted to, this prissy girlie man with his fashionable blazer and perfectly creased slacks didn't seem to be her type at all.

Kenneth moved to the second corner. "Whatever you say, boss." He repeated the action, easily prying the nails out of the wood.

"Careful, please," Jake chimed in again. "It's vital you don't damage the items inside."

Biting down on his tongue to keep from laughing at the pompous a.s.s, Kenneth repeated the action on the other two sides. He lifted the lid off the crate and set it aside. "I think I managed to not break anything."

The girls had cleared the center of the living room, giving him ample s.p.a.ce to work. Standing at the perimeter, the three sisters peered anxiously at the crate. By the looks on their faces, some strange and terrible creature had entered the house. One they clearly did not welcome.

Jake glanced at Kenneth, then cut a look to the three sisters. "Since you're a couple, I'm going to a.s.sume he's in the know."

Tessa looked at Kenneth. Frowning a little, she nevertheless nodded. "He's aware we're mermaids."

Kenneth set the crowbar aside. "Of course I know. She told me on our first night together." He didn't bother to mention the small detail that their first night was last night.

He'd already figured out he was just playing a part, filling a role. When Tessa had claimed him as her boyfriend, he'd recognized the act to be one of pure self-defense on her side. She needed a wall between herself and any lingering feelings she felt for Jake, so she'd thrown him up as protection.

Jake gave him a thumbs-up. "The tail is magnificent, isn't it?"

Kenneth refused to be baited. He had a feeling such talk made all the sisters self- conscious and embarra.s.sed them. From what he'd seen, they were doing their best to fit into human society, live as normally as possible. "It's nothing I'm interested in. I like her just as well when she's standing on two legs."

Jake smirked knowingly. "She's much better when she's in the water. Some of the moves she can do with that appendage will make your co-"

Tessa silenced him with a single finger cutting through the air. "Don't you dare go there!" Her frigid eyes glittered with offense. "Say one more word about us and I'll kill you and hide the body, Jake. No one will find you at the bottom of the bay."

"I'll help her," Addison chimed in.

"Me, too," Gwen warned. "You're here on a trial basis only. Blow it and you're gone." She snapped her fingers. "Like that."

Chastised by three fierce expressions, Jake backed down. "Okay, okay. I was just joking," he grumbled. "There was a time when you had a sense of humor, Tess."

Tessa huffed out a long breath of disgust. "I'm not the blind fool I used to be."

The atmosphere in the room was beginning to turn hostile, toxic.

Feeling his muscles knot, Kenneth stepped up. He hadn't liked Jake on sight and the idea of punching him in the face wasn't exactly unappealing. "One more crack out of you and the girls won't be the ones showing you the door." He'd always felt contempt for men who made unflattering s.e.xual remarks about the women they'd slept with. It wasn't only immature; it was disrespectful.

Jake held up his hands in appeal. This time his smile wasn't so self-a.s.sured, c.o.c.ky. "I'm a jerk, I get that," he said through a cold stretch of his lips.

Tessa nodded her agreement. "That's saying the least of it."

Kenneth placed a hand on Tessa's shoulder. She tensed momentarily, then relaxed and accepted his touch. "Instead of going at it tooth and nail, just stay to the business at hand."

Gaze cooling, Tessa nodded her agreement. "The sooner you show us, the sooner you can leave."

Jake stepped up to the crate, reaching inside to retrieve an object protected by layers of heavy bubble wrap. "You won't kick me out once you've seen this." Going down on his knees as though weighed down by an object of great and holy reverence, he unwrapped the package. "Keep in mind this has been underwater for a long time. It took months to restore, though I think my team did a pretty good job."

A statue about three feet in length was revealed. The top half of the figure was instantly recognizable as a woman: long hair, full b.r.e.a.s.t.s, slender waist. Her bottom half didn't show two legs, as would be expected. From the waist down, her figure was that of a sea creature. The mermaid appeared to be poised as though to rise from the water, her left arm extended toward the sky. What the figure might have held in her hand had gone missing centuries ago.

Jake slowly lifted the statue, showing all angles. Painstakingly cleaned and polished, it was a striking piece. "Isn't she beautiful? The detailing is perfect."

"Heavenly G.o.ddess," Gwen murmured, reaching for the crystal hanging around her neck. "It's a Mer."

"I don't believe it," Addison added. "It looks just like . . ."

"Us," Tessa finished grimly.

Awed by the craftsmanship that had gone into the piece, Kenneth whistled under his breath. "It's a stunning piece of work." What had been merely curious had truly become fascinating. The twists and turns of the last twenty-four hours were something he could never have dreamed up. He was definitely hooked.

Pleased to be the center of attention, Jake nodded. "What you are looking at is one of the few preserved original bronze statues of the Severe Style, notable for the exquisite rendering of motion and anatomy. It's most a.s.suredly the hand of a great sculptor, one probably hailing from the time of the early Grecian Cla.s.sical period."

Tessa shrugged. "So it's a Greek statue. That doesn't prove anything. It's probably meant to represent one of Poseidon's sea nymphs."

Jake shook his head. "Many would jump to that conclusion. Except in this case there is more than one relic pointing to the origins of this particular piece."

Tessa snorted. By the look on her face, she was doing her very best to disbelieve everything Jake presented as false and misleading. "What relics?"

Jake Ma.s.sey graced everyone with a Cheshire's grin. "Though we've only been able to work with underwater subs, we've found enough remnants to convince us that a small island once inhabited the area."

Gwen's brows shot clear off her forehead. "You are f.u.c.king kidding."