Siren's Mark

Chapter 31

ℤ𝕒𝕟𝕖

"What the hell are you doing here?" I ask. I can feel my heartbeat slowing and I release his shirt from my balled fist.

"Kami told me you'd all be here and we thought I'd surprise you," Finn says.

My heart is still beating heavily.

Okay, the guy talking to Ava was Finn. So he wasn't hitting on her.

Someone isn't trying to take her from me.

She's not going to leave me.

It was just Finn.

Damn it. I'm a Siren. I'm supposed to be the one that others yearn for, obsess over, get jealous of. But with Ava, even when I try and turn the tables, I can't.

I'm acting like a desperate idiot.

"Mate, that's what love is," Finn's voice says in my head. "It's another person making you completely helpless."

"We already getting sappy, mate?" I think.

"Well, you did just imagine some aggressive things about my balls, so I feel like we're at that level in our relationship."

I chuckle as he brings me in for a hug.

"What the heck?" Ava asks, staring blankly at us. "You were trying to kill him a second ago and now you're hugging?"

"My apologies," Finn says with a smile. "Forgot to use my outside voice."

"Finn communicates telepathically," I explain to Ava.

"Yeah uh, I know," she says, blushing slightly.

He told her he was telepathic already? That's unusual.

"While you were obsessing over my balls, Ava here was..." he looks to her with a smirk then back at me. "Well, let's just say you have similar interests."

What's this now?

Ava lightly smacks Finn in the chest.

"First rule of thought club!" she says. "Geez!"

They're probably talking about something she was thinking about me, right?

Right?

The bartender makes his way to our end of the bar; we seem to be up next.

"Anything for you three?" he says, turning to me. "You already back for another? Gotta go easy on that absinthe, dude, it's heavy stuff."

Finn explodes with laughter.

Oh shut up, mate.

"I am so confused," Ava says.

"A Guinness, a cider..." Finn says to the bartender, pausing to turn to me and struggling to hold back his laughter. "Another absinthe for the Iron Siren?"

I might need it to prevent me from killing you.

"Okay, no absinthe then," he says with a smile.

*****

As we make our way back to the booth, I pull Ava in to my side.

With her in that dress, I can't believe I let her walk to the bathroom without a bodyguard.

I look down at her as we walk and my eyes can't help but stop at her breasts.