Merman - Romance

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

“Why did you follow me up here?”  Jessell demanded as soon as Ridec entered the room.  “Afraid I was going to destroy your precious work?”

Ridec shook his head his blonde hair bouncing lightly as he did so.

“No…”

“I should have figured why you’re so determined to stay here and try to cure these humans,” Jessell said her body still backing the door and her face tilted down towards the zombies she had killed earlier.  “You love Rea and you want to make a home with her here.”

“I…”  Ridec began again but Jessell cut in.

“I was foolish to follow you here, I should have known with your looks and brains you would be sure to find someone else who wanted you and I wouldn’t mean anything to you anymore.”

Ridec covered the space that separated them quickly coming to stand behind Jessell her long black hair brushing against his chest.

“I …” He started again.

“You were probably laughing at me all along.”

Ridec’s arms encircled Jessell’s waist but she pulled away from him.

“Get out of here; I don’t want to see you.”

“Don’t I get a chance to explain?”

“Is there an explanation for cheating on me with another woman?”  Jessell demanded walking away from Ridec and hurrying towards the door.

“No,” Ridec answered rushing behind her and gripping her elbow with his hand and spinning her towards him.  “There’s none.”

“I trusted you,” Jessell whispered for the first time tilting her face upward so he could see her large black eyes filled with water.  “Trusted you with more than my life Ridec.  Trusted you with my heart.”

Tears pricked the backs of Ridec’s eyes, the only thing he had ever wanted in his whole life was to call Jessell his, and the only other thing he had ever wanted was to make her the happiest woman ever.

“I’m so sorry,” Ridec bent his head burying his face in her hair.  “I would rather have died than to have ever hurt you.”

“I would rather have killed you than to let you hurt me,” Jessell muttered but there was the slightest smile in her voice which gave Ridec a small sense of hope.

“I don’t know what it is about Rea…” Ridec whispered.

“She’s soft and needs you,” Jessell said.  “She’s nothing like me.”

“Maybe I just needed to feel…” Ridec hesitated not sure what he had been craving.  “Needed maybe?  I don’t love Rea, I’ve never loved Rea and I didn’t really kiss her,” he was babbling but he couldn’t help himself.  “She kissed me…I just didn’t pull away as quickly as I should have.”

He earned a slap for that confession.

“I’m sorry,” Ridec didn’t care about the slap all he cared about was earning Jessell’s trust again.  “I don’t love her.”

“Yes you do,” Jessell insisted her eyes dry now and any hint of tears gone.  “You love that she needs you.”

“I would never be unfaithful to you Jessell, I would never have kissed Rea, I didn’t even realize what she was going to do…”

“You must have been sending out signals that she responded to.”

“If I did I didn’t mean to,” Ridec inhaled a deep breath and brushed his hands against his own eyes.  “Back home I knew who I was and I knew who I was meant to be.  No one saw me as weak, or just a pretty face or useless.  Back home I was what every man wanted to be, good enough to be numbered among the top choices of the queen-in-waiting; but not here.”  Ridec inhaled another breath and pressed on, he was bearing what he had hidden deep inside of him from the moment he had come to this strange world but he needed to express it now, maybe it would help Jessell to understand why he didn’t fight off Rea the way he should have.  “Here I was a liability to you, I could see in your eyes you wanted me to be more like Kent and I tried but I couldn’t.”

“Did I say I wanted you to be more like Kent?”  Jessell demanded.

“You didn’t have to say it,” Ridec sighed.  “I’m not saying it’s your fault for what happened I’m just saying that Rea made me feel so smart and useful.  It’s stupid,” Ridec ended wearily.

“It is stupid,” Jessell reiterated.

“I’m sorry, I just want you to forgive me, I would never do anything like that again, ever…ever…ever…”

Jessell inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“So I should just forgive you?”  Jessell questioned.

“I’d do anything you ask…anything, name it.”

Jessell looked thoughtful.

“Obey what I say.”

“No questions asked,” Ridec said quickly and Jessell grinned for the first time.

“If I knew guilt was all that was needed to get you under control I’d have encouraged you to kiss Rea every since.”

“You’re a horrible person,” Ridec muttered.

“But you love me.”

“More than anything.”

“We’re going back home first thing tomorrow, as soon as we find a map to the nearest sea,” Jessell said and Ridec’s face fell slightly.  It would mean the end to his experiments here.  “No more talk of cures.”

“Of course; besides,” he comforted himself.  “I really do need a more advanced lab if I’m going to make any major break-through.”

“So we’re agreed.”

“I don’t know about agreed,” Kent said flinging the door open and walking into the room.  “You can’t take him away from us when he’s on his way to finding a cure.”

“How long have you been listening,” Jessell demanded.

Ridec grimaced, he had been so endorsed in trying to gain Jessell’s forgiveness he had not even picked up Kent’s presence at the door, now when he looked into the older man’s mind he could see clearly there was more than a healthy portion of suspicion there.  Kent wanted to know where they were from and there wasn’t much they would be able to do to get him away from that thought process.

“Long enough,” Kent muttered.  “We have a state of the art lab back at headquarters and our leaders would be more than happy to welcome you and to protect you while you continue your research.”

“Thanks but we have other plans,” Jessell said.

“The sea?”

“Our plans are hardly your business,” Jessell pointed out.

“They are when they include…” Kent started to say but Pete’s scream from downstairs interrupted them.

“Come on, let’s go,” Jessell shouted gripping Ridec’s hand and hurrying through the door.

“This conversation isn’t over,” Kent said hurrying out behind them, and Ridec could see from his mind that he was very serious about that.