The Mafia's Mermen

"What do you call it when I do this?" Nixxon asked and pressed his lips against Vernon's. Vernon froze, the tantalizing feeling of Nixxon's unexpected kiss rendering him speechless. "A kiss..." He whispered, breathless. "It feels good to kiss you, Vernon," Nixxon whispered and... kissed him again. *** Nixxon escaped his underwater kingdom, desperate to sever all ties to the ocean. But the human world wasn’t the freedom he imagined...it was another kind of cage. Captured by Vernon, a ruthless Mafia boss who mistook him for a spy or a weapon, Nixxon quickly realized that his survival depended on playing along and on how fast he could learn. At first, Vernon saw Nixxon as nothing more than a threat...a strange man with no past, no records, and an unnatural way of moving. But the more he interrogates him, the more frustratingly irresistible Nixxon becomes. He’s both naïve and sharp, defiant yet oddly fascinated by human life. And worst of all, he looks at Vernon like he’s something worth knowing. Forced to keep Nixxon close, Vernon becomes his reluctant guide to the human world...a human encyclopedia; answering innocent yet dangerous questions. What is hunger? Why do humans lie? What does it mean to love? But when Vernon finally uncovers the truth about Nixxon...who he is, what he is...he faces a choice: free the man he once saw as an enemy… or chain him tighter before he’s stolen away. Because something tells him Nixxon wasn’t just running from the ocean. Something worse is coming for him. And Vernon doesn’t know if he wants to save Nixxon… or keep him forever.