A Siren's Wish by Renee Field Read Free Book Online

chair back. Instantly, she quelled her heart. Wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, she kept her hands in her pockets to avoid accidentally touching him. When she made it safely past him, she hiked the duffel bag over her shoulder and sauntered away.
    “Want me to clean those for you?” yelled Trevor, trying once again to prolong her departure.
    “Sure, knock yourself out,” she replied, opening the outer door with her key card while punching in her identification number. Security is a pain in the ass. She wondered again why there was so much high-tech security when there was nothing worthwhile to steal. All the scientists had portable laptops they took home or on the road with them.
    Trevor and the other scientists often joked that Caskett housed a wealth of treasure he kept hidden in his back room. It was the only room off limits. Caskett was the only person who went in and out of it. That along with his bizarre library classified him as unusually strange in her eyes.
    While she admitted to having a fixation with marine life, Caskett’s passion to prove the unknown went beyond what was genuinely acceptable in the tight-knit scientific community. The only reason he was tolerated was because he was filthy rich. He backed his own research ventures, hired his own scientists, built his own labs and all to prove there really were sea monsters, and other unknown sea creatures out there.
    She had jokingly asked him if he believed in the Loch Ness Monster only to be chastised for asking such a stupid question. Of course, had been his answer, but Nessie didn’t interest Caskett. It was creatures of the deep, creatures of the sea, even myths and legends of mermaids that drew him.
    And that was why his library was bizarre. While it had state-of-the-art scientific literature and journals, it also had rows of books that detailed sightings of mermaids, sea creatures and more. While she felt drawn to those books, she excused it as giving into her early childhood dream for a fantasy world—after all, anything was better than what she had.
    So, tonight as a reward to herself, and stashed safely at the bottom of her duffel bag was Myths and Legends of Mermaids from the Seas Around the World. She viewed it as her late-night light reading, and hoped it would calm her enough to get some sleep.
    Unlocking her car, she dumped her stuff on the passenger seat and yawned. The knowledge that she had a good two hours of thesis work ahead of her at home almost made her groan, but she didn’t get where she was today without functioning on little sleep and lots of dreams.
    Without a doubt, finishing her thesis would be a welcome relief because after that she’d move onto her next goal, securing a permanent position with Caskett so she could save up while working part-time on her Ph.D.
    Who said I don’t have fun in my life? She sped home to her small studio apartment that still had unopened boxes stacked high to the ceiling. After four months, she still hadn’t found time to unpack. Maybe this weekend. She grimaced knowing she’d rather do anything but.
     
    * * *
     
    After a month working with Caskett at the Institute of Oceanography, Jamie still took the long way to get to her desk. She didn’t care if the other researchers teased her for avoiding the elevator, the wharf or any of the vessels berthed at the two docks. She simply avoided the people. She had been hired because her cutting-edge research on immunological diseases in sea mammals was excellent. She knew that and so did the rest of the researchers.
    No, there was nothing wrong with taking the scenic route to her office. After all, it was located on the basement level and there was no other way unless she took the elevator, which was not going to happen. Highly claustrophobic by nature, she avoided elevators at all costs.
    At five-thirty in the morning she wasn’t expecting anyone to greet her anyway. Sliding her security card through the outer door’s electronic slot, she then