Once he felt confident he could look at her without catching an eyeful, he took the book from her a little, sighing as he pressed his hands to both sides of it hard enough to cause the water to squeeze out of it. It would get somewhat warped, but it would be okay. He just was thankful that it was not an older copy of Rilke's works, though, to have really been reading that he would have had to have been reading it in german. Which while he could have done, it was somewhat hard to get a german copy of books in America these days. There had to be a way, but he did not know what it was. Perhaps he would talk to Dannika about it later if he remembered to.
"Yes, I was reading before. It's Rilke." he said, realizing that, like most young people these days, she would have no idea who he was talking about. He considered giving her Rilke's full name, but then realized it would likely mean just as little to her as just the poet's last name, so he left it at that. But the idea of names reminded him, with a slight coloring of his cheek, that he hadn't actually properly introduced himself. "I'm Desmond, by the way. You'll have to forgive my reaction, it has been a very long time since I've seen a mermaid." he said with a light smile.
That having been said, Desmond proceeded to peel his wet shirt from his body. While once it had been something that had seemed a bit forward, now it seemed that men very often went topless for whatever reason, being heat, or at the beach, and so Desmond presumed that Raina would not be bothered by it. In his defense, it wasn't exactly as if it were a bad view. Desmond clearly took care of himself, and while not being overmuscled, he had a nice set of washboard abs and lean muscles that betrayed he actually used them as opposed to pumping iron for the sake of pumping iron. After ringing out his shirt, he sat back down against the rock close to Raina and pressed his hands to his jeans, gently wringing out what water he could from them as well with a light sigh.
"Thank you again, for your help with my clumsiness." Desmond said softly. "I'm sorry if I disturbed your evening. Do you live around here?"
He was trying to make conversation, but he wasn't the best at it. After all, social interaction wasn't often what a Vampire Hunter was best at.