“Do you have some sort of magic?”
Adonis made the same thrilling sound. It sounded slightly lazy to Connor’s ears, and with Adonis’s eyes half-lidded, it seemed like he was tired. Maybe his jaw was tired… Connor’s face warmed up and he looked away from Adonis before he started reliving that in earnest and got hard. He suspected that might lead to a repeat of just now, and Connor was barely staying awake.
He forced himself to sit up and dug out his water bottle. He drank a few sips and offered it to Adonis. Adonis glanced at the clear bottle and let out a heavy breath through his nose.
“Not interested in the water?” Connor asked. He replaced it in the cooler. He got his bearings and saw that Adonis had kept them in the same spot just around the corner from his house. Thank god Adonis was shy because Connor hadn’t spared a thought about how Trevor and Laurence were around the corner.
“Shall we get going?” Connor asked, forcing himself onto his knees. He reached for his oar, but it wasn’t tied where it should be.
“Oh, crap.” Connor hadn’t tied it. He’ddroppedit. He scanned the water, looking for the oar floating on the waves. Nothing. “Adonis, did you see where it went?”
Adonis was still lying with his cheek against the board. He blinked up at Connor, answering him with a disinterested grunt.
Connor’s gaze darted down Adonis’s body. At first, looking to see if he was hiding the oar somehow, but his traitorous mind instead drifted back to moments ago. Adonis had clearly known how Connor’s anatomy worked, but there was no hint of anything similar on Adonis.
Connor stared closely at the smooth scales until Adonis squirmed. He chirped out a shy sound.
“Do you have a dick?” Connor asked him.
Adonis didn’t meet his eyes, his tail lashing in the water. Connor crept closer to him, reaching out to touch his scales. Except this time, his exploration was more pointed; he pressed into the scales where he would guess his matching anatomy should be, stroking around, trying to find—
His fingers dipped into a slit.
Adonis jumped as Connor’s fingers delved into wetness and heat.
Startled by Adonis’s jump, Connor flinched back before he could help it. Adonis let out a sound of distress, and, in a flash, his tail was beneath the surface leaving only his head and shoulders above the water. Adonis gazed up at him, a low whine vibrating from his throat.
“Sorry, Adonis.” Connor reached out to pat his head, trying to convey what he meant. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
After a few seconds of petting, Adonis stopped whining and set his arms back on the board. There was still unhappiness in the gaze pointed up at Connor. Guilt stabbed through him.
Connor leaned down, pressing his face against Adonis’s hair. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry.” He tried to mimic what Adonis had done for him when he got hurt, and Adonis quickly pushed his face against Connor’s hair, letting out a satisfied keening sound.
Connor pulled back again.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to hurt you. Like you weren’t trying to hurt me.” Connor glanced around at the water once more. “Did you see where it went? My oar?”
Adonis scoffed and turned his gaze away.
Connor narrowed his eyes at him. “Youdidsee where it went.”
Adonis released the board and swam around to the back. He made a show of pointing to himself and the back, and then of pointing at Connor and the water with a snort.
“Oh, now you’re just picking a fight,” Connor said. “You know which direction it went, don’t you?”
Adonis’s top lip drew back, displeasure colouring his features.
“I need the oar, Adonis. And it was you knocking me down that made me drop it, so if you know where it is, you’d better tell me.”
Adonis glared up at him. Connor didn’t waver, staring right back. After an irritated growl, Adonis disappeared underneath the water. Connor didn’t see which direction he went—today, the water was a dark, impenetrable blue—but scarcely five seconds later, he slapped the oar onto the board next to Connor’s knee.
Adonis sneered at it before disappearing below, slapping his tail hard into the water as he dived. Connor yelped as the spray covered him. Adonis resurfaced ahead of Connor. Only his eyes were above the water line, fixed on Connor in what could only be a glare.
“Real mature, Adonis,” Connor said, shaking his head to get the water droplets out. He wasn’t too irritated. Adonis did listen to him, after all. He returned it, even though he obviously didn’t want to.
Connor set the oar into a more secure position in the middle of the board and stretched out his shoulders. The part that he’d impacted the cooler with wasn’t sore. In fact, none of him was sore. Connor frowned, feeling around his elbow. His weight had come down on the metal clip, so it should still be tender to the touch at the very least, but there was no pain. Not even his muscles, which had been aching from yesterday, hurt in the slightest.
Was this what painkillers felt like? Nothing ever worked on Connor, but for all the pain to vanish like that…
