“You don’t have to...” Hawk panted against Silverfin's mouth.
“I want to. Let me make you feel good.”
Silverfin's teeth grazed against the stubble on Hawk’s cheek. It prickled against his tongue. He was overcome by the taste and smell of Hawk, so close, so vulnerable in the grip of his hand. When he had first concocted the notion of joining the Pirate King on land, he had not truly comprehended what it would be like, this joining, how much it might consume him. Inside his grip, Hawk’s cock twitched and pulsed, Hawk’s mouth latched onto the tendons of Silverfin's neck as he spent himself over his stomach.
Silverfin shivered in pleasure, closing his eyes to Hawk's groan of release, to the remembrance of how good it had felt to be in Hawk's mouth. This was an excusable kind of mess, he decided. He drew one fingertip through the slick on his stomach and lifted it to his lips, finding that even this tasted like the sea.
"My King of Pirates," he murmured, tilting his head up to brush his lips against Hawk's. He wound his arms around Hawk's strong shoulders, drawing him down into his embrace. This part he was familiar with, the giving of love and affection as a MerSir would to his beloved. And Hawk curled into him as naturally asany Mer, nuzzling his face into the crook of his neck, warm and sweet and perfect.
8
Mara's Plan
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
?T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
THE WATER IN THE COVE splashed warmly against Mara’s feet while she combed out her hair and hummed an ancient sea-song under her breath. A leisurely swim and bath in the ocean had been the perfect excuse to get away from the hustle and bustle of the brothel for a while. From the piercing gaze of Alex Duprez and the jade lynx eyes of Roxanne O'Toole. She had them where she wanted them: which was to say, firmly in her debt.
Once she availed herself of Duprez’s ear and Roxanne's trust, Mara had proven herself to be invaluable to the prosperous trade of a brothel. But while she had risen in her situation, it was a far cry from the freedom she once knew in the waters that had given birth to her.
“I will never return home again,” she sighed, eyeing the placid azure waters before her. “There is no such thing as True Love in this world.” Closing her eyes, she let the hand that was holding her comb drop into the water as a warm breeze kissed her cheeks.
“Your brother would likely disagree with you.”
That invasive voice! It prodded the insides of Mara’s mind in a way nothing had since she'd left the sea.
Her eyes flew open. “Lord Scarletclaw?”
“Lady Maraxilla,” the crab tapped his claw to his shell in a polite salute.
“Are you here checking on my brother for Mami Wata, my Lord?” Mara tried to hold back a grimace; it wasn't the crab's fault that Mami Wata had abandoned her.
“Checking, my Lady, but not on her behalf. I had heard from the sea what had befallen my old master and wanted to see it for myself. Ah, Silverfin has lost a limb and gained a lover!” The crab made a lewd gesture with one of his claws and twirled his mustache. “And now he has all but forgotten about his original plan - ha! Biped emissions will do that to you, don’t you agree? Addles one’s brain, it does.”
“Silence, you impudent crustacean!” Mara snapped and smacked the crab with her comb, sending him scurrying under a rock.
She was about to put the nagging crab from her mind, when something about his words stayed her. “Wait, Scarletclaw. Come back here.”
The crab poked a dubious eyestalk from behind his fortress.
“What did you say? About my brother’s original plan?”
“Did he not share his foolhardy plan with his dear sister? The knave. Why, he was planning on giving Captain Hawk the location and schedule of theEstrela do Norte, the Portuguesetreasure galleon. You know as well as I do that any treasure on the seas belongs to Mami Wata!”
“Silverfin knows better now than to steal from Mami Wata,” Mara replied, despite simultaneously thinking that her idiot brother very likely did not, in fact, know better. “And what do the merfolk have planned for theEstrela?”
“They’re going to sink her, of course. When she passes off the eastern coast of what the bipeds call Florida.”
“Oh, you mean Phallandia.” Mara rolled her eyes at the thoughts of the giant land-peen.
“Why do you ask?” Lord Scarletclaw edged closer.
“No reason,” Mara snapped. “What do I care for Mami Wata’s treasure? I can never return to the waters.” She waved the crab attendant off and rose to leave the shore. “Silverfin paid a high price for his happiness,” she sighed, looking out onto the waves. “But at least he can return home once his hair grows back. Goodbye, Lord Scarletclaw.”
