Prince of Passion (12 page)

She felt a little jealous so she swam toward him. She rested her hands on the ledge between his feet and looked up at him through the shimmer of spray.

She had to angle her head to one side to see around his rapidly thickening shaft. She smiled, his eyes widened, and she boosted herself onto the ledge between his legs.

Reaching up, she cupped his sac. “How are you feeling now?”

The muscles in his neck jumped as he swallowed. “I’m still a little tense. All that aphrodisiac, you know.”

“I suppose you should let it out.”

“You’d better show me how.”

When she took him in her mouth, his head tipped back until she thought he might have to learn to breathe water. Maybe they both still had something to learn.

***

Later, feeling as if he’d been washed clean, wrung out, and left to drape limply awaiting his next use, Icere lounged in the hot pool behind the waterfall, his head tipped back into the relatively forgiving bed of pebbles that ringed the hot tub. The contrast of the cool spray mixed with the steaming water would have brought his skin to tingling life. If he hadn’t been so wrung out and limp.

At the sound of off-key humming, he rolled his head along his shoulder and watched though half-lidded eyes as Rynn splashed in the waterfall. She’d brought a few candles into the grotto behind the sheeting water, shielding the tiny flames with her hands and losing not a single one to stray droplets. She was just that kind of woman; even fire and water obeyed her commands.

In the flickering candlelight, with the silvery water bouncing off her upturned face and the upper curves of her breasts, she looked like an elemental being, powerful and elusive, complete in herself, needing nothing.

Though the effects of the malac liqueur had worn off, having her so far away made his muscles tighten, as if his body would throw off even this delicious languor to go to her.

He must have made some noise because she straightened, meeting his gaze through the falling water.

She smiled at him, and he glanced down, glad to note that the soft, heated waves gave his cock at least the semblance of alertness.

With a splash, she dove into the hot pool and disappeared below the surface. He lost sight of her below the ripples and reflections until she popped up between his legs. She surfed his chest, her skin still cool from the waterfall, and he found that he wasn’t so limp as he’d thought.

Wriggling to one side, she hooked her arm over the edge of the pool and nestled against his shoulder while she combed his unbound hair over the pebbles.

“I haven’t told you of the sea wyverns,” she murmured. “It rare to see one, much less get close. You remind me of them, so sleek and beautiful. Unique.”

For some reason, her words annoyed him. Yes, he was those things—he’d been molded to be so—but she made him sound…untouchable.

He twisted gracefully within the curve of her arm and pulled her closer. She squeaked as he snugged one knee up between her legs to ground her like a boat on the shore of his chest.

He smiled down at her, deliberately deploying his dimple. “Unique? Are you saying I was like your first?”

She stared at him, her mouth set in a serious line as if to counter his flippancy. “My first l’auralyo.”

He tightened his arm behind her. “And did I fulfill your fantasies?”

“I did not fantasize about seducing a—”

He notched his grasp tighter yet in warning. “Watch what you say next.”

Her jaw flexed. “A virgin. A
young
virgin.”

“Ah. Well, we cannot all have your oceans-vast experience. Not at first anyway.”

She scowled. “Not so vast as that.”

He lowered his lashes. “Then we will have to be more adventurous.”

“Icere, I did not intend for this to—”

“Don’t. You may stroke my hair all you like, but if you pat me on the head, I will bite you.”

She tangled her fist in his locks and gave him a fierce look. “Do not interrupt me again.”

“I will interrupt you whenever you need it.”

She tugged his head back. “I do not need—”

He took advantage of her momentum to pull her in for a kiss. She tried to brace herself against his chest, but her palm slid around him instead.

With a groan that he thought was half frustration and three-quarters pleasure, she let him hold her while he kissed her thoroughly.

Finally, he let her slip down his chest. Not too far, though. “You were saying?”

“Never mind.”

He laughed softly, bouncing her in the water.

She laid her head on his shoulder. “We have to get back to the barge.”

Slicking his hand down to the small of her back, he anchored her against him. “But the storm…”

“Passed. The waters are calm.”

He didn’t ask how she knew. Of course she’d know. But he remembered Luac’s jibe about the island with no boat. “How exactly will we be returning?”

“The same way we came.”

“I was unconscious for that part.”

“I’d noticed. But I assume you’ll swim better when you aren’t comatose. It’s not far.”

“Any distance is too far to swim when you have stone laced through your flesh.”

She traced her finger over his chest, following the lines of the qva’avaq that curved into a tight spiral around his nipple. The lines flared where her touch ignited the crystal. He caught his breath and her wandering hand. Too late.

She raised her head to grin up at him. “Parts of you are very stony indeed.”

He narrowed his eyes. “I would gladly sink into you. I am less keen on sinking to the bottom of your ocean.”

Shaking free of his grasp, she reached for a handful of the pebbles that ringed the pool. She flattened her palm, displaying the tiny stones.

He lifted one brow in question.

When she lowered her hand into the water, the stones followed her down.

He grunted. “My point exactly.”

A few of the pebbles floated back to the surface.

She swirled her fingers, drawing the tiny gray stones into a whirlpool but they did not submerge. “Another of my great-grandfather’s favorite symbols. Pumice is the perfect alchemy of stone and fire, air and water. The molten lava captures air bubbles that make the stone buoyant.” When she released the whirlpool, the pebbles bobbled on the waves from the waterfall’s splashing. “Not every rock sinks.”

Icere watched the pebbles drift. The restless water eventually carried them back toward the rim of the pool, where they would await—what?—to be tossed adrift again? Born of all the elements and now forever apart. What a lesson for her despot ancestor to impart to a lonely child, as harsh as the pumice’s abrasive composition.

Abruptly, he rolled, pulling Rynn beneath him. With an easy toss, he beached her on the pool’s pebbled rim and centered himself between her legs. Her pale eyes widened to catch the guttering candlelight in a flash of silver and gold.

“You may teach me to swim,” he said. “But first I will teach you to fly.”

***

Icere was delighted to find that Rynn didn’t expect him to swim all the way back to the barge under his own power. They emerged from the cave to find the night silent except for the dripping aftermath of the storm, though the low clouds still swirled ominously. She led him back to the hut on the beach where she revealed a one-man underwater tow unit. The small, fan blades, encased in a plasteel housing with hand grips, would drag him through the water much faster than he could push himself, she’d explained.

For a moment, jealousy ate at his gut, worse than the bite of the malac liqueur, as they carried the tow down to the shoreline. Who else had she brought to her island retreat?

She stood in the gentle waves, lit only by the violet shimmer of the water and the colder glow of the stars peeking between the shredded clouds. Her shift hung in damp folds around her, emphasizing her curves and shadows. Darker shadows hid her eyes. “I’ve missed this place,” she mused. “Luac and Ky loved it here when they were small. The diver tow was their toy. But we stopped coming after their father was…” She let out a slow breath.

Abashed at his angrily selfish thoughts, Icere plucked at the short tunic she’d found for him in the hut. The aged fabric was almost as filmy as her shift. Had it belonged to her last lover, dead now at her hand? Literally at her blue-ringed hand.

The man had threatened her world, and she had acted. Icere supposed he should be glad to have such a force of nature on his side.

And he
was
glad. With luck, the raiders had tipped their hand when they sabotaged the malac harvest. Trapped by their need for the aphrodisiac, they could not escape. They would be found and stopped, just as he intended when he arrived on this watery world.

So why, as he and Rynn slipped into the night-dark ocean, did he feel he was leaving something behind?

Chapter Ten

Through the dark water, Rynn homed in on the electrical signal of the distant barge. The artificial ping on her genetically enhanced senses was an annoyance she’d learned to mostly ignore, but she understood better than most how important their low-tech lifestyle was for the rare, valuable creatures of the deeps. Even the small, solar-powered diver tow beside her felt out of place. If the malac had not been somnolent from their first round of mating, the mechanical intrusion would certainly have roused their aggression and brought them charging in.

Not that she saw any reason to tell Icere that. He had troubles enough with her beloved oceans.

She wanted to be amused at his dislike of the water, but instead she found herself wanting him to see the pleasures to be found. In the weak headlight of the tow, she pointed out the school of squid-like ni-malac that flitted by, intent on their own bacchanalia in the lingering aftereffects of their larger cousins’ lust.

The viscous threads of their excrescence congealed in the salt water. Along the ropy threads, jellied eggs were strung like glistening thumb-sized beads. The ni-malac danced gracefully through the dimensional webs. With each undulation of their pale green mantles, they released clouds of sperm in scintillating bursts.

“Unlike the malac, the ni-malac are simultaneously hermaphroditic.” She spoke normally, knowing the comm-links she’d found in the hut for both of them would pick up her words. “They all lay their eggs and then they all fertilize them. As a group, they will defend the nest until the young hatch. Much gentler and more communal than the malac.”

He studied the floating sexual construct. “Shall we swim around it?”

She grinned at him. “I thought you wanted to be more adventurous.”

“It’s too beautiful to break. It looks like suns hanging in a nebula cloud. Also, I’m not sharing you with squid spunk.” Even through the slightly tinny reverberation of the scrubber over his mouth, he sounded appalled.

When she laughed, the flow of water down her throat and over her gills felt like giddiness liquefied. Just the remnants of the malac essence, she told herself, too diluted to be troublesome.

Of course, the night’s romp with a handsome l’auralyo might have something to do with her bliss.

Too bad the night was coming to an end.

They skirted the ni-malac nest, and Rynn had Icere power down the tow, leaving him to paddle under his own power, as they circled wider yet to avoid the malac rutting ground. The huge bi-valves were motionless, but sand kicked up by the scuffling males still hazed the water. Beyond, the under-hull lighting of the barge left a ruddy glow in the water, like spilled blood.

The comparison leached away some of her giddy bliss.

Icere, who was ahead of her, twisted in the water, shining the tow headlamp back at her with his hand over the lens to dim the glare. The neutral buoyancy of the tow counteracted his tendency to sink. “What’s wrong?”

She realized she’d stopped, hanging as unmoving in the water as the malac. As if her body had made up its own mind about whether she should return. “What’s wrong? There are invaders on my planet. Who almost killed the heir. While trying to steal my aphrodisiac. To subjugate the sheerways. And I just fucked a boy younger than my son.”

He lifted one brow when she said fuck. “Long night.”

She scowled. “You have no idea.”

“Actually, I do. I was there for the whole thing—or the highlights, anyway. If you’ll recall.”

For a wild moment—as unpredictable and dangerous as wyvern fire—she wanted to grab his hand and race away in the opposite direction from the barge. Back to her atoll. No, farther yet. Someplace completely out of touch. Out of reach of anyone except each other.

But she had executed her last lover for disregarding the inescapable truth that each wave caressing their world’s many shores was connected to the wave ahead and the wave behind.
Ahawe-aulu. The wind blows in a circle.
As Saya, she could never forget or run away.

So she settled for giving him a reproachful glance. “I recall.”

“I thought you might be trying to dismiss me. And I’m not going away.”

Not yet. But after the raiders were identified and dispatched…

And she would be left, not able to forget or run after him.

He held out his hand. “Let’s go.”

When she reached out to tangle her fingers with his, he hauled her through the water with more power than she would have expected considering he had no leverage beyond his body. She supposed his body was enough.

Together, they slipped through the defensive measures designed to keep marauding malac at bay, and she led the way to the deck outside her quarters. They broke the surface under skies purpling toward dawn.

Icere heaved himself up onto the platform and pulled the scrubber off his face. “I suppose the front door was too obvious.” He reached down to haul her up beside him.

“I’d rather no one know we’re back quite yet.”

He eyed her, clearly contemplating whether to be annoyed.

She waggled her fingers dismissively. “Oh, they’ll all guess what we were doing, but I’d rather at least some of them thought I was still distracted.” She rose and padded into the apartment, pausing only long enough to grab a towel from the cabinet beside the door. She tossed a second towel behind her without looking back.