by Godiva Glenn
Her only concern was how Teall would take this revelation. She knew him well enough to know that he’d have something to say.
Sixteen
Pavel
Pavel had gone for a jog early in the afternoon and stayed out as long as his stomach allowed before giving in the need for food. He’d then snuck back into the empty house and gorged himself on crackers and dried shrimp. He didn’t know where everyone was, but he was glad to have time for privacy. He was overdue for a self-kicking. As far as ridiculous circumstances went, he’d dug himself into a deep hole of shit.
Since the morning, Annika was on cloud nine. She appeared more excited for Pavel and Cam’s fictional relationship than seemed logical. While she’d gone fishing, Pavel made it clear that Cam needed to come clean. Maybe the initial misunderstanding was Pavel’s fault, but Cam was the one who was more comfortable with the business of brokering extra people in a relationship.
He didn’t know how to tell Annika that Cam wanted her. He didn’t know how to admit that they’d had drinks and without going into detail, had discussed both sleeping with her. The more he thought of it, the more he wondered if when Iona had yanked him through that rift, if somehow his common sense had been left behind. Hell, maybe it had died.
But he didn’t want to go another day pretending to be gay, or bi, as it were. It wasn’t his interest and he didn’t like deceit.
Unfortunately, Cam had retreated into himself. Of all the things he appeared to fear, Annika was top of the list. Pavel understood, to an extent. Rejection sucked. Cam could open his heart and wind up embarrassed and alone. There would be no recovering the friendship, right?
Or actually, Pavel had no idea. With how casual everything was, maybe it was okay to try to bang your friend. Maybe if it went bad, all parties just carried on like nothing happened. He’d learned a lot in a brief period of time, but he was far from being an expert on fae social etiquette.
Which is why he’d vanished rather than stick around. For all he knew, Cam and Annika had discussed things and were figuring it out for themselves. A man could dream, at least.
Slumped over the side of his bed, Pavel held up the pipes he’d been learning to play and studied the way they were constructed. He missed his violin, but the wind instrument was growing on him. Annika loved to hear him play, even when he missed notes or went sharp. He assumed that Teall used to play for her all the time, but Pavel refused to think she was thinking of that.
She was too sweet to compare them. That had to be the magic of the fae. They could have multiple lovers because they had multi-chambered hearts when it came to love. Pavel knew he had a place all his own.
The front door opened, and he could tell by the footsteps that it was Annika. He held his breath, knowing she’d find him but unsure of what mood she’d be in. Had she talked to Cam?
“Hey,” she said ducking through the curtain of shells and into the room. “How was your run?”
“Refreshing.”
“Is that how you stay fit?” she asked. “I had wondered. When I listened to you talk about your life, you mentioned fancy restaurants and drinks with friends… sitting around with wine. Your violin, of course. But I doubt that’s a violin and cocktails body.”
He chuckled and placed the pipes down. He sat up straight and looked her in the eyes. “I love how you always say what you’re thinking. Usually, if a woman asks if I work out, it’s a pick-up line. They don’t care about the answer.”
She sat beside him. “I’ve already picked you up. But I’m still learning how you tick… that’s the saying, right?”
“Yeah. That’s the saying. And yes, I do love running, but I preferred to work out at home.” He wrinkled his nose. “Which was perfect because no one looks good while lifting weights, and I look particularly grotesque when sweating and grunting to burn off the copious amounts of wine.”
“Grotesque? I doubt it.”
“It’s the truth. My face gets super red.”
“And your hair gets messed up, I bet,” she mused. Her eyes lifted to his perfectly side-swept bangs.
He rolled his eyes. “It does.”
She placed a hand on his knee and her fingertips walked up his thigh. “I’m sorry about this morning. I was happy for you and I got pushy.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I was thinking that when you’re comfortable, and things are moving forward, you should know that I don’t mind sleeping alone.”
He caught her meaning. No, she hadn’t spoken with Cam. “It’s just us right now,” he said. “So, I’d like to focus on us.”
“I see. I won’t complain about that.”
“After a workout, I tend to get jittery,” he admitted. “I’ve burned off one type of energy, and it tends to waken something else.”
Her eyes lowered. Her fingertips had reached his stomach and now walked up his chest. “I know that feeling.”
He tucked her hair behind her ear and cupped her cheek. She leaned into his palm, closing her eyes. She was too lovely. Too perfect. He kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose, and then her soft lips.
Her mouth opened for him, welcoming his tongue to slide against hers. She tasted like the ocean, fresh and filled with life. The comparison struck him as odd, but he’d noticed that the more time he spent on Prism, the more his way of thinking changed.
He drew back and held her face in his hands to simply stare into her deep brown eyes. For a moment, the emptiness that tugged at him dissipated, and he realized that he was a fool to believe he didn’t love her. Whatever was bothering him, it had nothing to do with Annika. She was a cure for whatever ailed him.
She covered his hands with hers and smiled. “I love the way you look at me. Like I’m everything to you.”
“You’re exactly right.”
She lowered his hands and twined their fingers together as she deftly crawled onto his lap. They kissed again, the taste and feel of her wiping his mind blank. He freed his hands and caressed her exposed thighs. Her dress had ridden up and he took hold of the hem to lift it up. They broke their kiss once it came time to yank the fabric over her head, and once it was gone, he stared down at her. Her lovely body hypnotized him, leaving him lust-addled and crazed.
He leaned forward and licked the skin of her golden-brown collarbone, making her shiver. Her sensitivity fueled his pride. He didn’t have to reach between her legs to know she was soaked for him.
The bed creaked as he pushed himself back towards the center of the mattress, bringing her with him. A delighted purr left her lips and she clawed at his shirt. He removed it and held her close, needing to feel her warm skin against his.
The tinkle of tiny shells hitting each other made him pause. He looked over Annika’s shoulder and found Cam standing there, watching. Annika turned and saw him, too. A gentle smile formed on her face. She caressed Pavel’s cheek as she looked at Cam.
“Would you like to join us?” she asked.
Cam’s eyes flickered to Pavel, and it felt like time had frozen still. Pavel had been rash in thinking he could step aside for Cam. He was still adjusting to a strange world, but he should have realized that Annika was the only thing that made sense.
He could come clean in this very second and explain to Annika that it was a mistake, but it didn’t feel wrong. He kept waiting for a part of himself to wake up and scream about the situation. Tell him he can’t allow another man to touch his woman. Tell him that he shouldn’t even want a woman who would welcome another man’s touch.
Instead, he felt himself nod and nudge Annika off his lap. She stood and pulled Cam the rest of the way through the noisy shells, clearly intent on bringing him to Pavel.
She didn’t make it to Pavel, though.
Cam slid his hand around the small of her back and buried his other hand in her hair, pulling her close.
“I want to be with you,” he whispered.
She stared at him, and her mouth fell open. He kissed her then, and Pavel clenched his eyes
shut, expecting to feel betrayal or hurt or rage. Nothing came. His body was tight, braced for a flood of emotions, but it wasn’t necessary. He opened his eyes and saw that Annika held Cam and knew now that she was just as secretly in love with him as he was with her.
And it didn’t break Pavel’s heart. If anything, he felt relieved. Not only was he not a third wheel, but he wasn’t pushing someone else out of Annika’s life.
The kiss ended, and Annika’s face showed that she had a million racing questions. Pavel rose and joined them where they stood. He met Cam’s stare and lifted his chin toward the bed to wordlessly tell him to bring her to it.
Cam lifted Annika effortlessly and carried her to the bed. He knelt on the mattress to set her down then yanked off his shirt. Annika looked to Pavel, and he joined them, sitting on the edge of the bed. He didn’t know if he could participate, but he could be here with them. He crawled to her side and took her hand to kiss her delicate knuckles as Cam slid down her body and captured her pussy with his mouth.
A fire rose in Pavel’s chest to watch Annika writhe and hear her moan at the hands of another man. He felt possessive of her pleasure, but this suited him just fine. He moved behind her head and bent over to kiss her and taste her delightful sounds. His hands cupped her breasts and pinched the tips as she squirmed languidly.
Cam brought Annika screaming in no time, and Pavel sat on his heels while holding her trembling arms still. He didn’t look when Cam removed his pants but watched him enter Annika with a look on his eyes that resembled nothing less than a man witnessing divinity.
Though sex was the crux of making the arrangement to share work, Pavel thought there would be time to ease into things. He thought Annika and Cam would flirt first. Kiss some. Take gradual steps that led to the bedroom. But that was before the confusion, and regardless, it made sense that they would skip the small moments and begin this way. They’d been dancing around each other for long enough.
He placed a kiss on Annika’s forehead before scooting back and watching them make love. An awareness lurked in the back of his mind, that it wasn’t like him to be able to step away like this. He wasn’t the avid playboy the tabloids made him out to be, but he took pleasing women seriously, and never would have welcomed competition in the bed.
Somehow, watching Annika fall apart during sex riled Pavel, even if he wasn’t in charge of her climaxes. Her every movement was sultry, and she wasn’t even trying. She was simply enjoying herself.
Cam and Annika’s moment had been a long time coming, and it meant something that he would be part of it. It helped him to see the love in their faces. Years and years of the timing never working out, yet Pavel had helped them get their chance.
And when Cam collapsed over her body, while she kissed his neck, she reached out and dug her nails into Pavel’s leg, letting him know that he wasn’t forgotten.
Cam lapsed into his native tongue as he so often did, murmuring something that made Annika smile. She turned her head and contorted herself to find Pavel at the edge of the bed. She held her hand to him, and when he took it, she tugged him forward.
Cam rose from over her, trailing his hands down her legs and circling her graceful ankles. She rolled onto her side and stared at Pavel.
“What are you doing over there?” she asked.
He didn’t answer, unsure of what to say.
“I’d like to have you, too,” she said.
He couldn’t hide that his body wanted the same. But was it alright? He looked to Cam for a hint. Cam was only looking at Annika, however. He lay beside her and finally met Pavel’s questioning glance, but still didn’t say a thing.
It occurred to Pavel that Annika held the power of decision. He didn’t need to ask Cam’s permission, as his relationship wasn’t with Cam. Did he still want to sleep with Annika tonight?
His dick twitched as if the answer wasn’t already obvious. He took Annika’s hand and pulled her across the bed to him. She was his, and he planned to take pleasure in what was his.
Seventeen
Annika
Cam and Pavel were heavy sleepers and hadn’t stirred when Annika slipped from between them and left the bed. She’d had wild dreams and woken up hot with desire, but not of the right mind to wake either man to take care of it.
The dream had involved Teall, after all. She couldn’t rouse her current partners to sate her for that.
Instead, she’d gone for a swim. She skipped on donning her selkie skin and instead took to the water in her human form, which offered a different level of comfort. It cleaned away the desire on her skin and refreshed her mind. She knew exactly why she still thought of Teall. She wasn’t ashamed, and though perhaps she should have felt guilty, she didn’t experience that, either.
It would take more time to move past the complex maze that was her emotions for Teall. Deep down, she still wanted a way to have him without losing what she’d now found with Pavel and Cam. It didn’t matter than her brain knew it wasn’t possible. Her heart went by its beat, not logic.
She swam until her thoughts were subdued, if not cleared or sorted. She’d come to expect a certain amount of confusion lately and simply lived with it.
The moon was still floating in the sky when she squeezed the water from her hair and wrapped herself with a warm blanket from inside. She made a small campfire on the beach and sat by it, kept company by the pixies that occasionally harassed selkies in search of fresh fish insides. She had nothing to offer, but the buzz of wings was a welcome noise to drown out her remaining pensive thoughts.
Once her hair wasn’t dripping, she’d crawl back between her men and get rest. The thought made her smile. Her men. She needed to find a way to thank Gerri for Pavel, as he’d paved the way for Annika and Cam finally moving past their long-stunted friendship phase.
A shiver coursed through her, recalling how momentous it had been when he’d finally sunk between her legs and entered her. The pleasure was astounding and made absolutely wondrous by the love laced through each action. Their eyes had locked, and centuries of walled-off emotions had burst forth. It was a beautiful moment. One she wouldn’t be recovering from any time soon.
To think she’d doubted his feelings.
If not the patience he’d displayed year after year, then she should have seen it in his silent attentiveness. Like how he’d brought home not only the fruits she’d requested, he’d surprised her with an array of cooking seasonings, and a true luxury—bolts of vibrant satin.
Selkies didn’t wear clothing frivolously, but Annika had found joy in picking out the perfect outfit to wear for each occasion. She’d had to discard of the pink dress she’d worn on her second date with Pavel since it had wound up torn beyond repair, but it had been a favorite of hers.
She didn’t sew and was cautious to try and learn with such lovely materials, so once she had the time she planned on having something beautiful made from Cam’s gift. Something already sang to her to be made, after all. The sort of dress to be worn to fire.
It would break tradition, but something that humans had that the selkies and water fae did not was the opulence of a wedding. When the time came for her to formally join with her men, she wanted to do so wearing a gown made from what Cam had bought her. She had to assume that Pavel would enjoy it as well, as it could remind him of home.
She shook out her hair and yawned. Sleep called to her, and though her hair was still damp, she kicked sand over her tiny fire and bade the pixies farewell.
Eighteen
Pavel
The lack of technology on Prism offered a refreshing peace that Pavel was easily becoming accustomed to. There were moments he would have liked his phone, but at the same time, he enjoyed not being tied to it. Being available was a burden of sorts. Sure, one could ignore texts and calls, but on the whole, it was assumed that if you had a phone, you had to reply eventually.
He could only imagine that had his phone not gone overboard, it would be loaded to the brim with disingenuous messages a
sking how he was. There were only a handful of people he wished to contact, but he knew that once he got around to it, they’d understand.
For now, he was taking a break from his old life. Focusing on what he had on Prism was a full-time commitment.
But he would have loved a radio.
He put down the basket he was attempting to repair to rest his hands. Cam and Annika had an easier time catching fish in their seal form but relied on baskets to collect their catch as they went. Since Pavel couldn’t dive down with them, he volunteered to help maintain their baskets, which were made of flexible woven reeds of assorted colors.
If he were more practiced, it wouldn’t be a full day of work to patch the damaged portions which formed from banging rocks and rough coral patches. He got better with each one and took pride in each finished product.
“Is Annika around?”
Pavel glanced back. Teall had walked up at some point. Pavel trimmed the edge of a reed and pulled the basket close again. “She went to the village.”
“What for?”
“Apparently, she’d forgotten that she had roommates back home, and wanted to let them know she was okay. Plus, she’s contacting Gerri for us both.”
“You didn’t want to go?” Teall had walked over and stared down at Pavel where he sat on the sand. “Don’t you have family to speak to?”
“Eventually.”
Teall paced away a few feet. “And Cam?”
Pavel gestured to the water. “Out there somewhere.”
Teall sighed, exhibiting his usual annoyed countenance. A week had gone by since they’d had dinner together. He’d visited a few times but kept socializing with Pavel to an absolute minimum. Pavel didn’t mind, but he did wonder how Teall expected to retrieve his skin without working towards his promise to Annika. The promise had been to get to know Pavel, and that certainly wasn’t happening.
