by Kaye Draper
“But it’s the funniest darned thing. No one seems to know you. You’re a good-looking guy. Seems like someone would remember you—classmates, friends, employers. You know, from before.…” He shook his head. “Why, even the property manager for your dad’s lot could only tell me you guys moved in here right after The Change.”
Grey spun back to him and gave his best fan-pleasing smile. “I’m sorry. I’m just not too outgoing, you know? I only have one really good friend. You’re welcome to talk to her though.”
The reporter put on a confused face every bit as fake as Grey’s innocent smile. “You see, funny thing is, I tried. But she wouldn’t talk to me. Or should I say he? It’s pretty forward thinking of you to have a morph for a best friend. I wonder…were you guys friends before The Change?”
Grey closed his eyes and prayed for the patience and the willpower not to punch the guy. When he opened his eyes, the reporter was still there. “What do you want?”
He shrugged and dropped his innocent act. “A story. Something more interesting than the crap about all of our fishing lines dying out that was waiting for me on my desk this morning.” He rolled his eyes. “Like anyone cares about some shitty wildlife story. My boss doesn’t know real news. But I know what sells.” He put an arm around Grey’s shoulders and turned him to face the trailer park. “Now…it could be a story about where you came from—kind of a rags to riches thing about the boy from the trailer park.”
“Or...” he said slowly, as if considering. “It could be about how there’s no record of a Grey Thorne anywhere on the island before The Change….”
Grey clenched his teeth. It was technically illegal to look into records or reveal the identity of a morph without their consent. Technically. But once he blabbed, the damage would already be done. And it would be all the worse for Grey having hid it for so long, for not coming clean from the start.
But the “reporter” wasn’t finished. “Or, better yet,” his eyes lit on an approaching figure and Grey’s mood plunged even lower. Luca had probably been waiting at Grey’s dad’s house, since Grey had mentioned stopping there on his way home. “Maybe it could be a steamy piece about how two members of the band spend their spare time together?”
Grey sighed. Coming out as gay to his fans hadn’t been so bad, really. But what kind of chaos would ensue if they found out he’d been a girl in a guy’s body this whole time? Who the fuck knew? It could be nothing. Or it could result in a lot of disgruntled people and bad press for the band. And a lot of discrimination and bullshit for Grey in his personal life. Just what he needed. One more damned headache to add to the shit-tastic list of things to deal with. There was no way he was going to let the damned gossip monger reveal that Grey was a morph. But he’d be damned if he let the asshole write about his love life, either.
“Hey,” he said with forced cheerfulness, wishing he knew how to use the dark, vindictive power inside him for once. “Do you want to see my trailer?” He threw his arm around Sims’s shoulder and guided him toward the outdated tin can that had been his home for four years. “It’s ancient,” he said in a chipper voice. “And I didn’t even have a real bed. Just a fold out. You’ll love it.”
Chapter 62
Grey watched the gigantic, tiled tub fill with steaming water. The article about Grey Thorne’s rise from trailer trash to heartthrob and music icon had come out the day before—complete with a whole bullshit backstory crafted to keep people from commenting on how they’d never known Grey before The Change, or how Rick never mentioned a son. It had completely derailed the search for the kleidí. After being bombarded by phone calls, e-mails, and crowds of reporters and fans from the island and the mainland mobbing both the trailer and the townhouse, Luca had insisted on taking Grey somewhere they could find some peace.
His primordial sea god father’s seaside mansion.
On the bamboo bench where Grey sat were at least a dozen colored glass bottles. He held one up and examined it. The bottle itself looked like blue sea glass, smooth, but uneven and opaque. He uncorked it and tentatively sniffed the contents. It smelled like the sea, with a hint of citrus. Reaching out, he poured a generous amount of the powder under the water that thundered out of the tap like a waterfall.
A mountain of bubbles formed, and the smell of citrus-scented sea air rose up on the steam. Grey shucked his boxers and went to sit on the floor and dangle his feet in the sunken tub as it filled. The smell of the sea and the touch of the warm water made his heart sing with joy.
There was a soft sound behind him, and he froze. His first thought, ridiculous as it was, was embarrassment at being caught enjoying something as girly as a bubble bath. He was trying to get rid of the stupid stereotypes he’d lived by the last few years. But it was slow going.
Luca’s robe pooled on the floor beside Grey and the tall, leanly muscled beauty stepped into the massive, waist-deep tub, slipping beneath the water with a sigh. Grey wanted to put his hands over his lap, but that would only call attention to the fact that he was sitting there naked…and that he was still painfully self-conscious of his male body, no matter how much Luca chipped away at the issue with his easy acceptance.
Luca seemed unfazed by the shared bath. Maybe group baths were the norm in this household? Other cultures had different rules. Primordial gods probably weren’t self-conscious of their earthly forms. Aaand…Grey was mentally rambling.
Grey glanced up at Luca to find him sitting on one of the submerged seats, reclining back with his eyes closed. The ends of his dark hair curled where they touched the water that lapped about his broad shoulders. Just the sight of him sent Grey’s blood rushing. He tried not to imagine how Luca’s taught skin would slide against his under the water. He failed. Miserably.
“This place is amazing,” Grey said, reaching forward to draw a finger through the mountain of bubbles. Their surface reflected a million different iridescent colors thanks to the sunlight filtering down from the stained-glass skylights above.
Luca chuckled without opening his eyes. “You are in the house of Pontus.”
Grey shook his head at the reminder of Luca’s father’s supernatural nature. It was still hard to believe that Luca—or Grey himself for that matter—could be descended from a sea creature. “Has Cameron ever seen this place?”
Luca sat up a bit and drew a handful of sudsy water up along his arms. Grey tried his best not to drool as he watched rivulets of water trickle over Luca’s lean, sculpted chest.
“Once,” Luca sighed, seemingly unaware of Grey’s ogling. “He knows, of course, that there’s something a little off about Dad and me. But if we try to explain, he says he doesn’t want to hear it. He’s happy being normal.” A wry grin lifted the corner of his mouth. “Or as close to normal as he can get.”
Grey kicked his feet absently. “That’s kind of sad.”
Luca glanced up at him. “Why do you say that?”
“Well,” he shrugged. “It just seems like it would keep you guys from being very close, with that kind of wall between you.” Grey had always wanted a sibling. He knew a lot of people didn’t get along with their brothers or sisters, but…he’d always thought having someone who knew you that well would be worth the irritation.
Luca shook his head. “Nope. That’s what’s so amazing about my idiot brother. He’s too slow to be affected by it. He’s good at playing ignorant and carrying on with his life. He knows there’s something odd going on, but he doesn’t want to see it, so he just…doesn’t. But he still manages to be a good brother and a good son. Mostly.”
Grey shook his head, thinking of how Cameron really did seem to hide his intelligence. He guessed that explained how Luca and Cam could snark at each other so much, but still seem to have each other’s backs when it really came down to it. He was kind of jealous of that.
But then, it didn’t take much to make Grey jealous these days, when it came to Luca. Or Ethan, or Matheus…but he wasn’t thinking about that right now. Ugh. He was supposed to be for
getting all the drama in his life for one damned day.
“Enough talking about my brother,” Luca declared, sitting up. He pulled himself over to Grey, a big hand coming to rest against the slate tile on either side of Grey’s knees. “You’re making me jealous.”
Luca might actually be a mind reader. Grey grinned down at him. He really was a sight, all dripping wet and leering at Grey that way with those deep, deep blue eyes. “Where’s Pontus?”
Luca waggled his black brows. “Out in the ocean somewhere.” His hands moved to Grey’s hips and Grey let out an embarrassing, almost feminine, shriek when he was suddenly pulled into the tub.
His body slid the length of Luca’s until his feet touched bottom of the deep tub. Luca pushed Grey backwards until he came up against a seat built into the side, causing Grey to sit suddenly. Then the degenerate slipped his warm, dripping hands behind Grey's head and pulled him into a kiss. Grey closed his eyes and lost himself as Luca trailed warm, wet kisses down the side of his throat and across his chest, pausing to flick his tongue over his small, hard nipples. Then his dark head disappeared beneath the water.
Grey gasped and threw his arms out to cling to the sides of the sunken tub as Luca slid The Cosmic Joke into his mouth while he was still under the water. One big hand held Grey’s hip to keep him still, and Grey trembled at the contrast between Luca’s mouth and the hot bath. Luca went at it for so long Grey was afraid the poor guy would drown. Finally, Grey tangled his hands in the slippery strands of Luca’s hair and pulled him to the surface.
Looking at him now, Grey could absolutely believe that Luca was a water sprite. His ebony hair clung to his face and neck in sleek tendrils and water coursed off his broad, slick shoulders. Dark, wicked blue eyes peered up at him with a look that made Grey shiver.
“How long can you hold your breath?” Grey managed to get out.
Luca grinned. “I don’t need to. I can breathe underwater.”
Grey almost lost it right then and there. “Wait,” he said, planting a hand on Luca’s broad chest. “If I’m really half siren…”
Luca’s smile widened. “Try it and see.”
Grey slipped beneath the hot water, reveling in the way it drowned out the world. He braced himself for pain and opened his eyes. It didn’t hurt at all. The water was warm, but it didn’t sting. And he could see under the water without any distortion, something he knew he hadn't been capable of when he was younger—even more evidence that he was changing. He held his breath, too afraid to try breathing, but he felt like he could hold it for a long time if he needed to.
Grey pushed himself closer to Luca. His hands slid up the lean muscles of Luca's long thighs and around to his perfect, round ass as he steadied himself against the buoyancy of the water. Luca’s big hands stroked Grey's back and Grey took him, slow and teasingly just like Luca had done for him seconds before.
Luca pulled him to the surface after a few minutes and lifted him, plunking him down on the tile outside the tub. He came to kneel on the seat and once again used that wide mouth in ways Grey never could have imagined. Grey tangled his hands in Luca’s hair and moaned, completely lost. Unabashed, Luca reached down and stroked himself as he pleasured Grey.
Grey ached to be female again so that he could feel Luca inside him. Heat rose up in him at the thought and he cried out with his release. Luca’s dark eyes were doing that swirling thing again when he pulled back, his hands sliding up Grey’s thighs as he surged up to take a biting kiss.
Luca was getting less careful with the way he made love to Grey, and Grey was thrilled. He didn’t need to be treated like glass. He needed Luca to make him forget everything else. To just drown out the entire world. He lived for Luca’s touch being burned into his skin. He needed to know Luca belonged to him. That he belonged to Luca.
He shifted closer to the edge of the tub, Luca standing between his knees as they devoured each other. Grey trailed a hand down to grasp Luca’s straining cock and give him a slow, firm stroke. “I want….”
He swallowed hard and forced himself to meet Luca’s eyes. “I want you inside me.”
Luca’s eyes widened, then went hooded with a new surge of lust. “Grey. Are you sure?” He stroked his hands up and down Grey’s arms, forcing himself to pull back, putting a bit of distance between them, when all Grey wanted was to be closer. “I don’t want you to feel like that’s something we have to do. You know that. Everything else is okay. I promise.”
They’d talked about this before, once. With a lot of blushing and stammering. Luca had assured Grey quite eloquently that, in his words, “The idea that sex equals penetration is heterosexual, patriarchal bullshit.”
Grey hadn’t known what to say at the time, only that he was absolutely thrilled not to be immediately expected to participate in anal, because he knew jack shit about it.
Now though…he wasn’t scared. He just wanted to be as close to Luca as it was humanly possible to get. He wasn’t sure if that was his own cracked personality, or if it was all because of the thing inside him that insisted on ownership and domination. Frankly, he didn’t care at the moment. His dick was already pulsing back to life at the thought of Luca fucking him. And it didn’t help that he could recall quite clearly what Mat had said about wanting to forget the world for a while. If that was what it took, sign him the hell up.
Grey hooked his heels around the back of Luca’s thighs and looked at him, trying to be diplomatic. “You don’t want to? I won’t make you do something you don’t like.”
And…here came all the old insecurities. Maybe the thought of ass sex triggered Luca’s previously straight side and freaked him the hell out. Maybe it turned him off. Although…it sure as hell didn’t look that way to Grey, what with the throbbing erection still straining between them.
Luca huffed a laugh and pressed his forehead to Grey’s, his hands gently gripping Grey’s hips. “Oh, trust me. I want to. I’d insist you fuck me, if I didn’t think that thing would destroy me.” He quirked a brow at Grey’s massive dick.
Grey barked out an unexpected laugh. “God, no. I don’t have a single fucking clue what I’m doing. I don’t want to hurt you, Luca.”
The water sprite quirked an amused smile at him as he nipped at his lips. “And yet you trust me. You think I know anything about this?”
Grey rolled his eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe you’ve done it with a girl. How the hell would I know.”
Luca snorted. “Grey, I love you, but you’re just so…. No. I have not ever fucked a woman in the ass. I don’t know whether to be proud or horrified at the way you seem to think I have all this vast sexual knowledge, since girls disappeared when I was a teenager.”
Grey shrugged, feeling a lot of the tension fading, but none of the need. “I trust you, Luca. And I want this. Please?”
Luca kissed him, slow and deep, the last lingering awkwardness and humor melting into something different—something slow and hot. “Okay,” Luca breathed against his lips. “I’d do anything for you, Grey. You know that.”
A bit of laughter and shuffling around, and Grey found himself spread out on a bed of fluffy towels on the steamy bathroom floor. Luca held up a small bottle of some kind of oil, giving him a wink before he leaned over him, kissing him deep while he slid a lubed-up finger inside Grey. It was…strange, at first. But the heat inside him was at such a fever pitch, he hardly noticed much beyond Luca’s mouth, sliding from Grey’s own mouth down his chest and stomach to land on his now painfully hard cock. He was enveloped in wet warmth as Luca added another finger, stretching Grey and prepping him, bringing him close to orgasm a few times before pulling back to do it all over again.
The man’s patience was epic. All Grey could do was pant and demand that he just get on with it already.
A deep chuckle, and Luca withdrew, patting Grey on the leg. “Turn over on your hands and knees. I…it will feel better that way your first time.”
Grey wanted to laugh at the way Luca was trying to sound like he
knew what he was doing, but he was too wrung out to manage it. He just rolled to his hands and knees on the padded surface and let Luca pull his hips back, trusting the amazing sprite to handle this with as much easy grace as he handled everything that came at him. It was Luca’s superpower.
“Do we need…condoms or anything?” Grey managed to get out, glad Luca couldn’t see how red his face was right now.
Graceful hands stroked Grey’s hips, and Luca leaned down to kiss the center of Grey’s back. “If you’re okay with it, then no. We probably can’t carry anything. And I haven’t been with anyone but you in the last four years, Grey. I’m pretty sure it’s the same for you?”
Grey huffed and dropped his head on his folded arms, honestly surprised. Luca was so…Luca. How had he never been snatched up by a tourist? “Yeah,” Grey muttered. “No worries on my end, obviously.”
Grey had only had sex a couple times before The Change. He certainly hadn’t tried it anytime since then.
Luca kissed his back again. “Let me know if I do something you don’t like,” he whispered. “Talk to me, Grey.”
Grey huffed and leaned back, pressing his ass toward Luca’s hips. “Fine. Yes. Okay. Please, Luca.”
Luca chuckled and pulled back. Grey felt him probe gently at his ass. Then, Luca was slowly pressing his long cock into Grey, and the world contracted to a single point of sensation. Grey gasped and did his best to relax as Luca pressed in, inch by inch, muttering endearments and curses as he sank into Grey’s flesh.
“Gods,” Luca said on a harsh exhale, his hands griping Grey’s hips so tight they’d probably leave bruises. “This is not going to last long, sweetheart. Sorry.”
Grey dropped his head onto his folded hands and let out an uncontrollable whine. “Fuck me Luca. Please. Don’t care. Just…please.”
Then Luca started moving.
The glide of that hard cock was amazing, but when Luca changed his angle, a sudden jolt of pleasure shot through Grey’s cock, making him moan and buck against him. Luca did it again, thrusting with more confidence now. “There?”
