Her thighs jerked, and her knees went weak. Stumbling back, she kicked off her jumpsuit before she sat on her mattress. Her breath shuddered out, and passion wound tight through her. With shaking hands, she punched in the code to open the compartment over her bed. She pulled out her vibrating dildo. It was a smooth metal tube that flexed to conform to the walls of her pussy in ways most alloys couldn’t. Lying back in her bed, she spread her legs and flicked on the controls. The vibrator hummed to life, and she teased her clit and lips with it.
Her pussy clenched hard, and moisture slipped from her core. She needed to come so badly her body screamed with it. Goose bumps broke out down her arms and legs. She drew the long shaft of the dildo up and down her wet sex. The vibrations only increased the want she couldn’t contain. Sweat beaded on her upper lip and between her breasts.
Instead of pushing the dildo into her pussy, she laid it flush against her clit and let the hum of it shove her fast and hard to the very edge of orgasm. Her heels pressed to the mattress, and her hips lifted into the vibrations.
“Oh, my God.”
She whimpered, and her eyes drifted shut as she focused on the sweetness that spun deep inside her. More. Just a little more. God, she was so close.
Look at me, Bretton’s voice demanded in her mind.
Her eyes snapped open to see Bretton in merman form floating outside her window with his palms pressed to the glass. She gasped, her body arching. “Bretton.”
She froze, and silence fell over her room. Only the sound of the buzzing sex toy broke through. Her breath stopped, and the moment stretched to a fine breaking point. Juices gushed between her thighs as the thought of him watching her masturbate registered in her mind. Yes.
Stroke yourself, Sera. Show me what you like. His deep, sensuous voice filled her thoughts, and his pure turquoise eyes burned with the same suppressed need that had built inside her unrequited since before the trade ship had landed.
A moan dragged from her throat. The muscles in her stomach and legs shook as she moved the dildo over her flesh again. She shivered, met Bretton’s gaze, and let a slow, wicked smile cross her face.
“Bretton, I—” She stopped when she realized he couldn’t hear her. She licked her lips, and played the toy over her pussy. Teasing them both. His groan echoed in her mind. It made her burn hotter, and moisture gathered thick in her sex. She didn’t think she’d ever been so wet in her life. It was shocking how intimate it was to have him watch her pleasure herself.
Plunging the dildo deep inside her, she twisted on the covers as the deep hum rippled through her body.
Yes, fire fin. Move for me.
Her hips arched, and she worked the toy deep inside her. Angling the metal, she stroked it inside herself just as he’d demanded.
His fingers slipped down the glass as if to slide over her naked skin. She shuddered. Yes. She loved his hands on her flesh. She craved it. Him. Always. Every moment of every day. She couldn’t get enough.
She felt his gaze almost as if it were a physical touch as it swept over her naked form. He smiled when he met her eyes again. You know what I would do if I was there? I’d fill my hands with your pretty breasts and suck your nipples until you screamed.
“Oh, God,” she breathed. One hand cupped her breast, and she pinched her nipple hard, twisted the tight tip. Her other hand still pushed the dildo into her pussy. Her sex clenched hard, throbbing with need.
Good, fire fin. I love it. His voice was a low rumble in her mind, a rough silken caress that enflamed her as much as the touch of her own fingers. Now place your hand between your legs and play with your clit. You’re hot for me, aren’t you? Hot and wet.
At the first stroke of her finger over her pulsing clitoris, she cried out. Without even touching her, he controlled her pleasure. She loved it. Flicking a nail against her clit, the muscles in her legs jerked. She moaned, the sound loud in the small room.
His hands bunched into fists against the glass, the turquoise filling his eyes from corner to corner. His long hair formed an inky cloud that flowed around his broad shoulders as he flicked his tail to keep the currents from pulling him away from her window.
Her breath bellowed out, and she couldn’t look away. Heat boiled through her like molten lava, and she hovered right at the edge of orgasm. A few more moments, and she’d fly. Desperation swamped her, and her hips rotated on the saltwater silk bedcovers. The slick feel of it against her skin was one more sensation that spurred her on.
His wicked chuckle filled her mind. Come for me.
“Yes!” As with everything, she couldn’t deny him. She screamed, her body bowing hard off the mattress as her pussy fisted around the vibrator again and again. Too many feelings ripped through her, overwhelmed her, and she sobbed out a breath before she went limp. Tingles raced over her skin as she shuddered in the hot aftermath of orgasm.
“Sera? Are you all right? We heard you yelling.” Kesuk’s voice sounded loud through the door. “Hurry up and open it, dragon.”
Her door snapped wide, and three men filled the space. Nadir froze, and Kesuk and Varad plowed into his back, shoving him forward into her room. She gasped and rolled into a ball, shut off the vibrator that still hummed deep inside her pussy, and dragged her blankets up to shield her body from view. Blood pounded into her face, and she knew her cheeks were fluorescent red.
Glancing at the window, she saw Bretton had disappeared in a cloud of bubbles. Tears smarted her eyes, and she couldn’t force herself to meet the gazes of her visitors. “Um…could you wait for me in my lab?”
“Ah…of course.” Varad grabbed the back of the other men’s shirts and hauled them toward the doorway on the opposite side of the room.
Dumping the vibrator into a small sterilizer she kept by her bed for just that purpose, she scrambled for her jumpsuit and stuffed herself into it.
Her hands shook so it took twice as long as normal to seal the front of her suit. Patting down her hair, she stepped into her lab where the three big men seemed to crowd the space. She only hoped they all had the diplomacy not to mention what they’d walked in on.
“What was that…thing? That buzzed?” Kesuk made a buzzing noise to demonstrate his point.
Sera closed her eyes and tried not to blush harder, humiliation crawling through her. “It’s called a vibrator.”
“Where can one of these vi-bra-tors be purchased? Is there a shop in Atlantis?” Nadir propped his elbow on her worktable and leaned forward, avid curiosity shining in his dark eyes. She didn’t even want to think about which of his two mates he intended to purchase the vibrator for.
“Uh…no.” The idea of proper merpeople having a sex-toy shop was enough to make her want to giggle hysterically.
Varad forked a hand through his tiger-striped hair. “It is an invention of yours?”
“Yes. No. They were quite common on Earth, but that particular vibrator was my invention.” She closed her eyes, disbelief coursing through her that she was having this conversation. God help her.
“Ingenious.” The weretiger smiled.
Kesuk smacked a hand down on the table. “I want one.”
“Two for me. Always.” Nadir’s eyebrow arched as he shared a wicked glance with the other men.
Varad chuckled. “I foresee a very interesting trade agreement coming of this. Tigers are very sensuous creatures.”
“Oh, God.” She clasped her hands to beg. She wasn’t above it at this point. “Please don’t mention this to Bretton.”
“My dear, he has already seen it. And you.” Varad spread his hands and shrugged.
She pinched the bridge of her nose and turned away. This day couldn’t get any worse. What filled her mouth with a bitter taste was how eager these men were to be with their mates, how much the adoration shone on their faces. Had Bretton ever wanted her that way? Ever cared about her at all? Or was she merely a sexual convenience? She had made herself as convenient as possible. She wanted him, she’d made that clear, and she’d always pu
rsued what she wanted with single-minded determination until she got it. That was how science worked. Try, fail, reassess, try again.
“He’s a fool.” The weretiger’s voice sounded quietly behind her.
She glanced over her shoulder to see he’d approached while she wasn’t paying attention. “Excuse me?”
He gestured to her bedroom window. “He’s a fool for not mating with you.”
A bitter little laugh spilled from her lips. “There’s not a merman in his right mind who would. And Bretton is the sanest man I know.”
“Sanity and intelligence apparently do not walk hand in hand.” He arched a dark brow. “I expected better of Bretton.”
Holding her hands up in surrender, she grimaced. “Amir, please.”
He sketched a slight bow. “I will speak of it no more.”
“Thank you.” She thrust a hand through her tangled hair, forced a smile to her face, and sat down at her worktable. “So…what brings you to my sector of the city?”
After her little peep show, Sera did her best to avoid Bretton for a few days. She spent every evening with Jain and the other people from the trading party and threw herself into work during the day. Stepping into one of the most exclusive textile shops in Atlantis, she let herself be led to the back room to meet the proprietress and see the equipment that needed repair.
“Oh, can you fix it, Sera? It’s been in my family since settlement.” The tiny shop owner wrung her hands, anxious lines creasing her wizened face.
Sera lifted her eyebrows at the mammoth saltwater silk loom that dominated the store’s workshop. This was going to be such fun. In her time, she would have had a large team of workers to help with something like this. Of course, in her time, she would have been inventing new machines, not serving as a maintenance repairwoman for shopkeepers.
She offered a more confident smile than she felt. “I’ll do my best, Ebba.”
Stooping down, she set her bag of tools on the floor and stepped over to remove one of the service panels that ran along the base of the loom. She dropped to her knees, slid halfway into the opening, and rolled over on her back to work. She immersed herself in it, and time became fluid and slid away.
“Now, where did my sproket go?” She sighed, patting the ground beside her hip.
Cool metal slipped into her fingers. “I believe this is it, Doctor.”
Ducking down, she saw the light outline of a huge bald man. Narrowing her eyes, she tried to bring him into focus. “Oeric, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Bretton sent you.” It wasn’t a question. It was so like the man to avoid her but keep tabs on everything she did.
Oeric nodded. “He thought you might like a hand with the heavy lifting.”
“I can manage.” Her fingers clenched on the metal of her tool as anger swelled in her chest. Why couldn’t Bretton just accept her, accept that she couldn’t do what he wanted?
Again, the large merman’s chin dipped in a nod. “I’m sure you can.”
He didn’t sound sarcastic, but the whole situation set her teeth on edge. “Then why are you still here?”
“I have some experience with repairing this loom.” He shrugged.
Her eyebrows lifted. “Oh?”
“Ebba’s my grandmother.”
Well, that explained why he’d claim to know about this machine. “Oh.”
A flash of white teeth in his tanned face made him look less like a statue. “It’s a status symbol that she can afford to pay you to fix this for her.”
Sera snorted, turning her attention back to her work. “I feel so beloved and glamorous.”
His chuckle sounded like a rumble of thunder. Her spanner slid into her hand just as she needed it.
“That blue wire in the back burns out a lot.”
“I noticed.” It had been one of the first things she’d replaced when she arrived, but it hadn’t fixed the problem.
He persisted. “I found that it helped to have someone in the next panel to hold the wires and tubes out of the way.”
She rolled her eyes. The kid was right, but she didn’t have to give in graciously. “Fine. You can help, but this doesn’t mean you’re my apprentice. And don’t mention this to Bretton.”
“Of course.” There was no gloating in his voice, so her shoulders relaxed a little. A small metallic pop sounded as he opened the panel next to her, and she could see him through the tubing as he wriggled in on his back. It had to be uncomfortable for him. It was a tight fit for her, and she was a third his size.
Well, he was determined but not annoying about it. And he hadn’t been exaggerating his knowledge of mechanics. He anticipated problems before they happened, moved wires into her reach just when she needed them, and didn’t natter on at her like most merpeople. In fact, most of the next few hours were spent in a companionable silence.
She squinted at the tubing over her head. “I have a theory.”
“Oh?” She heard him shift to look at her through the wires.
Using her sproket, she removed a tiny panel. “One sec.”
“Sec?”
“One second…one moment…whatever.” Impatience laced her voice. An idea was coming to her, and she stared at the loom interior until it formed.
“I see. Your theory?” he prompted.
“Right.” She jolted from her reverie and shrugged. “If we adjust the setting on the nanoparticles that run the—”
Before she finished the sentence, she heard him fiddling with controls on his side of the loom. The panels around her lit in arrays of lights and flashes. “Excellent theory, Doctor. I hadn’t even thought to touch the nanoparticles.”
“Are you messing with me?”
“Merpeople do not like messes.” The priggish tone in the deep rumble of his voice made her laugh. “However, I truly hadn’t thought of it.”
“Fair enough. Let me check if that worked.” She crawled out to run diagnostic tests on the holodisplay while he stayed squeezed into the panel to bring the systems back online manually. “Everything checks out.”
“We’ve finished?” Quiet disappointment rang in his voice, but he said nothing more as he hauled himself out.
She watched him as he replaced the panels they’d removed and straightened to face her. His mouth opened and then closed again. He gave a sharp nod and stepped past her toward the door.
“Be in my lab at morning bell tomorrow. Don’t touch anything. You only get to watch.”
A smile quivered on the corner of his mouth before he controlled it. “Yes, Doctor.”
He hurried for the door before she could change her mind. She gathered her tools and cleaned them before placing them back in her kit. Bretton was going to be pleased. Smug, even. She clenched her fingers around her spanner, wishing she could whack Bretton over the head with it. She doubted it would make much of a dent in his thick skull.
But she was angrier with herself than him because she wanted to make him happy. She sighed and shoved a hand through her hair. Nothing she did seemed to please him. Not personally and not professionally.
Ebba’s voice came from the workroom doorway. “My grandson said you’d finished.”
“Yes, he’s very helpful.” Sera straightened and hefted her tool kit in one hand. “He has a gift with mechanics.”
“As long as he constantly improves, of course.” The older woman smiled fondly.
Sera fought the urge to roll her eyes at the standard Aquatilian sentiment. “Of course.”
“I’ll have credits transferred to your account, Sera. My thanks for your assistance.” Ebba stepped aside to allow Sera to pass.
A professional smile stretched her lips. “Not a problem.”
Ebba’s grin was more genuine. “And please take something you like from the shop. Without my loom, I would lose my business.”
“Oh, that’s all right. The credits will be fine.” She shook her head and felt her hair fly wild around her shoulders. One saltwater silk dress hung in her quarter
s. That was enough because she was bound to get it dirty within minutes of wearing it. She backed toward the shop’s entrance.
“Nonsense. I insist.” Ebba’s wrinkled face set into stubborn lines.
“Then it is an offer she cannot refuse. None make such fine saltwater silk as you, Ebba.” The warmth of Bretton’s body surrounded Sera, but he didn’t touch her. Glancing over her shoulder, she sent him the glare he deserved for shoving an assistant on her.
Ebba flushed under his turquoise gaze. “I—I have spent my life improving on my craft.”
“And have done a fine job.” He smiled down at her. A far warmer smile than Sera had ever received from him in public. Sera brushed at her mussed clothing. She was out of place in the display room of Ebba’s shop. Usually she didn’t let it bother her, but it did today.
Perhaps it was seeing how comfortable Jain seemed in her own skin. She should be as much of a misfit as Sera, but she wasn’t. It was obvious from the contentment oozing from the woman’s pores that she loved her new life and the man she’d found to share it with. Sera had the man she wanted, he just…didn’t love her. Pain stabbed at her heart, but she forced herself to see the truth in that statement. He wanted her body and nothing more. And it was obvious he didn’t want to want her.
Jain had always been searching for a place to be needed, and Sera had never questioned who she was or where she was going. Her path had always been straight ahead. But now it twisted and turned in directions she’d never thought she’d go. Was this what love was supposed to be like? She didn’t know. She’d never seen how real love worked. Her parents had sent her away so young. Jain’s family had been closer to her than anyone else. But Jain’s family had worshipped science and logic. Even then, Sera could see how much that isolated someone like Jain. Now Jain had what Sera wanted most. Belonging. Acceptance. Love.
She doubted she would find those things on Aquatilis.
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