He parked the car in the public lot across from the beach and slipped his flip-flops back on as he climbed out. The sun was high in the cloudless sky, and it did make him feel a little uncomfortable. As an Aquinian vampire, he could endure sunlight, but it stripped away his blood magic and physical enhancements, which he’d casually grown to rely on over the past few months.
“Alright,” said Jack. “It looks pretty crowded. Why don’t I go scout us out a spot?”
A few murmurs of agreement came from Mira and Ryoko within the car. Jack grabbed his towel and jogged across the road toward the beach, his flip-flops slapping against the hot pavement with each step.
There was a group leaving just as he was arriving, and he hurried to take their newly opened spot on the sand before anyone else could. He couldn’t help but smile at the beautiful weather, and he had to nudge his thoughts back in the direction of why he was really there. It was the same place he’d spotted the water nymph the previous night, and there was a chance she’d still be around somewhere.
“This is perfect,” said Mira as she and Ryoko caught up with him. “Plenty of room for me to work on my tan.”
She flashed a smile at him, and Jack did his best not to ogle her. Mira was wearing a tiny, silver string bikini of the variety that gave off the appearance of having a fifty-fifty chance of going completely sheer and translucent on contact with the water. Even if it didn’t, it wasn’t as though the miniature triangles of tied fabric left much to the imagination.
She’d also worn a wide-brimmed straw hat and a black sun-skirt that was, in fact, translucent. Jack realized that he wasn’t the only one trying not to look at her. Half the men on the beach were going so far out of their way to steal glances at her exposed cleavage that it almost seemed like they had nervous tics.
“Ahh…” Mira made a small show of spreading out her towel, obviously enjoying the attention. “It’s been so very long since I’ve spent a day at the beach.”
Jack nodded, and then forced himself to tear his attention away from her. Ryoko was just stepping onto the sand and seemed a lot less comfortable with the attention she was being given than Mira was.
Ryoko was eye-catching in her own right, but for very different reasons. She had on a blue one-piece swimsuit with a small skirt around the waist. It covered all of the interesting parts of her petite figure, and bizarrely, made them seem even more enticing.
Her hair was still done up in the bun that she normally wore it in, and she carried a large umbrella, probably for the sake of hiding from both the sun and anyone who glanced in her general direction. She looked uncomfortable, though Jack was unsure whether it was due to the situation, or just a facet of the general mood she’d been in recently.
“It’s… really loud here,” she said.
“Blame all the screaming kids,” said Jack. “Let’s just hope they run out of energy soon.”
He helped Ryoko spread out her towel and jammed the bottom end of her umbrella deep into the sand to keep it upright. She sat down and leaned back on her hands, and a slight smile touched her lips. Seeing that was enough for Jack, and he grinned back at her.
“Want me to put sunblock on you?” he offered, like the gentleman he was.
“Ooh…” said Mira. “I wouldn’t mind taking you up on that.”
Mira’s towel was to the side of their spot, and already half a dozen men and older teenage boys were meandering toward it, as though magnetically drawn. Mira stretched out with her legs crossed, propped up on one elbow, almost as though she was posing for their viewing pleasure.
“I think Ryoko needs the sunblock more than you do,” Jack said, dryly. “And I’m sure you can find someone else to help you out, if you really need it.”
“I’m interested in finding someone else, my sweet Jack,” Mira said, in a breathy voice. “Though I’m sure you’ve realized that by now.”
“It’s fine,” said Ryoko. “Really.”
“I’m still going to do you first,” said Jack. “If only for the sake of making her pout.”
Ryoko let out a tiny, ridiculously cute snort. Jack had forgotten how much he loved seeing her in good spirits. He got down on his knees next to her on the sand and gestured for her to roll over.
“Now,” he said, squirting a gob into his hands. “It’s going to feel really cold.”
“I’m ready,” said Ryoko.
She wasn’t ready. The instant Jack’s hand’s made contact, she almost flinched out of her skin. He laughed and carefully began working the lotion into her fair skin.
He let his palms massage over the back of her shoulders and arms, slipping his fingers under the edge of her swimsuit, in case it shifted at all when she started moving. He rubbed lotion into her legs, up to the bottom of her buttocks, covering her as completely as he could.
There was an intimate, protective quality to the gesture, despite how small of a thing it was. He loved Ryoko but so often found it hard to express that to her with his words, given how withdrawn she could sometimes be. He loved her, and he just wanted to keep her happy, healthy, and safe.
Jack made the mistake of breathing through his nose as he began coating her neck with the sunblock. She smelled amazing, even more so than usual. Her smell was a mixture of fresh mint and indiscernible, subtle sweetness. Ryoko reacted automatically as his fingers met the spot where he usually bit her, pushing her butt up in the air slightly and digging her fingers into the towel.
How much of her recent troubles were because of him and his need to feed off her regularly? It was a question Jack had been trying to avoid, if solely because it had no easy answer. It wasn’t as though he could find someone else to feed on that easily, given how much trust it required. He’d asked Mira before, and she’d been firm in her refusal, telling him that she was only interested in him biting her as a means to give her the Embrace, which would turn her into a vampire and render her blood useless to him.
“Do you want me to do your front, too?” asked Jack, as he finished up. It was a cheeky question, given how easily she could do it herself. A part of him longed to keep touching her for just a little while longer.
“No…” said Ryoko. “That’s fine. You should help Mira.”
Her words said one thing, but her sad, wispy tone said another. Jack looked over at Mira, who frowned and gave him a small shrug. Despite the fact that she’d once been a cold and calculating vampire, she wasn’t heartless.
“Are you sure you’re alright with sharing him with me right now, Ryoko?” asked Mira. “I could probably find another willing body to assist me, if I absolutely had to.”
She gestured over her shoulder at the nearest group of men leering at her, and gave them a teasing wave with her fingers. A few of them froze, too intimidated to take advantage of being on the receiving end of her attention.
“It’s fine,” said Ryoko. “Really. You don’t have to worry about me.”
Jack leaned over her and planted a soft kiss on her cheek.
“If you’re sure,” he said.
He moved to straddle Mira, who’d already stretched out on her stomach across her towel. Her bikini was so tiny that Jack felt a little lewd with his legs across her, even though there wasn’t all that much contact between their bodies.
“Be gentle,” Mira cooed. “And be thorough. You wouldn’t want me getting a sunburn, now would you, my sweet Jack?”
Jack leaned in closer, letting his mouth draw close to her ear. He knew he had an audience, and he knew that most of the men on the beach would have given an arm and a leg to trade places with him.
“I’ll be thorough,” said Jack. “But gentle? No promises.”
Mira made a purring noise and shifted slightly underneath him. Jack dumped a gob of sunblock into his palm and started working on her neck.
CHAPTER 7
Mira and Ryoko were different women, with different personalities, different outlooks on life, and of course, different bodies. It was a fact that Jack already knew yet somehow found hims
elf rediscovering as he worked the sunblock into Mira’s curves.
She was more vocal than Ryoko had been, letting out little sighs and occasional whispered words, as though he was giving her an oil massage. Jack’s thoughts were still on Ryoko and her recent mood, but other parts of his body seemed more than happy to enjoy and react to Mira and her nearly naked body.
“My bikini bottom doesn’t cover all of my butt,” whispered Mira. “Do you mind, dearest Jack?”
Jack gritted his teeth and accidentally breathed in through his nose. Mira’s sweet, bubblegum-vanilla smell coupled with the sensation of her body underneath him for a one-two punch. He was a little ashamed of himself for how badly he suddenly desired her.
“Be sure to really work it in,” said Mira. “I’m not modest. You can touch me wherever you feel the need to.”
She rolled over as he finished her butt. Jack started to stand up, but she grabbed his wrist before he could.
“I can never manage to put an even coat on,” she said. “Do you mind?”
She rested back on her elbows. Jack had to adjust his swimming trunks for… reasons. One of the triangles of Mira’s bikini had shifted to the side slightly, letting the barest hint of pink areola poke out from the side. She fixed it and then smirked at him, gesturing to her chest and neck.
“You can start here,” she said. “And if you’d be a bit more willing to meet my terms, you could finish here, too. Over and over again…”
Jack’s mind went fuzzy with lust, and he couldn’t even find the words to respond. He felt a hard, slowly stiffening impulse to do something really stupid but was saved from it when the lifeguard sounded the alarm from up in her tower.
The lifeguard had a megaphone, but it was directional, and Jack couldn’t make out the words she shouted out into the water. He scanned the ocean, trying to see what the disturbance was. In the distance, just beyond the buoys that marked the safe distance where people could swim out to, he spotted what he’d come to the beach to find.
The water nymph was too far out to be recognizable by her appearance, and her blue skin looked more like a pale, cold white at that distance. It was the way she floated up on the water, rising to waist height momentarily, that gave her identity away to Jack. The lifeguard shouted something else and then seemed to relax as the nymph, mistaken for a daring swimmer, veered back toward the safe section of the beach.
“Hold that thought,” Jack told Mira, passing her the tube of sunblock. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”
Mira scowled at him.
“But you didn’t finish putting the sunblock on me,” she pouted. “Jack! Come back here!”
He dipped under Ryoko’s umbrella. She had her knees up to her chest but didn’t otherwise look unhappy. He gave her a quick kiss on the lips.
“Will you be okay here for a few minutes on your own?” he asked.
“Of course, sir,” she said. “I mean… of course, Jack.”
“Keep an eye on Mira, will you?” he asked. “Make sure she doesn’t get into any trouble.”
He glanced toward the men who were still stubbornly mingling on the outskirts of their beach site, hoping for a chance to serve their buxom goddess. Jack wasn’t as worried about what chaos Mira might cause now that she was a regular human, but he still felt like he needed to be a little careful, just in case.
He resisted his initial urge to charge into the water Baywatch-style and swim out toward the water nymph. It was what he’d done the previous night, and the creature had almost drowned him in response. Instead, Jack grabbed some money from his wallet and headed over to the paddle board rental station.
“Do you have any previous experience?” asked the man in charge of it.
“Of course,” lied Jack. “Here. Keep the change.”
He grabbed a green paddle board with a light, double-sided oar and hurried into the water. It wasn’t all that hard for him to imitate some of the other riders he’d seen, starting on his knees to gain balance. The paddle board was larger than a surfboard but still not on par with a canoe or kayak when it came to stability and seaworthiness. However, it seemed like it would do just fine for the moment.
Jack slowly rose to his feet and found that he quite liked the sensation of gliding across the ocean. He was still in the designated swimming area, but most of the tourists gave him a wide enough berth for him to swing the paddle freely.
The sun felt good on his bare back and chest. There was a light ocean breeze that drifted from side to side, tousling the curls of his hair. The water became choppy for the occasional second here and there, testing his balance and licking at his ankles.
It was really fun, almost to the point of making it hard for him to focus on what he was supposed to be doing. He used the paddle to pick up speed, traveling at an angle toward the buoy that signified the furthest that people were allowed to swim or paddle board out, under the lifeguard’s watch.
Luckily for Jack, there were dozens of people on the beach and only one lifeguard. He watched her carefully and waited until she climbed down from her tower to head to the restroom before pushing out into the forbidden expanse of blue ocean.
He knew that he was taking a risk, regardless of whether he managed to encounter the water nymph again or not. Jack had spent his childhood around the ocean, and he’d learned early on that it wasn’t something to be trifled with. If the current or tide shifted at the wrong time, he’d be fighting a battle with his oar against a foe greater than the combined strength of a hundred men. Or rather, a hundred vampires.
The people on the beach seemed to shrink in size as he paddled further out. Ryoko and Mira were both sitting under the umbrella now and appeared to be sharing a moment of solidarity with each other as they fended off the attentions of some of the volleyball players Jack had noticed earlier. Opportunistic vultures.
He dug his oar into the water again, getting a good slice and enjoying the sensation of his paddle board gliding forward. Quite suddenly, Jack felt a presence take notice of him. It was like the feeling of going around a corner and somehow knowing that he was being watched. He lifted the oar out of the water and looked around and then down.
The ocean was a deep, clear, crystalline blue. Jack dropped back down to his knees, then his stomach, bringing his face almost in close enough to touch the water as the paddle board slowed to a stop. He saw his own reflection for an instant. Then he saw through it to what lay beyond.
The water nymph was watching him. She swam directly underneath the paddle board in a position that placed her body and face even with his. Her eyes were wide, like a curious feline, and he realized what an apt comparison it was as he noticed the details of her vertically-slitted irises. He reached a hand out in an attempt to touch the water nymph’s face, and she immediately reared back, her naked breasts lagging a second behind the rest of her from the water’s drag.
“It’s okay,” said Jack. “I didn’t come out here today to hurt you.”
It was mostly true. As long as the water nymph didn’t prove to be a threat to the island or its people, Jack didn’t see a reason to do anything about her. It seemed almost like a deep, personal hypocrisy for a vampire secretly living amongst humans to kick up a fuss about a water nymph in her natural habitat.
The nymph stayed out of range of his hand, even as Jack started splashing the water a little and trying to attract her in close again. After a minute or two, he came to a decision.
“Alright,” he said. “I’m coming in. Just be cool, alright? I’m not a threat.”
Slowly, and with telegraphed movements, Jack turned to the side on the paddle board and started to lower his legs into the ocean. It was, without a doubt, the most vulnerable he could remember feeling in an extremely long time. The sun was out. He didn’t have his blood magic, or hell, even much of his vampiric strength or regeneration. He would drown just as easily and quickly as a normal human if the water nymph reacted badly to him.
Jack kept his arms on the paddle board for a few secon
ds, kicking his legs and letting his body adjust to the cold water of the ocean. He felt something tickle the back of one of his calves and got the distinct impression that it wasn’t a strand of seaweed.
There was a safety strap on the paddle board that he hadn’t noticed earlier, and Jack made the executive decision to secure it around his wrist. It would keep him, at the very least, tethered within ten or so feet of the board. He tried not to give too much thought to how far ten feet might seem to someone drowning in the middle of the ocean.
He took a slow breath, let go of the paddle board, and submerged himself completely. The saltwater stung his eyes a little, but he only needed to have his eyes open for a few seconds to see that his gambit had paid off.
The water nymph was no more than a half foot away from him, posed in the water with her hands on her hips and an amused expression on her face. Jack had to shift his arms through the water to hold his positioning, and she watched him with an intense kind of focus.
Alright, he thought to himself. What happens now?
Before he could come up with a plan of action, the water nymph made her move. She jerked forward a few inches and, as though it was the most natural thing in the world, gave him an underwater kiss. It was a quick peck on the lips, more of the grazing, nuzzling type of gesture that a pet might favor its owner with. Jack blinked in surprise, and then exhaled stale air as the water nymph began to swim circles around him. Literally.
She moved with the speed and grace of a dolphin or mermaid, swirling underneath his legs, around his waist, and then over his head. Jack’s lungs started to burn, and he had to break the surface to take another breath. The water nymph chose that moment to launch herself completely out of the water, sailing through the air above him in an acrobatic reverse dive.
Time seemed to pause for an instant as Jack took in her beauty. She was still as naked as she’d been when he’d first encountered her, and entirely hairless from the neck down. Drops of water reflected the sunlight off her skin like shimmering diamonds. Her blue hair trailed behind her in a single, wet lock, with little trickles of water dripping from the tip.
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