Body of Water

by Stuart Wakefield

  I laughed and reached out to touch the mound of flesh, feeling it react to my touch. Shaun was very quiet now while he watched my hand working in his lap. After a moment, a damp patch soaked through to the surface of the thick jersey. I ran my thumb over it and brought it back to my lips.

  “We have some unfinished business.”

  Shaun stood and shucked himself free of his clothes, his fat cock jutting straight out. The tip glistened in the light and his cock bounced as he tore off his t-shirt.

  “Is anyone here?” I was afraid of someone walking in on us. The shock of Shaun’s dad discovering us still loomed in my mind.

  Shaun shook his head and worked his shaft, swinging one leg up and across my chest, positioning his cock in front of my mouth. It smelt a day old, clean but fragrant. I licked the tip, tasting it, and realised that it tasted sweet, just like his mouth. He made a little sound as I took hold of his balls and felt their weight. They seemed bigger now. Everything about Shaun seemed bigger now. Years of training had solidified the muscle he sported when we were teenagers. He seemed more of a man than I’d ever felt.

  I took a mouthful of his cock, running my tongue around the circumference of the tip, and let out a moan. The vibration caused a tremor in him and he pushed his cock deeper into my mouth. I looked up at him. He looked back down at me, his eyes riveted on the view. I wondered if any other men had sucked Shaun’s cock since we had been caught so many years ago.

  He twisted around and grabbed the shape of my cock through the blanket. The touch was enough to make me groan again. He clambered back on the bed and pulled the blanket back.

  “Still no underwear, eh?” He smiled as my stiff prick lay between us, slick in its own goo.

  He bent down and darted his tongue into the mess before he kissed me hard on the mouth.

  “I really shouldn’t be doing this with a patient,” he purred, “but I’ll make an exception for one as sexy as you. Now will you please fuck me?”

  “You’ll have to be on top.”

  “Just how I’ve thought about it.” He winked and edged forward on the bed.

  Once in position, he spat into his hand and coated my shaft with his spittle. The wet touch felt good and I couldn’t help but jerk my hips off the bed a little.

  Shaun smiled and raised an eyebrow.

  “Sure you’ll last?”

  “As long as you, yeah.”

  Using more spit, he reached behind him and lubricated his hole before he lowered himself onto my shaft. We both sighed as the full insertion was complete. Shaun remained still apart from his cock which bounced wildly, triggering a tighter grip on my prod at the same time.

  “I’ve thought about this for so fucking long.”

  I pulled myself up to rest on my elbows, ignoring the pain, and kissed him again. If Shaun started to ride me I didn’t know how long I’d last so I enjoyed his mouth and the sensation of my cock inside him. Something that I didn’t think would have ever happened and may not happen again. I had to enjoy every minute of this now.

  The kiss was returned with passion. Locked together like this, our union so close, so intimate, seemed natural and inevitable. Shaun’s legs bulged with the strain of holding him in position and started to tremble. He tipped his weight forwards to his knees. With a slow and steady rhythm, he started to ride me.

  Shaun’s cock was pointing upright now, flat against his stomach. I lay back, my hands behind my head, and enjoyed the view. He really had been taking care of himself, his body shaved except for a patch of dark red hair above that magnificent dick. His balls hung low and stuck briefly to my skin between strokes. Army dog tags hung in the deep valley of his chest, tapping against the hard flesh. His eyes never left mine and he smiled the whole time, big white teeth in contrast to his heavily freckled skin.

  He swore and his cock erupted, squirting wildly across my stomach. The sudden clench of his arse around my dick took me by surprise and tipped me over an edge I hadn’t realised I was so near. I gushed inside him, the thickening pump of my cock fighting the vice grip of Shaun’s tight hole.

  His mouth was on me again as we continued to come, hungry for something I had, almost devouring me as the orgasms gripped us both.

  As the pumping slowed, our mouths disconnected, Shaun rocked back and then up, allowing my still-hard cock to slide out.

  “Where did you learn to fuck like that?” I struggled to get my breath back.

  “That was my first time.” Shaun had a half-smile. “I told you your cock would be the first I ever took.”

  “That was years ago.”

  He laughed and kissed me. “I keep my promises.”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say nothing and do what ye promised. Ah want tae go home.”

  “What?” I blinked hard and looked up into Shaun’s eyes.

  But they weren’t Shaun’s eyes. Two slate-grey eyes peered into mine.

  It was Dom.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Confusion

  “He doesn’t belong here, Dom. Why don’t ye see that?” The voice was female, pitched high with frustration.

  “Ah don’t belong here but here Ah am all the same.” His voice rumbled at the opposite pitch to hers.

  I opened my eyes. I was on the sofa in the lounge, draped in a blanket, a thick pillow behind my neck and shoulders. I swallowed and tasted blood in my parched mouth. I couldn’t tell if it was early morning or late afternoon. The smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted into the room. I hadn’t seen Dom drink anything but water so I assumed he knew this woman well enough to offer her a drink other than that.

  I wasn’t sure which memories were real and which were dreams. There was Dom, the millhouse, his… disappearance, then Shaun.

  My heart sank at the thought of him. I knew that he had been a dream.

  Not wanting to alert Dom and his companion I stayed as still as possible while lifting the blanket. My head thumped and my limbs ached. I was naked except for the gauze which had been taped clumsily to patches of my skin. Blood had soaked through a number of them. The blanket was stuck to my parts of my stomach. With equal measures of horror and relief I realised that I’d had a wet dream.

  “Ye don’t understand the danger he’s in,” the woman pressed on. “If Tammie hadn’t found him who knows what might have happened.”

  “We’re all in danger, Maggs.”

  So that’s who it was. Maggs. What was she doing here?

  “What do ye mean by that?”

  Dom sounded frustrated. “Haven’t ye looked outside? Do ye remember a Simmer Dim as bad as this?”

  “Ye mean…?”

  “Her power should be strong now, the seas should be calm, but this,” I imagined him jutting a finger towards the window, “is his doing.”

  “Ye think she’s dead?” There was fear in her voice.

  “Ah can’t say for sure but Ah think not. Ah’m sure Ah’d feel it if she was. But something is wrong, Ah know that much.”

  “Have you… asked Mackay?” She sounded nervous now.

  Dom grunted. “He tells me nothing. Ah’m expected tae do as Ah’m told withoot question.”

  “I could ask-”

  “He trusts no one, not even the beuy.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me.”

  “Why d’ye say that?”

  “I can’t tell ye, not yet, but there’s a reason he was taken away. He must leave.”

  “No. Ah need him.”

  “Ye’ve told him?!”

  “Not exactly. Ah can’t find the words.”

  “I can’t ever begin to understand what it’s like for ye, Dom, to be here like this but ye have to think of the boy. This is no time to be selfish.”

  I didn’t need to see the fury on Dom’s face. The sound of him trying to control his breathing and the snort through his nostrils was enough.

  Silence followed, then Maggs’ heavy sigh. I heard the kitchen door open before both the sound of the ocean and the freshness o
f the cool, salty air, rushed in.

  “Please, Dom. Do what’s right for him.”

  The door closed and the silence returned. I could only bear it for a moment before I raised my head to look into the kitchen. Dom sat at the table, his head in his hands.

  “Dom?” My voice crackled as I called out his name.

  He wiped his eyes with his sleeves before he stood up and walked in to kneel next to me but his thick lashes remained wet and his eyes were rimmed in red.

  “Are ye all right, Moppy? Ye gave me a fright when Ah got home and ye were gone.”

  “You gave me a fright when you vanished.” I tried to sit up but my movement caused my torn skin to stretch and burn with pain.

  Dom placed one hand on my chest and pushed me gently back down into the cradle of the pillow. “Vanished?”

  “I know what I saw. You picked up that stone and then you were gone.”

  “Ye must have dreamed it.” He forced a smile that didn’t reach his eyes and then patted my stomach. “Ye had quite a night.” The silver sparkle flitted back into his eyes and I knew he was referring to the mess I’d made during the only thing that I was certain had been a dream. Shaun.

  Mortified, I groaned. “Please tell me you and Maggs weren’t here when-”

  “She wasn’t.”

  “But you?”

  He didn’t have to say a word. The look was enough. The same look of grinning triumph he’d given me while he’d eaten my breakfast a few days ago.

  Covering my face with my palm, I squeezed my eyes shut. “I don’t believe you saw that.”

  “Losh, it wasn’t as loud as the other dreams ye’ve had.”

  “My nightmare? I’ve had that since I was a kid.”

  Dom’s brow pressed down in thought. “Ah don’t dream. At least not that Ah can remember.”

  “You don’t even seem to sleep. You’re out every night.”

  He attempted nonchalance and failed. “Why did ye follow me last night?”

  “The same reason that anyone follows anyone. To see where they’re going and what they’re doing.”

  “And what did ye find oot?”

  “Nothing I can be sure about. If anything I have more questions than-”

  I felt the cold and smelled the salt before I heard the kitchen door burst back open. A flurry of small footsteps preceded Maggs’ reappearance. She paused for a moment when she saw me awake but her urgency drove her into the room. “Dom, there’s something you should see.”

  Try as I might I couldn’t jump up and follow them both outside as fast as I’d have liked. Each movement caused new shocks of pain to reverberate through me. By the time I’d wrapped the blanket around me, stood and steadied myself, both Maggs’ and Dom’s voices had faded away. I shuffled to the kitchen door that still hung open, forgotten in their impatience to go outside. I rested against the door frame and squinted into the wind but saw neither of them.

  Dom seemed to have interest in nothing but the object that my father had taken from him. If Maggs had come across it and showed him its location then maybe he’d take it and be on his way.

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about his potential departure. As much as I distrusted him I had to admit that he intrigued me. Dom was mean and aggressive, unpredictable and surly, but he was a beautiful creature too, like a bull penned in before a fight.

  And I was increasingly certain that what I’d seen the night before was real. Dom had knelt on the floor of that millhouse, bearing an impossibly heavy weight, and mouthed a few words before he disappeared. I had to find out how he’d done it, where he’d gone, and why that stone was so important.

  Mouth still dry, I started to make tea. I knew that a glass of water would have been better for me physically but I needed a sweet brew right now. As I sat at the table, flicking slowly through a newspaper full of names of people and places I didn’t recognise, I heard Dom’s heavy boots stomping towards the house. But there was something different about his stride; it was slower than usual and one boot dragged from time to time.

  I started to ask if he was all right even before I saw his face and when I did I stopped asking. He had looked tired before but now he looked exhausted, his face more drawn, his eyes even redder. He didn’t acknowledge my unfinished question.

  I asked a new one. “What happened?”

  As I watched the back of him retreat through the lounge and up the staircase I caught a few words. “… just need to rest.”

  Upstairs, a key turned in a lock and a door opened and closed. Several muted steps and then nothing.

  I turned back to the paper but didn’t read. My mind filled with questions. The longer I stayed here the more questions I had. If anyone here had answers they were reluctant to share them with me but I wasn’t going to stop asking them.

  A movement to my left surprised me and, as the sharp intake of breath filled my lungs, my ribs protested.

  Maggs stood in the kitchen doorway, her short round silhouette looking squat in its frame.

  She looked surprised to see me sitting at the table. Her eyes darted from me to the mug of tea to the paper and back again. “Ye should be resting.”

  It wasn’t an admonishment or order. The sincerity in her voice reassured me that Maggs wanted me gone for my own good.

  “Why do you think I’m in danger?”

  She wrung her hands, looking uncomfortable.

  I sighed heavily and pushed the paper away from me. “Sit down, Maggs. I’ll make a cup of tea.”

  As soon as I made to get up she hurried into the room to push me gently back down into my chair before leaping into a flurry of activity. “Don’t be making me tea. I can do that perfectly well for myself.” Her coat was off and her sleeves rolled up before I could protest so I sat back and watched her. The routine calmed her posture but her eyes still avoided mine. She appeared relieved to be occupied and the sound of her tea-making filled the yawning void of unanswered questions that stretched between us.

  In a few minutes she had made her own tea and refilled mine. She sat to my right, facing the kitchen door.

  I asked again. “Why do you think I’m in danger?”

  “I’m starting to think that Dom was right. Maybe we’re all in danger.”

  “But before he said that you were insistent that I was in danger. Just me. Why?”

  “Yer mother told me that ye were.” Avoiding my gaze again she dug at the surface of the painted mug with her thumbnail, as if to gouge off the glaze.

  “My mother?”

  “She’d appeared on Mackay’s arm one day. He showed her off and rightly so. She was the loveliest thing to ever set foot on the island and more beautiful than the simmer dim itself. My father had lost a sheep and I was walking the shore, trying to find it, and there she was, exhausted, sobbing, and heavy with child. I knew there wasn’t much time; that ye were on yer way, so I helped deliver you right there on the beach. After ye were with us I went to bathe ye in the water but she grabbed me by my wrist. I’ve never known ferocity and strength like it for one so gentle and slight. She grabbed me by the wrist and told me to keep ye away from the water at all costs. I thought she was delirious, talking nonsense, but when I looked into her eyes I knew she believed it. She made me promise to protect ye.”

  “From water?”

  “Yes, Michael.”

  The name, spoken so easily, startled me. “But I have showers, take baths, swim in pools. I’m fine.”

  “Ruth let ye swim?” The disapproval in her voice prodded my temper but it fizzled away when I realised that she’d used Mum’s name.

  “You knew my mum?”

  “Oh ye poor, sweet boy, of course I did.” Maggs laughed and leaned forward to grasp my hand in hers. Who do ye think led her to ye?”

  I shook my head, starting to feel sick. “I don’t believe this.”

  “I’m the only one you can believe, my boy. No one else can tell you what I know, even if they wanted to. There’s a magic spell preventing it.”

&n
bsp; It hit me then, all the times people seemed on the brink of telling me what I wanted to know but shying away from the truth, always leaving me with more questions, more uncertainty, and more frustration. “So how would you know someone had cast a spell?”

  “Because it was me that cast it.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Cruelty

  “So you’re a witch?”

  Rammed into one corner of the sofa, curled into a ball, seemed to be the safest place to be while Maggs mopped up my vomit from the kitchen floor and opened the door and windows to allow the rooms downstairs to air. I pulled the blanket tighter around me, hoping that if I pulled tight enough it might keep my entire being from exploding. The answers I was finally getting made things seem foggier, not clearer.

  She bustled into the room, wiping her chapped, red hands on her skirt. “No, not a witch. I’m not magical by nature so I don’t go casting spells hither and thither. The toll on my body would be too great. Drink yer water, beuy.”

  She jutted her chin to the glass that sat on the table between us. I eyed it warily and she rolled her eyes.

  “It’s just water, Michael. Drink it.”

  “Will you please stop calling me that? My name is Leven.”

  “No, it’s Michael. I named ye at yer mother’s request. It was my grandfather’s name and she liked it when I suggested it.”

  I snatched the glass up and drained it. “Listen to me. My name is Leven. I don’t care what you called me when I was born or what’s on my records. My name is Leven.”

  Her beady eyes surveyed me for a moment before she sat in the chair opposite me. “All right, beuy. All right. Leven it is.”

  “And why are you suddenly telling me the truth, assuming this is the truth? You couldn’t wait to get rid of me the other night so why now?”

  “The truth might be the only thing to convince ye to go back home.”

  “So where do we go from here? You’re going to undo your spell and set me free on the island to find out what’s going on?”

  She cocked her head to one side. “How much has Dom told ye about himself?”