by daisy harris
“Give me the wheel.”
She jumped out of the way, though her temper flared. “Stop ordering me around!”
He leaned in to her, eyes fierce. “If you’re going to be my prisoner, you’re going to have to act the part.”
Her mouth opened to respond but closed again. It was only for a few days anyway. “Fine. But could you stop being so mean? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
His shoulders twitched upward, though he continued to stare straight ahead. He neither argued nor agreed. “I’m going to take you out to a raft-up near the Canary Islands.”
Sophia plunked down on the bench and rested her elbows on the boat’s tiny table. “Fine, whatever.”
An island appeared in the distance, and as it approached, the outlines of several more appeared. The boat pulled through the slightly chopped water. The vessel bobbed and tilted, too small to absorb the ocean’s movements as the large pirate ship had. Darkening skies threatened rain.
Raider pulled into a small, empty harbor. “There’s protection here. We can throw anchor for the night.” He cut the engine and shoved past her to the sliding door. Her eyes followed his journey out around to the front of the boat. He opened a hatch at the bow and reached for the chain. He drew up the anchor hand over hand, each tug bunching the hard muscles of his arms and chest.
Her breath grew heavy, her human reproductive organs swelled even further. When Raider lifted the metal spike and threw it in the water she almost moaned at the sight of his chest.
It must have been her impending heat, but it seemed silly to resist what her body needed. Her mind spun as she frantically tried to justify her decision. What happened in human form wasn’t important anyway. It didn’t count in the real world. And anyway, bringing him sexual pleasure would no doubt rid him of that grating irritation.
Sophia squared her shoulders and tried to remember what she’d studied in school about human form mating.
* * * * Raider let the cool air jolt his system and tamp down the head of steam building in his pants. The inside of the cabin measured no more than eight feet wide and ten feet long. The air inside reeked of female arousal.
He couldn’t understand why a female like that needed to find a mate anyway. She was too young to commit for life to anyone, too innocent in her weird, over-blunt way. Plus, her honesty couldn’t possibly help her out in the cultured and cautious world of the dragons. Too bad she didn’t see it.
Goosebumps covered his skin so he walked along the side decks of the boat holding tight the handrails and leading back. He saw her big eyes watching him through the window. Her burgundy lips parted, and he could have sworn he heard her sigh. It took all his strength to stop at the aft rather than circling the cabin along the edges watching her eyes grow brighter at each pass.
He stood outside the door, her image framed by the full-height plastic window.
Sophia’s small body was cornered in the tiny space. She looked scared. And he liked it. The only place for her to go would be the soft enclosure to the front. Some voice inside chastised him for frightening her. It sounded like his mother.
Even as he steeled his will not to slake his lust on the helplesslooking female, some glimmer shined in her eyes. He thought it tears, but then her chin rose.
Her hands crossed in front of her hips and clasped her dress. She drew it up over her head, and stood uncertainly in only pink underpants. Geez, I have to get that girl a bra, he thought. But then he watched as her mocha-colored nipples hardened to stiff peaks. Her breasts lay in generous swells, and jingled like a dinner bell when she took a shuddering breath.
She was trying to kill him, either that or get herself killed. A slow blush climbed her neck and she looked down at her feet.
He looked to the water, half tempted to dive in. The weirdest sensation settled in his chest. It was soft, squishy, and a little warm, different from the hot ache in his nuts.
He channeled the mushy feeling, let it drown other, lower feelings in heavy sludge and opened the door. All the tricks he’d used to survive the mere habitat of his birth came roaring back. Nice…Friendly…Sweet. All the things he’d tried to be for the mother who’d loved him despite everything.
Even though he plastered a smile on his face, she still took a step back. What the hell was he supposed to say to a female who’d looked him in the eye when she stripped but saw him as a means to an end?
“Um.” She nibbled at her bottom lip, making the lower urges overtake his higher ones. “I have something to tell you.”
And you needed to get naked to do that? “Yeah?”
“Uh, yeah. Well…See the reason why I need to get a mate now is that I’m going into heat, um…now.”
Holy Christ on a crutch. “Really? Uh…What does that mean, exactly. I mean, for me?”
Her head snapped up and her forehead drew tight and lowered over her eyes. “What’s up with you?”
I’m trying to be nice, stupid. “Nothing.”
“You’re not being…I dunno, you’re not being you!”
He bit back a surge of anger. “Tell me what this means…for me.”
She caught the edge to his voice and backed away another step. Bad choice. It forced him to prowl closer. It highlighted that she was completely nude while he was clothed.
“Well…I shouldn’t really go into full heat for a few more days. But I believe I’m starting to attract…male attention. And I’m starting to want…”
His arm swept up without his conscious direction. The back of his hand brushed up her arm. “What do you want?” Cock? In your cunt? Up your ass? Down your throat?
“I’m not sure…But I would like to have intercourse. With you. Um, now.”
What the…? His throat went dry and that mush came back. Fucking blanketed everything without his even trying. “You don’t really want…” What the fuck am I, her goddamn father? Man up! “Um, okay.”
She stepped forward, so that her face rested on his chest. “I don’t know how to go about it.”
Me neither.
Chapter 9
There was one thing for sure, if they were going to do this, there would be no sappy crap going on. He’d scratch her itch, get his scratched, and that would be the end of it. He grasped her shoulders and lowered his teeth to her neck, biting in a show of dominance. She shook harder, which only served to urge him on. “It’s going to hurt, I mean…since you’ve never done it before.”
She nodded. Her cheek feathered against his.
“Turn around.” He knew it came out as a growl but couldn’t feel guilty when she swiveled like a well-trained pet. He prodded her forward and then into the V-berth.
“Get on your hands and knees.”
Her breath hitched, he wasn’t sure if in fear or in desire, but when she lifted that perfect nut-brown rear the scent of her want hit him like a smack in the face. Pink folds glistened from between dark-brown curls. He’d hoped just to plug her and be done with it, but his finger reached out and stroked at her petals. She tucked her tail under in surprise and his hand shot out and sharply slapped her right butt cheek. “Arch up to me.”
The pink outline of his hand showed up on her buttock and he felt a twinge of guilt, but she did as he said, moaning lightly when he stroked his fingers over the mark. Something about her brought out both his most vicious and most gentle reactions, and he felt completely out of control of both.
He widened her stance with his hands, pushed her shoulders down to the bed. His fingertips found her again. The slick folds of her entrance welcomed his forefinger.
She gasped at the intrusion, stiffening, then melted softer and pressed her hips back into him.
An unexpected smile formed on his face. “You like that?”
In response, she gave a high-pitched pant. He pressed another finger in after the first, fitting snug inside her untouched pussy. A glimmer of the importance of what they were doing occurred to him, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. She wanted meaningless sex with a virtual stran
ger, and he’d give it to her, and good.
Her little mewls came closer together and she shifted her hips in little circles. The movement was unbearably hot, and he lowered his lips to her entrance, removing his damp fingers and replacing them with his tongue. He lapped at her opening, then lower to her tiny clit. Raider had never been one to go down on women. He hadn’t really seen what was in it for him, but Sophia tasted like honey and bitter apple. Her little muscles clenched and quivered against his lips and mouth.
Her cries ratcheted higher and he drew away and reared up behind her. If she was going to come it would be while seated on his cock. He lowered his jeans to his knees and leaned forward but pulled back again and took his jeans off entirely. He wanted to feel every inch of her skin when she screamed.
He placed the head of his cock at the entrance to her body. There was no way he was going to fit without ripping her practically in two. He placed a hand on her hip to steady her and pushed slowly forward just as she reared back to meet him.
Her scream tore through the berth, and he froze. Raider had always thought he’d like to make a female cry out this way. The others on the ship always seemed to. But a sharp stab of regret started at the base of his neck and sliced down his chest. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to pull out. He held her ass tight in one hand, letting her get used to his girth inside her.
He stroked a long trail down her spine, petting and calming her. Her body relaxed a fraction, and her core softened on him. Part of him wished he could stop, pull out, but that kindness wasn’t in his nature. He pushed forward again, pausing when she yelped again. “Reach down and touch yourself.”
“I…I don’t know…” She sounded scared as shit. He grabbed her hand in his own and placed it over her mound. He ground her fingers into her clit, feeling her juices coat both their hands. Her little moans rose up again, and she neared the precipice once more. He lifted back onto both his arms and snapped his hips forward, burying himself to the hilt.
She screamed again, but this time it sounded like more in desire than pain. Her hand worked frantically.
He pulled back and sank forward again, ripping a fresh cry from her chest. He kneaded her ass, trying to keep his thrusts short and gentle. Raider curled over her body, nipped her neck, then nibbled higher to her ear.
She turned her head, seeking his mouth with her own.
He sucked at her tongue before rasping. “I’m going to have to go harder now. I don’t want to hurt you.”
The skin at her shoulder shone with sweat, and she nipped his lower lip quickly before saying, “Maybe I want you to.”
* * * * Raider’s teeth clamped her shoulder and he arched into her with all his strength. He bucked so fast she couldn’t possibly meet him. His mouth sucked at her neck, her jaw, her nape. His hands traveled her breasts and then lower.
He pulled away the fingers she’d been using to pet herself and pinned her hands up over her head, pounding harder now that he had her completely at his mercy. His one leg came up under her own, stretching her wider so that his each stroke filled her to bursting. Her newly-torn tissues ached and burned deliciously at his thrusts, but without the hand at her front, the pain was starting to outpace the pleasure.
“Please…” He nuzzled her neck as he plunged again, this time more slowly, but deeper. “I like the sound of that. Please what?”
Sophia struggled to put to words what she needed. “Please give me my hand back.”
His chuckle rolled over her body, filled her quiver with pulsing jolts. “No.”
That thick rod tore into her again.
“You’re hurting me.”
“I thought you wanted me to.”
“But I need…” Her voice was high pitched. She wondered if he would leave her like this, taking his pleasure while not allowing her hers. The thought sent a strike of fear through her veins before his fingers stroked down along her body.
His hand cupped her—possessive and dominant. Her keen rose slowly from her chest as he rubbed at her kernel of sensation. “You need this?” As he said it, he shot forward.
Noises started to escape her lips—his name, various deities, his name spoken like a deity.
“Are you ready, Sophia?” His rasp blew wicked fire at her ear.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Then I’ll let you come now.” With the heel of his hand, he roughly thrust her over the edge. His hard body bent over, bucking into hers in violent waves.
Her center clamped down on him, riding his thrusts. Red bites of pain mixed with hot blue pleasure and she lost track of herself completely.
His hands had moved to her hips to feed his sex into her again and again and she arched, not caring how wild she appeared, bucking back to meet his desperate jerks. Finally, he held her bottom to him, still while his member throbbed inside her. He shook. She could feel it— this tough, impenetrable male convulsing from what they’d shared.
Sophia felt his erection softening, slipping from the center of her. Her chest ached. She didn’t know what she expected to feel afterward, but it certainly wasn’t this weakness, this need or desire for him to want…something more.
He petted her neck, then her shoulders, and finally her buttocks as he pulled away. “Um, let me get a rag to clean us up.”
She waited for his return, fighting back the tears in her eyes. Her whole body felt alive, trembling, but her heart yearned for something she knew wouldn’t come. She swept the back of her hand across her face. Sophia couldn’t regret what they’d done. It had been one of the peak experiences of her life. She only hoped that when she met the dragon who would mate her that she’d feel the same voracious desire for him.
Perhaps he too would own her body the way Raider just had.
He came back to the bed, passed a damp cloth between her legs. His hand stilled when she twitched. “Too rough?”
She shook her head. What did one say to another after such an experience? “No, I’m just…sore.”
Hands that had clenched on her only moments before cleaned her flesh with the utmost care. “That’ll go away…The next time you…uh…the next time won’t hurt as bad.”
She knew he wondered the same thing she did, would the next time be with him? Or with the male who saved her?
“It wasn’t so bad.” Her eyes pressed closed as embarrassment washed over her. She wondered at the link between the emotions of sexual desire and embarrassment. Maybe this only happened for humans. Then again, she’d sometimes questioned why females who required seclusion during their heat cycles inspired red-faced whispers and nervous laughter. Now realization dawned on her. Those females would be like her, baring not only their bodies but also their emotions to any male present.
“Not so bad, huh? I’ll have to try harder.”
She peeked at him through low lashes, trying to determine if he actually wanted her reassurance, but the arrogant curl in his lip told her otherwise.
“Is it always like that?” She knew her voice sounded raspy and small and more than a little scared.
For once, he didn’t respond to her fear with hunger. “Not for me,” he grumbled as he stood and walked away.
She heard him washing the rag in the sink. Her heart hung in her chest, waiting for his return.
* * * * Nereus feathered his fingers along pelt of auburn hair on David’s chest. The human’s ribcage rose and fell with his breaths. Nereus stroked higher, up the column of David’s neck, along his jaw, then over the pillows of his lips. The scientist was perhaps a tad too pretty for some humans’ taste, beautiful with this over-large nose and wide, heavy-lashed eyes. The merman reveled at looking closely at him without his glasses.
David’s hands explored Nereus’s arms, his chest, and his abdomen. The human’s touch bordered on reverence. “So, you’re going back to the ocean, huh?”
He heard the catch of emotion in David’s voice. It resonated with the ache in his chest. “I’m not sure.”
David lifted his head from the mattres
s, placing his elbows behind him to prop him up. “Of course you’re going back, to your…habitat. Where is it anyway?”
Nereus pinched his forehead between his thumb and forefinger. “Up near Vancouver Island.” When David looked confused, he added, “North of Seattle, in the island chain that leads from the northwest corner of the US up to Alaska.”
“Oh, I always assumed…”
“Yeah, people think mere all live in warm, tropical areas. It’s a common misconception. I wouldn’t mind though. Maybe I should see if there are any mere habitats nearby.” He chewed at his lip, wondering if David would think it weird that he would want to visit.
David’s expression softened. His mouth tipped up at the side. “I’d like that.”
A flush of heat rose at Nereus’s cheeks. “It doesn’t matter, though. I have to go back to the lab.”
David rose off his elbows, staring hard through narrowed eyes. “Why the hell would you do that?”
Nereus’s shoulders rose. “I can’t just leave them there. Those sharks are totally helpless. They can’t sneak in and out of their tanks like I can.”
David stood to pace around the tiny enclosure of the boat. He grabbed a towel from the master head and wrapped it around his slim hips. “Why do you care? Didn’t some of them kill a mere while you were there?”
Nereus wound a hank of his hair around his fist and threw the matted locks over his shoulder. “They did what was in their nature. Besides, they had so many drugs in their system at the time they wouldn’t have been able to control themselves even in the wild. Throw in the stress of captivity…” He saw David’s eyebrows rise in disbelief and added, “I’m not making excuses for them. But what Dendric is doing is wrong, it’s horrible. It’s not an issue of whether the sharks are good or bad, nothing justifies what’s being done in those tanks.”
David hauled Nereus up to meet him, wrapping him in a firm embrace. His rangy arms felt like steel coils, and his thick-knuckled fingers gripped the merman’s flesh. “I’m not letting you go back there. I’ll get them out. I’ll…”
