Back at the cabin, Leanne said goodbye and left us to settle in.
I had expected Declan to be in a somber mood when, in fact, he was quite upbeat. We had a plan, and his innate optimism allowed him to believe that that was all it took. You made a plan, you followed the plan, you won. That was the chain of events playing out in Declan's head. I wished I could have been similarly certain but all I could think about was the ifs. If the shade turned up and if it agreed to help us and if Saorise was here and if we could find a way into the castle. Perhaps Declan's way of thinking was more positive, but if any of those ifs failed to work out, then I feared for him.
As her twin, another crushing blow on the Saorise front might break him.
For the next few hours, we sat and tried to unwind, but tensions were high when we were startled by a loud banging on the cabin door.
Declan let in Leanne, still wearing no more than a sheet. "It's here," she murmured, stepping aside.
The shade was exactly as its name described. But somehow more. It lurked between the trees, a slightly darker patch of shadow than the shadows around it, only betraying its presence as it moved. But when it moved, it seemed to distort reality. I realized that I could not see through it like a normal shadow. It distorted light. In fact, it swallowed it.
"It is only here because you saved it."
The shade spoke about itself in the third person - not existing even to itself. Its voice - and voice was the only word I could use, though it felt wrong - did not come directly from it, nor did it seem that I heard it. The words seemed to settle against my skin, a sensation like a spider walking across your arm.
"We understand," said Declan. "Can you tell us--"
"It will speak only with the female."
I swallowed uncomfortably. "We need your help. We are desperate. We need you to find out if there is a female selkie in the castle beyond the ridge."
The shade shimmered for a moment. "Why would it do this?"
I had no idea what to say, and a very keen awareness that if I said the wrong thing, I might doom Saorise. I could not ask the others for help, I could only follow my own best instincts and hope. "There is no reason you should do this. You are entirely at liberty to say no. I just really hope you won't."
"It is at liberty," the shade said after another moment's shimmering. "It is at liberty because of the female. It will search for the Selkie. It will return."
With that, the shade was gone. Quite unexpectedly, Declan hugged me, slipping his muscular arms around me and squeezing.
"Christ, you did it, Sienna.”
An hour passed, during which we drank tea and sat with Leanne in tense silence. The shade returned that evening. "It has done as you asked. The female Selkie is within."
"Where?" I asked.
"It was not requested to provide such detail."
"No," I acknowledged, wetting my lips. "May I ask now?"
The shade shimmered. "It found her on the ground floor. In a sealed room of marble at the back of the castle. The female is fast losing hope, so be speedy if you wish to save her. It goes now and shan't return."
And it went.
"You have a way with shades," said Leanne, a touch of admiration in her voice.
"Thanks."
"You know it could have killed us as easily as breathing?" she added.
"It seemed friendly enough to me." I tried to put on my best brave face, but I was still shaking from the encounter. Amiable though this one had been - comparatively - I was in no hurry to meet any other shades, and would probably spend the rest of my life terrified of the shadows.
"Now what?" asked Leanne.
"I call Connor," said Declan, working from a mental checklist. "We wait for him and Patch to arrive. We go get Saorise. We all go home."
As if it would ever be that easy…
Chapter 16
There was only one bed in the cabin - a huge country bed that could have comfortably slept five, and looked to have been carved out of a single tree trunk. But when it came time for bed, Declan made up the sofa.
When I woke the following morning, I found the living room empty. It struck me as a little odd, as there were not many places to go around here, but not necessarily worrying. I washed in water that I heated over the fire, brushed my teeth and got dressed, but there was still no sign of Declan.
The only real place to go was the lake by the waterfall where we had left our rented car, and I decided to stroll out there. If I didn’t find him there, I might start to worry. As I approached, I heard the sounds of splashing and smiled to myself. Of course, he was in the water.
He was a Selkie.
I hovered within the tree line and peered out at the lake, dappled by the morning light. At first, I saw the rippling surface of the water but nothing more, then the surface broke and a slim grey seal sprung out, twisting in mid-air before diving back. This was so clearly Declan, slim, smooth-skinned and beautiful, even the way he moved in the water was distinctively Declan.
He leaped again, but this time he was not alone, another seal jumped beside him.
A seal made entirely of water. My mouth dropped open as I watched Declan and Leanne together. Sometimes she was a seal, swimming and leaping with him, their bodies twisting around each other as seals do. Other times she was all or part human, but always connected to the water, moving with him as he darted around her. Then she would be just water, and I could only see where she was from the odd patterns the water made as she rolled around Declan, caressing his body with her watery form. When he sprang clear of the surface, she went with him, wrapped around him, liquid seething about his body.
Hot jealousy pierced me. Jealousy to which I had no right.
A seal and a water nymph? That was a perfect match. She could be with him in either form and match him in both, changing with him. God alone knew what the sex would be like, but certainly she could do things for him that I could not.
I dug my fingernails into my palms as I watched, unable to look away but hating what I saw.
Why did I feel this way? Did I want Declan more than the other two brothers? Absolutely not. But there was no question, I wanted him as much.
Selfishly, I wanted all three of them. But I couldn't help how I felt. A void seemed to open up in my tummy as I watched Declan and Leanne. I felt like the shade - a Declan-shaped emptiness within me that would never be filled.
Finally, the games were over and, as I watched, Declan rolled out of his seal skin and stood up. Despite the coldness of the water and the chill bite of the early morning mountain air, he remained an extremely impressive man and, though I chided myself for looking at something that wasn't mine, I couldn't help staring. Leanne grew from the water beside him, as naked as he was, and they walked back up to the shore together. As they reached dry land, Leanne stood up on tip toes, reaching up to kiss him.
I was just about to walk away and give them their privacy when he backed away with a shake of his head.
I felt my heart skip a beat as I stilled.
What I had so far seen was two magical creatures playing, in the same way that two humans might enjoy a game of cards or chess. However, intimate it had looked, it was not necessarily sexual. What I was seeing now suggested that it had, in fact, been one player of the game trying to make it sexual, and the other...
Maybe not so much?
I saw Declan saying something softly to Leanne, though I could not make out the words. He squeezed her hands and she gave him a wistful smile, before returning to the water. Declan slung his skin across his shoulder and began to walk back towards the cabin. In my direction. Quick as I could, and quietly as that speed would allow, I hurried back and threw myself into the chair so I could look as if I had been there for hours when Declan came in.
"You were out early," I said, as he entered.
He smiled. "Went for a swim with Leanne."
The fact that he told me about it had to mean something; didn't it?
The great thing about TV is that
it required nothing of you. Its mindlessness enabled you to vegetate in front of it, putting all your worries to one side. I desperately needed that now, because anything I wanted to say to Declan felt ill-advised. I was either going to blurt something about my blooming feelings for him, or wax poetic about Saorise and how much I missed her. Neither were subjects he needed to be forced to think about as we waited for his brothers to arrive and get this plan moving forward.
But as the day wore on, he brought her up on his own. Maybe he needed to hear about her right now.
"I've always wondered," Declan said, "I mean, I know you two met as kids - Saorise used to pick up friends for fun - but why are you so attached to her."
"Because we were more than friends," I said. Had I been more insecure, then hearing how Saorise was always picking up friends might have made me wonder if that was true. But I knew it was - we both had other friends, but it was not the same. Sienna and Saorise, Saorise and Sienna, friends forever.
"Tell me about it."
For a moment, I held back. Partly because, she was still out there, still in captivity, still in danger, still going through who knew what, and talking about those happy times, knowing all of that, was hard. And if it was hard for me then I could only imagine how hard it was for Declan. But I also held back out of habit. It had been magical. For so many years, it had become a dream - that perfect vacation, when I had been happiest in my life, wonderfully replicated for a few days and then ripped from me again. To try to reduce it to mere words…vacation buddies…it seemed somehow disrespectful. It had been between us, our own little world.
And yet, for all that, I wanted to tell Declan about it. I wanted to share it with someone now more than ever before, because to speak it was to make it real. This happened. And this person with whom it happened was someone I would never let go. To say how much she meant to me, to explain it through the events themselves, was like a declaration of how much I cared, and a promise that I would never give up.
So I told him, and once I started, I found that I could not stop. The words spilled out of me as the events, still so vivid after all these years, played out before my eyes, so the light of an Irish sunset seemed to suffuse the little cabin.
But when I got to the account of my near drowning, I saw a frown cross Declan's face. At first, I thought he was worried for me - which seemed odd, as I had obviously survived or I wouldn't have been there to tell the tale.
"That was you?"
And with those three words, my whole world changed. How had I not seen it before? The face of the boy who had saved me, which had eluded my dreams for years, was now clear as crystal in front of me, and just as clearly was the face of Declan.
"You saved me."
And more. The memories came rushing back on a long-forgotten wave. As he lay me down on the beach, he had kissed me. My first kiss had been Declan. It was a realization as pure and wonderful as anything I had ever experienced.
"Declan."
The recognition was mutual, the moment it formed between us, undeniable and inexorable, drawing us into a bubble in which no one existed but us. All sound faded. Nothing was in my world but Declan, and by some quiet magic we drew closer and our lips touched. I tasted salt water and heard the lapping of waves and the sea birds in the skies above, I felt the sand on my back, and opened my eyes to look into the wide, boyish, green eyes that had not changed in all those years.
To kiss Declan now was exactly the same as it had been then. So pure, so innocent, so perfect.
Our lips parted but our hands remained in each other’s, and our eyes were locked. No words were said. We both knew what the other was thinking, we both knew what the other wanted because we could read it in the other's face and because we wanted it, too.
Together we stood and, hand in hand, walked into the bedroom.
Chapter 17
Standing by the big bed, Declan and I faced each other and kissed again. For all our silence, it was the lightest of moments. We didn’t talk, I think out of desire not to break that bubble that surrounded us. Or maybe just because we didn’t need to.
As we kissed, my fingers found the buttons of his shirt and dexterously flicked them open, brushing sometimes against the warmth of the skin they revealed. As I peeled back his shirt from his shoulders to unveil his slim but athletic physique, I left behind his sweet lips and stooped to kiss his chest, then down across his torso to his belly, where my tongue danced about his belly button. I heard him breathing more audibly above me and felt his body tremble as my lips trespassed across his skin. I wanted to kiss every part of him.
As I continued, I felt his hands pulling my T-shirt up. I left my kissing for just long enough to allow him to pull the garment over my head and then, as my lips returned to his body, he bent down to nip at the smooth sweep of my back, up to my neck and down to my hips. With a deft tweak, he unfastened the clip of my bra and his hands were there to catch my breasts as they spilled forth.
With gentle hands, he guided me upright so he could kiss down my front, down my neck, between and across my breasts, over my belly, and letting his tongue trace a hotly desirous path around the waistband of my pants.
His hands were already undoing the buttons as we both, thinking as one, moved to the bed. He slid my pants down my legs and tossed them aside. As I kicked off my brightly colored socks, his lips found my inner thighs, consuming my flesh and drawing mews of pleasure from me. I lost no time in unbuttoning his jeans and yanking them down, my eyes widening at the sight of his tight shorts and the impressive bulge straining hard against the material.
Teasing myself, I started at his feet, kissing my way up, switching from leg to leg, still marveling at the smooth sweetness of his skin. His hands were now inside my panties, massaging the cheeks of my ass, and I knew I could not wait much longer. Reaching the juncture of his thighs, I grabbed hold of the waistband of his shorts and drew them down, my eyes glued to his crotch.
I caught my breath. Perhaps because Declan was less bulky than his brothers, I had expected less of him, or maybe his firm, trim build gave a more favorable impression. Either way, based on first appearances, he had inherited the family gift.
With a little coo of delight, I nuzzled my face against his throbbing cock, making it bound and pulse against my cheek. It felt as hot as lava, and as I rubbed the burning shaft over my face, I heard Declan moaning in pleasure.
He was not slow to reciprocate. I felt fingers looping into my underwear and soon I was as naked as he was. I took my eyes off his thick cock long enough to enjoy the sight of Declan staring at my nakedness, his green eyes burning with intensity as he gazed at the apex of my thighs.
"Oh, Declan." I sighed as he leaned forward and his tongue fluttered across my most intimate lips, then squeezed his organ hard as that tongue burrowed into me.
Eager to repay him in kind, I took him into my mouth and reveled in the taste of him - as sweet as ever. For a little while, we lay on our sides, mouths filled with each other, but both of us felt a need that this could not sate. We crawled beneath the sheets and Declan moved on top of me. With a hand about his neck, I drew him down to kiss me, his body flat against mine, his cock between us like a slab of hot iron.
Gradually, he raised his body and, reaching between us, guided his swollen member to my slick slit.
"Please," I murmured between kisses.
I felt his throbbing head probing against me, and then Declan pressed into me, his smooth skin and my wetness aiding his easy passage, sliding in, almost to the hilt in one long, indulgent move.
My eyes rolled back into my head before returning to Declan, to see his face suffused in a bliss that matched my own. That sweet boy who had saved my life, with whom I had shared my first kiss, had become this intense and amazing man, whose smallest move made me see stars.
I hugged Declan to me, my legs wrapping about the smooth, hard perfection of his body. We stayed like this awhile, moving nothing but our lips as we continued to kiss each other deeply, endl
essly. I felt him throbbing inside me, sensing every inch of him as he rested against the walls of my sensitive tunnel.
Soon enough, our bodies began to move against each other, slowly. Each breath I drew was a little gasp of wonder as Declan stroked in and out of me. He took me so tenderly, and yet with such certainty, such skill, finding the pleasure in every part of me.
Our eyes were locked throughout, started wide, as if both of us were in a constant state of surprise at the joy we had found in each other. There was, too, an innocence in our coupling, the like of which I had never experienced.
With the right men, I enjoyed rough sex, dirty sex, sex that made you laugh and sex that made you weep, intense sex and fun sex, a stolen quickie or a night-long session.
But sex with Declan was simple and pure, in the best possible sense of the word.
"Oh, Declan." My senses were reeling with pleasure as I approached my inevitable end. "I love it. And I love you. Oh, god!"
With that, I spilled over the edge and as my body tightened into orgasm, Declan joined me, gasping and pushing firmly forward to sheath himself one more beautiful time to the absolute limit as he filled me with his seed.
Afterwards, we lay together, our bodies still molded one into the other. Finally, he spoke, his voice a low rumble in his chest.
"Did you mean that?"
I knew what he meant, and I took his face in my hands to kiss him and look him right in the eyes as I answered. "Yes. I meant every word. I love you. I think I've loved you since I met you all those years ago."
His smile of boyish delight was the best part of the whole experience. "I love you, too."
We fell asleep that way, curled up in each other.
When I awoke hours later, I found Declan still asleep beside me.
This had been the missing piece to the puzzle. Each of the brothers brought something different to the table, each filling a space inside me. And now, I felt full.
Her Selkie Harem Page 13
