The Merman Boxset: Gay Merman Romance

by Aratare, X.

  Lights. Lights from the deep. This is what I saw when our boat went down and then … then … something came to save me …

  Instead of the grief and fear that usually filled him at any memory of his parents’ deaths, this time he felt that familiar excitement building in him instead. Something was coming. Someone was coming.

  Someone amazing.

  The lights streaked up towards him until he was surrounded by their rainbow glow. The lights embraced him, cradled him in their warmth and brilliancy. He was blinded by their intensity and had to close his eyes for a moment, but he still saw the light through his eyelids. That was when he felt a touch on his waist.

  His eyelids flew open again, but the only thing he could see was the dancing rainbow colors that surrounded him. Then there was another touch. Two touches on his waist. They were hands. Someone was framing his bare waist with their hands. Powerful hands. Masculine hands. The owner of those hands must have been floating directly in front of him, but the colors kept shifting and obscuring the man from Gabriel.

  Who are you? Gabriel asked. The question was only in his head, because there was no way to talk underwater, not even in dreams.

  But there was an answer. A soft answer, Home.

  Home?

  Safety. Warmth. Belonging.

  Those are ideas. Concepts. Not a name. Not a place. A feeling.

  Come to me. Come home.

  I don’t have a home! Gabriel insisted. His parents’ house had long ago been sold. It held too many ghosts for him to be happy there anyways. The apartments his grandmother and he had lived in had never been home either. The cottage might be the closest thing he had to one, but even that wasn’t really home. He was homeless.

  You do have a home. Here. With me …

  The touches became firmer. They were possessive, though still gentle. Gabriel could break free of the man’s grip if he wished. He felt the man’s thumbs begin to rub slow circles over his hipbones. Heat bloomed in his stomach. He had never had a dream like this, and it was thrilling and frightening at the same time.

  But I want this. I want this to happen. Whatever this will be, Gabriel thought.

  He boldly reached forward and his fingers encountered a powerful male chest. The hands on his waist tightened pleasurably for a moment, indicating that his touch was appreciated and welcome. Gabriel allowed his fingers to drift down the man’s chest, relishing the feel of hard pecs and rippling abs under his fingertips. It had been so long since he had been with anyone. The irony that he would dream of having sex in the water was not lost on him, but it was exactly what he needed.

  Gabriel’s palms glided back up the man’s chest, finding the stiff nubs of his nipples. He ran his thumbs around the softer skin of the areolas before tweaking the hard nubs. The man surged against him. Gabriel felt the silken brush of the man’s bare legs against his own. Another welling of heat began in his belly and spread outward in shimmering waves. Gabriel trembled and drew nearer. The man’s erect cock pushed against Gabriel’s belly. He nearly doubled over with desire in response as his own cock sprang to full arousal. It had been too long.

  The man stroked his back, easing him past the initial roller coaster of feelings. Gabriel desperately clung to the man’s powerful shoulders, but slowly his body unfurled again, relaxing, relishing the caresses. His cock was a hot bar between them. He needed to be touched. He needed to be loved. And yes, he knew what Corey would say about that last part.

  The man’s hands slid down to his lower back and then dropped down until they were cupping Gabriel’s ass. He squeezed Gabriel’s butt cheeks, letting his fingers teasingly linger between them, just above his opening. Gabriel groaned and pushed forward against that magnificent body, finally feeling everything he had only been able to map out with his hands before.

  Both their cocks were sandwiched between their bellies. The man kept cupping and squeezing Gabriel’s ass with one hand while his other hand moved possessively to the back of Gabriel’s neck. He drew Gabriel fully against him so that there was no space left between them. The two of them were made one as they spun in the water, and the brilliant rainbow colors of the lights from the deep surrounded them as if in celebration. Strain as he might, Gabriel could not see the man’s face, only the shifting hues of light.

  Plush, sculpted lips were suddenly on his. The man tilted Gabriel’s head expertly to the side, and then his tongue was pressing between Gabriel’s lips. Gabriel eagerly opened his mouth without thought, letting his invisible lover’s tongue inside. The man tasted of the sea, salt and sunshine. The lazy tangle of their tongues together brought up a nearly forgotten wish for things that had never happened, for a boyfriend who would kiss him with the rush of waves in his ears and heated sand beneath his bare back. These were the summer kisses that he had always longed for but never had because he had never allowed anyone to get so close.

  Gabriel grabbed the man, clutching him as if he were worried the man was going to escape. Gabriel opened his mouth wider, wanting the man’s tongue deeper inside of him, as if he could devour this experience with a kiss. The man did not struggle against him, but instead met him passion for passion. They spun once more in the water, and Gabriel felt like laughing that their ardor had them twirling weightlessly in the sea.

  The kiss ended and the man rested his forehead against Gabriel’s. There were no puffs of breath against his face, not even bubbles to tickle his nose, but Gabriel could feel the man’s certain presence, his complete oneness with this moment and with Gabriel.

  The man drew back and Gabriel’s mouth opened as if to call out to him. But then the man leaned back in to tenderly kiss both of Gabriel’s temples. Gabriel ran his hands down the man’s muscular arms, relishing the interplay of muscle covered by velvety skin. The man placed more kisses all over Gabriel’s face, ending in a soft suck on the right side of his jaw. Gabriel tilted his head back so that the man could kiss and lick and suck as much as he wanted. The man obliged. He placed a chain of kisses down Gabriel’s neck and lingered at the hollow at the base of Gabriel’s throat.

  The man’s powerful hands then fastened around the backs of Gabriel’s thighs. He effortlessly drew Gabriel’s legs up and apart, positioning them so that they were wrapped around his waist. Heat once again coursed through Gabriel like molten lava as he felt the slightest press of the man’s penis against his ass. A tentative stillness fell between them then. The man wanted permission to do more. Gabriel answered him with action. He wound his arms around the man’s neck and kissed him hard and desperately while he pushed down against that teasing cock. He wanted this. He wanted a connection with someone, and if he could only have it here, in his dreams, then so be it.

  One of the man’s hands reached around until his fingers skimmed over Gabriel’s opening. His pointer finger traced the tight swirl of muscle. Gabriel moaned almost pitifully. His cock pulsed with pleasure. As the man pushed his finger inside, Gabriel thrust down to meet it. He felt the ecstasy of being breached for the first time in years.

  Even in his dreams, his sphincter was incredibly tight. The man pulled his finger out and wiggled it back in. Unlike in real life, the finger moved smoothly without the mess of using a lubricant. It was almost like his body had prepared itself naturally for the penetration.

  Gabriel leaned back, his hands laced around the man’s muscular neck. The water let him hold the position without strain. He squeezed his thighs around the man’s waist. A second finger joined the first inside of him. Those fingers pumped in and out of him in a heady rhythm. Gabriel loved the feeling of being filled, of having his tender tissues spread. The fingers scissored, stretching him, pleasuring him. But it wasn’t enough. He needed the man’s cock.

  As if in answer to his prayers, the man positioned the tip of his cock against Gabriel’s opening. Gabriel drew in a breath and held it. The man tapped his cock against Gabriel’s opening, but did nothing more until Gabriel let that breath go and allowed his body to relax. Bubbles streaked through the lights ab
ove his head.

  He doesn’t want to hurt me.

  Gabriel didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or cry at that moment. Instead of doing either, he kissed the man once more. The man kissed him eagerly back. He then pressed the head of his cock against Gabriel’s opening and, with one slow steady thrust, pushed inside. There was that pleasure-pain, that feeling of being totally filled, that sex always brought, but this time there was no sense of emptiness in him as it happened. This man was not just using his body for pleasure. There was a connection between them that made it so Gabriel could never feel or be empty so long as the man was touching him. Gabriel’s fingers flexed against the back of the man’s neck. Neither of them moved until Gabriel relaxed against him.

  Move. Please, move. I need to feel you claiming me.

  The man held Gabriel to him tenderly before shifting his grip to Gabriel’s waist. He drew his cock out of Gabriel’s body an inch at a time. Gabriel wanted to bear down even though he knew that would stop the glorious slide of the man’s cock in and out of him. He tried to just abandon himself to the sensations, to let his body be taken without fighting or controlling it, but it was so hard to just let go.

  The man’s cock was almost all the way out of him, only the head remaining inside. Gabriel dug his fingers into the man’s shoulders. He didn’t want to be abandoned. Not now. But then the man was sliding inside him again. He went so deep that Gabriel would have sworn the man’s cock touched the very core of him. Gabriel’s mouth opened at the force of the thrust and a watery gasp exited his parted lips.

  With you. I’m with you, the man’s sultry voice rang through his mind.

  The man picked up the rhythm of his thrusts. Every inward thrust had his balls slapping against Gabriel’s ass. Every outward pull had Gabriel keening and gripping the man harder around the waist with his thighs. The man’s thrusts changed from long and silky to short and choppy. He angled his hips so that his cock rubbed against different parts of Gabriel’s back passage. When the head of the man’s cock dragged over his prostate, Gabriel’s own cock surged between them. He felt the heat of his precum warm the water around the tip of his cock as it leaked out.

  The man suddenly grasped Gabriel’s cock and started to stroke it. Gabriel curled against him once more as having his cock touched while he was being claimed became too much for him to bear. The heat between his legs built into a roaring fire. He raked his fingers down the man’s back as his balls drew up tight against his body.

  The man’s thrusts were almost brutal now, but they were what Gabriel needed. Each inward push had the head of the man’s cock rubbing Gabriel’s prostate, nearly making him weep with pleasure. The hand on his cock stroked faster and faster, the thumb rubbing over the tip, spreading the slit as more precum gushed out.

  Gabriel kissed the man’s cheeks, chin and nose before locating his lips. They opened, allowing him entrance. Gabriel’s tongue slipped inside. Salt, sweetness, sunshine. They kissed and kissed and kissed as Gabriel bore down on the man’s cock, keeping it inside of him as deep as it would go. He felt the man’s penis pulse and knew that he was about to cum even as Gabriel found his own orgasm spilling over him like a tidal wave. If the lights from the deep hadn’t continued to blind him, he knew he would have seen his semen clouding the midnight blue water between them. There was a pulse of liquid heat inside of his body, and his own cock jerked once more and released another stream of semen in response. The man continued to stroke him, to milk him, to ease that last bit of cum out of him with his strong hand while he came in Gabriel. And their kiss continued unbroken throughout it all. Gabriel would not have broken that kiss for the world.

  The man’s hand only left Gabriel’s cock after the last drop of semen had been wrung from him. He immediately moved that hand to Gabriel’s back and slowly started caressing him up and down in long slow strokes, his tenderness as much a turn on as his forcefulness earlier had been. Gabriel’s body was still shaking with aftershocks, but the soothing touches eased him and he slumped against the man’s larger body, totally spent.

  However, Gabriel was still clenching down on the man’s cock, not wanting it to leave his body and end their physical connection. The man kissed him slowly, almost dreamily. Gabriel pressed his face against the man’s throat and wrapped his arms around that powerful frame. They slowly spun in the calm sea, floating without the painful pull of gravity. Gabriel could feel that he was going to slip out of the dream soon and into the darkness of full sleep. He wanted to hang on, but the man kissed his temple as if to tell him it was okay to let go, to rest.

  Words that were not Gabriel’s own echoed through his mind once more. I will not leave you. I will never leave you.

  That’s because you aren’t real. You can’t leave me if you were never here in the first place, Gabriel replied with a sad smile.

  I am real. And I will never leave you.

  Despite Gabriel’s rational mind telling him that this was only a dream, a part of him clung to those words. He did not want to lose this connection, this feeling. He held the thought to him tightly as he slipped from the silvery waters into blackness.

  For one moment, when he woke up in the morning, Gabriel thought he felt the man’s phantom embrace. Even with sunlight streaming down on him and his eyes open, clearly showing him that the dorm bed was empty except for him, Gabriel still felt he was not alone.

  I will not leave you. I will never leave you.

  Gabriel sighed. If only that were true.

  4

  OCEAN SIDE

  “I’m fine, Corey.”

  “How can you see me looking at you when your eyes are closed, Gabe?”

  Gabriel slowly let his eyelids open. The sun was sinking behind the hills so it wasn’t terribly bright anymore. He gave his best friend a soft smile. “You have your worry eyes in again.”

  Corey tapped the steering wheel of the van as they cruised along the highway. “I can’t help it! You look so …”

  “So what?” Gabriel still felt tired, but his mind kept going back to the dream he had had the night before, and each time some of his exhaustion would drain away.

  Even though it was just a dream. And a dream is a dream is a dream. Important part is that it is not real.

  “Fragile,” Corey confessed. “You look fragile.”

  Gabriel gently knocked his best friend’s arm. “Fragile? I am so not fragile. I’m going to have to kick your ass at something just for that comment.”

  “Beach run? Volleyball tournament?” Corey asked.

  Both of those things had Gabriel feeling breathless just thinking of doing them. “After a few days of my grandmother’s cooking and sleeping for more than four hours a night, I’ll be as good as new. You’ll see, and then I’ll beat you at those things and more.”

  “I’ll hold you to that, Gabe,” Corey said as he adjusted the volume on the radio.

  Gabriel blinked sleepily and stretched his arms over his head, dislodging the sweatshirt that Corey had tucked around him. He had been drifting in and out of sleep the entire car ride to his grandmother’s. He hadn’t had any more dreams like the one last night. He blushed as he realized that half the reason sleep was so appealing to him was because there was a chance he might slip back into that dream and see the man again, really see him. Glimpsing that face would be better than kissing or making love.

  What am I thinking? That if I see his face I’ll be able to find him in real life? So not going to happen. It was just a dream.

  He knew that nothing in reality could match that dream. Gabriel shook his head to clear it. He looked out the window and realized that they were on the Sea Spray Highway, which had gotten its name because it ran along the coast. Gabriel’s gaze drifted towards the ocean, which was about one hundred feet away. The waves were rolling in. They were three feet tall. The surf was choppy, with a ton of white caps. As a kid, he would have longed to dive right in and ride those waves. His parents would have worried about the undertow, but Gabriel had never been af
raid of the water. He always seemed to instinctively know the currents. Maybe that had helped him survive when his parents had drowned.

  “We’re almost there,” Gabriel murmured, recognizing a bright McDonald’s sign. The sign was about ten miles from Ocean Side. “I didn’t realize I’d slept so long.”

  “Yeah, you were really out of it.” Again, there was a worried little frown on Corey’s pudgy face.

  “Last night just took it out of me. Adrenaline, remember?” Gabriel murmured.

  “Yeah. Grandma G is going to freak when she hears what you did. A hero! A watery rescue! You were something else,” Corey enthused once more.

  Gabriel picked up his 2-litre bottle of water from the van’s cup holder. It was already half gone. He chugged the remainder. His mouth still felt dry and cottony. “I can’t really believe it myself.”

  “I just want to say how absolutely amazing you were last night,” Corey raved. “I mean, going in after those people when you’ve been terrified of water forever. You saved their lives! You are awesome, my man!”

  Gabriel gave him a wan smile. “So you’ve said about a million times already, but thank you, though it was more instinct than conscious heroism.”

  “It deserves to be said a million more times,” Corey responded, undaunted.

  “I’m just glad they were all right,” Gabriel murmured.

  Corey moved the van over into the right hand lane, preparing to get off at their exit. “Do you think your water phobia is conquered?”

  Gabriel turned his head towards the water. His chest clenched and his stomach tightened just looking at it, but there was a tingle of excitement that ran through him as well.