"Turn around again, love.”
I was trembling by now, unsure if my legs could even hold me up much longer, but there was one wonderful torture more to endure. I watched Nico's hands closely as he soaped them up again, and then...
"Ahhh!" I keened through gritted teeth as his fingers found my tender folds. Clasping the top of his head to keep myself upright, I tried hard not to writhe my hips too much as Nico, still as slow and methodical as he had been throughout, soaped up my most intimate zone. With deft fingers he rubbed my aching clit with sure strokes and I could hold back no longer.
I wailed out loud, my legs gave way beneath me, and I collapsed onto him and into the soapy water. Waves of pleasure flowed through me as I cried out, my pussy clenching and twitching. As I lay, weak and helpless, Nico gathered me to him, and I clutched at him like a muscular life preserver.
"Thank you," I murmured before kissing him. He returned the kiss and gently caressed my trembling body.
Without really intending to, my hand sought out the heat of his shaft and I began to stroke up and down its impressive length. My head was against Nico's chest, and I heard his breathing change and heartbeat quicken as I took him in hand, but he mastered himself quickly. For a long while, I was happy to lie there in the water, letting my hand make the long journey from base to tip. But soon enough, the pleasure of this was augmented by the sharp sensation of anticipation. As my strength returned, so did my desire.
Moving slowly, and kissing Nico's lips every few seconds, I clambered astride his massive body. Nico gazed up at me, an almost desperate need in his dark eyes. He growled as I took his throbbing cock and guided it to my core. On another day, I would have found Nico's size intimidating, but after my massage and my first devastating orgasm, I was more than ready.
A rumble of satisfaction sounded from Nico's chest as he slipped inside me and I let my hips descend with self-indulgent slowness until I had all of him, right to the hilt.
"Oh, Cat..." If he had wanted, Nico could have picked me up, could have hurled me across the room, probably could have even juggled me. He was the strongest man I had ever known, but also the gentlest and the sweetest. His hands slid down my back as I began to undulate my hips in a slow, gentle rhythm, in time to the thrumming inside me.
I leaned down to kiss him and he held me to him, stroking my body, not possessively but carefully, like I was the most important thing in the world. Coming upon me, slow but sudden, I felt that strange sensation I had experienced with both Alexei and Christoph and was quick this time to put a word to it. Love.
Time ticked by and our pace remained slow and languid. Pleasure did not come in hard, quick shocks but was drawn out over long minutes like molasses poured from a jar. It spread over us, thick and sweet, getting into our skin so just the brush of Nico's fingers on my hip was ecstasy. I wondered if I would ever orgasm, or if we could just keep going like this forever. Then I decided that maybe this was what it was like with him. If I had started to come when Nico had first pushed into me and had not stopped yet. A slow motion orgasm - all the pleasure that was usually concentrated into a matter of seconds, strung out endlessly…
That proved to be dead wrong. My body, slowly filling up with pleasure, doubling over on itself time and time again, had finally reached its capacity and the pleasure had nowhere else to go. I whimpered as a sharp sensation penetrated me and set me moving suddenly faster, grinding against him. Nico grunted as I moved, now accustomed to our slow love-making, he was unprepared for this change of pace and style and it had laid him low. I felt his powerful organ buck and swell inside of me as my body strained toward the apex alongside of him.
"Yes, Nico, yes!”
His hands took hold of my fast-pumping hips and took control of my movement, working me over his straining cock, faster and harder so the water splashed around us. His breaths were coming in growling rasps as he held my gaze. We were nearly there, sharp seconds dividing us from the ultimate pleasure, and then...
"Fuck!" Nico groaned.
I screamed a split second later as the dam burst that had, for so impossibly long, held back sensations, which would now not be denied. How he had held back for so long I did not know, his strength and stamina had been taxed to the limits and his final reward was almost overwhelming. I threw myself flat against him, biting his shoulder to stop myself from screaming any more as my body exploded into a mind-blowing orgasm. I half expected the water around us to hiss as his cock jerked and swelled, spurting inside me in a hot rush.
For a long while, we stayed that way, our bodies coming down from the incredible high. I was the first to recover the power of speech. “Water’s freezing,” I murmured.
"Should probably get out," said Nico.
"I don't think I have the strength."
"Me neither."
I was a little proud of that. How many people could wear out someone like Nico?
"That was amazing."
I shook my head. "Amazing is just a word. That was..." I pulled a face and Nico laughed.
"I don't know if I should... Cat," he looked into my eyes with a childlike expression of honesty, "I think I love you."
"I'm damn well sure I love you."
Well, I had said it now and there was no taking it back. Nothing had been solved. I still had a whole trunk of baggage between us - all of us - to unpack and deal with. But here and now, I’d spoken my truth and so had he.
We managed to drag ourselves out of the tub and dried each other. Wiped out and aching all over though I was, when Nico dried the tenderness between my legs, I felt a throb of fresh desire. How could that possibly be? And it seemed to be mutual, as when I rubbed the towel as gently as possible along the swinging length of Nico's member, I felt it stirring.
We padded back into the bedroom, naked and unashamed.
"I laid out your pajamas for you," said Nico, pointing to the bed.
I looked back at him steadily. "I don't think I'm going to need them tonight. Do you?"
As I looked, I could see his cock stiffening.
“No." He crossed the room and took me in his arms.
Tomorrow would come soon enough.
Chapter 11
I entered a scuzzy alleyway that looked very reminiscent of the one in which we had fought the dogs, with Alexei, Nico and Christoph beside me. There was no one else there and I turned around to ask the guys if we were in the right place, and found that Remi was standing there with them.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I'm always with you," he replied, and that seemed to satisfy me.
"Look out!" Alexei pointed and I spun back to find the alley was no longer empty. And no longer an alley. As I turned, I found that we were now in a cave. Stalactites hung from the roof, the walls were scarred and rough, and piles of bones, some still red with blood, lay on the floor. Standing before us was a bum I had never seen before and yet now remembered was the man we were here to see, because one of us - me? Alexei? - had recalled a one-eyed homeless man who would be a good substitute for a Cyclops.
"What do you want?" he asked in a booming voice, wholly disproportionate to his size.
I opened my mouth to say “I don't know”, but no sound came out and I stood there in front of him, mouthing like a goldfish.
The man peered at me with his single black eye, then threw back his head and roared like an animal, his voice echoing around the cave, which suddenly seemed far larger, expanded to a vast cavern stretching for miles. As he roared, the bum grew, larger and larger, filling the cavern. I didn't see his clothes tear or his face change, but when I looked, I saw those clothes were gone, only a ragged loincloth shrouding his thickly haired body, while his single eye seemed to have moved to the center of his forehead, more like the traditional Cyclops.
"Get back!" I heard Nico yell as he grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me behind him. It was only then I realized that the Cyclops had been grabbing for me and now its massive hand closed about Nico. I heard the crunc
h of his bones and saw him spit blood. I shrieked his name, but he was past hearing.
As Alexei and Christoph raced forward to avenge their friend, I looked about for Remi, desperate to keep my brother, who had no part in this, from harm. But he was gone. Perhaps he had run. Which was just as well.
Looking back, I saw Alexei and Christoph drawing swords, which I now remembered that they had had all along. They struck at the giant Cyclops, but it batted away their stabs and slashes as if they were no more than insects. With a careless swipe of its clawed hand, it sent Christoph flying into the rock wall of the cavern. I heard his body break, and saw it drop to the floor, limp and lifeless. Finally, Alexei managed to get a good hit in, his sword drawing blood that bubbled thick and dark green from the gash he had cut in the creature's leg.
But all he had done was anger it. With a snarl of fury, the Cyclops grabbed Alexei, sweeping him off the ground then, holding him by one leg, it dangled him down into its mouth, filled with dirty yellow teeth. I howled as I saw it bite Alexei in half. I buried my face in my hands as hot tears rushed down my cheeks.
Then I felt the heat - all around me and pressing in. I looked up and found the cavern wreathed in flames, the bare walls burning, the piles of bones turned to bonfires. I turned to run and there behind me was Remi again, staring at me in horror.
"Help me," was all he said before he burst into flames.
I shrieked afresh and tried to run to him, but my feet refused to move. I was forced to stand and watch as my brother burned, holding his arms out to me, pleading through his anguish for a help I could not give. I screamed my throat raw as the flames blazed - yet never touched me - and cried my eyes dry.
Now, the smoke was so thick I could barely see, the cavern choked with it. I breathed in ash, tasting blood in it and somehow knowing that it was that of my brother and my friends. My feet would move now and I ran, but met only fire whichever way I turned. I coughed through the smoke and now tasted my own blood, coughed up from my raw throat. Then, through the smoke and flame, a shadow moved. It was nothing definite, and certainly nothing I could focus on as my eyes watered. It was a presence - something I was more aware of than something I saw.
But I did hear it. Or what I assumed was its voice, a voice that arrived in my head without going through my ears. A soft voice, androgynous and anonymous. It could have been man or woman, god or mortal, but it spoke with a biting irony.
“So, this is humanity's hero? The great hope of mankind? You have failed. How does it feel to know that your incompetence has doomed your race? How does it feel to have the blood of so many on your clumsy hands? The blood of your friends, your brother, your mother. All will burn because of you. The earth will be a scorched and scarred ball of rock, floating in the heavens with but one inhabitant. You. So you can know the depths of your failure. You will live as long as the earth, and in your isolation, you will learn the true meaning of insanity."
The cave had gone, burned or vanished from around me, and I stood alone in a charred, desolate wasteland, nothing as far as the eye could see. This was what was left of earth. This was what my failure had meant.
This was my home until the end of time.
I awoke with a start, gasping for breath and feeling the tears still wet on my face. For a moment, I could not understand or believe where I was. It had been so real. Even with all the impossibilities and the stuff that had made no sense, it had still felt so very, very real. It was with a choking relief that my terrified brain finally allowed me to believe that it had been just a dream, and I gulped out guttural sobs, which dissolved into silent weeping in my hands as I sat in bed shaking.
When the tears and terror had passed, I looked about the room again, perhaps still needing some sign that this was indeed real. That assurance came in the comfortingly massive shape of Nico, curled under the covers beside me, his mighty chest rising and falling in time with his soft breaths as he slept. He was alive. They were all alive and the earth still lived.
My panic had failed to wake Nico but he had earned a good night's sleep. We had made love long into the night, up to and beyond the point of delicious exhaustion. Even so, there was no way I was going to be able to go back to sleep now. Careful not to wake him, I swung my feet to the floor and tiptoed across the room to grab some clothes.
Minutes later, and with a robe over my pajamas and wooly socks on my feet, I entered the lounge and made for the coffee table. Perhaps it was no more than anxiety, but I needed to check the scroll now. I was still very aware that yesterday's task had been a bit of a Hail Mary and there was a chance that Zeus hadn't allowed it. Maybe that was what had caused that dream.
Either way, I needed to check so I at least knew what I was facing.
I could have woken the guys and told them what had happened - they wouldn’t have complained and would probably have insisted on checking with me. But this time, I needed to do it alone. If I’d failed, I was going to need some time to recover and get my confidence back.
With trembling fingers, I picked up the scroll and unrolled it. The sound of the paper crackling seemed abnormally loud in my nervous state. It was dark in the lounge and I had to flick on a lamp on a side table to be able to read the words on the scroll.
For the second time in the past hour, I was overcome with an almost physical sense of relief pouring through me; there was a new task. I found myself reading it out loud, albeit whispering to myself.
"I am known as the murderer of the sea, and only the bravest swim beside me, but our numbers dwindle, another dying breed, swim by my side if you wish to succeed."
What the fuck?
Much as I liked the guys, not having them here now, adding to the pressure I already felt, unintentionally or not, was a relief. It allowed me to think in the peace and quiet of the night.
I sat back on the couch and let the words play through my head. There's a reason that I don't do the New York Times crossword every week, and it's not just that I kind of think it's for dorks.
“Murderer of the sea”.
That had to be a great white shark, didn't it? I'd seen Jaws, and the sequels - 2 is okay, 3D is awful, and the one with Michael Caine is one of the worst films I've ever seen. But I'd also seen documentaries that tried to show how great whites weren't as bad as films like Jaws suggested - they were just animals trying to eat, and “murderer” was a very emotive word. In fact, if there was a “murderer of the sea” then it was arguably mankind - that was certainly how Poseidon would see it. But that explanation didn't really square with the rest of the task “only the bravest swim with me”, “our numbers dwindle”, “dying breed”; none of those were phrases that applied to humanity, with the possible exception of “dying breed”, if the gods had their way.
So how else could I interpret “murderer”? Half the sea's population killed the other half - that wasn't murder, it was just Mother Nature.
Killed.
I sat up and looked at the task again, heart beating a little faster.
Murderer of the sea.
A killer whale. They were a dying breed with dwindling numbers. It made perfect sense.
"What are you doing up?"
I started and looked up to see Alexei strolling in, wearing the sweat pants he slept in. As always in these situations, my eyes dwelt too long on the contoured muscles of his torso, which seemed to gleam in the moonlight as he passed the window.
Didn't I have any self-control? It was only a few hours ago that I'd been having sex with Nico. I had a problem.
"Couldn't sleep," I said, dragging my gaze away and gesturing to the scroll. "Thought I might as well get a start on this. And, good news, the siren thing worked."
“That’s great news, but once I heard her sing, I was pretty sure you had it down. She had to be part siren, no doubt.”
I shoved back an unwanted sizzle of jealousy and nodded. “Yeah, I think so, too. What are you doing up, anyway?”
“Came to get a glass of water," Alexei replied, as he wandere
d through to the kitchen and I heard the tap. "So, what's the task?"
I read it out to him and he considered it as he reentered the lounge and sipped his water.
"Any thoughts?"
"Yeah," I hedged. "But it's going to be tough."
Alexei shrugged. "Hasn't stopped you so far."
"I guess."
"Guess, nothing. You're killing it, Cat." He grinned and let his eyes slide lower, leaving a trail of heat behind. "I'm going back to bed, if you get tired and want to join me.”
“Noted,” I said, resisting the urge to follow him. I was still all twisted up about my time with Nico and the things we’d said to one another. Adding more to that pile of complications right now seemed foolhardy at best. Besides, I needed more time to work through the logistics of this new task.
Once he was gone, I went online and began looking up aquariums in the area. Keeping orcas in captivity has gone right out of fashion with the rise of environmentalism – though, I guess there's still an argument for breeding them in captivity as long as people keep killing them in the wild. No wonder Poseidon hated us. But there are a few bucking the trend, which, right now, was very convenient to me. The closest I could find was a place in Connecticut called Ocean World - no one sprained anything coming up with that name - which housed an orca called Porthos. As I dug a little deeper, I found numerous petitions circulating and demonstrations being organized to free Porthos, which was fine with me, just as long as they didn't free him until I'd saved the world.
Now, I just needed a way to get in.
A few hours later, I was still chewing on that problem.
”I don't like it."
The guys had joined me in the lounge one by one, meandering in to make breakfast. I caught Nico's eye as he entered, but if he had any ill feelings about waking up in my bed alone, then he didn't show it. Did any of them know that I had slept with the others? My father's apartment was big enough that a person could have quite noisy sex without other people in the apartment knowing about it, so it was entirely plausible that they were all still in ignorance.
Her Immortal Harem Book Two Page 8
