“Cocks?”
“Condoms.They used to make them out of sheep’s intestines, youknow.”
“Don’t make me laugh.This is a big, serious, full-on fuck I’mgiving you.”
“Yes.”Merou writhed under him, pushed up to meet his nextstroke.“Yes, it is.Come on and give it.You feel sogood.”
Thestorm was beginning in earnest.A buffet of wind hit the tower,hard enough to rattle the windows and call a passive bellow fromthe depths of the foghorn.Priddy hoped Kit and Geoff were snug intheir cottage, that noble-hearted Trewin and Dave had made itsafely home with their survivors.He wished everyone could havewhat he was experiencing now: safe haven with someone they loved,the rock and the sway of the gale reaching inward to meet passion’srise.He pushed a hand under Merou’s belly and took hold of hisrigid shaft.Merou grated out his name, reached back and strokedhis thigh, the gesture at once tender and frantic.“Harder, please.More.”
Priddywould give him everything, as hard and as long as he liked.Hecould: a new stamina had grown up inside him, a framework offlexible steel.There were a million gateways to manhood, but thisone was Priddy’s, the uncertain lad with his doubts and hispremature ejaculation washed away in the tide.He cried out inexcitement as Merou began to grind against his hand, got a gripwith the other one on the frame of the bunk and laid into him fastand deep.Muscles were standing across Merou’s shoulders, sweatbreaking out on him.“Priddy, make me come!”
“I will.”Like the storm, like waves and white horses explodingto diamonds on the rocks.Priddy found a faster beat, a deeperreach inside.Merou yelled and fought: jolted up suddenly onto hishands and knees, and that was better still, the tight-clenchedback-to-belly bond where they would find each other, knock down allthe barricades.This was the place where loneliness would end.Priddy leaned over him, kissing his neck.“Come with me now, lover!Now!”
Hot liquid began to spill over his knuckles.Orgasm startedall over him—the tearing sweetness of buds ripping open inspringtime, in his hands and feet, under his stomach and his heart,every muscle in his body ecstatically clenching to deliver him.Hetried to scramble down, not to let it be over so soon, thisblissful communion—and something seized him, the sensation a fishmust feel, being grabbed from a lake by an eagle, a wild upwardsnatch.Merou was shaking beneath him, laughter edging his cries.Up and back, and here came the climax-rush again, and he wasn’tcaught up in this wave: he was riding it, the surf of a lifetime,the Cribbar surge that roiled in from the Atlantic on Fistral Beachonce a year, and all the wild-hearted, semi-suicidal boys and girlslined up to greet it on their boards, crying outshall us ride ’un or no...Back and up again, and this time Priddy couldn’t bear it, andchoked out a plea for release against Merou’s ear.Whatever you’re doing, stop.Let us go.You’rekilling me.
Oh, my Priddy.You can bear so much more than you know.Butlet’s take it—let’s ride the Cribbar—now, yes, now...
He camewith a force that swept blackout stars across his field of vision.Merou jolted back to meet his thrusts, again and again, theirshouts flying outward to join with the voice of the wind.It tookPriddy all he had not to do as he’d feared, not to drop like astone on top of him when he was done.When the last shudder ofpleasure had racked its way through him, when he was spent, buriedballs-deep but lax and utterly done, he pulled out as gently as hecould, still extracting a rueful groan from Merou.Priddy foldeddown beside him.He could hardly catch his breath.“I thought youcould only talk to me like that when we wereunderwater.”
Meroukissed his brow, then the outer corner of each eye where the tigerstripes would come, an unsteady benediction.“It seemsnot.”
“Why did it feel like that?What did you do?”
“Something I shouldn’t have.I’ve told you we can swim in time.I found the sweet spot, the good place, the beginning of the wave.And I rocked us back and forth over it a couple oftimes.”
Priddyswallowed.His voice was nothing but rasping cobwebs.“Wasn’tthat...swimming with an unqualified person?”
“Should have been.You’re not as unqualified as you were.”Merou put an arm under Priddy’s head, rolled to lie protectivelyover him, sweat and used condom and all.“You have to listen to me.If I go away from you now—if you don’t think about me, and you grabyour topside life with both hands, and for preference don’t even goswimming for a year or two, you’ll be all right.Nothing else willchange.”
Priddyhad only really heard the first part.He eased his hips luxuriantlyup into their shared, sticky heat.“Please don’t goaway.”
“Priddy.Give me yourhand.”
Priddywould’ve given him a kidney.Obediently he let Merou take hold ofhis fingers, guide them to the side of his neck.“That’s just whereyou punctured me last night, to help me breathe or equalise orwhatever it was.You don’t have to worry—it’s healed, like yousaid.”
“It hasn’t.It just doesn’t hurt.”
Priddyfelt around the edges of the wound for himself.It was longer thanhe’d thought, and it wasn’t a hole anymore—a vertical slit, rather,less horrifying than it should have been because a fold of smoothskin seemed to be holding it shut.“Jesus.What the hell isthat?”
“I’d get you a mirror, but you’re less likely to pass out ifyou just feel.Can you raise the flap?”
“The what?Of course not.”Shock rippled through him.“Theflap?”
“That’s where you’ll heal, if you take my advice and stay outof the water.You’ll forget all about it in time.Meanwhile, sinceyou’re doing everything else so much faster than you should...”Merou ran a fingertip under Priddy’s jaw.“Tense this tendon here,as if you were going to tip your head back.”
Priddydidn’t withdraw his fingers in time.Barely voluntarily he did asMerou had told him.An indescribable something shifted in themuscles of his throat.The fold of skin lifted away, and he wastouching fronds—warm tendrils, shifting like the tentacles of asea-anemone in the tide.
Hesnatched his hand away.Jerked up into Merou’s arms, gasping.“Shit!”
“It’s all right.”Merou rocked him: fiercely, tenderly,brushing his mouth over the fold, which had snapped shut again withelastic force.“It needn’t be real if you don’t wantit.”
“How can I know that?I don’t even know what it is!”
“It was only meant to stop your sinuses and inner ear fromblowing out when we dived.I’ve never known it become more thanthat, not with any of my companions.”
“What’s it become on me?”
“You want the short answer?It’s a gill, Priddy.”
