Page 47

“God, yes. Please.”

Syrus started stroking. His hand was slick and sticky from the lube he’d used. Big and broad with those soft, soft fingers. Luke couldn’t take it. The pressure was building inside him. He was hot—so hot—even with Syrus’s cool skin pressed against him. He trembled and shook, a hoarse cry leaving him as he erupted over Syrus’s fist.

Syrus groaned, barely letting Luke shudder through it before he was rolling Luke over onto his belly and pounding into him. Luke dug his fingers into the sheets and let himself be used, fucked through the remaining tremors of his own orgasm. It wasn’t long until Syrus let out a low animal sound and filled Luke with warmth.

Luke could only lie with his cheek pressed into the mattress, panting like he’d been the one doing all the work.

Syrus nuzzled at the back of his neck. “Sweet Luke. You undo me.”

What was there to say to that? Nothing Luke could think of—he was the one undone. His brain was mush. He continued to lie there, letting Syrus stroke and nuzzle. Eventually he mustered the wherewithal to ask, “What time is it?”

“Early,” Syrus said cheerfully. “Would you like one of your showers, Luke?”

That was probably a good idea. Dropping Colby off at day care while Luke reeked of sex with merman cum dripping down his thighs didn’t sound too appealing. “Yes.”

A kiss to his neck. “Be quick. We have an errand to run.”

Luke blinked at the wall. “We do?”

“We do. It’s time to take me to the ocean.”

It was unsettling, the way Luke was blindsided by a moment of sheer, unadulterated panic, dread sinking into his stomach like stone.

Was this it? Syrus was suddenly ready to return to the water? To his own kind? He’d seduced Luke like he’d wanted and now he was leaving him behind?

But then there was another kiss to Luke’s neck, followed by a soothing hum. “I must stretch my fins, tend to this ache in my bones. We’ll still have time to take Colby to day care afterward.”

Right. Luke sucked in much-needed breath. Syrus had to be in his merman form now and again. Of course he did. Luke was being ridiculous. It was just the confusion of the early morning and his sex-addled brain. Because even if Syrus did want to leave, Luke wasn’t going to fall into any crazed, blind panic. Great sex was great sex, but Luke would still be able to let him go.

Wouldn’t he?

Luke grunted as Syrus finally withdrew his softened cock. He rolled Luke over onto his back and studied his face. Whatever he saw there must not have reflected Luke’s odd moment of anxiety, because a slow grin spread over Syrus’s stunning features.

“Poor Luke,” he crooned with false sympathy. “I’ve debauched you terribly.”

It was a beautiful winter morning to be out at the beach. There were clouds but no rain, a chill to the air but no fog to obscure the view. And while it was dark and quiet, the sky had already begun to lighten with the promise of dawn.

Colby had woken shortly after Luke and Syrus had rinsed off the night’s activities (which had maybe taken longer than it should have, considering Syrus’s fascination with soaping up Luke’s chest hair). Luke’s son was bundled now in his best layers, his cheeks pink from the cold but his brown eyes wide with delight.

Colby had always loved the water. When summer came around, he could be turning blue and goose-bumped from too long wading in the freezing waters of the Pacific, and Luke would still have to tear him away under great protest. Luckily, Colby hadn’t asked to go in the water yet this morning, maybe because it wasn’t fully light outside and he didn’t realize such a thing was even a possibility.

The three of them were the only ones here. Luke wasn’t sure what they would have done if they’d had company either. Maybe Syrus would have tried to use his dulcet tones to compel any strangers away.

They trudged out onto the sand, Luke with Colby on his hip and Syrus beside them, until they got to the rocky outcrop of tide pools Luke had needed to scramble over to “rescue” Syrus that fateful morning. Had that really only been a few days ago? It already felt like a lifetime had passed. Maybe in its way it had, considering all that Luke had learned since then.

The tide was higher this morning than it had been that day, and only a bit of rock jutted out from the water. Syrus immediately began stripping, tossing his clothes carelessly onto the jagged stone. Luke set Colby down and let him occupy himself with scooping up sand, grateful they were past the days when that might have included trying to scoop it right into his mouth.

Luke couldn’t help watching Syrus, as much as he tried to resist. Nor could he stop the heat that rose in his cheeks when he remembered how masterfully that broad body had covered him barely an hour ago.

Not just covered him but filled him. Taken him.

For once, Syrus’s eyes weren’t on Luke in turn. They were on the water, a deep reverent longing unmistakable on his pretty face.

He’d missed it, no matter what he said. Of course he’d missed it. It was his home.

How can two people belong together if they aren’t even meant to breathe the same air?

The question came unbidden, and Luke sucked in a harsh breath as he failed to answer it. No matter what he understood or didn’t understand about this mate thing, he didn’t want to be thinking like that, not after the night and morning they’d had together.