Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Simbel
I was learning all sorts of things about boating and clamming:
When you’re out past sunset, your boat needs to have a stern light—white—and bow lights—red for port, green for starboard—so other boats can tell which direction you’re going. We set ours up before we left, even though it didn’t get dark until we were at the lighthouse.
The sandy island, which had so many clams last week, was practically empty now. Rissa said this was either because of the hour, or the moon, or magical ocean spirits . I took that to mean she didn’t know either.
This doesn’t stop you from looking for clams—sounds like the title of a sex tape, doesn’t it?—and laughing about all the crazy shit that happened at the Oyster Festival—another sex tape title?—after Memnon and his boss Maya found out about the whole Kelly-in-the-silent-auction thing.
It can be a lot of fun, tromping around a sandbar in the dark, laughing. Just the two of you, way out in the middle of the water, no cell reception, surrounded by nothing. It was humbling.
However, if you tromp too far along the sandbar, looking for practically nonexistent clams and chuckling about your idiot brother’s obliviousness, you will lose track of time.
“What do you mean, we’re stuck?” Rissa’s voice had gone all shrill, after I sheepishly told her the boat was sitting in sand. “Oh God, we missed the tide?”
I should probably apologize for distracting her with those kisses…but I wasn’t going to. There’d been something damn alluring about being out here alone, and when we’d both turned off our headlamps to avoid blinding each other, I hadn’t been able to resist pulling her against me and kissing her.
And touching her.
And now my Kteer positively ached to claim her.
But the whole her hyperventilating thing had put a major crimp in my arousal.
“Whoa, whoa, dkaar ,” I murmured, pulling my headlamp off and grabbing her as she swung past me. I pulled her to my chest and ran my hand up and down her spine. “ It’s going to be okay, I promise. I’m sorry I can’t push the boat out.”
“I don’t care how strong you are, you can’t lift a Boston Whaler!” I could feel her bouncing in my hold, as if she was desperate to be moving. But I didn’t like this frantic energy of hers, and was trying to calm her. “This is my fault!”
“What?” I buried my face in her hair. “You’ve been perfect, Rissa. If anything, it’s my fault.”
“No, it’s mine!” She finally succeeded in pushing away from me, and began to pace, the light from her lamp bobbing up and down. “Oh, God, I knew something like this would happen! I knew it!”
I was beginning to realize this wasn’t just a normal freak out. “Rissa, it’ll be okay. The tide will change in…” I did a quick calculation in my head. “We’ll be floated off here by midnight at the latest.” I mean, it’s not like it was permanent. Tides changed twice a day, right?
But the reminder didn’t seem to help. If anything, Rissa’s pace increased, and now she was tugging on her hair and groaning.
Frowning, I clambered aboard the boat and began to root around for what we needed. Since it was heeled over on its keel, the footing was a little unstable, but I remembered where we’d stashed everything.
I climbed out with the cooler, the emergency blankets, my sweater, and her rain slicker. Also, a set of matches and some tinder I hoped to put to good use .
“Here, Rissa,” I murmured, holding out my sweatshirt as she stalked by. Luckily, it distracted her enough to stop, and she glanced at me in surprise.
“You’re tense.” I offered it again. “If you warm up, maybe you’ll relax a little?”
She blew out a breath and, with a nod, took it from me. When she pulled it over her head, I had to smile, because the waist hung down around her thighs. She held up her hands, the sleeves draped way past her wrists, and she snorted.
“At least you’ll be cozy?” I asked.
Her sigh turned into a groan, and she spun away. “How could I have been so stupid?”
“Hey, stop, dkaar .” My Kteer was growling with frustration at the helplessness I was feeling. “This is my fault for distracting you. I’m sorry.” There. I said it. “I shouldn’t have kissed you—”
“I shouldn’t have let you kiss me!” she all but shrieked, turning back to me, rolling the sleeves of my shirt up past her hands. “I can’t believe I—”
When she bit off her words, I stared, a pit of dread opening in my stomach.
“You…didn’t want me to kiss you?” I whispered.
She groaned again and turned away, pulling on her hair again. “I like you, Simbel. A lot . But this is what happens when I let myself have fun! When I act all immature and irresponsible, something goes wrong! I’m a mother , for God’s sake! I can’t be running around after dark, kissing a guy! Oh, fuck ! Patrick! ”
My Kteer didn’t like the sound of her kissing anyone besides me, but I stepped up to her and caught her hand. “What is it? What are you afraid of?”
I’d left my headlamp on the boat, turned to lantern mode, and that allowed me to see the anguish on her face when she turned to me.
“Patrick is alone at Ethan’s! It’s a Saturday night, and I’m not going to be home until at least one in the morning!” With another groan of anguish, she dropped her forehead to my chest. “Who knows what kind of mischief they’re going to get up to?”
Although my heart was breaking for her panic, a part of me appreciated that she’d turned to me, relied on me, in her distress. “Oh, dkaar ,” I murmured, rubbing my hand up her spine. “Trick is a good kid. I mean it. He’s smart and will make good decisions. I know it.”
“How?” she wailed against my chest. “How could you possibly know that?”
“Because.” I dropped a kiss to her head. “You raised him, didn’t you? You taught him how to be a good person. He’s trying to influence his group of friends, yeah? Even if you’re not at home with him on a Saturday night, he’ll remember what you taught him.”
She didn’t answer for a long time, but I felt her shoulders slowly relax. She sniffed once or twice but didn’t lift her head. I hoped this was a good sign, and the panic was abating.
Luckily, the night was relatively warm for spring, especially stuck out in the Atlantic Ocean, and I knew how to keep us warmer. “Come on,” I murmured, tugging her back toward the boat. “Let’s get cozy. We have a few hours until I can push us back into the water.”
She went along uncomplainingly, and I arranged one of the blankets along the hull, in the lee of the wind. After making sure she was settled on it and rooting through the cooler, I loped up toward the high-water mark, where the tides had deposited bleached driftwood.
The lighthouse—long ago automated and abandoned—collected detritus and dunes, and I was quickly able to gather an armful of dried driftwood and dried grasses. Once back by the boat, I arranged them in a pattern I hadn’t thought of in ten years.
“Heh,” I snorted, as I struck the match and laid it against the tinder. “I can’t believe I used to do this all the time. I think this is the first campfire I’ve made since I’ve come to your world. I would’ve killed for matches back then.”
Rissa made a little noise, but when I glanced at her, she was staring down at the unopened bottle of water she was holding between her palms, her knees all drawn up as she huddled against the boat’s hull.
“Oh, dkaar ,” I murmured, my heart squeezing for her. I hurried to get a blaze going and then, when it was roaring merrily—the salt-soaked wood caused the flames to jump and sizzle—I crawled over to her side.
My chest ached with the need to comfort her, but I also didn’t want to presume. “Rissa?” When she finally glanced up, her expression gaunt, I opened my arms. “Can I help?”
Without a word, she crawled into my lap .
I sighed in relief and wrapped my arms around her, resting my chin on her head. “I’m sorry,” I said again. “I was having a really nice time.”
“Me too,” she sniffed. “I wish…”
When she trailed off, my Kteer began to whine in fear. “What?” I prompted, praying to the old gods that she wasn’t going to blurt I wish I’d never come .
Instead, she sighed. “I wish I could still be having a nice time.” She tipped her head back and offered me a small smile. “A beautiful night, a campfire, and a hot guy? I should be enjoying myself. Instead, I’m worried sick about Patrick.”
“He’ll be fine, Rissa, I promise.” I began to rub her arm, and she let out a little noise—was it agreement?—and sort of tipped sideways to press her cheek against my shoulder.
“He’s a good kid,” she whispered.
My lips curled ruefully as I lifted my hand to her shoulder and began to rub it. “He is. And you’re an amazing mother who has done a great job of raising him.”
“He likes you.” She paused. “I think…you could be good for him.”
“I want nothing more than that, dkaar .”
I froze as soon as the words had left my mouth, unsure how much I had confessed. Unsure what she’d noticed.
But what she asked was, “What does dah-car mean? You keep using it. ”
Ah.
Well, she was right. We were alone out here in the middle of the ocean, the stars bright above us, and a cozy fire to warm us. Why not tell her how I felt?
I swallowed, knowing I was about to make the single most important confession of my life. “It means beloved .”
She huffed slightly, and I could feel her warmth through my shirt. “Like sweetheart or honey ?”
Taking a deep breath, I held the scent of Rissa on my tongue. “No. Orc males…we only use dkaar to refer to our Mates.”
For a long moment, she didn’t respond, and I realized I was holding my breath. Then she hummed, and I felt myself exhaling. Slowly, hesitantly, I began to rub her shoulder again, then her neck.
Finally, she stirred. “So…does that mean we’re like…exclusive?”
My caress moved to her neck, and when she moaned under her breath and dropped her head forward, I smiled. “It means there will never be another female for me, Rissa.”
“Oh yeah?” She lifted her gaze to mine, her lips twitching just slightly. “And that’s why you’re massaging me?”
“I’m trying to distract you from your panic.”
She wriggled on my lap. “It’s working.”
When that perfect ass of hers cradled my cock, my fingers involuntarily stiffened, clasping her neck. The sweet scent of her arousal floated through the air, and I swallowed down my growl.
Instead, I forced my fingers to move again, to dig into the back of her head, to tug her hair just slightly, as my other hand slid up her thigh.
“So you’re not panicked anymore?” I rasped.
“Mmmm.” She wriggled again, and this time, her hands rose to rest on my chest as she tipped her head back, her lips parted. “I’m thinking about something else now.”
My hand slid up her side. “Something good?” I whispered, just before my palm cupped her tit.
“Very good,” she moaned, leaning into my touch.
My Kteer crooned in relief, knowing I’d confessed myself to my Mate, and I leaned down to capture her lips with mine. Her arm rose around my neck, and she twisted until she was almost facing me, my cock throbbing against the warmth of her pussy.
As we kissed, my hands slid inside her shirt—inside my shirt—until I could touch her skin. I hesitated when I reached her bra, and she pulled away long enough to whisper, “It snaps in the front.”
And I nearly laughed in relief.
I released her breasts with an audible sigh from both of us, which turned into a moan as I cupped them. Gods of the ancestors, they felt so fucking perfect in my palms!
“Rissa,” I murmured against her jaw as I dragged my tusks along her skin, causing her to shiver with need. “I can think of a way to distract you for the next few hours. ”
Humming, she rocked forward, her blue-jeans-encased thighs cradling me. “I want that,” she gasped. “Oh, God, Simbel,” she moaned as I rolled her nipple between my thumb and forefinger. “This is probably a bad idea, reckless, but…” Another moan of surrender. “Please.”
“Please, what, dkaar ?”
Say this is more than just a distraction for you .
She lifted her head with a gasp, and her gaze met mine. “Make me yours.”
My Kteer howled in joy, and I grinned. “Gladly, Mate.”