8 Mara’s Plan
Mara's Plan
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
THE WATER IN THE COVE splashed warmly against Mara’s feet while she combed out her hair and hummed an ancient sea-song under her breath.
A leisurely swim and bath in the ocean had been the perfect excuse to get away from the hustle and bustle of the brothel for a while.
From the piercing gaze of Alex Duprez and the jade lynx eyes of Roxanne O'Toole.
She had them where she wanted them: which was to say, firmly in her debt.
Once she availed herself of Duprez’s ear and Roxanne's trust, Mara had proven herself to be invaluable to the prosperous trade of a brothel. But while she had risen in her situation, it was a far cry from the freedom she once knew in the waters that had given birth to her.
“I will never return home again,” she sighed, eyeing the placid azure waters before her. “There is no such thing as True Love in this world.” Closing her eyes, she let the hand that was holding her comb drop into the water as a warm breeze kissed her cheeks.
“Your brother would likely disagree with you.”
That invasive voice! It prodded the insides of Mara’s mind in a way nothing had since she'd left the sea.
Her eyes flew open. “Lord Scarletclaw?”
“Lady Maraxilla,” the crab tapped his claw to his shell in a polite salute.
“Are you here checking on my brother for Mami Wata, my Lord?” Mara tried to hold back a grimace; it wasn't the crab's fault that Mami Wata had abandoned her.
“Checking, my Lady, but not on her behalf. I had heard from the sea what had befallen my old master and wanted to see it for myself. Ah, Silverfin has lost a limb and gained a lover!” The crab made a lewd gesture with one of his claws and twirled his mustache.
“And now he has all but forgotten about his original plan - ha! Biped emissions will do that to you, don’t you agree? Addles one’s brain, it does.”
“Silence, you impudent crustacean!” Mara snapped and smacked the crab with her comb, sending him scurrying under a rock.
She was about to put the nagging crab from her mind, when something about his words stayed her. “Wait, Scarletclaw. Come back here.”
The crab poked a dubious eyestalk from behind his fortress.
“What did you say? About my brother’s original plan?”
“Did he not share his foolhardy plan with his dear sister? The knave. Why, he was planning on giving Captain Hawk the location and schedule of the Estrela do Norte, the Portuguese treasure galleon. You know as well as I do that any treasure on the seas belongs to Mami Wata!”
“Silverfin knows better now than to steal from Mami Wata,” Mara replied, despite simultaneously thinking that her idiot brother very likely did not, in fact, know better. “And what do the merfolk have planned for the Estrela?”
“They’re going to sink her, of course. When she passes off the eastern coast of what the bipeds call Florida.”
“Oh, you mean Phallandia.” Mara rolled her eyes at the thoughts of the giant land-peen.
“Why do you ask?” Lord Scarletclaw edged closer.
“No reason,” Mara snapped. “What do I care for Mami Wata’s treasure?
I can never return to the waters.” She waved the crab attendant off and rose to leave the shore.
“Silverfin paid a high price for his happiness,” she sighed, looking out onto the waves.
“But at least he can return home once his hair grows back. Goodbye, Lord Scarletclaw.”
With another demonstrative sigh, she walked back towards the streets of Port Royal. As she walked, a slow and bright smile stretched across her face, her mind moving a mile a minute.
She could not ever return to the sea, and she'd long ago accepted that. But it seemed there was yet one way for her to win herself a life of luxury in Port Royal that better accorded her station as a sea princess. And she even had two perfect accomplices to achieve her goal.
Mara was going to steal the gold from the Estrela do Norte.
It was becoming achingly familiar waking up in Captain Hawk’s arms, their warm bodies tangled around each other, cocooned in twisted sheets.
Sometime before passing out, Hawk had cleaned up the remains of their passion to make sleeping more comfortable, but Silverfin could still sense Hawk on his skin, the tongue that teased him, the hands that tortured him, the lips that sent the most delicious shudder of desire down his spine.
Hawk was still asleep behind him, arm shoved a little awkwardly into the space between Silverfin's neck and the pillow, free arm flung around him, hand resting low on Silverfin's bare hip.
The sheet still covered his bottom half, including his still-healing stump of a leg, and Silverfin was overcome by another soft rush of anger and shame. Fucking sharks.
The pain, at least, had faded to a dull ache, almost nothing when he didn't put pressure on it.
Doc LeBaron had been astounded at how fast he was healing the last time he'd checked his bandages, but Silverfin wasn't; what remained of his legs was still a gift from Mami Wata, and she would maintain that gift.
He closed his eyes and tried to relax, tried to quiet his mind, to search for the sleep that was eluding him.
It wasn't easy; it was morning, and he had a naked man curled up against his back, one who was long desired and very much cherished.
Silverfin's body well remembered the night before, and raised a simple and obvious request for more.
It didn't help that Hawk seemed to be slowly waking, stirring against his back, fingers stroking small, sleepy circles low on his hip.
His lover - what an amazing word - stretched against him, pressing a sleepy kiss to the nape of Silverfin's neck, and then very deliberately pressed his hips against Silverfin's ass as his fingers slipped down to tease the base of Silverfin's partial erection, letting him know very clearly that he wasn't the only one who wanted more.
Silverfin rocked back against Hawk almost without thinking, breath leaving him in a soft sigh of pleasure. "Good morning, Captain."
"The best morning," the rich voice behind him murmured in agreement, and Hawk's kisses started to trail up his neck, sucking gently at the soft spot just behind his ear, exactly how he liked it. He let out a moan, arching back against his captain, his desire suddenly more than just a suggestion, and reached back to catch Hawk’s hip, pulling him closer.
His lover emitted a soft groan, nipping lightly at Silverfin's earlobe. "Good morning, my little darling."
Silverfin shivered against him, whimpering as Hawk's fingers curled around his inflamed - erect - cock, stroking him slowly. "Always yours," he murmured softly, rocking lightly back against Hawk's hips. His lover let out a soft hiss of pleasure against his hair.
"Positively indecent to molest you before breakfast," he murmured, and Silverfin laughed softly, turning to embrace him, to catch Hawk's lips with his own.
He'd expected to be nervous when they were like this, intimate and vulnerable with Hawk, but somehow it all melted away under the pleasure of Hawk's kisses and Hawk's hands on his body.
As if it was the most natural, familiar thing in the world to arch closer to him, letting their legs tangle together.
To run his hands over Hawk's chest and shoulders, to yield to yearning kisses.
Even the taste of him was somehow right, his scent, the feel of his russet whirls of chest hair under Silverfin's fingers.
"What if I am breakfast?" He suggested, hooking his bad leg over Hawk's hip to squirm closer to him. His lover treated him to a soft, appreciative moan, arms tightening around him, starting to kiss down the length of his body.
"What if you are breakfast? You wicked thing.
" He wrapped his fingers around Silverfin's erection, stroking slowly, firmly, and Silverfin found he could hardly breathe as his lover's mouth slowly moved lower, until he was nuzzling the length of his erection, licking up the underside before taking his head in his mouth with no hesitation.
Silverfin groaned at the delicious surge of sensation, hot and wet, teasing and pleasuring him.
He tangled his fingers helplessly in Hawk's hair, part of his mind wondering how on earth Hawk figured out how to do that with his tongue.
Hawk had moved on to cupping his balls, teasing and caressing as he sucked him, and Silverfin found he couldn't think about anything beyond what Hawk was doing to him and how absolutely, overwhelmingly good it was.
Still, as much as he longed to lose himself in the pleasure of Hawk's mouth the way he had many times over the past few days, he needed more. "Hawk - "
Then Hawk's fingertips pressed back into the sensitive skin behind his sack in a way that made Silverfin’s toes curl, and his body arch and buck up into his lover's mouth despite himself, fingers clenching in Hawk's hair. "Oh, gods!"
Hawk eased back with soft laughter, pressing a kiss to the head of his cock. Silverfin suddenly forced his fingers to release their rough grip of the man's hair. "I'm sorry - "
"Shh." His lover's tongue flicked against his cockhead. "Just relax," Hawk breathed softly, but it was so difficult when everything inside him ached for more.
Watching his lover swallow his cock, Silverfin couldn't help but think that having breakfast in bed was the most incredible thing he'd ever experienced. With breakfast being, of course, his cock. Hawk was attentive and incredible, never failing to drive Silverfin out of his mind with desire.
But as good as it was, something inside him ached. He didn't even know what he was asking for, but he needed more. "Oh gods, Hawk... please - I need..."