Chapter Eighteen
Austin discovered with a flare of disgust that sand had begun to bury the onyx-black rocks on the landward side.
He set to work putting his nest back as it should be.
Tristan helped, eventually ushering Austin away when the sand clogged his gills.
The merman grasped each rock and lifted, resettling them atop the gathered sand.
Austin watched in agitation until the last of the ugly sand was gone, only relaxing when the rocks were settled again and everything looked right.
He swam in, immediately settling in the centre.
Tristan curled himself around the nest, protecting the stones from the current carrying in more sand.
Austin growled, disturbing the water and making the ground tremble—but!
He needed his voice to articulate his command!
And he sensed that even if he rose to the surface to draw air and make it, the sand and water he commanded would quickly be replaced by fresh sand and water that wasn’t doing his bidding.
Tristan hummed to him.
Austin looked his way, and Tristan tapped the rock he was leaning against. He would lift it again for Austin when he liked? Austin considered the rocks and nodded. That was acceptable.
He cast a look around his surroundings, but the gloom was too thick for his eyes to pierce. Tristan was examining the water too, watchful and attentive, but not concerned. Austin knelt in the sand facing the merman and hummed an inquiring noise.
Tristan’s eyes slid from the ocean to Austin, fixing on him with an intensity that sent a tremble through his limbs.
Tristan met Austin in the middle, cupping his ribs and drawing him in. He nuzzled his cheek, his touch scalding hot against the cool ocean. Austin supposed he felt as warm to Tristan. His temperature always ran a few degrees higher than an ordinary human’s.
Austin loosely held Tristan’s wrists as his touch roamed.
Tristan worked around Austin’s drifting silk shirt to kiss his collarbones and, through the fabric, caressed the line of his spine.
Austin’s eyes shut, heightening his awareness of his body.
The press of the ocean muffled and soothed, while Tristan’s hands incited, his mouth sending sparks through his nerve endings.
Tristan’s mouth latched on to Austin’s nipple through the shirt, sucking silk and skin into his mouth.
He cupped Austin’s ass as he did so, pulling Austin onto his lap as he drifted until his back met the largest rock of the nest. The water trembled when Austin groaned, currents disrupted by what little of his voice managed to emerge underwater.
A thought from the deep reassured Austin. Since he couldn’t form words underwater, Tristan was in no danger from him. The deep disarmed him, took away the ability to wield his power as a precise weapon.
Eager, he thrust his hips forward, his cock buried in his silk shirt, and through that pressed against Tristan’s abdomen. Tristan slid his mouth to Austin’s other nipple, drawing another sea-muffled moan. His hand moved beneath Austin’s shirt to grasp his cock. He stroked all the way up, and—
Austin cried out in pain, shoving Tristan back.
Tristan tensed, withdrawing his touch and raising his head to look at Austin in alarm. Austin cupped his cock protectively, snarling at Tristan. The merman’s eyes widened. His head canted to the side as he bared his throat. A low rumble came from him, apologetic and questioning at once.
Austin looked down at himself, confused. Tristan hadn’t grabbed him harshly, so why had it hurt? The disturbed sand floating around answered for him. Austin’s snarl faded. He indicated the floating grains, then his cock, and shuddered.
A puzzled look crossed Tristan’s face. His eyes narrowed at Austin’s cock, something in his demeanour telling Austin the sand shouldn’t be a problem.
To Tristan, the pain made no sense. Austin sat on his tail, demoralised.
Maybe for a true-born merman, sand wasn’t an obstacle.
That would make sense, wouldn’t it? If merfolk mated in the ocean, then surely they had something going on biologically that meant sand couldn’t stop them.
Tristan checked that Austin’s snarl hadn’t returned before moving.
He planted a kiss on Austin’s shoulder and then cupped him from below, lifting him.
Depressed, Austin let himself be moved. Tristan turned them, setting Austin down on the rock he’d been leaning against. He grasped the hand Austin had placed protectively over his cock and tugged at it.
Austin didn’t move it. Tristan tugged a little harder, and Austin tensed.
Tristan quickly released his wrist. He bared his throat again and pressed an apologetic kiss to the top of Austin’s knee, humming low and entreating.
Austin reached out to grasp his throat. He didn’t squeeze, only hummed a warning before releasing him.
Tristan placed an apologetic kiss on his mid-thigh.
Then his inner upper thigh. And then he was peppering apologetic kisses all over the hand protecting Austin’s cock, some of them managing to touch his aching erection.
Tristan manoeuvred Austin’s legs onto his shoulders, his head of dark wavy hair bracketed between Austin’s pale thighs.
One hand clamped firmly around Austin’s thigh, anchoring him to Tristan’s shoulders, as the other clasped Austin’s back, supporting his weight.
Tristan targeted beneath Austin’s hand, tongue teasing his balls before he very gently took them into his mouth and sucked.
Austin jolted, grasping the rock behind him for support as heat spread low through him.
Pleasure thrummed through his thighs, and inadvertently he tightened them on Tristan.
Tristan groaned as if he’d been kissed and clutched Austin tighter.
Tristan nuzzled his way up Austin’s cock from the base, managing to get his mouth around the shaft at the bottom. As his mouth moved up, he licked and sucked at Austin’s fingers, finally scraping his teeth against skin.
By then, Austin was happy to relinquish his protection.
He grasped Tristan’s wavy hair instead, gills flaring wildly as Tristan swallowed his length.
The image of Tristan’s bowed head between his legs imprinted itself behind Austin’s eyes, so even when he could no longer keep them open, he could still revel in it. He tipped back his head on a moan.
Every movement from Tristan was precise, intentional. Whatever urgency moved him was held beneath patient discipline as he brought Austin higher with steadily increasing pace and pressure. Heat throbbed in Austin’s core like a second, frantic heart. Please, Austin tried to say.
A whiteout blanketed Austin’s nerves in scalding pleasure.
His breath hitched, and he desperately grasped Tristan’s hair, feeling his head moving beneath his palms. He kept going as Austin spilled on his tongue, swallowing every pulse of release.
Austin’s entire body twitched erratically, aftercurrents of electric pleasure snapping through him.
He crumpled over Tristan, gasping.
Tristan held Austin in his mouth, sucking lightly until Austin groaned in sensitivity. His thighs shook. The merman released his cock, then pressed a purposeful, taking kiss to each hipbone. A questioning, guttural hum rose from Tristan’s throat.
Austin forced his eyes open.
Tristan fixed an intense, querying look on Austin.
His eyes seemed to mirror the heat that had just wrecked Austin.
As Tristan leaned, something pale and immense caught Austin’s attention, pulsing against the emerald of Tristan’s tail.
It emerged from a slit in the solid wall of scales, heavy and unmistakable, with two rounded mounds at the base.
Austin’s eyes widened.
???
“Where do you expect that to fit?” Austin demanded in an acid tone, storming through the estate with the wild wind howling around him. Thunder rumbled in the sky above, masking Tristan’s response.
Austin stopped on the flagstone outside his room and whirled to face the merman. Tristan was following so closely that Austin had to take a step back to glare at his face. Brightly glowing stones hung all along the outdoor paths, providing enough light to see.
“Where?” Austin repeated, the threat of retribution in his tone.
Tristan tilted his head, showing off his throat. His look was impish and heated. It matched his hand as it cupped Austin’s ass and squeezed. “Here.”
Lightning flashed across the sky, blinding Austin and leaving an echo of white in his vision when it passed.
He snarled at Tristan and jerked open the door to his bedroom.
The breeze that rushed in with him extinguished a dozen lit candles, and the fire someone had lit in his absence leapt wildly in the hearth.
Tristan stood on the threshold, rain sheeting down his naked body.
His head was still canted to the side, throat bared, eyes brilliantly defiant. “Can I bring you food?” he asked.
Irritated, Austin pulled him into the room, shutting the door with a thud. The room fell suddenly quiet, the howl of the wind sealed outside. Not as quiet as beneath the waves had been, but not intolerable either.
“You can wash me,” Austin said.
Tristan pressed a taking kiss to Austin’s cheek. “Thank you.”
As Tristan readied the bath, Austin draped a robe over his shoulders. The pleasant floral smell of bath soaps filled the room, and several more flashes of lightning blinded Austin. He rubbed his eyes.
“Will I cover the windows?” Tristan asked.
“No. I like the lightning,” Austin said. “Cessair died in a storm like this. Went missing. Died.” He scowled at his struggle. “Vanished.”
Tristan hummed his understanding. “The bath is ready.”
Austin hesitated when he saw the steam rising from the water.
“It isn’t too hot. Eli showed me the temperature you like.”
Austin cautiously sank a foot into the metal basin but released a gratified sound when he found it blissfully hot, not burning.
Tristan knelt near his head, and when Austin was ready, he worked shampoo into his hair and washed the sand away with a massage that vanquished the cutting edge of his nerves.
Tristan poured fresh water over his hair, rinsing the suds out. His touch was nothing but gentle. Austin twisted in the bath toward the merman. “It’s just that you’re very big. There’s no way it won’t hurt. And I do not like pain.”
Tristan’s impish look didn’t reappear. Instead, his face softened. “I do not wish to cause pain,” he said.
Austin peered through the slit of Tristan’s robe. “This size is more doable.” But even so…he was mostly soft now, and he got bigger when he hardened. He’d felt enormous pressed against Austin’s ass through his clothes. “It’s too big like this too,” Austin said defensively.
Tristan blinked and calmly said, “Very well.”
Austin tensed. “I don’t have to have sex with you if I don’t want to. I don’t have to do anything that I don’t want to.”
“I agreed with you.”
“In this snide, angry way!” Austin snapped. He twisted onto his knees and glared. A look of genuine surprise flashed across Tristan’s face.
“I’m not angry,” he said. “Quite the opposite.”
When that didn’t compute, Tristan continued. “We built a nest together. I was able to feed you and bring you pleasure.” There was a proud note in Tristan’s voice. And his features, now that Austin really looked, were signalling good things.
Austin wanted to shove Tristan right out the door and erase any notion the merman might have of sleeping with him. He wanted him gone before he had the chance to be disappointed in Austin. But…but, he’d made Austin feel so good. And he’d built him a nest.
Austin released a long breath. He almost caught Tristan by the throat to squeeze but managed to stop himself.
“You’ll be my first.”
Tristan looked downright surprised.
Austin growled until Tristan tipped his jaw and showed off his throat again.
Then he exhaled and continued. “Connor never wanted to. Not with me, anyway. And even when we did other stuff in bed, I never felt good afterwards.” Austin despised the admission, but Tristan was being very polite and still showing his throat.
“Things were always on his terms.” Austin had always been the one pushing, trying to make himself appealing enough to be wanted, and never quite succeeding.
A displeased look grew in Tristan’s eyes, but Austin knew it wasn’t aimed at him. Not at his behaviour. Not at his body. Tristan was drawn to him. Aroused by him. Austin didn’t have to fear a repeat of Connor. Every touch in the nest had been laced with want.
Tristan looked at Austin as though he wished to devour him whole.
“It will be a good thing with you,” Austin said, certain. Confident.
Tristan rested his forearms on the edge of the tub. Care softened his features and gentled his movements. He reached into the water and stroked the outside of Austin’s clenched fist where it dug into his thigh. It was so easy to relax under his touch.
“I can’t fathom holding you being anything short of exquisite,” Tristan agreed. The water sloshed as Tristan rubbed Austin’s other hand, coaxing the tension from his fingers. “Did you enjoy—”
Austin lifted his head. “Do you think I would pretend otherwise if you weren’t pleasing me?” Only as he said it did he realise that was exactly what he had always done with Connor. Pretending that Tristan was bringing him pleasure seemed absurd beyond measure.
Tristan’s eyes glowed with fond amusement. “No. You are quite prompt in letting me know when I’m annoying you. Do you have the energy for my company still? I would enjoy the massage you offered earlier. My muscles are tired from carrying the rocks.”
Austin abandoned his rigid kneeling posture in the middle of the bath and returned to the side Tristan leaned against. He pressed his forehead to Tristan’s shoulder. Breathed in the salt of the ocean and sighed a kiss onto his skin. “Only if I can give the massage from bed.”
“Of course.” Tristan helped Austin out of the bath, dried him, and then guided him to the bed. He tucked him under the sheets, arms too. “Would you like anything else?”
“Your arms,” Austin grumbled, blinking tiredly up at Tristan.
Tristan knelt and awkwardly slid his arms under the sheets.
Austin grasped both wrists and rolled over, forcing Tristan to crawl onto the bed after them.
“Lie down there.”
Tristan did.
The sheets shifted as Austin manoeuvred Tristan’s captured arms around his body.
“Oh,” Tristan breathed.
He gathered Austin into his arms and pulled him against his chest. The merman closed around Austin from all angles like a warm, protective shield.
He buried his face against the back of Austin’s neck and nuzzled his nape.
The same feeling that had washed over Austin in the nest as Tristan kept his watchful guard settled over him now.