Chapter 88

  Ael awoke sitting next to her wife. Nereida was wringing her hands and staring out at the cloudless sky. It was still dark, several hours until dawn.

  “What is bothering you, love?” Ael asked. Nereida half jumped from skin.

  “You’re you again. Thank goodness!” She shook her head, looking vulnerable in the flickering candlelight. “The Moon left?”

  “The Moon was here?”

  Nereida sighed heavily and expined her conversation. It was off-putting to know that she did not even have to be outside for the Moon to take over her body. The others who had pyed hosts to dragons had their bodies returned. Why not her? What was different with her and Nereida?

  “The rain stopped.” Ael looked over at her wife. “Are we clear?”

  “No. Someone else… someone else woke them.”

  “What?” Ael couldn’t help the sharpness of her voice, but she took a moment to breathe. Nereida was not at fault. “Who?” She managed to keep her tone calmer.

  “A Scion, was all I got.” Nereida sighed. “Dymion and his husband, I’d wager.”

  “Oh love, never pce bets. You’d lose all our money. Dymion is ashore. Evander asked him to keep away, nervous about his hubby being near more finger-wiggly dragon nonsense.” Ael smiled reassuringly at her wife. “Didn’t you check the roster?”

  “Frankly, love I just assumed I’d be on it. Past that, you know what you are… oh gods.” Nereida trailed off mid sentence, moving from teasing to horrified in half a breath.

  “What?”

  “Love… promise you won’t be mad.” Ael gred at her wife. She crossed her arms and summoned all the grouchiest energy that she could manage while sitting in sleep clothing on her rumpled sheets.

  “I can’t make that promise.”

  “If it wasn’t us, and wasn’t Dymion,” Nereida whispered. She faltered, sighed, and shook her head. “Then it was the st Scion we know of.” She chewed her lip. “Don’t make me say it.”

  “Epelda.” Their daughter’s name escaped Ael’s lips. She swallowed, rage welling up. “I’ll kill him.”

  “No.” Nereida’s voice was firm. “They are adults, Ael. We have to respect her choice or she will leave.”

  Nereida’s words took the wind from Ael’s sails. She colpsed back on the bed, her mind spinning.

  “I won’t kill the boy. Just maim him,” she half-joked. Nereida poked her ribs firmly.

  “No.”

  “Fine. I will, instead, wait to see if they come to us.”

  “There. Much better.” Nereida colpsed on the bed beside her. She pced a gentle kiss on Ael’s cheek.

  “That’s it? I’m good, put away my murderous rage, and all I get is a little kiss?” Ael smirked at her wife, raising an eyebrow. Nereida snickered, then reached over for a pillow.

  “There’s another way I should reward you?” She started to throw the pillow at her wife, but Ael caught her arms. Nereida giggled and dropped the pillow, curling into Ael.

  “I can think of a few.” Ael leaned toward Nereida, gently moving a stray hair from her face. “If you’d like to… the rain has stopped, after all.” Nereida shivered at the gentle touch.

  “Yes,” Nereida whispered, leaning in. “But not here….”

  “Oh?” Ael lifted an eyebrow, waiting for her wife to continue.

  “The deck is empty, Admiral… and I believe you mentioned making love to me at the mizzenmast?” Her tone was teasing, but a purplish blush was crawling up Nereida’s face. It was strangely exhirating to see her wife suddenly bashful.

  “I’m fairly certain I said I’d tie you to the main mast and make love to you,” Ael replied fiercely, rolling over suddenly to pin her wife beneath her. Nereida made a surprised little mewing sound. “Would you surrender to me there, love?”

  “Yes! Please, love….”

  Still clothed, Ael took her wife’s hand and led her out onto the deck. It was dark still, the moon halfway back to the horizon on her journey across the sky. A myriad of stars twinkled above them. They were anchored, the ship could not go anywhere. The crew were below, the nterns extinguished for the night. The ocean was calm now, nourished by the storm. The air was fresh and crisp, but warm enough for their pns.

  Once they reached the main mast, Ael gently pressed her wife up against the hard, unforgiving heart of the ship.

  “I’ve wanted to do this, here, for a long time,” Ael whispered, trailing kisses down her wife’s neck to her exposed colrbone. “Touch you, make love to you, here, at the heart of the ship. Where I realized I loved you enough to give up the sea. Where I realized that you were my heart.” She slid her hands down the silky night clothing.

  “One with the ship,” Nereida whispered, kissing Ael’s nose. “Tell me what you want, my Admiral. How do you want me?”

  “I want you naked beneath the light of the moon as I make love to you. I want you tied to the mast. Can I? Even though others might see?” She very slowly pced kisses on Nereida’s still-clothed breasts. Nereida moaned in anticipation. “You’ll have to be quiet, wife, so that no one comes to see what terrible things my tongue is doing to you.” She gently licked the fabric over Nereida’s nipple and was rewarded with a groan.

  “Yes,” Nereida managed. “Love… wife… I surrender.”

  “Do you now? Do you think, love, that I can make you surrender again? And again?” Nereida trembled.

  “As many times as you want.” The siren gently took Ael’s hands and moved them to the ties on her night clothing. “Please, Ael.”

  Slowly, deliberately, Ael began to undo her wife’s night clothes. The fabric dropped from her shoulders, revealing Nereida’s beautiful breasts and soft blue skin. Wordlessly, Ael took spare rope and tied her naked, willing wife to the main mast. She pced a long, slow kiss on her wife’s lips, capturing the bottom lip between her teeth and holding it gently for a long moment.

  “Lovely wife, will you take all the moon will offer your, this day and all others?” Ael whispered, gently taking one of Nereida’s breasts in her hand.

  “Yes!”

  “I love you, my ocean,” Ael whispered. She trailed her kisses down to Nereida’s rge breasts, gently nibbling on her nipple before trailing her kisses lower. Once she was on her knees before her wife, she looked up, admiring Nereida’s curves, the way her body moved when she touched her.

  “I love you, Ael.”

  The Admiral kissed the inside of her wife’s thighs, moving up slowly, kissing, licking, teasing until Nereida’s knees buckled. But she was secured to the mast and could not colpse.

  “I want to taste you, my ocean. Taste and touch until you want to scream. But you know you can’t, don’t you, or someone might come. Might see you… naked… helpless… begging.” With each word, she kissed higher. Nereida mewed again, before gasping out a quiet, barely controlled “Please!”

  Tied to the mast, Nereida’s soft, curvy form was so enticing, so beautiful. There was a thrill to each movement, knowing that there was a chance, however small, that a crew member came to the deck, found them.

  “Here,” Ael whispered, as she trailed kisses over Nereida’s soft stomach, “this mast is the first pce I knew, I said, that I was falling for you. And the first pce I said aloud that I wanted you as my wife.” She gently touched Nereida’s nipples, drawing zy circles that grew every smaller around them. Ael steadied herself on the mast as she kissed her wife deeply, holding her lip between her teeth gently as she pulled slowly away. Nereida moaned in need, thrashing as best she could despite her bonds.

  “Is she your other wife?” Nereida asked, her tone teasing. Ael chuckled into Nereida’s neck.

  “Jealous?”

  “Never,” Nereida replied, kissing Ael’s neck, her dangerous, pointed teeth skimming Ael’s neck, filling her with a thrill of danger, of need. Her perfect wife, her dangerous wife. “I know your heart, love. As well as I know my own. No more talk, love. Touch, taste… I need you.”

  Ael was more than happy to oblige, dropping to her knees and slipping her tongue inside her wife to properly taste her, before letting her fingers py inside as she kissed the bite mark she had left on her wife’s inner thigh. Nereida twisted and gasped, trying desperately to get more.

  “That’s right,” Ael whispered, kissing her again as she pyed inside her wife. “Come apart, Ner. Give me your pleasure, show me how the ocean responds to the moon.” Nereida shivered, moaning Ael’s name quietly. Ael got to her feet, her knees compining momentarily. She kissed her wife deeply, her hands working to untie her. She paused to py with the soft, curly blue hair before she pulled the st knot free. Nereida colpsed into her.

  “Do you want more, love?” Ael asked, slipping her fingers inside her wife when the quiet, enthusiastic “please” was spoken.

  Carefully, Ael helped Nereida to the deck, ying her down. She slipped her own night clothing off, shoving it aside. In the moon light, Nereida’s pale blue skin seemed to shimmer.

  “My wife, will you take all that the ocean will offer you, this day and always?” Nereid whispered. Ael smiled down at her wife.

  “I do. And what does the ocean offer today?” Ael asked, gently taking a breast in each hand. She carefully, slowly rubbed each nipple with her thumbs, watching with a smile as Nereida arched her back.

  “Her heart, her body, everything,” Nereida whimpered. Ael kissed her wife’s mouth, a hungry kiss, demanding. She lost herself in her wife’s touch, the two of them worshiping each other’s bodies with mouths and fingers. Soon, Ael’s world was only her wife, the sound of the ocean and the gentle kiss of moonlight.

  Once they had both come apart, Nereida rolled over, kissed her gently on the cheek. She moved to get her arm under Ael’s neck, but her shoulder popped loudly.

  “I’m going to feel that tomorrow, and decidedly not in a good way.” The princess chuckled. “We should get back to bed, before we are spotted.”

  “But you haven’t told me what you want,” Ael teased, gently pinching a nipple. “This was for me, yes?”

  “Yes, but for me too. I… I like seeing you confident.” Nereida managed to get to her feet with a groan. “And while this was fun, love, I think I’d rather let your hair loose in our bed, with pillows framing your face, so that my knees don’t give out.”

  “Pnning to take out my hair?” Ael asked with a feral little smile. “My witch, whatever shall I do with you?”

  “Whatever you like, so long as I can do it back to you.” Nereida winked at her.

  They were nearly back at the cabin, discarded clothing bundled in their arms, when the door to the crew cabin creaked open. Nereida froze like a terrified rabbit, but Ael grabbed her arm and pulled her into the shadows, just in time to let Evander turn the other way and head to the helm. Giggling into her hand like a school girl, Nereida hurried into their shared private cabin.

  Carefully, Nereida undid the ribbon in Ael’s hair, once the door was safely barred. She ran her chubby fingers through Ael’s hair, unravelling the right braid. The princess touched and tasted with wild abandon, her need intense as she brought Ael to the cusp. Nereida’s lovely, sharp cws raked gently down her front and Ael shuddered apart.

  They climbed beneath the covers, sweaty and exhausted. Nereida gave her one more deep kiss before she cuddled against Ael. The Admiral gently moved Nereida’s wild blue hair off her face, gazing lovingly into the stormy eyes of her wife.

  “Rest now, love,” Ael whispered. “We can deal with dragons and crew and children and duty tomorrow.”

  “Wake me with a kiss?” Nereida asked, her voice dreamy.

  “And more,” Ael replied, kissing her wife.

  And when morning found them, Ael kept her promise, bringing Nereida awake with her fingers and tongue, losing herself in her wife. Nereida responded in kind, and when the sun had properly risen, the wives were still entangled in each other, passion giving way to a gentle happiness. Ael let herself believe, just for a moment, that all was right with the world.

  Because she knew, in her very soul, the moment she opened the door and let the world in, that she was in for heartache.

  FionaRobinsong