“That’s it,” Sean mentally said as his own balls drew up, tightened, and then rewarded Emery with a mouthful of hot cum.
Winded and spent, the two men collapsed onto the bed. Sean managed to roll off Emery and get turned around to snuggle.
“That’s so good,” he whispered. “Nothing better.”
Emery nuzzled the top of his head. “I couldn’t agree more.”
Chapter Ten
Marisela despised Erik, but had no choice except to go along with her brother’s plans. She had no money, no job, no friends, no family. The pod was beholden to Hector, out of loyalty and fear, so none of them would dare help her even if they weren’t complete scum.
Hector held her identification card and papers. When they traveled from Mexico to Florida, he kept her ticket and her paperwork on him. She couldn’t even go to the bathroom at the airport by herself. Either Hector or one of his men waited outside for her to emerge.
The only good thing she could say about Erik was that he was gay and turned down Hector’s offer to let him use her in bed.
Another reason she despised Hector.
If I get a chance to kill him, I will.
She instinctively knew other dolphin pods weren’t like this. Theirs hadn’t been like this while their father was alive. He’d told her stories of full-moon swims, hunts, superpods where families and friends joined together.
Not Hector. If he didn’t control everything, he wanted no part of it.
And now he was going to mate her to some Alpha she’d never met before so Hector could take over the pod. An Alpha who, once she was pregnant, would end up killed.
Somehow, she knew she couldn’t let that happen. Even if it meant she had to spend the rest of her life shifted and living like a wild dolphin, she couldn’t allow another person to die.
When they settled in to the rental house on Manasota Key, she didn’t get much of a chance to see the neighborhood. She couldn’t drive, because Hector never allowed her to learn. Even if she could, there was no way he would have given her the keys and allowed her freedom to do so.
He did take her to a small convenience store a few minutes away so she could pick up some personal items like deodorant, shampoo, and toothpaste. Even there, he shadowed her like a malevolent ghost, paying for her purchases and speaking to the clerk.
At least she could speak English. Not well, but enough she knew she could get by. The countless days alone, locked up in her suite at the house and always under guard to prevent her escape, she’d spent studying American TV shows in English sent to her via the satellite dish. Hector didn’t know that. He thought she couldn’t understand English and translated for her the few times it’d been necessary for her to interact with customs and immigration officers and security officials during their travels to America.
She didn’t know how accurate those depictions on the TV were, happy, loving families who had problems solved by the end of the show, but she’d take anything with a fraction of that kindness compared to what she lived with every day.
She’d take a life alone in the sea to the misery she now suffered.
One good thing about their journey, Hector had been too busy to allow any of his men to use her. His focus had been on his plans. That, and apparently he didn’t want to risk one of his men accidentally getting her pregnant now that he had a use for her.
She wondered if, once her baby was born, if Hector would kill her, too.
In her heart, she already knew that answer.
No way will I ever allow a child of mine to be raised by this monster.
Thus, she waited. And planned.
Chapter Eleven
Despite being late October, the Friday before the superpod had been hotter than hell, and twice as humid. And having spent most of the day out in that blasted heat at a road construction site, all Sean wanted to do was go home and float around in the pool until it felt like his hair wasn’t melting anymore.
Emery wasn’t home yet when Sean walked in the door a little after seven. So he dropped his laptop bag and stuff on the couch, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and walked out the sliders onto the screened lanai.
After a quick peek to make sure their pool was alligator-free—of the bio or shifter kind—Sean set his bottle of beer at the edge, stripped, and jumped into the deep end.
Two laps later, he already felt a lot better. He swam over to the side, grabbed his beer, and took a long pull from the bottle. He wasn’t sure when Emery would get home. He knew Emery had a scheduled meeting that afternoon with Joseph and his own dad, as well as the sharks, about superpod plans.
Thank god I didn’t have to be there. After the day he’d had fighting with a construction crew that DOT had apparently hired off Craigslist, in the heat, he had no patience left for social niceties.
All I want to do is chill.
Shadows were lengthening in their backyard, the sun below the level of their privacy fence that allowed them all the naked and nasty pool time they wanted without having to worry what the neighbors thought about it.
Before meeting Emery, he’d spent plenty of evenings after work just like this in the pool at his old apartment complex.
Albeit with swim trunks on.
The other residents rarely used the pool on weeknights, meaning he usually had it all to himself to just relax and reflect on his day.
And it wasn’t like he’d had much of a social or private life before Emery.
So much had changed since meeting Emery.
He took another pull on the beer, enjoying the way the crisp taste bit at his tongue before the icy liquid slid down his throat.
Heaven.
Well, heaven was having Emery naked in the pool with him, but who was he to complain?
Life is good.
Even with Erik still out in the world somewhere, life was damn good. Unlike Emery, he wouldn’t sweat it. There were too many other things that could shorten his lifespan that he also couldn’t do anything about. Drunk drivers, plain crashes, zombie apocalypses.
He snickered. Well, maybe not the last one…
An odd, creeping feeling washed over him. Maybe he shouldn’t laugh off zombies that fast. Considering all the other weird shit he’d recently learned existed, maybe there really were zombies somewhere, out there.
A shiver washed over him, making him take another long drink from the bottle.
That’s silly. There are no such things as zombies.
He set the bottle back on the deck and swam a few laps. Then again, I never thought shape-shifters were real, either.
He was still swimming laps when he thought he heard a car door shut. A moment later, he spotted Emery walking through the front door. Sean stopped and raised a hand to him in greeting.
Emery dropped his stuff onto the couch next to Sean’s things and walked out to meet him.
“Hey, babe.” He knelt down and gave Sean a kiss. Then he spotted the bottle of beer, picked it up, and took a swig. “How was your day?”
“Judging from the lines on your face, I’m guessing you win the worst-day contest.”
Emery shrugged. “Just worn out is all. I’ll be glad when we get through Samhain and life can go back to normal. Mind if I finish this?” He held up the bottle.
“Go ahead. Bring me a fresh one, please?”
“Sure. I’ll be right back. I could use a swim, too.”
Sean flipped onto his back and floated. With Emery home, he felt complete again. The world could disappear, and as long as he had Emery, it didn’t matter.
The website for the Nadel Family Reunion teemed with excited people eager to get together with friends and family, podmates they might not have seen in years, in some cases.
Everyone who hadn’t already done so seemed eager to meet Emery’s mate and celebrate the passing of the torch from Joseph to his eldest son.
No one discussed Erik on the site. No one in charge of the event thought Erik had access to the password-protected message boards, because only confirmed,
invited members were allowed to register, but anything was possible.
Emery returned, dressed in nothing but a pair of shorts, and carrying two beers, but on the phone with someone Sean quickly realized was Emery’s brother. He set Sean’s beer on the ground at the side of the pool before going to sit in a lounger and continue the call.
Christopher Nadel was responsible for the website and its upkeep. Sean felt more than a little sorry for him, knowing Emery was calling him every day, sometimes more than once a day, to check in and make sure everything was still running smoothly.
“He’s going to block your number,” Sean teased when Emery ended the call.
“He’s my younger brother. So no, he won’t.” He grinned. “Mom and Dad won’t let him.” He put his phone on the table next to one of the loungers and took a swallow from his beer. “Besides, only one more week.”
“Then you’re the head cheese.”
“And that means I can order him to not block my calls.” He playfully waggled his eyebrows.
“That’s playing dirty, dude.”
He shrugged. “That’s one of the perks of being the eldest sibling, getting to torture my brother and sisters. Something you missed out on. You never had the pleasure of torturing someone like that.”
“Never got tortured, either,” Sean mumbled.
Emery stood, dropped his shorts, and carried his beer over to the pool steps, where he walked in. Sean watched as his mate’s muscles rippled under his tan skin. Emery was a mighty fine hunk of manflesh, supernatural or otherwise.
And he was all Sean’s.
“Damn, this water feels good.” He joined Sean by the wall. “I really appreciate you being so patient with everything going on. I know it’s a disruption.”
“Hey, it’s life. I love you.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t have to sign on for this.” He leaned in and kissed Sean, slowly, sweetly. “If you’d told me to choose between you or the pod, I would have chosen you without hesitation.”
“They’re your family. I’m not making you do that.”
He palmed Sean’s cheek. “That’s one of the many reasons why I love you.” He leaned in for another kiss, setting his beer up on the side to free his hands. Before long, Sean had his arms and legs wrapped around Emery, both their cocks hard and rubbing against each other in the water.
“Want to go to bed?” Emery asked, his tone breathless.
“No, I want you to put that cock in my ass right here, buddy.”
He grinned. “Go get the lube.”
Sean swam for the side and pulled himself out. He grabbed the tube of lube from the towel cabinet on the lanai and then cannonballed back into the deep end. He broke the surface in front of a laughing Emery and held up the tube.
“I think we need to get to the shallow end first,” Emery suggested.
They moved. Sean handed the lube to Emery and turned, bracing himself against the steps, ass out of the water. Emery slicked his cock first. Then Sean let out a moan when he felt Emery’s talented fingers, first one, then two, seductively lubing his ass.
He flexed his hips, trying to fight back the urge to hump himself onto Emery’s hand. “Hurry up,” he said. “I want your cock inside me.”
“Hold on.” His fingers withdrew, Sean moaning a little at the sudden emptiness. He heard Emery put the tube of lube on the edge of the pool before he grabbed him and spun Sean around to face him. “Now.”
Sean draped himself around Emery again, like a koala on a eucalyptus tree, dropping his head onto Emery’s shoulder as his lover worked his cock inside him.
“Ohhh, fuck yeah, baby,” Sean moaned.
Once he was fully seated inside Sean, Emery moved them into deeper water, until only their heads were exposed. He kissed Sean as he slowly fucked him, one hand wrapped around Sean’s cock and stroking it in time with his thrusts.
He wished he could spend his whole life making love to Emery. Pesky things like working to pay bills got in the way of that fantasy, however.
So he’d settle for the good times, the sexy fun like now, alone and fucking in their pool.
Emery knew when to squeeze, when to stroke, feeling almost as good as when Sean fucked his ass or mouth. “You like that?” Emery asked.
“Uh-huh. You fucking know I do.”
“Look at me, baby. I want to watch your face when you come.”
Sean forced his eyes open and looked into Emery’s grey eyes. It felt like a high-voltage circuit connected their souls.
Sean knew he was close to coming. “Fill my ass,” he begged. “Give it to me.”
“Oh, I’m going to do that, all right.” His fingers tightened around Sean’s cock as they rocked together in the water, Emery’s thick meat pounding into his tight channel, perfectly hitting Sean’s gland with every stroke at this angle.
Desperate need took over Sean. He wanted, needed to feel Emery’s cock explode inside him. Rocking in time with Emery’s thrusts, he fucked himself between his lover’s hand and his cock.
“That’s it, baby,” Emery urged. “Just like that. Just…like…that.”
Sean’s cry was muffled by Emery slamming his mouth down on top of his. As his balls tightened and exploded, he felt Emery’s cock swelling in his ass, growing harder and hotter before he felt his juices filling him.
He still fucked himself onto Emery’s cock, until Emery finally let go of Sean’s meat and wrapped both his arms around him, kissing him, sighing.
They floated like that in the water for several minutes, Sean cradled against Emery’s chest.
Nothing felt more perfect.
Absolutely nothing.
If this kind of sweet perfection meant he spent the rest of his life with a guy who could turn into a dolphin, it was an easy deal to live with.
Chapter Twelve
Fortunately, there was very little Sean could or needed to do to help with the superpod preparations. His workload had grown to an insane level, with several contractors shuffling projects around, making Sean scramble to fulfill his contracts.
One small blessing? His father was too busy with superpod preparations to “help” him with the business. The last thing he needed was his father trying to jump in and order his survey crews around when their workflow and paperwork process was so much different now from when his dad was actively participating in the business.
It was also far more efficient than when his dad had been running things.
On Tuesday, only four days before the superpod, Sean was in the middle of conferring with one of his survey crew foremen when his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Without looking, he reached in and silenced it.
After it rang three more times in the space of five minutes, he said, “Hold on a minute.” He looked to find missed calls from his mom, and voice messages.
“Let me check this out.” He stepped away and played the messages. They all pretty much said the same thing.
“Sean, I can’t reach your father. Call me, please.”
He called her back. “What’s up?”
“Have you heard from your father?”
He knew his dad and Joseph were supposed to have lunch together that day, but didn’t want to say that to his mom and tip her precariously perched bubble of denial off its pedestal. “No, why? Is something wrong?”
“Well, I’ve left him several messages and he hasn’t called or texted me back. That’s not like him.”
Sean pinched the bridge of his nose. He did not need her neurotic passive-aggressive interference in things this close to the superpod. “How long?”
“What?”
“How long have you been trying to get a hold of him?” He wouldn’t put it past her to unconsciously start bugging his dad, knowing he was out with Joseph, and freak because he hadn’t pounced on her calls and texts the second she sent them.
“A couple of hours now. Can you please try him for me?”
An unpleasant tingle of worry fought to bloom in his gut. Sean tamped it down into submis
sion. “Sure. I’ll call you right back.” He ended the call and tried his dad’s cell.
Straight to voice mail.
“Hey, Dad? Give Mom a call or throw her a text or something, please? She’s trying to get a hold of you and she’s starting to worry.” He ended the call and followed up with a text.
Then he tried Joseph Nadel’s cell phone.
Straight to voice mail.
The little tingle was bound and determined to make itself known, no matter how Sean tried to reason with it that it didn’t mean anything. “Hey, Dad? Um, it’s Sean. Will you tell my Dad, Sam, to call my mom, please? Thanks.”
He followed that with a text.
He took a deep breath and called Emery. The rich, rolling sound of his mate’s voice temporarily strangled the unpleasant tingle of worry and replaced it with a delicious stirring in his cock. “Hey, handsome.”
Sean licked his lips. “Hey, yourself. Listen, have you talked to your dad today?”
Emery’s tone immediately changed. “Not yet. We’re scheduled to get together tonight. Why?”
Sean related what was going on. “Do you know where they were eating lunch?”
“No. Let me call you right back.” And like that, he was gone.
Five minutes later, Sean’s phone rang again. Now Emery’s voice sounded full-on concerned. “Mom hasn’t heard from him, either.”
“What do I tell my mom?”
He went quiet. “I don’t know. I need to make some other calls. I’ll keep you posted.”
Gone again.
With a sigh, Sean dialed his mom’s number. “Did you hear from him?” she asked by way of greeting.
“No, but that doesn’t mean anything. I know he and Joseph are busy.” He pulled one out of his ass. “Maybe they took the boat out. Did you call the marina?”
“Oh. No, I didn’t think of that.” She hung up on him.
He tried to finish his talk with the foreman, but now his thoughts were consumed by that tingle of worry, which had grown to toxic weed proportions the more time that passed without receiving positive news from anyone.