by Ally Blue
Luke looked up at Austin. The sight of him like that, luscious mouth stretched wide around Austin’s shaft and black eyes hot with desire, was enough to send Austin over the edge. The orgasm hit him before he could utter a word of warning. He came so hard his vision sparkled, the world going gray around the edges.
Luke gagged, but quickly recovered and managed to swallow most of Austin’s semen. The rest ran out the corner of his mouth and dribbled down his chin. He raised his head and gazed at Austin, panting for breath. With his hair mussed, his lips red and swollen, and come dripping down his chin, he looked unbearably sexy.
“That was fantastic,” Austin said, answering the question in Luke’s eyes. “You have a natural talent for cock-sucking.”
Laughing, Luke went into Austin’s open arms and kissed him, smearing both their faces with Austin’s semen. “You taste wonderful,” Luke murmured, licking the spunk off of Austin’s lips. “I tasted my own once. It wasn’t like yours.”
The mental picture made Austin’s spent cock twitch. “Shit, don’t do that to me.”
Luke widened his eyes. “Do what?”
“Make me think of you licking up your own spunk.” Austin tucked a wayward lock of baby-fine hair behind Luke’s ear. “Do you have any idea how hot that is?”
Luke ducked his head, hiding his blush behind a silky blond curtain. “I’ve never thought of myself that way.”
Cupping Luke’s face in his hands, Austin stared hard into Luke’s eyes. “You are the hottest, sexiest, most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen. Don’t you ever forget that.”
Luke’s smile lit up the room. “Okay. As long as you remember that I think the same about you.”
“Deal.”
“Good.” Pressing a soft kiss to Austin’s lips, Luke rolled off him and sat up. “It’s nearly five a.m. You should probably go back to your cabin, before the rest of the crew wakes up. We can’t let anyone catch you leaving my cabin.”
The reminder made Austin’s happy glow fade. “Yeah, you’re right. I have to report in at six.” Swinging his legs off the edge of the bed, Austin levered himself to his feet. “What’re you doing today? And when can I see you again?”
“I’ll be spending most of the day doing research in the ship’s library and helping plan upcoming dives.” Luke stood and started straightening the bedclothes. “Father’s making me eat here in my cabin, so we won’t see each other at meals anymore. We’ll have to figure out a time when we can be alone together, and we’ll have to be very careful doing it.”
Austin’s heart sank. “What about at night? I don’t think I can stand to not ever see you, Luke. Besides, we have to be able to get together to talk about the idol, and plan how to get it. Right?”
“Of course.” Straightening up, Luke came to Austin and wound his arms around Austin’s neck. “I don’t think we should spend the night together anymore,” he said softly, resting his forehead against Austin’s. “It’s too dangerous. However, we could spend some time together each night in my cabin. To talk, and to d ... he kissed Austin’s mouth, tongue pushing briefly inside, ... ther things.”
Austin slid one hand into Luke’s hair and the other down his back to squeeze his ass. “Sounds like a plan to me. You don’t think we should use my cabin sometimes?”
“Too many other crew members are housed on your hallway.” Luke arched his neck, humming as Austin kissed his throat. “The doctors are on this hall, but we won’t see them if we time it right. And even if one of them catches us, they won’t say anything to Father.”
Austin drew back, surprised. “They won’t? You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.” Luke’s mouth curved into a bitter smile. “They feel sorry for me, because of how Father treats me.”
“I don’t blame them.” Austin rubbed his cheek against Luke’s, breathing in his scent. “Dr. Martin told me about how that bastard abuses you. I hope it’s okay that he told me.”
“It’s okay. It’s common knowledge on board anyway.”
“I hate him for it.”
Luke clutched Austin closer, hands caressing his back. “Come to my cabin tonight around eight. The doctors will be working until nine. We’ll compare notes on the day’s work, and start working on a plan. Were you able to contact Dr. Martin before you came on board?”
Austin nodded. “I left a message at the number Phelan gave me. She said it was a cell she used just for that purpose, in case your shithead father got my phone records. Not that he would have any reason to, but she figured we shouldn’t take the chance.”
“He’s a smart man.”
“He is.”
They fell silent, staring into each other’s eyes. Luke’s face radiated indecision, as if he were trying to find the courage to tell Austin something. A secret he feared would drive Austin away.
Austin was speaking before he consciously acknowledged his decision. “Luke, whatever it is, you can tell me.”
Luke’s face went dead white, making his eyes seem impossibly huge and blacker than pitch. He licked his lips. “I…”
A knock at the door made them jump apart. “Hide!” Luke hissed, snatching a pair of jeans off a chair and pulling them on. “Whoever it is, I’ll get rid of them. Just don’t make a sound.”
Austin gathered his clothes and ran for the tiny head. He left the door ajar just enough to see the cabin door. Luke came into view, shooting a glance at Austin before opening the cabin door.
Smith stood on the other side. Austin’s stomach lurched.
“Good morning, Mr. Smith,” Luke said with admirable calm. “How can I help you?”
Smith held out what looked like a pile of crumpled clothes. “Don’t leave your clothes on deck when you change. You know what would happen if you let anyone else find out.”
Luke winced visibly, and Austin frowned. What the hell?
“Thank you,” Luke said, taking the clothes from Smith. “I’ll be more careful.”
“You do that.” Smith’s eyes swept the room, quick and efficient. Austin wondered if he imagined Smith’s gaze lingering on his hiding place. “There’s a meeting in the board room at four this afternoon, to go over today’s dives and your research, and plan what you’re doing tonight.”
“I’ll be there. Thank you.”
Smith nodded once and left, pulling the door shut behind him. Luke sagged against it, shoulders slumped. Austin pushed the bathroom door open and walked toward Luke. A thousand questions echoed in his mind, but he didn’t know how to ask any of them. He dressed in silence. Luke never looked up. After he’d pulled his shoes on, Austin wrapped his arms around Luke, tilted his chin up and kissed him.
“I’ll see you tonight,” Austin murmured.
Relief flashed through Luke’s eyes, mingled with a contradictory disappointment. As if he wanted Austin to find out his secret, but at the same time was afraid of it.
Luke smiled and squeezed Austin’s hands as he pulled away. “Okay. Be careful on the dive today.”
“I will.” Austin hesitated, not knowing exactly what to say. “Bye.”
Luke bit his lip, grabbed Austin’s head and pulled him into a deep kiss. Austin fell headlong into it, all his tension melting away under the touch of Luke’s lips.
When they broke apart, Luke cracked the door open and peered along both ends of the passageway. “It’s clear. Go. I’ll see you tonight.”
With one last press of hands, Austin slipped into the hallway. The door closed behind him with a faint snick, and he was alone.
He hurried along the hallway to the corner about twenty feet away, heart pounding. Rounding the turn that would lead him to the open deck, he halted in shocked surprise. Smith stood there, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, blank gaze fixed on Austin’s face.
“Mr. Smith, hi.” Austin’s voice shook. He felt naked under the other man’s penetrating stare. “I, I was just…”
“It’s not safe,” Smith interrupted. “For either of you.”
Austin gulped. “I
don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do.” Pushing away from the wall, Smith stepped closer. Austin tried not to cringe away from the man’s looming menace. “You boys want to play house, that’s none of my business. Just be careful. You get caught, Luke suffers for it, and you’re out on your ass. Remember that.”
Austin gaped at him, stunned speechless. Smith turned on his heel and strode off before Austin recovered his voice. Austin sagged against the wall and listened to the blood pound in his ears.
“Shit,” he swore. One night together, and the secret of Luke and Austin’s relationship was already out. At least Smith didn’t seem to have any intention of telling Carson, or anyone else.
Maybe we can use this, Austin mused as he headed out to the deck. Outside, he leaned against the rail and gazed out into the darkness. Smith knows now that Luke and I are seeing each other, but he doesn’t know we’re planning to take the idol. As long as no one else catches us, we can get together without hiding from Smith, and he won’t know it’s about anything other than sex.
It seemed like a perfect plan. Encouraged, Austin started back toward his cabin.
Chapter Seven
After Austin left, Luke went back to bed and tried to sleep some more. He would have to wait until after Austin left that night to go into the ocean to continue his search for the idol, and he wanted to get as much rest as possible before then. But it was no use. The sheets smelled like Austin, washing Luke in memories. Austin in his arms, between his legs, over and around and inside of him. Holding him, touching him, making him feel alive and whole in a way he’d never known, not even in the ocean.
It was heady and exhilarating and a little frightening, and not at all conducive to rest. After nearly half an hour of trying in vain to relax enough to sleep, Luke gave up. With a frustrated sigh, he got out of bed and went to shower away the smell of sex.
* * * * *
A few minutes later, clean and dressed and carrying a satchel full of notebooks and pens, Luke cautiously pushed open the door leading from the back hallway to the kitchen. The place buzzed with activity as the kitchen staff worked to prepare breakfast for the crew. Slipping into the midst of the chaos, Luke sidled up to the slender white-haired woman standing at the stove cooking huevos rancheros.
“Good morning, Annabelle,” he greeted her, nudging her shoulder.
“You should be in your room, chéri,” she scolded without turning around. “Your père will be most displeased if he catches you here.”
“He’ll only find out if someone tells him.” Reaching around the Frenchwoman, Luke snatched a fresh croissant from the baking stone cooling on the stovetop and took a bite. “Is he in the dining room?”
“Non. He and those fawning scientists of his are in his office. I just sent one of the boys with their breakfast.” Annabelle gave him a stern look over her shoulder. “Always you defy your father in these small things. You should not do so, mon cher. If he finds out…”
“Don’t worry about me,” Luke interrupted, and gave her his best smile. “I’ll be fine.” Ignoring her skeptically arched brow, Luke nodded toward the large coffee maker, which was giving off a heavenly aroma of freshly ground French roast. “May I have a to-go mug of coffee to take with me?”
Annabelle sighed. “Yes, of course. Take another croissant as well, and some sausage and fruit. You are far too thin.”
Luke breathed a sigh of relief as he finished his first croissant and set about gathering a portable breakfast. Annabelle didn’t know his secret, and he couldn’t afford to let her find out. She and the kitchen staff never told his father when he visited the kitchen against orders, but none of
them were the sort who would be able to keep quiet if he told them he was a shapeshifter. Half would think him mad, and the other half would believe he was some sort of demon. Either way, the talk would eventually reach his father.
He wasn’t sure he’d be able to heal the damage at all if that happened.
Luke mulled over his situation as he took his breakfast and hurried through the maze of corridors to the library. For years, he’d told himself that Carson wouldn’t kill him, because he wanted the idol and only Luke could find it. Lately, however, he’d begun to doubt the truth of that. His father’s violence toward him had escalated alarmingly in recent months. More than once, Luke had truly believed he was about to die at his adopted father’s hands.
What if he’s close enough that he doesn’t need me anymore? Fear clutched Luke’s insides at the thought. He’d felt the pull of the idol in his mind growing stronger with each passing day. He’d done his best to lead his father and the dive crew in the wrong direction, while closing in on it himself during his lone nighttime dives. However, what if his father had found enough clues to pinpoint the location on his own, without Luke? What if its location was such that the regular crew could recover the artifact if they found it?
What if Luke had already become unnecessary?
“Stop thinking that way,” he muttered. “He can’t find it without me.”
Shifting the container of food and the coffee to his left arm, Luke opened the library door with his right hand and peered cautiously inside. It was empty. It usually was at this time of day. Luke crossed the room and set his food and satchel on his favorite table, next to one of the three portholes and hidden from the entrance by a row of shelves. Outside, the rising dawn outlined the deck in a faint white glow and tipped the choppy waves with light. The day promised to be a fine one, cloudless and clear.
A perfect day for diving, Luke thought, gazing at the brightening sky. He wondered what Austin was doing at that moment, and if he was thinking of Luke. A wide smile spread across his face at the thought of Austin. His lover. It felt good to be able to call Austin that.
“Stop daydreaming,” he said, chuckling at himself and his giddy state. “You have work to do.”
Luke took a sip of coffee from the extra-large travel mug. It was hot and strong, helping to clear the cobwebs from his head and focus his mind. He was nearing the culmination of his research, and needed all the focus he could get.
He’d spent years scouring online and paper news sources, blogs, and fringe group networks for any mention of the object. There wasn’t much. He’d traced its movements over the last quarter century or so mostly by following the trail of a group of mysterious “priests” who guarded a strange black chest rumored to contain an alien artifact. Sightings of the group were few and difficult to unearth, but Luke had eventually pieced together the path of their travels. Between 1977 and 1991, they’d journeyed in starts and stops from Africa to the coast of Florida, where the trail had vanished with a final sighting in St. Petersburg.
Luke had exhausted his resources for locating the idol. He knew within half a kilometer where the treasure lay. He lied to his father, pleading the need for further newspaper and online research, to buy himself time to achieve his true goal.
Ever since they’d arrived in the Gulf of Mexico and the idol began whispering in his mind, Luke had been driven to learn what he could about the object itself. Clearly, he had some innate connection to it. The fact that he’d immediately recognized the idol’s call for what it was told him that much. The question haunting his every waking moment was, what exactly was its connection to him, and to his past? The ancient artifact sang to him constantly now, a sweet heartbreaking music that spoke of home and love and high purpose. Its image crept nightly into his dreams ‑‑ a small octopus of diamond-like crystal, with eyes of pure, gleaming obsidian.
It couldn’t be a coincidence. Luke was determined to discover what it meant, and perhaps shed some light on the mystery of his own past.
Popping a piece of honeydew melon into his mouth, Luke went to the shelves of reference books and selected three large volumes on deep water salvage and seafloor topography in the Gulf of Mexico. He set the books on the table, then hurried over to the library door. Cracking it open, he glanced up and down the hallway. Empty. He could only hope it s
tayed that way. Normally, no one but he used the library in the morning, but there was always a first time, and now was not the time for an interruption.
Closing the door again, Luke took a slow, steadying breath. “You can do this,” he told himself. “You’ve done it the last two days.”
It wasn’t entirely reassuring. But he’d gone too far to turn back now. Fingering the lockpicking kit in his pocket, Luke ran to the locked door tucked into the left-hand wall, behind the shelves. The door led to Carson’s private library. Luke had spent the past two days digging through his father’s extensive collection of obscure books on myths, legends, and lost treasures. So far he hadn’t learned anything of value, but he was positive he’d find what he was looking for if he kept trying.
Glancing over his shoulder, Luke pulled the kit out of his pocket and set about picking the lock. It wasn’t difficult, since the lock was a fairly standard type. He’d taken the kit a couple of years ago from a crew member who’d been fired for stealing narcotics from the infirmary, and had taught himself how to use it. At the time, he hadn’t had any particular use in mind for his newfound skill. Now, he was glad to have it.
When he felt the tumblers shift, Luke pocketed his kit and opened the door. He paused, listening for any sign of company. The main library remained silent. Slipping into the private room, Luke closed and relocked the door behind him, then turned to peruse the shelves lining the walls.
He’d already skimmed over a dozen books on African maritime myths and legends over the past two days, hoping to find some clue as to the nature of the idol. So far he’d learned a great deal about the rich fabric of African folklore, but he’d found no mention of an octopus-shaped crystal idol anywhere. He sighed. Breaking into his father’s private library was dangerous. He couldn’t keep doing it. Especially now that he had something to lose. Now that he had Austin.
“This is the last time,” he promised himself. “If I don’t find anything today, I’ll get the idol first and try to learn about it later.”