The Collector 4: Eight Arms to Hold You

by Ally Blue

  Falling forward onto his hands, Luke stared down into Austin’s eyes. Austin’s legs wrapped around his hips, his hands came up to frame Luke’s face. Neither said a word, but they didn’t need to. Austin’s heart and soul shone from his eyes, and Luke knew Austin saw the same things in his face that he saw in Austin’s. Tenderness, passion, desire.

  Love.

  Leaning down, Luke melded his mouth to Austin’s as he began to move inside him. Luke whimpered at the feel of Austin’s body clutching him like a silken fist. It was like nothing he’d ever felt before, hot and tight and alive, so good it hurt, and Luke knew he wouldn’t last long.

  “’S okay, baby,” Austin breathed against his mouth, one hand stroking his hair and the other kneading his ass. “Let go.”

  Part of Luke’s brain wondered idly if Austin was reading his mind or just his face and body language. However, he was too caught up in the sheer bliss of the moment to think too hard about it. He could feel Austin’s hunger like a red mist in his brain, feeding his own excitement and sending him rushing toward a climax of epic proportions.

  A few hard thrusts later, Austin let out a soft cry as he came, his semen spreading warm and wet between his belly and Luke’s. His ass rippled around Luke’s cock, tightening almost to the point of pain, and that was enough to tip the balance for Luke.

  “Oh God,” Luke whispered, and came in a rush that left him breathless. He buried his face in the curve of Austin’s neck, clinging to his lover as his orgasm washed through him. He felt euphoric, lighter than air, as if he might float away.

  “Mmmm.” Austin’s arms wound tight around Luke, keeping him close. “That was amazing.”

  “I don’t think I can move,” Luke mumbled, licking a trickle of sweat from Austin’s neck.

  Austin’s laugh morphed into soft squeak when the movement made Luke’s softening prick slip out of him. “Don’t move then. Let’s stay just like this all night.”

  Smiling, Luke lifted his head and kissed Austin’s lips. “I wish we could. It’s wonderful being with you like this.”

  Austin’s smile faded. He trailed his fingers down Luke’s cheek and over his lips. “I didn’t want to have to think of your father again, but I guess we need to.”

  “No we don’t.” Luke rolled onto his side, taking Austin with him and holding him against his chest. “Not right now, at least. It can wait until morning.”

  Raising his head, Austin gave Luke a surprised look. “No, Luke, we need to leave as soon as possible. Tonight, if we can manage it.”

  “I haven’t found the idol yet. I…” Luke stopped, afraid of saying it even though Austin knew what he was. He took a deep breath and forced himself to go on. “I shift and search for it every night. It ... it calls to me. I can feel it in my mind, leading me to it. I’m so close, Austin. So close. If I can find it tonight, we can leave tomorrow.”

  Austin was already shaking his head before Luke finished talking. “Let your father have it. It’s not worth your life, Luke. Leave it, and let’s get out of here while we still can.”

  Luke laid a hand on Austin’s cheek. “It’s not that simple.”

  “Sure it is.” Turning his head, Austin kissed Luke’s palm. “Nothing’s more important to me than keeping you safe. Nothing. Let’s just leave. Just take the tender and go.”

  “No,” Luke said, wishing he could say ‘yes’ instead. “I have to get the idol.”

  Austin made an impatient noise. “Why, Luke? Why is that fucking thing more important to you than your life?”

  Tilting his head back, Luke stared at the ceiling and tried to think of how to explain what else he’d found in the ship’s logs. It sounded crazy, even to him, and he knew in his bones it was true. He couldn’t imagine what Austin would think.

  He just saw you turn your arm into a tentacle, he reminded himself. That didn’t bother him.

  Of course, believing your own senses is always easier than taking something on faith when it sounds completely insane.

  Luke took Austin’s hand, kissed it and pressed the palm to his cheek. “My father can’t be the one to find that idol, Austin.”

  “Why not?” Austin scooted closer and slung a leg over Luke’s thighs. “I mean it bugs me to think of that bastard getting the idol, but it doesn’t have to make any difference to us if we don’t let it.”

  “And it wouldn’t, excep ... Luke trailed off, trying to find the right words.

  Frowning, Austin rubbed his thumb across the corner of Luke’s mouth. “Just tell me, okay? I swear I won’t think you’re crazy.”

  There he goes, reading my mind again, Luke thought, but didn’t say it. “I learned something else from Father’s logs. Apparently, the first person to lay hands on the idol is granted their heart’s desire.”

  Austin started to laugh, then stopped, staring hard at Luke. “You’re serious.”

  Luke nodded, caressing the curve of Austin’s shoulder. “I’m the one who told him about the idol, and what it could do. The log said he questioned me about it through an interpreter, because I only spoke an ancient Egyptian dialect.” Luke laughed, but the sound was sad. “My dreams are memories after all. It all happened, and now I’ve led Father straight to the thing my people protected for thousands of years.”

  “Jesus.” Sliding his hand around the back of Luke’s neck, Austin pulled him close. He leaned his forehead against Luke’s. “You know it’s not your fault, right?”

  “Yes. I know. But it doesn’t really make it any better.”

  “No, I guess it probably doesn’t.” Austin’s fingers tangled into Luke’s hair. “So you think it’s true about getting your heart’s desire?”

  “It’s true,” Luke answered, leaning into Austin’s touch. “I can feel it. I think I can even remember it, a little. My parents told me about it when I was small, I think.”

  “I still don’t see why he can’t get it, though. Isn’t his heart’s desire unlimited wealth? It would suck, but nothing would be any worse than it is now.”

  “He has money,” Luke said. “He wants power. Unlimited power. And the idol can give him exactly that. I’m not certain what form that power might take, and I don’t want to find out. Think of what that could mean, Austin. My father, with nothing to stop him from using the whole world the way he uses me.”

  Austin chewed his bottom lip. “Okay, I see your point. But Luke, he’s going to kill you.”

  “He’s going to kill me no matter what.” Luke stroked Austin’s cheek, the pad of his thumb rasping across the dark stubble. “Don’t you see? If he gets the idol, he’ll be able to find me no matter where I am. And he enjoys hurting me. What do you think he’ll do to me if he gets the level of power he’s after? If he lets me live, we both may end up wishing he hadn’t.”

  The color drained from Austin’s face as the truth of it hit him. “Oh.”

  “We can’t let him touch it.” Luke gazed into Austin’s wide eyes and knew they understood each other. “I’ll find it, tonight. I’ll bring it up if I can. If not, you and I will have to go down together tomorrow and retrieve it.”

  “What does it look like?” Austin propped himself up on one elbow and toyed idly with Luke’s hair. “And how big is it? If it’s too big for one person to lift, it’ll be a lot harder to bring up.”

  Closing his eyes, Luke conjured a mental image of the idol. “It’s small enough to fit in your hand. It’s made of clear crystal that looks like diamond but isn’t. It’s shaped like an octopus. It even has black eyes, like me. If what I’ve learned in my research is correct, whoever brought it from Zanzibar to the Gulf of Mexico had it in a box of some sort. A black box, no more than about eight inches square, made of an alloy that doesn’t rust. I don’t know how heavy the box is, or if it’s even still there, so I’m planning to be on the lookout for either the box or the idol alone.”

  “Wow.”

  The strange note of awe in Austin’s voice made Luke open his eyes and look at him. Austin was unusually pale, his eyes
a little too wide. Luke frowned. “Austin? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. I just though ... Austin shook his head, brow furrowing. “Never mind.”

  Luke didn’t push, though he wanted to. “Okay.”

  Austin smiled, the half-puzzled, half-fearful expression melting from his face. “So what do we do if you can’t bring up the idol tonight?”

  “In that case, we’ll meet at the dive platform tomorrow night and dive for it together. We’ll bring it up, steal the tender and go.”

  Austin nodded. “I like it. Nice and simple.”

  Luke laughed without humor. “Yes, well, let’s hope it is that simple.”

  “If it’s not, we’ll deal with it.” Austin stroked the hair away from Luke’s face, dark eyes warm and smiling. “What are you going to wish for, Luke? When you find the idol. What’s your heart’s desire?”

  Winding an arm around Austin’s neck, Luke pulled him close. “I already have it.”

  Austin let out a soft, startled sound. Sliding his hand around the back of Luke’s head, Austin tilted his head and kissed Luke. As their tongues tangled and the kiss grew heated, Luke knew he was right. His heart’s desire was right here in his arms.

  * * * * *

  The midnight sky was clear and cloudless, glittering with a million stars. Luke gazed at a tiny blinking light making its slow way across the horizon as he undressed and stored his clothes in an empty locker. He wondered what sort of ship it was, what sort of people populated it and whether they were happy.

  “I’m happy,” he whispered into the cold breeze, and smiled.

  Taking one last look around the deck, he made sure he was alone, then climbed down the dive ladder and slipped silently into the water. The icy shock of it melted into a cool liquid caress when he shifted. He jetted off into the depths, following the unearthly singing in his head.

  He wasn’t sure how long he’d been swimming when the odd patch of coral came into view. Odd, because he’d not seen any other corals for miles around, and this particular species shouldn’t have been thriving at nearly three hundred feet. Yet there it was.

  This is it, he thought as the idol’s song trilled and pulsed in his brain. It’s here. In this coral.

  Luke began swimming slowly around the patch of coral. Enough light filtered down from the full moon for his octopus eyes to pick out tantalizing openings here and there, but brief probing with his tentacles proved all to be empty. After having circled the structure twice, Luke settled onto the silt on the east side, feeling frustrated. The idol was here, he knew it, but he couldn’t find it.

  Luke blew a blast of water from his mantle in the octopus version of an angry huff. A cloud of fine sand rose around him. When it settled, he stared at the hollow he’d created in the sand at the base of the coral, hardly daring to believe his eyes.

  A narrow opening shaped like an upside-down V gaped in the coral. An opening he’d missed before, because it had been buried in the sand.

  Excitement jolted Luke into action. Using his tentacles, he carefully dug the silt away from the opening. After a few minutes’ work, he’d uncovered enough of it to let him get in. Moving carefully to keep the sand from muddying the water too much, he slipped into the narrow opening.

  Inside, the darkness was thick and nearly absolute. The faint light coming from the crack in the coral was enough for Luke to make out his surroundings, but only barely. The space was bigger than it looked from the outside, the sandy floor falling sharply away from the opening to create a rough bowl in the sea floor. El Cazador's entire dive team could have fit easily, with room to spare.

  Pushing off the rough coral wall with one tentacle, Luke drifted in a slow circle, looking for the idol’s hiding place. His brain buzzed with wild elation, yet he felt calm and clear-headed. He knew the idol was here; he just had to find it.

  When he found the spot, he knew immediately. The opening in the coral looked exactly like the dozens of others he’d seen, but he felt its difference. The idol’s call changed pitch, dropping to a soothing hum, and he just knew. Snaking a tentacle inside, he followed the upward curve of the little passage, feeling around the space as he went.

  Just as his body pressed to the coral and he couldn’t reach any further, he felt it. Something hard, smooth and flat. Artificial.

  The black box. And within it, the idol.

  He’d found it.

  Chapter Ten

  Skin against skin, bare and slick. Hard needy kisses tasting of sweat and desire, the air redolent of sex. Luke’s arms and legs around him, Luke’s soft sweet moans in his ear. Moving together in a languid rhythm, safe in the cocoon of their love for one another.

  “Austin.” Luke’s whisper resonating in his mind, at once soothing and exciting. “I love you, Austin. Austi ...

  “Austin?”

  The voice was deep and heavily accented. Not Luke's. Austin jerked upright, dragging his eyes open with some difficulty. Nikolai Vonovich stood across from him at the dining hall table, carrying a loaded plate from the breakfast buffet and looking worried.

  Austin managed a smile. “Morning, Niko. Sorry, I was kind of nodding off there.”

  “Yes, you were.” Niko sat in the chair opposite Austin, brow furrowed. “Are you ill?”

  “No, I’m fine,” Austin answered with a dismissive wave of his fork. “Just sleepy. I was tossing and turning most of the night.”

  That, he thought, was putting it mildly. He’d drifted between half-wakefulness and vivid dreams all night long. Sometimes he couldn’t even tell the difference. He’d lost count of the times he’d emerged from a vision of cold darkness filled with a weirdly beautiful singing, only to find that the song still echoed in his ears and the air wavered as if he were underwater. It was disorienting and more than a little frightening.

  Grinning, Niko reached for the coffee pot and topped off Austin’s half-empty cup. “Drink. Caffeine is a miracle drug.”

  Austin laughed. “That’s the truth. Thanks.”

  “My pleasure.” Niko ran a hand over his buzz cut and gazed at Austin with a strange shyness in his blue eyes. “I wanted to thank you for making us do that drill yesterday. It saved Collins’ life.”

  Austin’s cheeks heated. “You’re the one who saved him,” he pointed out. “Besides, I know you had to learn those things before you got your certification.”

  “Yes, but it has been a long time since I’ve practiced it, and we’ve never done a drill with this new equipment. Jordan just got it last month.” Planting his elbows on the table, Niko leaned forward and stared solemnly into Austin’s eyes. “I do not think I could have saved Collins if it were not for that drill. So thank you. I am in your debt, my friend.”

  Niko’s sincerity warmed Austin’s heart, but at the same time, it made him uncomfortable. He genuinely liked Niko, and accepting the man’s heartfelt gratitude seemed disingenuous when his whole purpose on the ship was to steal the treasure Niko and the others were risking their lives to find.

  “Just doing my job,” he said, taking a sip of his coffee. He glanced out the large window on the other side of the room. Black clouds scudded across the morning sky. “Looks like a storm’s coming up.”

  Niko nodded. “Yes. It’s quite cold as well. It will be quite uncomfortable on the surface, I suppose. That is why it’s good to be underwater.”

  Austin laughed, but his thoughts turned inevitably to Luke. He glanced at his watch. Fifteen minutes until he was supposed to meet Luke at his cabin. It seemed like forever. Austin was itching to know how Luke’s search had gone the previous night, whether he’d found the idol, whether he’d been able to bring it up. When they could leave this place.

  We can go away, he mused dreamily. Use the money Dr. Martin’s paying me and buy a little house somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Someplace with a private beach, so Luke can spend time as an octopus. We can swim and watch the sunset and the storms on the water. We can make love on a blanket on the sand. No more Carson Cordova, no more beatings.
No more worrying about money. Just Luke and me together, forever.

  Austin became so lost in his daydreams, he forgot all about Niko until the man touched his hand.

  “What are you thinking of?” Niko asked, his voice soft.

  Still halfway in his daydream, Austin answered without thinking. “Luke.” He froze with his coffee mug halfway to his mouth as he realized what he’d just said. “I ... What I mean is, um, what’s the deal with him? Mr. Cordova’s son, I mean.”

  Niko gave him a cautious look. “What do you mean?”

  “I mea ... Austin stopped, thinking. Luke said his father’s abuse was common knowledge on the ship. Find out what they know, and how they feel about it. Maybe he has friends he doesn’t know about. He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “I saw him in the hallway yesterday, coming out of his father’s office,” he continued, figuring the small lie was justified. “He had a black eye. I’ve seen this sort of thing before. I figure I know where he got that shiner.”

  Niko pushed his scrambled eggs around his plate, his expression troubled. “Do not ask questions about Luke Cordova, my friend. It’s not a safe subject.”

  “Why not?” Austin pressed. “You’re a good man, Niko. I know you don’t condone what’s happening to Luke. Don’t you want to help him?”

  “Of course I would help him if I could. There are many on this ship who feel the same.” Niko made a helpless gesture. “But there is nothing we can do.”

  Austin looked straight into Niko’s eyes with a challenge in his own. “What if you could do something? Would you?”

  Niko stared at Austin in silence for a moment, then pushed his chair back and stood up. He leaned his palms on the table. “The beatings are becoming worse by the day. I fear for his life. If you know how to help him, don’t wait to act, or you may be too late.” He straightened up and gave Austin a grim smile. “See you at ten.”

  Austin watched Niko walk away, pondering what he’d just said. He sensed the truth of Niko’s words, even though he knew he hadn’t seen the worst of the abuse.