Estella folded me into a hug. My breasts ached at the touch of hers, even through the layers of fabric between us – a sure sign of my early pregnancy. "It is not so bad. You could join Dan and I one evening. I know he won't mind…"
I thought of the hairy human she enjoyed so much, but he attracted me as little as his brother. I didn't want a human. I craved the pleasurable sensations they could deliver, it is true, but I did not want it from either man. I shook my head. "Thank you, but no. When will you return to him today?"
Estella smiled. "Not until the weekend. He has study matters to occupy his time and has no time for me. And I have nothing to do for the rest of this week. What would you like to do?"
I felt listless. I shrugged.
Estella's smile brightened. She pulled her dress over her head and dropped it on her bed, bouncing a little where she sat in eagerness.
"I've been speaking to Elder Sirena and paying particular attention to Dan…" she began.
I reflected bitterly that she had paid so much attention to the human that I barely saw her. I tried to concentrate on her words, reminding myself that at least I had her attention now.
She eased my dress up until she'd removed it from my body. She threw it onto the bed beside hers. "Would you like to try?" she asked with an excited smile.
"Try what?" I replied, suddenly confused.
She leaned over and kissed my tummy, over where my embryonic child was growing. She looked up at me with wicked eyes. "You weren't listening, were you, dearest?"
"No. I'm sorry," I whispered. My eyes filled with tears. I felt like I was losing my only friend to a human, yet I was the one lost in the dark.
She lifted her head and cupped my aching breasts. She planted a light kiss on each of my nipples before she smiled at me again. My skin tingled where she'd touched me, to the point where my tears stopped. I wondered why she would show any interest in my breasts when they were so insignificant compared to hers.
"Now I have your attention," she said gently. "We have the house to ourselves for the whole day and I think I've worked out what these skilled human males do to provoke pleasure in joining. It doesn't look difficult – after all, humans do it – and I'd like to try it with you." Her eyes held mine as she sucked gently on my nipple.
I gasped, feeling the pull of her mouth far deeper than my breast, even after she let go.
"Let me show you, dearest," she whispered. Her lips opened on mine, kissing me so that I could taste the raspberry juice on her tongue. I yielded to her downward pressure until my head rested on the pillow once more.
I combed my fingers through her hair, kissing her back as hard as I could. She broke away with a smile, her eyes full of sincerity, as she took my hand.
"Here," she said as she pressed my fingers to a place between my legs that made my skin jump when we touched it. She touched my fingers to the same place on her body and I felt the jolt as she moved in response. I moved my hand, dragging my skin against her, and felt her gasp as much as I heard it.
"You first," I murmured. I knew I was clumsy, but within a few minutes I heard her breathing quicken until she let out a squeal that left me almost breathless with desire.
"My turn," she responded before I knew what was happening. She reached for the bowl of raspberries and pulled out two that were still covered in ice crystals. Carefully, she placed them over my nipples. The cold was stunning, an icy stab to my insides, as I gasped.
"Leave them, dearest," she murmured as she kissed me. "I'll take care of you."
She was far more skilful than I, her delicate touch precise and tantalising. Now I could hear my own voice moaning in pleasure, but I couldn't focus on anything but her hands, on me, in me, never ceasing…I could feel the heat build deep inside me, like a subsea vent about to blow a blockage. So could Estella, because she started giggling. Then she was quiet. I felt the orgasm bubble up as she sucked the first raspberry off me and I screamed. Before I could catch my breath, she took the other one in her teeth and sucked hard on my breast. I sobbed out her name and clung to her, lost in the sensation of my sweet, sexy Estella.
No man could compare to her.
59. Joe
"I can read, Daddy! Listen!" Marina announced, climbing into my lap on the couch. I shut off the TV with the remote and turned my attention to my daughter.
She opened up a purple book with a penguin on the front and began sounding out the words, her finger beneath the letters. "Where's my Mummy?"
She recited her way through the whole book, stumbling occasionally, 'til she reached the end and slammed the book shut. She looked up at me, her eyes shining with pride. "I can read!"
I clapped for her with a smile. "Well done, sweetheart."
"Give Daddy a kiss. After you've read him his story, it's time for bed, Marina," Vanessa said softly from behind me.
I turned and said, "Did you know Marina can read? She's amazing!"
Vanessa's smile grew wider and Marina's looked like her face was going to split. Little lips touched my cheek before Marina's hands crept around my neck for a hug. She skipped off to bed, Nessa following her out.
Nessa was back in a few minutes, still smiling. "She is amazing."
I put the penguin book down on the coffee table. "It's better than the picture books I learned to read with. They were full of, 'Hello Jack. Hello Jill. This is Dick. Play with his ball.'"
Vanessa laughed. "My students learn from waterproof copies of The Rainbow Fish. I need to get some more soon, to give to the girls when they leave for the depths again. They do deteriorate in the salt…"
"Doesn't Marina have that one? I thought it only came out recently," I replied, puzzled. "You can't have learned from that, unless you haven't been reading long."
"It did," Vanessa responded. "I learned to read long ago, from a book with words that were not so simple as yours or Marina's, though it sounds like it was closer to your reading primer than any penguin or fish book."
"What was the first book you read called?" I asked. "Darwin's Origin of Species?"
She laughed. "No, though my mother was there when he did the research for his treatise on coral reefs."
What? That was a joke…
"I learned to read from a leather book with no pictures," she continued. She gave a grin. "I still have it."
It was my turn to laugh, though it was a pretty nervous laugh. "Show me."
Nessa took my hand and led me to the library. From one of the higher jarrah shelves, she pulled down a small, brown book that looked pretty worn and boring.
"What is it?" I asked, turning it over. There was nothing written on the cover or the spine.
"It's an Indian book of etiquette," she replied, trying hard not to laugh.
"A what?" I stared at her. "You learned to read from an Indian book on manners? Is it even in English?"
Vanessa laughed. "Yes, it was translated into English. Here, you should read it." She pushed me into one of the armchairs, opening the book in my hands. "I'm just going to do some washing, I'll be back in a minute."
I started to read the old book. The date on the inside cover was 1926 and the publisher was listed as one in Paris. The title was something Indian that didn't mean much to me, so I just kept going 'til I got to some more words. Then it started to get interesting. I still didn't get how it was a good book for a young girl to learn to read from, but if Vanessa said she had…
I heard her come into the room, but I was trying to get my head around what it was saying. I wish it had pictures, but Vanessa's reading primer didn't have any. Maybe they were too expensive to print then. Or maybe…
Nessa slid into my lap, beneath the book. I reached out to steady her, as her perch seemed a little precarious, and my fingers touched skin. I looked up, to see that the stupid book blocked my view of her perfect bare breasts. I closed it and tried to put it down on the table. I wanted both hands free for Vanessa.
She took the book from my hands and opened it against her stomach so I could stil
l see the pages and almost everything else as well. She started flipping through them, looking for something.
"Nessa, the last thing I want to do is read when you're on my lap with no clothes on," I protested.
She found the page she was looking for and held it out to me. When I took it from her, I saw that it had a muddy outline of her fingers beneath them, but her fingers were clean. I looked at her for a moment, before turning my eyes to the page, at precisely the point indicated by the brown fingers stained into the page.
Nessa shifted in my lap as I looked at the words, then tried to make sense of them.
She started to undo my pants. I stood up to help her, still looking at the page. She managed to undress me as I read, pushing me down on the chair when she was done, so the velvet was soft under my bum.
I looked up at her face as she slid back onto my lap. "You seriously learned to read from this book? How old were you?"
Vanessa took it from my hands and closed it on the table. "I was twenty-two, and that's not all I learned." She lifted her legs so that they were on the back of the chair behind me, taking my hands and placing them on her body, very precisely. "Even today, the Kama Sutra is considered a manual for love." She shifted and I slid in effortlessly.
Arching her body back as she held onto the arms of the chair, her head was almost resting on my ankles, yet she was definitely in control as she started to move. "Make it good, Joe," she murmured. "Maybe we'll have time to try a couple more tonight."
I wanted to wonder who'd taught Nessa to read from a sex manual, but it was bloody hard to concentrate on anything but her. Ah, fuck it. My curiosity got the better of me. I held tight to her and did my damnedest to find out what it was like when she came upside down.
Vanessa seemed pretty pleased at the result and I was bloody proud of myself, too.
"Are you all right, Elder Sirena? Why are you permitting him to hurt you like that?"
Both of the crazy girls came into the room at the sound of Vanessa's loud cry of joy.
Oh, fuck.
Any hope I had of further sex with Vanessa fizzled at the sight of them. I got a big floppy one at the memory of being paralysed and terrified she was going to kill me as those two did that freaky squeaky shit they did.
Nessa felt the change in me and pulled herself up so she was just sitting in my lap.
"Get out," was all she said to them and they obeyed.
Her eyes went to my face. "I'm sorry, Joe," she said.
"Not as sorry as I am," I replied, looking down. I was about as useful to her as a wet sock on the washing line.
I went to find my clothes again.
60. Laila
I shared the shower with Estella, watching the water cascade over her body, her skin now as familiar to me as my own. Perhaps more so, as I'd tasted every bit of hers over the last few days.
The feeling of water flowing over us as we made love in the shower was so smooth, I longed for the open ocean and the feel of being surrounded by cool water with her warm body.
Estella gave me a lingering kiss and stepped from the shower, reaching for a towel to dry her captivating curves. I turned the water off and let my skin drip, just drinking her in.
She flicked the towel at me with a giggle before hanging it up. "You'd think I was leaving for a week instead of just a few hours of the evening. If you'll miss me so much, come join us. Dan won't mind."
I shook my head. I didn't want the hairy human and I didn't want him to have her. "I don't want to see you with him. I know you're only using him to give you a child, but I still don't like it."
Estella's smile held sympathy. "Good. I don't want to share you with him, either. You're mine." She kissed me again, her fingers lightly stroking my side.
"Do you have to go?" I murmured.
"Yes!" she returned with a smile. She pulled a dress over her head, adjusting her breasts so that they sat close together with a tempting chasm between them. "Cheer up, I'll be home before you know it. I'm going to let him try without a condom tonight. He'll be lucky to last fifteen minutes."
I did not understand her words, but covered my confusion with a smile as I realised that she would spend the night in my bed tonight and not his.
She gave me one last kiss. "Then I'll be all yours again, dearest." She winked at me before she turned and left.
61. Joe
I was already sitting at the table, sipping my coffee, making sure Marina ate every bite of the Vegemite toast she'd insisted upon for her breakfast, when the two crazy girls walked in.
They walked straight past me, without a word or look of acknowledgement, but I was getting used to that.
"Good morning Laila and Estella!" Marina sang out with a big, black-lipped smile. One day she'll learn to eat Vegemite without getting it everywhere, I thought, grabbing a tissue to wipe the worst of it off her face.
"Good morning, Marina," Estella, the shorter one, replied with a smile. Her eyes glanced across me as she spoke and I know she saw me, but her gaze slid away before I could say anything.
"Mummy says you should try the raspberry yoghurt for breakfast!" Marina announced.
I wondered why Vanessa would offer them her favourite breakfast food, when she guarded her yoghurt from me most days, but I was roused from my thoughts by the unfamiliar sound of laughter. I looked up.
Both of the girls were giggling, exchanging glances as if neither of us were here.
"Okay, what's so funny about raspberry yoghurt?" I asked, not expecting an answer.
Cool lips on the back of my neck. "I believe it's a private joke, Joe. They'd tell us if it weren't." Vanessa's voice sounded like she understood the joke better than I did, though.
They might tell you but for them I don't exist, I thought with annoyance, but didn't say.
Vanessa opened the fridge and then the freezer, scanning the shelves. "We need milk and bread, so I may as well do the food shopping later today. It looks like we're low on raspberries, too." She glanced at me.
"Don't look at me," I said defensively. "I haven't eaten raspberries in a long time." I hadn't been able to touch Mum's Christmas pavlova because the raspberries on top reminded me of Vanessa and the last time I had raspberries and her on the Siren…
The giggling resumed, louder than before. The smaller one clutched at the bench as she attempted to control herself. "I'm sorry, I've developed quite a taste for them," she gasped out, with a look at the taller girl. "So has Laila." Both dissolved into giggles, the smaller one doubled over, she found it so funny.
Vanessa regarded them with a slight smile on her face, but the smile vanished quickly. "In that case, I'll make sure I get plenty more."
"Please do, Grandmother," Estella said, smiling at Laila.
"Yeah," I muttered. If those crazy girls were snacking on our raspberries, there'd be none left for me when Vanessa and I found the time to fool around.
For a moment, I wondered if they knew what the raspberries were for, then dismissed the thought as quickly as it had come. Coming from a purely female underwater population, there was no way they'd know what to do with fruit. They'd probably never slept with anyone in their young lives and I sure wasn't about to volunteer to educate Vanessa's young relatives on the joys of sex. Or even the theory.
62. Laila
I could not find Estella, so I called her name softly.
"I am here, in the library," came her reply.
I entered the library, to find her seated in an armchair with her legs curled beneath her. She held an old book, full of equally curled writing. She looked up with an excited smile. "Look, all of our history is held here – written down!"
She offered the open book to me, but I shook my head and settled on the floor beside her. I could read human letters, but I did not enjoy it.
"This one holds some of the older stories, ones I have not heard from our teachers. Listen:
"When Aurelia and Manyara were children, dragons had long since died out. We have only stories of their existenc
e, males of our kind who lived once but no more. When our people arrived in the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic, there were no more males and we were required to venture on land for the services of humans.
"The two girls were grown, summoned to attend a Council meeting so they could be sent to do their duty on land, but they obtained permission to investigate a cave island where stories said a dragon had once lived.
"The two entered caves and swam through dark mazes, finding fish that never saw light and dwelt only in darkness, caves full of sweet water with no salt and many other things. In one deep cave, they heard the noise of a large creature roaring. Aurelia was a skilled singer, so she sang as few can, to send the creature away. It approached closer and the girls tried to flee. The creature pursued them through dark caves it knew better than they and Aurelia caught her tail between rough rocks. Stuck, she commanded Manyara to leave without her, to tell the Council that she would die bravely and do honour to her line in fighting to the end.
"Manyara hesitated, for she could not in conscience leave her friend so that she could escape in safety. She did not lack courage, but did not have the reckless pride that was Aurelia's undoing. She returned to bear her sad tale as a lesson to us all.
"So the Council lost a promising young woman who might have made a strong leader. Recklessness in the ocean is not rewarded. Children must learn to…"
Estella looked up from her book. "Did you know there were dragons?"
I shook my head.
She lifted another book from the table beside her and flipped feverishly through its pages. "There is another story of Aurelia, but it is different. This one…" She pointed and I stretched up to read it with her.
"GO!" I shouted.
Manyara hesitated, but she went.
"I am Aurelia of the Gold line and I will not go lightly into the deeps! You will pay dearly for the damage you do today!" I roared, drawing myself up with all the majesty of my mother. No monster would find me lacking in courage.
"I have paid dearly for much in my lifetime, child, but what new damage do you speak of today?" The voice which spoke was deeper than any of my sisters' and hinted at laughter.
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