by daisy harris
Sophia felt a growl growing inside. This was too much. Finally, something happened that made her popular, and another stupid rejection would steal it away before she could take advantage. “Yeah Frida, it totally bites.” She tried not to show the depth of her letdown. “Hey listen, I gotta go.”
The face on the screen scrunched sympathetically. “Call me again soon, babe, okay?”
Sophia nodded once but shut the screen of Kai’s laptop. She scrubbed her hand through her hair, twisting it over the side of her shoulder.
She pouted for several minutes but finally decided that there was simply nothing to be done. To distract herself, she reopened the computer and used the USB cable to connect the handheld video player. She scrolled through the options, eventually landing on the one she wanted. A host of other videos filled the memory card. Once she watched the one she wanted, Sophia vowed to hand over the rest as evidence against the crew’s leader and his men.
The movie started, and watching herself shudder and beg on screen almost led her to tear up again. But then she saw the jailer enter her cell. His posture was so cool and composed. She hadn’t noticed that before. He hadn’t even broken a sweat as he threw the other shark back and locked the door. His walk, his look, everything was predatory, wary, yet completely contained.
She watched him whisper in her ear and saw herself shiver in his arms. Without her conscious direction, Sophia’s human hand drifted to the inside of that thigh he’d bared. When the grainy screen showed him positioning himself, she could tell that the cameraman had tried to get a better angle for filming. She cocked her head and squinted, trying to make out the action.
The camera zoomed in on the jailer’s face. His eyes pressed closed and his mouth opened wide as he thrust between her legs. She’d never seen anything so erotic. Her fingers reached under the hem of her dress and found that spot that had ached when his sex organ had stroked it. Her folds dripped with wetness, and again she checked that she wasn’t bleeding. No, just a silky fluid, like the one she’d released when he’d been atop her.
The video showed his strong shoulders poising him over her back. His hips snapped forward. She listened as her pretend cries of terror turned to actual cries of enjoyment. Her real-time gasps joined the chorus as her hand worked faster circling against the nubbin of skin.
An edge she’d never approached hovered right before her, and when she watched the jailer’s face when he’d reached for her breast and buried his face in her hair, spasms spread out from the point her finger touched in rippling waves. The inside of her human body felt empty, sore, full. Her finger swept lower and dipped inside her reproductive track, and the touch was met with a fresh round of spasms. Her fingers filled the space, as she imagined his organ might have. The walls of her sheath clamped on those digits, and Sophia wondered if her jailor would enjoy the sensation.
She pulled her hand away from her flesh when the captain started talking, his voice recorded by the audio feed. The jailor had kissed her neck. A slow brushing of lips against flesh that she felt, even now, seared like a brand.
He liked her. He really did. Her heart beat fast with the knowledge. It was possible for a male to find her attractive. And if he could want to mate with her, others could as well.
Her center pulsed again, a sure sign that her first heat was indeed nearing. There was no way she would suffer seclusion during that time or the embarrassment that might follow.
She lighted upon an idea. Not a kind one, and certainly not a noble one. But perhaps she could negotiate a deal that would save them both.
* * * * When they left the small beige room a half hour later, Nereus fought to keep the grin off his face. He kept his head down as the scientist led him back to his tank. The lab assistants that hovered in the corners adjusting pH and slicing fish probably believed him, but he knew the scent of his satisfaction carried to the sharks.
Nereus climbed the rolling metal staircase up to the top of his tank and dove in. His legs drew together and morphed into his tail. Cool rubbery skin replaced a groin rubbed deliciously raw from the scientist’s ministrations. He swam broad circles, working off nervous energy, not, he promised himself, showing off for the researcher.
Nereus watched David’s back as he walked stiffly toward the door. Yeah, the guy’s balls must ache like crazy! He’d tried to reach into the scientist’s pants, to repay a small portion, but David had calmly led his hand away.
David paused at the exit, and his shoulders tensed as he grasped the rubber swaths. Nereus knew he wanted to turn around but was fighting the urge.
The scientist was sexy, now that he really looked. Tall and just a little gangly, David’s body had a hungry, sunken feel, as if he’d drowned on a deserted island and had waited ages to be saved.
Nereus swam a few more rounds, scoffing at his cliché fantasy. If anyone needed saving in this situation it was him, not the scientist who could leave whenever he wanted.
The last couple lab assistants left soon after, done with the feedings until this evening. The moment all humans had left, low growls erupted from tanks all around him.
None of the sharks spoke, but Nereus knew what they were thinking. He wasn’t the first subject to get sexually involved with staff. It never worked out well for the subjects. Best that happened, they got their memory scrubbed and released, but more often they ended up dead.
But in a choice between anal electrocution and the best head of his life, Nereus chose the latter. Besides, the red-haired scientist had stroked up and down his thighs, taken his cock deep and willingly in his throat. If it weren’t for the lab requisition forms, Nereus was certain David would have swallowed every drop.
He pulled his attention away from the encounter, and reached up to unwind the wire fastenings covering his cage. The tips poked his fingers, but after seven months, Nereus had coming and going down to an art. There was a tiny male shark held in a lone tank in one of the side rooms. Nereus would make sure he got some time tonight with his mother.
Chapter 6
The cool bars buffeted his back. Raider breathed in her scent still hanging in the air. He bent his head in his arms and kept the hood over his face. Every member of the fifteen-man crew knew of his mark, and most even knew he could walk on land, but only his father knew the reason for it. Weird that the dragoness, Sophia, had seen it right away. He wished he’d told her not to share his background with anyone else. Then again, no one would believe her if she told them.
A booted foot kicked him as a crew member passed on the way to the chamber pot. Raider grunted, just to give the guy satisfaction, and turned to the side to give him more room.
The hatch opened above, and the Fear’s crew shouted curses at the dragon soldier who descended the ladder. The huge, dark male stood in front of the prison, feet wide apart and eyes scanning. None of the jeers or taunts appeared to affect him. Raider admitted to a twinge of respect.
The human-form dragon’s eyes fell on him. “You—show yourself!”
He cocked his head up to meet the dragon’s dark eyes, and before the crew could wonder too much at his being singled out, Raider walked to the cage’s door. If the dragoness had begged for his leniency, his rep was screwed.
The dragon opened the door without a word, and Raider was glad. A thick, black, hand wrapped around Raider’s arm and dragged him forward, and the shark-shifter went as quickly as could be reasonably explained by the force. He climbed the ladder at the dragon’s urging. That glorious sunshine slapped at his cheeks, along with the freezing air. The cold coated his throat and lungs.
“Sophia would like to see you.” The dragon’s voice shook the floorboards, it was that deep. He handed the shark a canteen full of fresh water.
Raider drank. “What’s she want?” He hoped not to say thank you. That was all he needed, for the males below to know he’d wussed out.
“That’s between you and Sophia. Just know that whatever occurs between you, I will remain silent.” The dragon’s dark eyes penetrated.
His words were spoken like an oath.
Raider nodded his thanks.
The sliding door to the main cabin opened, revealing the dragoness. She wore the same thick woolen dress from the hold, but her hair hung clean and styled over her shoulders. Those dark black locks curled alongside her coffee-colored face.
“Hello, shark.”
Without meaning to, his head ducked in a little bow. “Hello.” Inside he scowled. Only moments outside the dungeon and he was acting in exactly the same way that got him thrown in the hold in the first place.
“Hello, um…I didn’t catch your name before.” She shifted from foot to foot, like she felt guilty for not knowing what to call him. The submissive action sent heat to his loins.
“No, you didn’t.” He meant it as an insult, but it came out a tease.
The tall dragon interrupted. “Sophia asked to speak with you alone, shark. I’ll be right inside that door.” He pointed a charcoalcolored finger to the window on the sliding door.
Raider nodded, as did Sophia. She waited until the dark male had slid the door closed before turning to Raider to speak. When her whiskey-brown eyes met his, she hesitated. “Um, well, I’m sorry about that. Would you tell me your name?”
He thought about it, supposing it couldn’t hurt. She knew much more damaging information about him than his identity. “It’s Raider.”
“Like Raiders of the Lost Ark?” she squealed, “Cool! I saw it once on AMC, you know. My mom said it was really popular, like, in the olden days.”
He cut her off. “My mother named me after my father. She had a sick sense of humor.”
Sophia responded by shutting up, which Raider appreciated. At first. Then her twisting hands drew out his speech just as badly as her words did. “You wanted to talk to me about something?”
“Um...” She stared at her feet. Clearly, she was cold as fuck out here, as was he. If this was a thank you, she was taking her damn time. “I want to offer you a trade.”
Tiny alarms went off in his mind. The little dragoness only had one thing he wanted, and, like an idiot, he had passed.
“Your freedom in exchange for…Well, I want you to kidnap me.”
Raider narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out her angle. “If I wanted off this boat, I could have run for it a long time ago. And anyway, why the hell would you want me to kidnap you?”
Sophia’s eyes narrowed as well, as she tried to figure him out. “I want you to steal me away on the pretense that you’re in love with me.” When he erupted in laughter, Sophia gasped and her face screwed up in anger. She changed her tack. “Fine! Not that you’re in love with me, then, that you want me, desperately. That you can’t live without me.”
With every one of her statements, he laughed harder. This female was far more fun than he’d realized. “What could you possibly hope to get out of that?”
Her furious features arranged into a haughty expression. “Not that you would understand this, shark, but dragon males have a very strong noble streak. If you steal me away and appear to hold me captive, one is bound to come to my rescue.”
Raider straightened his back, confused. “But one already came to your rescue.”
She sighed loudly. “Yeah, but he doesn’t want to marry me.”
He stifled the snort that threatened to escape. His glee dimmed a little when her face fell.
“He’d already found another. That had nothing to do with me!”
He doubted that was true, but chose not to point it out. “All right, so let’s assume your noble warrior does come to your rescue. Why would he fall in love with you?”
She drew her brows together and spoke slowly, as if trying to convince herself as well as him. “Well, firstly because he’ll think you’re in love with me. Nothing makes a male or female more attractive than the attention of another.”
Raider shrugged. She had a point.
“And because by then I’ll be in heat, and he won’t be able to resist.”
Raider pried his jaw off the deck. He hadn’t fully appreciated this female’s ruthless streak. It turned him on like all hell. His mind reeled as he struggled to catch up. “What do I get out of this deal again?” He took another deep dreg of water, soothing his suddenly-parched throat.
She rolled her shoulders back, putting one little brow finger up at a time and listing the items. “Well, first you’d get your freedom.”
“I told you. That I could get on my own.” But her offer was tempting, so fucking tempting. So Raider hedged. “Listen- only if you can keep the captain locked up. And I mean permanently.” He spoke in measured words, not letting too much hope or desperation show through. “It’s not safe for you or anyone else around me otherwise.”
Sophia waved a dismissive hand. “That won’t be a problem.” She held up another finger. “Second, you’d get bragging rights that you stole a dragoness noble right out from the Council’s nose.”
The deal got better and better. That would raise his status drastically, and with his father out of the way he could...
“And third…um, well we could have intercourse if you want.”
Raider spurt water straight out his nose.
* * * *
Sophia watched him choke and stutter. At first she felt guilty. He sounded pained. But then she recalled his laughter at the notion of even pretending to be in love with her. It made her want to kick him. “I know you’d like to, so I’m not sure why you’re so surprised I’d offer that as incentive.”
“I…” He shook his head like a dog with water in its ears. “Wait, let me get this…I don’t get you dragons!”
She pondered his comment, completely at a loss. “What’s not to get?”
His hands flew up in the air, and he paced a few steps to the right, then to the left. It was the most she’d seem him move in such short a span of time. “You’re all medieval with the arranged marriages and shit and then you…”
“Are you referring to the human medieval era? In Western Europe, after the Roman Empire, but before the Age of Enlightenment?” She’d studied human history of various cultures, but in truth, she’d missed most of the details.
“Yeah, sweetheart, that. Wouldn’t your noble knight be upset if you’d already popped your cherry?”
Her mind flew through images of the human world and what the shark could possibly mean. “Why would my mate mind if I ate a cherry?”
The shark shifter, Raider, pinched his forehead between his thumb and his forefinger.
Her brow knit further in confusion.
“I mean, won’t he be upset if you lost your virginity?”
She nibbled her fingernail. Mercy, she should know what that word meant. Virginity—like the Virgin Mary. Her mind spun as she tried to remember her Human Religions course. Christianity…religion…women’s roles…oh, yes! Not having had sexual intercourse yet. That’s what he was talking about!
“Oh no! That’s not such an issue, especially since I’ll just say that you forced me.” She lowered her head in question. “You would want me to say you’d forced me right? Not that you’d seduced me?” Her hands twisted as she considered that option. “I could go that route, but I’m not sure it would bolster your reputation as much.”
The shark’s eyes widened by slow increments, and he stumbled back a step.
“I’m sorry, have I offended you?”
He cleared his throat and rolled his shoulders, looking like he was trying to regain his composure. “I’m not easy to offend, sweetheart.”
“Good, then. And I did want to thank you for protecting me earlier.”
He only grunted. “But now you’re offering up the same thing.”
Sophia sharpened her eyes on his. “It’s not at all the same thing, and you know it.”
He shrugged but didn’t argue. “So when do you want to leave?”
“You’ll do it?” She squealed and flew into his arm, planting a kiss on his cheek. Raider’s corded muscles hardened like steel under his clothes. She let go
immediately. “Just, um…let me get my stuff. We can swim. Do you need anything?”
He shook his head and then peered around the deck with a somewhat lost look in his eyes. “These are the only clothes I have. I can’t carry them in my shark form.”
Guilt trickled down her spine. His lack of belongings clearly embarrassed him. “I have a dry bag. You can put them in there.”
He nodded curtly, and she hauled open the door to the main cabin, almost running over Kai in the process.
He grasped her arm in his enormous hand. “Are you sure about this, Sophia?”
She looked into his espresso eyes, so full of honest concern. She could see how he might have been a good mate and that the mere he’d chosen was very lucky. “He’s actually a decent male, for a shark. I’ll be fine.” She bolted back to her room, grabbed her dry bag and ran headlong for the exit onto the deck.
The dark dragon scowled at her approach. “All right, Sophia. I’ll let you both go. But you have forty-eight hours, and then I’m letting the Council know.”
She shouted her thanks to Kai as the cool metal handle fell obediently under her grasp and she shoved the door open. On deck, Raider pulled his poncho over his head, revealing the long expanse of his chest and his ridged abdomen. Then he pulled open the worn fly of his jeans and shoved them to his ankles, undressing quickly and handing her the balled up clothes.
Her focus travelled from his outstretched arm to the broad V of his shoulders. The path of bright white led…yep, it led right where she thought it might, and even past that a little, to the inside of his thigh. That tiny pink arrow drew every ounce of her attention, until the shark at last cleared his throat and waved the pile of clothes in her direction.
Nervous giggles escaped from between her clenched lips. The human form was so naked without clothes. She shoved the pile into her bag just as she heard the splash of him diving into the water.
* * * * The white vinyl lab jacket flapped around Nereus’s bare legs as he stole down the wide hallways. Dehydration hobbled him, but he kept running, throwing Friedson’s office door open and rifling through the drawers. He found the keys to the tanks right away and slipped them onto his finger.