The Silkie's Call

by Laura Browning

  He floated next to her and blew bubbles at her before he raised his head. “Mmm. Sex muscles.”

  “What?” She spluttered

  “Some of the same muscles you use for sex. Trust me, Bell, watching you swim is an erotic experience. Wanna feel?”

  When she reached out and circled his erection, he groaned. Then she startled him even more by sinking underwater and taking him into her mouth. While she sucked him, her hand caressed his butt. He pulled her up, wrapped her legs around his waist and slipped his cock inside her. He continued to tread water while he gently thrust in and out of her, but when they were both ready to finish, he guided them to water shallow enough that he could stand. While his hands supported her ass and her thighs, he drove himself in and out of her until his hips jerked as he pumped his semen in her in several bursts.

  They played, diving and chasing each other. Cayden was amazed at how well she still moved through the water, using her arms and her body to twist away, as graceful as she had ever been even before the accident, but he watched her carefully because he knew she tired more easily. As soon as he saw it, he swam over to her.

  “Put your arms on my shoulders, darling. You can ride on my back and I’ll give you a piggyback ride onto the beach. How does that sound?”

  “Like a wonderful idea.” She kissed him. “I love you, Cay.”

  He closed his eyes for just a second to savor it. Seven years he had dreamed of hearing her say those words. His mate. No matter what anyone said. She would be his mate.

  They ate and made love again. This time Cayden held himself back long enough to pleasure her with his mouth and tongue. He turned her over on her belly, moving her until her bottom was up in the air. He kissed his way down her spine to the scars at the small of her back.

  “Do they hurt? The scars?”

  “No. Not anymore.”

  His eyes drifted over the smooth, round cheeks of her ass, and he felt his cock go instantly hard again. She was beautiful from any angle, but seeing her positioned as the Silkie traditionally made love was almost more than he could stand. He gently spread her to prepare her for his entry.

  “What are you doing?” She whispered over his shoulder.

  “Loving you, darling. Just a different position. He teased her moist sex with his fingers, slipping inside her to stroke. She sobbed his name. The Silkie in him growled with satisfaction.

  “You like that?” He murmured as he kissed the smooth globe of her butt cheek. “I want to hear you scream when you come for me, love. I want to feel you tighten on my finger.”

  “Cay!” she gasped and pushed back against his hands. He bent over and softly bit her on the ass. With a scream she climaxed, gasping his name as her hands curled into the blanket underneath her. He pulled his fingers out and guided his cock into her pulsating core. He groaned when he joined his body to hers.

  She still sobbed with pleasure.

  “Oh Cay, I never dreamed. More, please, more.”

  He braced his hands on the ground on either side of her and thrust his cock back and forth until he climaxed deep inside her once more.

  With both of them sated, they fell next to each other and slept. As the afternoon shadows lengthened, he touched her cheek tenderly. “I should get you back,” he murmured softly. “I don’t want Taylor at my throat again for tiring you out, or wondering if I’ve abducted you.”

  He gave her a piggy back ride out to the boat, helping her on board, and wrapping her snugly in a towel before he went back to get the rest of their things. When he saw how tired she was, he helped her dress and pulled back the covers on the bunk.

  “Lie down and rest, Bell. Do you need your medicine?”

  “I don’t want it Cay. It makes me sluggish.”

  In the end, he persuaded her to take it, afraid that if she didn’t she would endure more of the painful spasms he had seen the other night. Once she settled down, he stroked her hair and went back up on deck to haul in the anchor and unfurl the sail. In just a few minutes, the Belle had come about and was headed out of the cove. Bell’s cove. The place where he’d first kissed her and the place where he’d finally mated with her. He whispered a spell learned from his mother when he was still young, spreading protection over the cove and making it visible only to the Silkie and their friends. Now it was truly Bell’s cove. Cayden smiled and lifted his face to the breeze. After seven years of grayness, he reveled in the late afternoon sun, and felt hope and power flow through him.

  Chapter 9

  So he’d finally done it. Ciaran watched the Belle pass by and followed from a distance. Cayden had finally fucked his human. He’d heard them on the boat, saw them on the beach, and felt a searing shaft of jealousy and anger at his elder brother that he took out on the Silkie maid who’d followed him. Part of him was grateful for her presence. She wasn’t looking for a long-term relationship. It was simply late in the mating season and she was horny. He obliged her, taking his anger at his brother and parents out by being rough with her. He’d gotten over his teenage crush on Annabel Barton. She’d been one hot teenager seven years ago, but who wanted a cripple for God’s sake? His resentment of Cayden hardened. All his elder brother had to do was crook a finger and he had their parents fawning over him and the human begging him to fuck her.

  Ciaran spent most of his time in seal form these days, ignoring the calls from Catriona to come home. He felt a blinding hatred for his parents, but in particular his father. He would have his revenge, and then he would take over Carrick’s position even if he had to fight Cayden to do it. There was only a year separating them and Ciaran had always had the size advantage over his brother. They’d fought often enough seven years ago. Ciaran had started most of those battles, egging his brother on over his little human.

  He thought several times about just forgetting all about it and heading south again. He could just forget the pain then, the betrayal. How could his father so easily discount the last seven years when Ciaran had worked so hard to be the perfect son?

  If he just left, he could put it behind him. Start over. He had enjoyed his time with the South American Clan when he was a teenager. They were far more easygoing, far more open and relaxed in their mating relationships and that appealed to Ciaran. There were always females, human and Silkie, hungry for fucking.

  He pushed aside the female he’d just taken and dove back into the bay. He could go south, but bitterness ate at him, bitterness and a need for revenge. One thing was sure. His family would not continue to overlook him.

  ****

  Catriona Clifton stood on the bow of the Skerry and let the wind ruffle her dark auburn hair. She had been uneasy and upset ever since her sons left. As much as she would never admit it aloud, though, it was Cayden about whom she was really concerned. Ciaran would always look out for Ciaran first until the time came when he found his own mate. That was his way, but she knew her elder son would sacrifice his own life to protect Annabel Barton. It had been that way since they were just children, and nothing had changed that.

  But something else had changed. She felt all day long that his relationship with the human was transitioning. Something monumental was taking place, and it only increased her uneasiness. Had Cayden finally joined with her?

  Catriona shivered. She feared Carrick’s reaction should he find out. He was incensed that Cayden still wanted the girl. It was more than her disability. Somewhere along the line, he had begun to blame Annabel Barton for everything that had transpired. Cayden’s banishment, his falling out with them again and leaving.

  It was hard sometimes not to blame her. Yet Catriona still remembered that first summer. She had watched the two of them together, both so young. Even then there was a connection between them that was magical. After all, wasn’t magic what they were all about? And that was one reason why King Riordan had allowed them to simply be. He understood the magic, although much of that seemed to have evaporated in recent years. Humans dismissed it as ordinary superstitions, their lives now ruled by t
echnology. Plain and simple, people just didn’t believe anymore, but it was hard not to when you saw Cayden and Annabel. They were magic.

  “Why are you here so pensive, my love?” Carrick murmured in her ear.

  “I was thinking of Cayden,” she said turning in his arms and resting her cheek against his chest.

  “He has joined himself to her,” Carrick stated. At his wife’s look of surprise he rolled his eyes. “Even I, dimwitted, emotional telepath that I am, can sense that sort of monumental shift.”

  Carrick turned away to stare off toward the point where the Barton house stood. Catriona felt how livid he was that Cayden had mated with the girl. She had always been able to read him when he was angry, and right now he believed Annabel had taken his son away from him, and he saw no way their relationship could come to a happy ending, but somehow it would have to end.

  “Carrick,” his wife said softly. “It’s done now. It had to be done this time. Perhaps since it is, you might convince him to come back. Perhaps now he will be free of her.”

  He arched one dark brow at her. “Do you truly believe that?”

  She turned away dispiritedly. “No. It was never just sex with the two of them.”

  Just a month ago, she looked forward to seeing her son again after being apart from him for seven years. He had grown into such a fine man, but he had also grown into an independent man, accustomed to going his own way without consulting anyone else. And Cayden had drawn his own conclusions about everything that had occurred since Annabel Barton’s accident. While the facts as he surmised them might be correct, he didn’t fully understand all the motives behind them.

  “He will come back,” Carrick Clifton said. He stared out again at the house on the point. Catriona gazed at her husband sadly.

  “Getting rid of her won’t bring him back,” she said.

  Carrick’s dark gaze turned on her. “Stop reading me.”

  She smiled. “Stop broadcasting.”

  ****

  Cayden sailed the Belle home that night with a smile on his face. In fact, he found it difficult not to smile. The day was perfect. She was perfect. The entire fucking universe was perfect. He knew Bell planned to swim in the morning, and he decided he would visit her again as Whiskers. He smiled at the absurdity of the name.

  He knew he should tell her. Taylor already knew, and she needed to know as well, but he was reluctant to throw too much at her at once. She had already been through so much between the deaths of her parents and the accident. He wanted to marry her, and he knew that would open up additional problems.

  Yes, there had been marriages between Silkies and humans in the past, but it was usually between human males and Silkie females. None of the stories had happy endings. Cayden was determined things would be different with Bell and him. They would find a way.

  In his heart, though, he knew the sacrifice would have to be his. She could not live in the ocean, nor even spend the amount of time in the water that his family did, and they lived like humans much more of the time than most of the Silkie. He would be the one who would have to change…and he would. There was nothing for him now with his family. He turned his back on them. Cayden stared down at the leather anklet before his eyes lifted once again to the water. He would find a way to fit his life with hers, even if it meant giving up his pelt.

  ****

  Annabel sat at the end of the dock the next morning lost in thought. She half hoped Cayden would show up, but he hadn’t promised. She knew he worked jobs around the Yacht Club and sometimes crewed for various boats.

  She fingered the gold necklace around her throat. She had thought a lot about what Taylor said about being able to tell Whiskers apart from other seals. It was a very real danger. There was no way she could get away from a different seal. She fingered the necklace again. It was something her father gave her for her fourteenth birthday. It was a longer, thicker chain than she was used to. Long enough to put on a seal? Would he even let her?

  A splash startled her, and she looked up to see Whiskers waving a flipper at her. Annabel laughed and pushed off into the water, absurdly happy to see her friend again. He nuzzled her cheek and blew bubbles at her before flipping away and somersaulting through the air. When he approached her again, he hovered nearby to signal to her to grab hold of his flippers. Annabel rode on his back, momentarily reminded of her time with Cayden yesterday. She blushed and shook her head.

  She stroked the top of the seal’s sleek skull a few minutes later. She had moved into the shallows to relax and he lay next to her, his head resting on her lap.

  “My brother, the one who scared you the other day, seems to think I need some way to tell you apart from other seals.” She took the chain from around her neck, studied it and then looked at the seal. “I wonder if you would…”

  His nose touched the chain and then he looked up at her. Annabel held it out and gently slipped it over his head. When he simply nuzzled her again and put his head back on her lap, she smiled and once more glided her hand along his sleek fur. She hoped the chain would stay, that it wouldn’t be a danger for him.

  After a few more minutes, she gently pushed him away. “I have to go. Taylor’s taking me into the city today to visit my doctor.” She trailed her hand through the shallow water. “I hate these visits. The doctor just spouts the same platitudes about how I’m making excellent progress, but we both know I haven’t progressed.” She looked down bitterly at her feet, still hidden by the gently lapping water in the cove. “After seven years, this is as good as it gets.”

  She thought about her limitations, something she tried not to do because it became too real. She would much rather focus on everything she could do, but her time with Cayden, while beautiful, reminded her of everything she’d lost, and suddenly she was crying. Whiskers made a low clicking sound in his throat and nudged her with his nose.

  “I’m not usually like this. It’s just…there’s this wonderful man. He’s argued with his family over me, and I don’t want that. I don’t want to come between them. It’s wrong. Family is important. He doesn’t seem to realize…maybe because he still has a family. I wish I could tell him how many times I now wish I could go back and say something different or do something different if it would just bring my dad back. I’m afraid he’ll hate me if I tell him.”

  Annabel looked into the seal’s dark, liquid eyes and laughed even as the tears rolled down her face.

  “I have truly lost my mind. I’m here talking to a seal.” She pushed on Whiskers again and slowly swam toward the ladder on the dock. He hovered nearby, not even leaving after she pulled herself out of the water.

  Annabel toweled herself off with a vengeance. She really did hate going to the doctor. What was the point? He and his smiling nurses just said the same thing over and over. How it was a miracle she had as much feeling as she did. She must keep doing her exercises and pushing herself to do more. She grabbed her crutches and set them next to the bar before pulling herself up. When she tripped and fell halfway down the dock, Whiskers raised such a ruckus in the water that Taylor came out of the house. She groaned in frustration as she saw him come tearing down the dune and onto the dock.

  “Poppy! Are you all right?”

  She jerked away from him, her face a mask of anger and frustration.

  “I hate this! I hate my body. I hate my life. I wish I had died in that accident.”

  He tried comforting her, but she swung her fists at him, knowing, even as she did it that she was being childish. Taylor blocked her blows, his expression as distraught as hers. He finally pinned her arms to her sides.

  “Stop it! You don’t mean that and you know it.”

  She leaned her head against his chest. “I do,” she said tiredly. “The only place I feel alive is in the water. I hate having to come back on land. I wish I were a seal, like Whiskers. I wish I were anything but me.”

  ****

  Taylor looked sadly down into the water at the seal staring up at them. He saw the glint
of gold around the animal’s neck and realized that Poppy had found a way to help tell him apart from the other seals. Their eyes held for a moment and Taylor mouthed, she needs you. He thought he received a nod in response, and then the seal was gone.

  “I’m sorry, Taylor,” she choked. “I’m sorry.”

  “Poppy, shh.” Taylor held her for a couple of minutes and folded her close against him. “Let me look at you to make sure you’re all right.”

  She kept her face averted as he straightened her legs, checking them to see if she had hurt or scraped herself anyplace where she couldn’t feel it to tell him. He started to scoop her up, but she turned back to him then, her expression closed and reserved.

  “Don’t pick me up. I’ll walk.”

  She did let him help her to her feet, and Taylor stayed beside her as she laboriously worked her way back up to the house. He could feel the anger and frustration still running high in her and wondered now at his having mouthed to Cayden that she needed him. As emotionally wound up as she was, that might be a mistake.

  As if he conjured him just thinking about him, Cayden stepped off the porch, wearing, Taylor noted, clothes he’d obviously grabbed out of Taylor’s bedroom. Seeing the glint of gold at Cayden’s throat, Taylor made a face at him and gestured to his neck. Cayden’s fingers touched the chain before he hurriedly removed it and shoved it in his pocket.

  Annabel looked up just then. “Cay? What are you doing here?” She sounded faintly breathless.

  He smiled his devastating smile at her. “I couldn’t stay away, Bell.”

  She leaned on her crutches. “I have to go in to the city to the doctor.”

  He came forward to touch her cheek. “Is something wrong? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  She flushed, and Taylor looked sharply between the two of them.

  “No. Oh no. It’s just a regular visit.” She looked around in confusion. “How did you get here?”