by Kira Stone
“Go soak your head first. I’m not going to let you touch anything until you’re dripping wet.”
“Oooh, that’s just the way I like my men too. Dripping wet.”
“I got a better idea.” Both looked to Airk in surprise. “What? I’m not allowed to have an idea?”
Baen was the first to get his voice back. “Well, let’s hear it.”
“Since it’s low tide, there’ll be a bit of beach exposed. We can dig into the sand on the south end of the island to make Baen his own little tub so he can stay wet while the two of us stay dry.”
Gavin grinned at him. “Not too dry, I hope.”
Airk snorted, looking over at Baen. “I think you’re contagious.”
Baen practically danced across the intervening feet and planted a kiss on Airk’s lips. “I think you’re sweet.”
Gavin’s heart clenched. The love between the two hadn’t died at all. Sidelined and ignored, but not forgotten. That was probably why they’d gone through such lengths to stir up trouble for each other. Gavin wondered if he’d ever find someone to love that much.
Then again, maybe he already had. This odd couple had captured his imagination, holding it hostage. It was enslavement of the best kind. He could easily picture himself setting up a home base on the mysterious island, to live and work and love with them full time, like a real family.
But was there room for another in their tumultuous relationship? Could they love him back? He didn’t belong to this crazy island. He might not even be allowed to stay on Rookery Cove once his project ended…
Arms surrounded him on either side, forming a tight circle. “Why such a sad face?” Baen asked him. “Isn’t this what you wanted?”
“It’s exactly what I want,” he replied huskily.
“Then why this?” Airk caught a tear on the pad of his thumb and licked it away.
“This place is very special.” He looked between them, hugging them tighter. “You two are very special.”
Baen looked around, as if trying to spot something extraordinary. “You think?”
“Brat,” Airk said, lightly cuffing him on the shoulder.
It took both of them to help Airk reach the southern tip of the island. He was used to flying and the long walk was hard on his weak legs. He was determined to get there though, and once they reached the place, Gavin understood why. Airk had a romantic streak.
The main manufacturing plant was visible on the grassy hillock perhaps half a mile distant. Airk directed them to a place where the salty waves had hollowed out some of the coastal rock, creating a shallow cave. Moss and waterlines marked the walls to indicate how much of it would be flooded when the tide returned. Apparently it was a frequent trysting place because some enterprising soul had scattered about a dozen candles around. Baen visited each one, drawing out the moisture from the wick and then setting it aflame, while Gavin and Airk scooped out a Baen-sized sand pit for him to lounge in. By the time they were finished with their preparations, the sun was setting. Amber light skated over the water to spill across the mouth of the cave.
“What is this place?” Gavin asked them.
“Sometimes we need to test a product before it is released to consumers. Since all of our products involve sex, it’s not always advisable to do testing in front of an audience. This place serves as a kind of remote quality assurance lab.”
“Anyone can sign up to test RC Aphrodisiacs’ products. We get free samples, so this place also doubles as Makeout Point,” Airk added. “I bet we could find just about anything we wanted, toy-wise, in the crevasses throughout the cave. What isn’t immediately used gets left for the next couple who comes along.”
They sat in the wet sand, shoulder to shoulder, Gavin sandwiched between the other two. He’d noticed that they seemed to do that often, putting him in the middle. Right where he wanted to be.
“I’m all for scientific study,” Gavin said, his voice husky. They hadn’t even touched him yet, and just the mere proximity of their bodies had him near panting with desire.
“Then I’d say it’s time to shuck you out of your shell, shrimp,” Baen said, reaching for Gavin’s shirt.
Gavin laughed. “Shrimp?”
“Pink,” he said, stripping the fabric off over Gavin’s head. He lightly bit the exposed shoulder. “And juicy.”
Airk’s wings unfurled behind him as he turned on his hip to nuzzle the nape of Gavin’s neck. “Tender, and sweet.” He pressed a string of kisses, triggering a cascade of shivers, down Gavin’s spine. “And firm,” Airk added, slipping his hands down the front of Gavin’s shorts to cradle his hard-on.
Gavin slung an arm around each of them. “Guys?
They leaned closer. Their breath caressed the shells of his ears. “Yes?” they said in unison.
“All the way this time, right?” He could feel his heart hammering in his chest while he waited for their response.
“Whatever you want,” Baen said before biting down on Gavin’s earlobe. He groaned from the backlash of the sweet sting.
“Whatever makes you happy,” Airk agreed, subjecting his other ear to the same treatment.
Gavin let gravity pull him back to the sand. Baen and Airk went with him. Working in tandem, they stripped off the remainder of his clothes. Before he could become chilled, they were back at his sides, pressing against him as they feathered kisses over his chest. They met in the middle, their lips fused together, and the resulting chemistry took Gavin’s breath away.
He watched them kissing so deeply, groaning with need. However, even so engrossed in each other, they didn’t neglect him. Their hands roamed his body. Their cocks rested against his thighs…
Gavin filled his hands with pulsing erections. He stroked them, ran his thumb over the silky, fat heads. There was no difference in size and shape, as if Baen had cloned his lover’s dick. A remarkably adaptable organ. For two such different people, they certainly could work in tandem when the situation required it.
By the time their kiss ended, Gavin’s fingers were sticky with pre-cum. “I’ll top,” Airk declared. “You two sort out middle and bottom.”
“Bottom,” Baen called out. He flipped over on his belly, then drew his knees up so that his ass was raised in the air, smooth and naturally lubed. Gavin’s mouth went dry at the beauty of it being spread for his pleasure. “Well, what are you waiting for?”
“Geez, Baen, impatient much?” Airk growled.
Gavin couldn’t join in their teasing. His need to be inside Baen was too intense for levity. He positioned himself between Baen’s legs and inched forward, going slow because he knew it would drive Baen crazy. His palms on Baen’s ass kept the water sprite from pushing backward and impaling himself. It was like holding the very tides in his hands, as the natural power of water in motion drove Baen’s rocking rhythm as he tried to force Gavin deeper.
“You’re teasing me!”
“Serves you right for all the times you’ve done the teasing,” Airk replied, amused. He had a front row seat to the action, watching Gavin penetrate his former lover. The expression on his face seemed to indicate that he approved of what he was seeing.
Gavin undulated his hips, so that his shaft slid in and out of Baen in a barrage of shallow, quick thrusts. “You’d prefer this?”
“Oh, hell. Oh, that’s just…” Baen gasped, “…I’m… I’m… shutting up now.” He rested his forehead against his arm and groaned as if the effort of producing a coherent sentence was too much for him.
“My turn,” Airk said.
He hadn’t forgotten about Airk, but it had momentarily escaped him that his butt would be on the receiving end. “I’m not self-lubricating,” he muttered. “Didn’t bring lube with me either.”
“On this island, it’s never very far away.” Airk got up and rummaged around in the rocks. He returned with a tube just as Gavin bent over Baen’s back to fondle his balls. There was little room for play, they were already so high and tight.
“What else do you
keep back there?” Gavin asked him.
“Oh, a little bit of everything.”
Gavin heard the cap pop off and waited anxiously for the first touch of Airk’s fingers. Being buried in Baen’s ass was incredible, but he felt only partially whole. He needed Airk to join with them to feel complete.
Even though he was prepared, he jolted as a well-greased digit invaded his body. Neither warm nor cold, it merely tingled. The effect was very much like being caressed from the inside out, except Airk wasn’t moving. “Nice.”
“It gets better. Ready?” At Gavin’s nod, Airk removed his finger and inserted the head of his cock up to the ring of hard tissue. Gavin pushed out then relaxed, allowing Airk deeper entry. It was a tight fit, in part because it had been a long time since Gavin had bottomed, but also because the lube seemed to heighten his sensitivity. He swore he could feel each vein along his shaft as Airk glided in and out.
When Airk flexed his wings, he sank further into Gavin which caused him to push deeper into Baen. Baen pushed back. It took a little practice, but they soon fell into a steady rhythm of push and pull.
An emotion stronger than he’d ever known welled up from deep within him. He didn’t have a label for it yet, but it drowned out the loneliness from the most remote corners of his heart. He was surrounded by male passion. There was no beginning, no end. It cycled from one to the other as their intimate link hurled them down the path to orgasmic bliss.
Baen clawed the sand in front of him. Airk dug his toes in. The resistance added to the forces already rocking their joined bodies. Gavin felt both torn apart and blessedly whole as the first ball-bursting contraction hit him.
Orgasm was a dizzying blend of physical sensation, noise and joy. Shuddering, Gavin registered the sensation of Airk’s hot jism flooding into his anal canal while he emptied out his lust into Baen’s accepting body. The initial rush quelled their most extreme needs, but nothing short of total surrender would cause them to stop.
After the last of their semen had been extruded and there was no more pleasure to share, they continued to huddle together. The smell of sex and sweat blended with the ocean air. Gavin felt completely at home being in the middle of this crazy, totally unnatural pairing of man and bird and fish.
Airk reached around him to caress Baen’s cheek. “You okay?”
“Great. A little drained, but great. You?”
“I’m very… happy.” By his tone, Airk seemed startled at the admission. “Gavin?”
“Never better,” he replied, meaning it. All was right with his world. It didn’t make sense, but he was starting to feel that it didn’t really need to. Some things were just meant to be, and he shouldn’t question it. He thought that being with Airk and Baen might be one of those inexplicable yet necessary things. Did they feel it too? He wasn’t sure enough of the answer to take the risk of asking just yet.
Though the rest of him was quite toasty sandwiched between two large bodies as he was, Gavin suddenly realized his feet were freezing. On the heels of that revelation came the fact that they were cold because they were now submerged in several inches of sea water. “I hate to say this, guys, but I think we’d better go.”
“Why?”
“Not all of us can breathe underwater which we’ll need to do if we’re still here when the tide comes in,” Airk pointed out.
“Oh, yeah. Right. That leaves my place out too then.”
Gavin was a bit disappointed about that. He’d wanted to see Baen’s home during the inspection, but gave up the idea to spare Airk from spending any more time in Baen’s breeding grounds than strictly necessary.
“I might be able to manage short distances, but I’m not going to make it back to the aviary tonight.”
“I don’t think any of us are going to be particularly comfortable sleeping here on the rocks,” Gavin added.
They tossed around ideas until they finally decided to return to Gavin’s campsite where they could slumber together in relative comfort. They made the trek back, picked a comfortable spot, and settled down to sleep -- a grounded bird, a beached fish and an exposed human bundled together in a grassy depression under the black velvet sky.
Gavin’s last thought was that compromise had some very nice benefits. If only their environmental problems could be solved that easily…
Chapter 5 -- Striking a Balance
Gavin woke to the sound of gulls crying over the open water. They were hungry and in search of their morning meal. Gavin could relate. The rumbles of his own stomach were nearly as loud as the birds were. He tried to get up, but a pair of strong arms tightened around his chest.
Airk’s arms.
Damn, but this was a good way to face the day.
He lightly rubbed the arms around him. Airk grunted in his sleep, then let him go with a soft sigh. Now able to turn over, he saw that Airk had slept on his side, his wings awkwardly folded to be out of the way. If they continued to see each other, they were going to have to come up with better sleeping arrangements. No doubt, Airk was going to be stiff and sore when he fully woke.
Gavin had some of his own kinks to work out after spending the night on the cold ground. He’d been plenty warm in Airk’s embrace, but the cold had still seeped into his bones. He slithered out from under Airk’s heavy wing. His fingers trailed over the ridge of bone. So fragile, yet so strong.
A short distance away, he spotted Baen curled up inside his black tub. Gavin worried about him getting too dry, but Baen had been so determined to stay the night that he’d found a way to make it work.
These two really were amazing. They had a fix for everything.
Everything except the rift between them -- the contamination that seemed to serve as a visible reminder of their emotional pain.
Rift.
Pain.
Defense.
Could it really be that simple?
Gavin felt positively giddy. It would take a bit of work to confirm, but he’d brought most of the stuff he’d need with him. The rest he would just have to… find a way to work around. Just like Baen and Airk.
Laughing low so as not to disturb them, Gavin crossed the camp to the canvas tent that housed his lab and got to work.
Hours later, the smell of sizzling meat drew Gavin out of the tent. He hadn’t realized how much time had passed while he’d been running test after test on the samples he’d taken the previous day. The sun now hung overhead, and he blinked while his eyes adjusted to the brightness.
“See, told ya it’d work,” Baen said, nudging Airk with an elbow.
They stood side by side, naked and grinning like a pair of fools. Utterly adorable fools.
“Hi,” he said, knowing the same silly grin was plastered across his face too.
“We made you breakfast,” Baen announced proudly.
“What manner of beast is a Spam?” Airk asked him. “I’ve not heard of it before. Tastes pretty good fried though.”
Gavin laughed. “It’s not a beast… it’s meat that’s been processed in a factory.”
“One like ours?”
The idea of Spam as an aphrodisiac doubled his laughter. “No,” he said, gasping for air. “I don’t think there’s another factory on this planet quite like yours.”
It took him several seconds to get himself back under control. All the while, the other two were watching him as if they thought he might have lost his mind.
“You’re in a good mood,” Baen said, waving his cooking fork about. “Any particular reason?”
“Yeah.” Two of them. Each time he saw Baen and Airk, his heart filled with a sense of peace and joy he’d found nowhere else on earth. Maybe it was the magic of this place that allowed him to fall so quickly and so completely, or perhaps it was something they manufactured that permeated the land. Either way, Gavin was well and truly caught.
“Care to expand on that?” Airk prompted.
No, not really. Not about that. Not until he knew whether their feelings for him ran as deep, or as strong. Instead
, he gave them the other bit of news that had dramatically brightened his day. “I think I figured out the contamination problem.”
Baen threw the fork in the air, barely missing Airk’s right eye, before he leapt on Gavin and covered his face with kisses. “I knew you could do it. You’re so smart and sexy and --”
Airk flitted over and put a big hand on Baen’s shoulder. “Whoa, get a grip. He didn’t save the planet.” A rare, full smile from the typically somber male took some of the sting out of his words.
“No, just our corner of it.” Baen smattered a few more kisses across Gavin’s cheek before retreating a step. “So, tell us, Mr. Genius, what’s the problem?”
“There isn’t one.” His explanation had the effect he expected. Deadpan looks.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Airk asked him.
The concern in his gray eyes made Gavin feel a little guilty for baiting them. “I’m perfectly fine. Great, actually.”
“I always --”
Together, Airk and Gavin said, “Shut up, Baen.”
The blue-faced creature heaved a martyr’s sigh. “You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“Something about sex,” Airk replied, daring him with a glare to refute him. “Right now, I want to hear about Gavin’s findings. We’ll talk sex later.”
Never one to be down for long, Baen sidled up to him. “Promise?”
Airk hooked an arm over his shoulder and brought him in close. “Uh-huh. I even promise to spank you, if you just shut up for a minute and let Gavin talk.”
Gavin really wanted to be a part of that disciplinary event. “Like I said, there is no contamination.”
“Then why are an increasing percentage of my seaweed beds barren?” Baen asked him, already forgetting that he wasn’t supposed to open his mouth yet.
“Because there’s no contamination.”
“You keep saying that, but it’s not making your meaning any clearer,” Airk growled.
Gavin opened his mouth to explain, but he noticed something foul in the lungful of air he drew in. “Hey, is something burning?”