by Nancy M Bell
“I do have certain gifts, shall we say.” Vear laughed. “We needed to get away from that oaf, and so I brought us here.”
“Oh,” was all Bella could think of to say.
“To answer your second question, I knew you were in trouble because I could hear you and feel your fear. It just took me a few minutes to figure out where you were. I thought you would be in Penzance, not out by Lamorna.”
“I don’t care how you knew, I’m just glad you did!” Bella shivered and wrapped her arms around her waist, pulling the blanket tighter.
“Come sit and have a cuppa.” Vear steered Bella over to the fire as he spoke and then fished a pot of hot water off the tripod and poured it over the tea in a heavy pottery mug.
Bella warmed her hands on the crockery and stared into the fire. Her head refused to believe that she was safe. She kept expecting Vear to disappear and Daniel to come stalking out of the darkness. Her rescuer lowered his large bulk down beside her and drew her against his side.
“Ah, Bella. This surely complicates matters.” He sighed into her hair.
“How so?” Bella snuggled closer to his comforting warmth.
“Well, to start with, I place-skipped with you and brought you here by other than ordinary means. I lost my temper and almost killed a mortal, and now I am more than a little attracted to a mortal woman.” Vear stared unseeing out into the darkness past the cave mouth.
“Let’s think about it in the morning.” Bella smothered a yawn and scootched down onto the sand until her head was pillowed on his thigh. It was easier not to think about how this night could have turned out. Bella hugged Vear’s words to her heart as she gave into her exhaustion. Vear is attracted to me! I’m naked as a jay bird, how am I ever going to get my clothes back? Somehow, clothes didn’t seem very important at the moment. Not for anything was she ever going back to that cave. The selkie’s hand stroking her hair lulled her eyes closed.
* * *
Vear reached behind him and snagged a heavy rug from the pile and tucked it around Bella. Smiling gently her brushed her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear.
“Done it now, haven’t you,” Gwin Scawen said gleefully as he appeared from thin air and plunked himself down on the other side of the fire.
“That I have,” Vear agreed ruefully.
“We had some fun with that polecat Daniel on his way home,” Gwin said, a sly smile playing around his lips.
“I’d rather not know.” Vear chuckled.
“What are you gonna do about Mistress Bella?” Gwin Scawen waved his thin brown arm at the girl’s sleeping form.
Vear looked down at her bruised face resting on his thigh and gently laid his large hand over the wounds. Silver lights sparked in the air and warm yellow light spilled through his fingers. The bruises faded and the cuts healed as the light changed from yellow to green. Vear stroked her cheek softly and left his hand to rest protectively on her shoulder. He smiled across the fire at Gwin and shrugged his massive shoulders, the fire gleaming in his black hair and dark eyes.
“I guess I’ll worry about that in the morning.” He echoed Bella’s words and grinned.
“You are in so much trouble!” Gwin giggled. “This is going to be ever so interesting!”
“Are you going to be ever so annoying and enjoy yourself at my cost or will you be my friend and actually lend me some much needed assistance?” Vear regarded the tatterdemalion figure skipping across the cave scattering sand every which way. The fire threw wavering shadows on the cave walls, the images sending a shiver down the selkie’s spine. He had opened a door that should never have been breached. Interfering in the goings on between mortals was forbidden. The truce between the denizens of darkness and the light workers depended on both sides holding to that main tenet. Anyone, or anything, with a bit of magic would have felt the vibration the second he laid hands on the human in anger. Hiding his growing feelings for Bella was much easier. Tonight, his unveiled anger no doubt had been transmitted to the web of earth energies that criss-crossed the Penwith Peninsula. Vear rubbed a hand across his weary eyes. How did it get so complicated so quickly?
“Vear, Big One.” Gwin danced into his field of vision waving his cap under his nose. “Did you not hear me? Of course I will help you where I can, but I’ve no pull with the Old Ones as you know. It’s not for the likes o’ me to have their ear.”
“Aye, well I know it. Can you do this for me, then? Carry a message to Mistress Sarie and let her know Bella is safe. She’ll hear that beggar’s version of what happened and hie on out to Lamorna in search of her friend.”
“Oh, you’re right.” Gwin covered his mouth with his hand, worry widening his eyes under the bushy brows. “I’ll go ever so fast and bring the lady tidings of Mistress Bella’s rescue. Should I tell her where she is, or only that she’s safe?”
Indecision stayed his reply. It wouldn’t do for Treliving man, or Bella’s father, to catch wind of her whereabouts. They’d be watching Sarie to see if she suddenly went off somewhere out of the ordinary. A small selfish part of him also wanted to prolong the time alone with Bella he had won this night.
“For now it is enough she knows her friend is safe and the manky git didn’t carry out his foul deed. Promise her one of us will bring her to Bella when it is safe to do so.”
“As you wish, Big One.” Gwin doffed his cap and bowed with a mockish grin. “I’m off, then.”
“Gwin.” Vear’s voice stopped him in mid turn as he made to step sideways through the veils.
“Yes?”
“My thanks.”
The cave seemed very quiet after the piskie vanished on his mission. One hand absently stroked the girl’s bright hair while the other drummed fingers on his thigh. His eyes followed the shifting hues of the fire, his thoughts formless and numb. There would be a high price to pay for his actions. There was no getting around that. The Council of Cornwall would call him up once they got organized. It really wouldn’t matter what he said, by the time he was summoned they would already have decided his fate. The mermen were no friends of his, and there were others on the council who heartily disapproved of his fascination with mortals. The brief bright fire of their lives and the magnificent intensity of their emotions drew him like a moth to a flame.
The girl in his lap turned in her sleep, the blanket falling from her shoulders. The firelight glowed on the pearly flesh of her paps. Ugly red and purple hand prints marred the perfection of the smooth skin. His eyes refused to leave her exposed nakedness. Sensations he’d thought long dead roared to life with an intensity that both alarmed and excited him. As if of its own accord his hand moved and one long finger traced the injuries. Trembling, he laid his hand over the evidence of Daniel’s violence. He bit hard on his lower lip when the nipple beaded against his palm. It is only to heal her that I touch her so, to soothe the hurts inflicted on her innocent body.
Bella was innocent, he needed to remember that, so he did. An innocent mortal to boot. “Don’t make things worse, me lad,” Vear whispered to himself.
The blue light faded from his hand and he removed it. A sense of satisfaction warmed him at the sight of her unblemished breast. The slow rise and fall of her breathing mesmerized him and drew his eyes to the nubs that hardened in the cool breeze sweeping in the entrance. The tide must be in, the thought idly crossed his mind.
Bella shifted again, she reached up and captured his hand, returning it to her breast. She stirred and kissed the back of his other hand that lay on his thigh. Vear froze, afraid to move and break the spell, and terrified not to.
“Vear,” she whispered. “I want you to be my first, only you.” Her free hand wriggled through the soft sand under his leg and teased the inside of his thigh far too high for his peace of mind.
He should move; he should take his hand from her body and leave her alone. Vear sighed. But he couldn’t. The flaring brilliance of her youth and mortality held him in thrall. The emotions were so strong, so pure and innocent.
He’d experienced the draw before, but never like this. He’d always maintained control and stepped away from the mortal attraction. Losing himself in the ever changing currents of the sea for a time. Long enough for the human to have either grown older and come to her senses, or indeed left this realm altogether. What was there about Bella that refused to let him go?
Bella purred against his leg, her questing fingers searching higher, her breast arching into his palm. Common sense warred with desire for a moment before common sense won.
“Wake up, darlin’ girl. Open your eyes,” he said quietly. With a supreme effort he disentangled his hand from hers, removing it from her breast. He pulled the blanket up over the temptation and shifted her from his lap.
Bella rolled onto her back and stretched her arms over her head. The damn blanket slid again, revealing the breasts pulled taut and standing upright. “Don’t you want me, selkie man?” she teased him.
“Cover yourself, Bella. My wanting you is not what is important right now,” he said more harshly than he intended.
“But you do want me, don’t you, Vear? I can see you do.” Her eyes rested on the front of his trousers. “Did you heal the bruises?” Her fingers traced the fullness of her paps.
“Aye, I did. Now cover yerself, Bella.” Vear turned away and fetched some wood from the back of the cave. When he turned back, she was sitting cross-legged by the fire, the blanket hanging loosely around her shoulders. The dark shadow at the apex of her thighs and the play of the fire turning her exposed skin golden stopped his breath.
“Quit actin’ like what Daniel called you,” Vear growled. He needed to get out of the cave before he lost all control of things. Bella seemed determined to seduce him for reasons he couldn’t fathom. “I’m going to fetch some dillas, some clothes, for you. T’will only be a moment. Stay here where you’re safe.” Vear took a step sideways and strode out of the shadows of the smuggler’s cave he’d rescued Bella from earlier. Heaving a sigh of relief he noted the man was gone. Taking his time, he gathered the girl’s things.
No, she was a woman, no question of that. He put out the fire still smouldering in the ring of stones and removed anything that would indicate Bella had been there. By all that was right and holy, what had he gotten himself into? Vear scrubbed his face with his hands. The only solution was to get Bella to either go home, or find her a safe bolt hole to hide in until one of them figured out what to do next. Maybe the Sarie girl could come up with something. The gods knew Vear didn’t have a plan. He rubbed a hand against his thigh in an attempt to banish the memory of the mortal’s touch. Thin effervescent strands of light tangled around his fingers. Startled, he made to throw them off but the tendrils clung obstinately, much like the girl/woman who left them. A snort of astonishment exploded from him when they shining filaments sank into his skin, absorbing themselves into his body.
Now, isn’t that a fine thing? Nothing anything like that ever happened after contact with mortals. What spell has that fey daughter of Eve placed on me? I am compelled to assist her, almost as if a geas has been put on me. Wind whistling sharply through the cleft in the roof high above him brought the selkie out of his reverie. After one last look to ensure nothing was amiss, the dark man turned on his heel and stepped sideways between the veils.
Bella sat where he left her, leaning near the flickering flames of the small fire. The blasted blanket doing more to enhance, rather than hide, the plump roundness of her breasts, the darkened tips stiff and erect. Vear clamped down the sudden rush of desire that ripped through him and sought to calm the trip hammer rhythm of his heart. He tossed the bundle of clothes on the sand beside her. Bella looked up at him in surprise and smiled, the damn rug slipping a little lower off her shoulders.
“Get dressed, for the sake of all that is holy,” Vear growled at her. “There is a spot near the back of the cave behind the shelves where you can change.”
* * *
The heat from the fire was lovely on her bare skin tempered as it was by the slight breath of cooler air that found its way through the narrow opening facing the sea. She touched a fingertip to the tip of her breast and closed her eyes against the sweet tension that gripped her belly. Up to this point she’d never really considered her bosom more than a bother. The scrote Daniel was always trying to paw at them whenever he could manufacture an opportunity. The boys at school had been no better, trying to feed her drinks at the dances, hoping for a bit of slap and tickle, or at the very least to cop a feel. She had no idea a mere touch could produce such a marvelous feeling.
Emboldened, she stroked the top of her left breast and then circled the nipple with a finger. The hardened point stiffened until it was almost painful. Bella decided she liked it and the squidgy feel between her thighs was exciting in a way she couldn’t explain. When she slid her other hand down her belly and into the secret place at the juncture of her thighs a gasp of surprise escaped her parted lips as her questing fingers encountered a slick wetness. She drew her hand away and held it up to the light. Bella rubbed her finger and thumb delighting in the slipperiness of the fluid. Who would have thought her body could produce such a thing? She caressed the stiff point of her other breast with the wet forefinger and couldn’t control the small squeal of pleasure that burst from her. The intense tightening in her groin created another gush of moisture. Tentatively, she ran her fingers through the dampened curly hair of her fanny, marvelling at the feel of it. Sure, didn’t they go on about it in those trashy novels she loved to read, but she’d never really believed all the purple prose.
What would being touched like this by the selkie’s large hands feel like? The rug slipped off one shoulder, the heat of the fire added heat to her body while the cool wind teased her flesh alive with sensations Bella have never imagined existed. Feverishly, her fingers teased the hard nubs that hardly seemed a part of her anymore, as if they had taken on a life of their own urging her to do things she’d only read about and never really understood why anyone would bother with such nonsense.
Her other hand slid lower between her thighs and accidently brushed a hard nub of sensitivity. She involuntarily arched her back, fingers clutching at the nipple thrust between them while the other hand seemed unable to leave the tender nub between her thighs alone. Shocks of electric ecstasy shot through her body, every nerve tingled and urged her on. Dear God, Da would kill her dead if he ever found out she interfered with herself this way. Breath came in gasps and pants while the tension increased till Bella feared she’d expire from the almost painful pleasure, waves broke over her like surf on the cliffs and she bent forward, curled around the centre of the sensations.
When she came back to herself, Bella pushed up from the sand where she lay curled by the fire. Tiny thrills of aftershock still ran through her. She got to her feet pulling the rug over her nakedness and made her way to the sheltered spot where Vear had thoughtfully provided a pitcher and basin for her to wash in. When she felt sufficiently clean Bella gathered up some wood and returned to the fire. She’d just settled beside it after stoking the fire and let the blanket fall open to the warmth when Vear materialized out of thin air across from her. A guilty warmth bloomed in her chest and rose up her throat and across her cheeks. He couldn’t possibly know the disgraceful things she’d been up to, could he? The tall man glared at her and Bella snatched the stupid blanket as it slid down her shoulder. She recoiled at the violence with which he threw the bundle of clothes on the sand beside her.
Scrambling to her feet, she managed to retrieve the packet without losing the blanket, and with as much dignity as she could muster retreated to the shadows at the back of the cave. Well, that didn’t go as she’d hoped, that was for sure. The idiot man was supposed to take her in his arms and make her feel all squidgy again. It would be ever so much more exciting if it was Vear’s large hands that brought her to that heated exquisite sensation that turned her belly to molten fire. She pulled her jeans on and caught her breath.
The sex act had never been
satisfactorily explained to her. Oh, she understood the technical part, sort of … and she’d seen dogs and cats, of course. The man had to put his part into hers, but did they do it like the cats? Him curled around her back with the woman on her hands and knees? Bella shook her head. It was a pretty undignified image in her opinion. Images of Daniel pulling her against her groin, his knee forcing her thighs apart filled her. She clenched her fist against the memory of him shoving her hand over the bulge in his trousers. The heavy thing hidden in his pants had jumped and writhed under her fingers. Revulsion brought bile up her throat. Bella zipped her jeans and pulled the jumper over her head. Would being with Vear Du be the same? Or would it feel as wonderful as what happened by the fire earlier? A sobering thought stilled her actions — what if the wonderful squidgy feeling was a one-time thing? It would be awful if she could never experience that again.
Sarie … I’ll ask Sarie about it. Maybe she’ll know. I wonder if she’s gone that far with Elwyn?
“Is it decent you are, Arabella?” The selkie’s deep voice startled her out of her thoughts.
“Coming, I’m almost ready,” she answered.
Combing her fingers through the tangled mess of her hair, Bella peered into the bit of polished tin propped on a shallow ledge. Well, she surely didn’t look her best, but she supposed it couldn’t be helped. After scrubbing a smudge of sandy grit off her cheek, she straightened her shoulders and returned to the fire, dragging the blanket behind her. She plopped down beside Vear Du, being careful not to touch him. He heaved himself to his feet and picked up the discarded blanket. Moving to the entrance he snapped the material to remove the worst of the sand and then folded it, his large hands moving deftly. The big man stood staring down at the bundle in his arms. As if he couldn’t bear to stand still or look at Bella, Vear returned the blanket to the old chest shoved against the wall. The lid closed with a snap and he sank down on top of it, his head down and hands dangling between his knees.