Page 22 of The Tides of March

Ronan didn’t want to keep humans as pets or risk losing his soul, so he had avoided humans and the pleasures of the flesh. Until Tony turned up, with his big, bright smiles and his beautiful everything. There wasn’t a hair on his body or a thought in his head that Ronan didn’t admire and now,hebelonged to that perfect, beautiful boy.

“It’s working!” Tony laughed beneath Ronan, his voice and his body brimming with giddy vitality. “I’m not tired anymore, Ronan!”

“Aye… I know.” Ronan nodded into the corner of Tony’s neck, high on the smell of his hair and his skin and his breath. He’d never been this close to another and when Ronan shut his eyes, it was like he was swimming in Tony. He would have stayed there forever if he could but Tony gave Ronan’s shoulders a hard shove and easily flipped him onto his back.

“Ha! Look at me!” Tony said as he popped up and over, easily mounting Ronan. “I feel so…normal!” He laughed again, then stopped. Tony flashed Ronan a cheeky grin. “Not that I do this all the time, but the rest of me feels right as rain. I’m not tired anymore!”

He swung forward and kissed Ronan, giggling as their lips clung and making the room spin. Their eyes locked and for a moment, Ronan felt like Tony could see the real him—the man inside that wasn’t hideous and miserable. Tony kissed that man, then pushed off of Ronan’s chest and took him for a bruising ride.

Tony set a brutal, slapping pace and it wasn’t long before Ronan was crying and begging. He never wanted it to end, Ronan was enthralled as he watched Tony, pinching his nipplesand stroking his own cock as he rocked and rolled his hips. His frantic gasps and strangled swears pushed Ronan closer and closer to the edge. The heady pleasure and throbbing pressure building in Ronan’s core was astounding. But it was over when Tony came again and stuffed his cum-covered fingers into Ronan’s mouth and ordered him to suck them clean.

“Tony! Lad, I can’ hold on much longer!”

“Don’t. I want you to let go,” Tony huffed as he rode harder, his ass clapping against Ronan’s pelvis. “Breed me, Ronan. I want to feel you coming deep inside of me.”

That was all the warning Ronan had before his body imploded. “Fuck, lad!” he shouted, bucking off the bed as cum rushed from his cock, flooding Tony’s passage. “Fuck!” He laughed and shivered through another weak orgasm as Tony fell forward, collapsing on Ronan’s chest.

“I can’t believe that worked,” he said breathlessly, rubbing his cheek against Ronan’s chest hair. “I feel like me again.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Ronan replied as he cradled Tony’s head, then laughed softly. “I wasn’ sure if ye’d wanna or ye could. But ye managed, didn’ ye?”

“Pffft!You should have seen some of the toys Aubrey bought. Her ex was…sick and they never did anything so she went a little nuts. I was pretty wild in college so I was cool with whatever she wanted to try. I think it’s the only reason we lasted as long as we did,” he said and was quiet for a moment. “I couldn’t admit that before because it sounds like I didn’t try. We had a lot of sex but she wouldn’t let me in no matter what I did.”

“Probably had nothin’ to do with ye, and more about that ex,” Ronan guessed and Tony nodded.

“That’s a pretty safe assumption. We both grew a lot and I might not have helped her heal as much as I would have liked. But I made the rest of her time here a lot better, before she moved on.”

“Of course, ye did. Ye make everything better, lad.”

“Really?” Tony raised his head, an adorably goofy grin on his beautiful face. “I thought you might have said all of that because you got carried away.”

Ronan considered agreeing and taking the easy way out, but he didn’t want Tony to let go or feel him grow cold. “No. I meant every word, lad. I spoke them from the heart.”

“Me too.” Tony kissed the words against Ronan’s lips. “It seems like I’ve spent my whole life trying to please others so they’ll love me as much as I love them. But it was never enough and I’ve always felt like I was unwanted—an outsider—until I came here.”

“How’s that?” Ronan asked, confusion knitting his brows. “How many times did I say I wanted to be rid of ye?”

There was a hard snort from Tony. “Who knows, but how many times did you mean it?” he countered.

“Aye. I might have been bluffin’ or ye might have grown on me,” Ronan conceded and was happy to listen as Tony babbled about destiny and mythology. Content and too exhausted to do more than hum and nod, it wasn’t long until Ronan drifted off and found Tony waiting for him in his dreams.

Nine

He was back on Pooles Island but Tony could tell that something wasn’t right as he climbed over the last dune and up the footpath. Tony let himself in, but the cottage was empty—no trace of Ronan or the dogs. When Tony stepped back out onto the stoop, a great, tentacled monster breached the waves, screaming like a banshee as it approached the shore.

“Ronan!” Tony’s eyes snapped open and he muffled an anguished sob as heat and pain exploded in his side. “You motherfucker!” he gasped, writhing under the duvet. “Whatever you’re doing, knock it off and leave me alone!”

Eventually, the pain subsided and Tony was able to fall back asleep. He awoke cranky and groggy, rueing Ronan for yet another miserable night. Tony had a similar nightmare almost every night after being evicted from Pooles, but last night had been the worst in weeks. The dread and the pain had almost convinced Tony to ask for a ride to the ER.

He should have said something to Nox and Nelson over breakfast, but Tony was too tired to answer questions about mating with a merrow. They wouldn’t have judged him, knowing Nox and Nelson. Tony just felt like a loser and often like he was a third wheel around the perfectly matched and blissfully happycouple, having been dumped by AubreyandRonan. After the questions, there would be more pity and Tony would rather run naked into traffic than deal with that.

Thankfully, there were papers to be graded and the townhouse was buzzing with activity, everyone was preparing for Bryn and Everly’s wedding the following Friday. Tony was honored to have been invited to the very small and private affair at the couple’s new home and had begged to be put to work.

“Did you know I will be officiating?” Merlin asked Tony while helping himself to the whiskey in the study.

“I did know but congratulations,” Tony said with a soft laugh.

It must have been the tenth time the older man had mentioned it over the course of the last week, Merlin was so excited to have been asked. “Stopped by to borrow all of Nox’s rose quartz for the ceremony next weekend. I want to shower the yard in rose petals and rose quartz since it’s Everly’s favorite crystal and perfect for the occasion. Mercury will bow to Venus and a pink star will shine upon us!”

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