Page 41 of Surfaces
“I don’t. Tell me more,” I urged as my mind finally caught up with whatever my dick must have known all along. Julian was brilliant. “How do you make these cuts?”
“Well, ideally, the person is passed out. But if not, I’ve seen it done by strapping the body down and pouring vinegar or whiskey on the wound—”
Sarding hell. He went on and on. He talked about torture in the most exquisite way. I wanted to turn around and kiss him full on the mouth. I wanted to plunge my hand into his trousers and see if he was as turned on as I was. I slowly stopped fighting the heat gathered in my loins.
He discussed surgery for hours and my opinion of him blossomed like a flower. He was so smart and charming and sweet as he spoke about blood and entrails in a detached way, as only a true killer could.
I began to treasure his words, crave the sensation of his breath trailing down my neck as he used these amazingly seductive words: dissection, laceration, trephining the skull with a hole.
His brilliant evil was as majestic as the sun across the desert sand dunes which held nothing more than glittering golden death. Julian was that magnificent.
I saw a dozen fish swim nearby and suddenly, I was reaching back, grabbing his thigh as I pointed the creatures out for him, ecstatic when he leaned forward over my shoulder, pressed close against me to get a better look.
A silly little smile lit my lips even as my cock strained against my pants, brutally tapping against the hem repeatedly.
I said his name inside my head as I touched him, whispered it gently.Julian.
A fleeting thought came to me as he squeezed my bicep and exclaimed over some rare fish. I hoped we rode an actual dolphin and not a dolphin shifter, who’d recognize my arousal and wonder about it later. But that thought fled when we reached a slightly more turbulent patch of water and Julian’s arms came around my waist, clutching me, sending my mind into a flurry of naughty images where he held me tight and slid his swollen dick in and out of my ass, rubbing against my perineum, making me moan loudly while he stroked me off.
I erupted in my pants.
I came so hard that dark spots filled my vision and I nearly blacked out.
13
Avia
Navagio gleamedlike a pirate’s treasure box in the distance. The golden rooftops glittered and glowing colored glass towers peeked like enchanted gemstones out from behind the town’s defensive wall, which was constructed out of the hulls of sunken ships. At first, I found the sight magical, but when I thought about it, I realized how macabre it was that all of the beautiful treasures of the city came from the death of people from my former world.
Mateo swam out of my carriage a few hours before we arrived at the city walls, partially to avoid speculation from the crowd, who’d see him inside with me and wonder who he was, and partially because Sahar swam up with a list of Navagio’s “notables” for me to learn.
“It smells like you had an enjoyablerideover,“ Sahara smirked at me as she unfurled a long scroll on her lap.
My cheeks burned in embarrassment, but I knew better than to deny her charges. It would only draw out the teasing. “Are you going to tell me who is who and what’s what or are you going to mock me?“
“Perhaps a bit of both your highness,“ Sahar flicked her golden hair behind her shoulder with a grin. I narrowed my eyes at my adviser but that didn’t seem to deter her in the slightest. Secretly, I was quite glad for the deal that I made with her son. I was going to quite enjoy her reaction when she stumbled over two life-size statues of Keelan.Perhaps I should commission four,I thought.Or maybe I should just fill her entire bed-chamber.That was a gratifying vision: dozens of winking Keelan statues surrounding her bed so that she’d have to swim up and over them in order to sleep. Maybe they should watch over her as she slept, granite eyes staring down at her.
It was difficult to set aside my silly thoughts of revenge, but Sahar settled into work by pointing at the first name on her list, and so I had no choice but to take a deep breath and calm myself to listen.
“I need to warn you that the mayor here is not like the mayor back in Reef City. He’s not a big fan of the monarchy. Believes in ‘local government.’”
“In other words, he wants all the power for himself,” I commented dryly.
Sahar pointed her finger at me and gave a tongue click. “Exactly.”
I chuckled, then asked, "So I shouldn’t expect much of a greeting then?“ I slunk back in my seat, tracing my fingers along the brocade pattern of the seat cushion, trying not to cringe as I reached a rather sticky spot—evidence of my earlier pastime.Ew.
I placed my hands onto my lap instead as my hopes for this next visit spiraled downward. It had been so nice and so wonderful to have an ally in Mayor Deacon. I hadn’t even considered the fact that this new mayor might utterly resent the intrusion of the Okeanos Tournament into his domain.
"The opposite actually." Sahar startled me with her response and I glanced over as she gave me a superior look followed by an eye roll as she said, "This mayor is as competitive as they come. Gorgono can’t stand Deacon, and always tries to beat him at everything. So prepare yourself. You're going to get both the grandest and yet the coldest welcome imaginable.”
I gave a careless toss of my hand, feigning an arrogance I’d often seen used by courtiers. “Well, as long as it’s grand …” I finished it off with a posh laugh, which made Sahar chuckle.
“Don’t underestimate him,” she warned, her serious face quickly returning. “He and his wife, Marea, are monogamous.” She scrunched her nose up at the term.
“What?”
“He wouldn’t let her choose a husband group. Said it was him or nothing. Actually, back in the day rumors circulated about him. It seems like he threatened a lot of people off when she was younger. She’s a mandarin fish shifter, pretty rare, utterly gorgeous. Her coloring is electric blue and lava orange in patterns of stripes and circles and she keeps those colors even when she’s shifted to human. All the fish shifters go insane for that.”
