Each Step Like Knives

  Each Step Like Knives

  Each Step Like Knives

  By

  Megan Hart

  Each Step Like Knives

  Megan Hart

  Chaos Edition.

  Copyright 2010 Megan Hart

  Chaos Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  ***THIS WORK WAS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS WITH STEPS LIKE KNIVES***

  Through the darkness, he rose. His body moved the way it was meant to, with sleek and powerful precision. With a final burst of exertion, he broke the water's surface. The...air? Is that what it was called? The air burned his lungs, but he braved the sting without a sound.

  He saw her.

  Helena loved the ocean at night. Every star seemed reflected in the black waters until both the sky and sea seemed to stretch on forever. The night breeze lifted her hair off her shoulders, and she shivered. Though the July days had been sweltering, the nights were downright cold. She'd thrown on a heavy sweatshirt, but her legs were still bare, and now, splattered with chilly seawater. She should head back.

  Helena glanced back up at the sky. No moon tonight. The ocean itself was peaceful, the tide low, the waves gentle on her toes as she walked. The hum and moan of the water was sweeter on her ears than anything else could be. It was better even than silence.

  She pulled the sleeves of her sweatshirt down over her fingers and hugged herself before reluctantly turning back the way she had come. The morning sun rose early, and though she had no real reason to get up with it, she knew from long experience she would.

  She didn't mind being alone during the day. In fact, she'd come to enjoy her solitude. At night, though, the double bed became a vast and lumpy wasteland in which she tossed and turned for hours without relief. She was lucky if she got three or four good hours of sleep at night.

  She might have stumbled with only the starlight to guide her, but she made her way back to her house without incident. There she turned and looked back toward the black water, sprinkled with the reflection of a million different worlds.

  "Good night!" she called, and laughed at her foolishness. There's nobody out there.

  "Where've you been?" Krall's hands moved in speech as he swam into the arched doorway to block Jeenai's passage.

  Jeenai patiently waited until his older brother moved aside, then swam through to the chamber beyond. "None of your business."

  "You've been to the surface again." Krall gestured triumphantly. He swam after Jeenai and caught him by the arm, a grasp Jeenai could have easily thrown off but suffered because his brother ranked higher than he did.

  "It's not your business, Krall."

  Krall dropped his hand. "What were you doing there? Watching for your split-tail again? When are you going to stop wasting your time?"

  Jeenai knew his fascination with the human's world was considered poor taste by many, and outright perversion by others. He did not lose his temper. Krall was obviously itching for a fight Jeenai didn't want to give.

  "I'm not accountable to you," he replied evenly. He added the sweeping motion that indicated respect to placate his brother. "Now, I'm hungry and weary. I'm going to eat and refresh myself."

  Krall slid backward through the water with a push of his muscular tail. He fixed Jeenai with a fierce glare.

  "We're just concerned about you, that's all." Krall's normally boisterous gestures were smoother. "You don't join in the revels any longer. We never see you laugh. You don't even show an interest in the competitions any longer."

  Jeenai thought of the human woman. Krall was right. Jeenai didn't take part in the nightly revels or competitions any more. They held no appeal for him. Still, the concern in his brother's face made him pause.

  "All right," Jeenai said. "I'll go with you."

  Krall grinned and churned the water with his tail. "What are you waiting for? The fems await, oh, my brother!"

  Jeenai's stomach protested its emptiness again. "I need food first."

  "At the revel, you'll fill every appetite."

  Jeenai shook his head, but followed his brother back through the arched doorway and into a courtyard. The palace walls rose above them, almost higher than he could see. The shadow of a whale or some other large beast passed overhead, darkening the sand for a moment as the brothers swam toward the courtyard's other side.

  Already, Jeenai could sense the commotion and noise of the revel. They swam through another arched doorway into a larger room. The floor of this room was fine, soft sand. The walls, as with most of the rest of the city, had been carved from coral and stone. Along the far wall, a cage teemed with what the hunters had brought in that day, while a low bench held carved shell bowls of seaweed and other delicacies.

  Again, Jeenai's stomach grumbled and he headed for the feast.

  "Fill your belly later!" Krall said, but Jeenai ignored him.

  Jeenai saw a young fem wrap her arms around Krall's waist and distract him with her kisses. Shaking his head, Jeenai continued toward the food. Swimming to the surface and back had made him hungry.

  The fem hovering close to the goblets of fresh squid ink gave him a smile that clearly showed every one of her pointed teeth. She was a blue, and Jeenai admired the shimmering colors of her skin as he approached. Her sleek, triangular fin was nearly pure white at the tip, with bands of color growing progressively darker as they traveled toward her torso, until they reached a line of pure indigo at her waist. She had attractive markings, and she knew it.

  Without speaking, she handed him one of the goblets, which Jeenai quaffed immediately. She scooped a handful of soft seaweed into her palm and offered that to him next.

  He reached for it, but she pulled it back coyly. She lifted the trailing vegetation toward her full breasts. Her nipples were tight and red with arousal.

  "Come closer," she said.

  Jeenai turned toward the table and chose another bowl from which to eat. "Find another lover. I'm hungry."

  The fem pouted and tossed down the seaweed, but she didn't give up. She swam up behind him and put her hands on his waist. Jeenai could feel the pebbly points of her nipples against his back.

  His cock rose despite himself and the fem slid her hand around to caress it. She grasped it firmly and stroked downward, all the way to the base of Jeenai's ventral slit, and then she slid her fingers inside to stroke the round stones of his testicles within. They pulsed in her hand, and Jeenai let the bowl drop.

  He twisted in the water and gathered her into his arms. The human woman's face filled his mind as he pushed the fem toward one of the private niches set into the walls. The human woman had firm, full breasts, too, just like these.

  Food forgotten in the lust of mating, Jeenai pulled one of the fem's nipples into his mouth and suckled. She thrashed beneath him, back arched upward to press herself harder against him.

  She was already fully aroused. Her slit opened to reveal the perfect opening and small, hooded pearl just above. She touched herself there and made her fingers dance on the pleasure spot. The water was already full of the odors of many fems and mals engaged in mating, but now Jeenai could smell this one. Her pheromones filled his nostrils and sent another bolt of pure lust through his body.

  Her body spasmed in its first climax as she pleasured herself. Her nipples released a succulent nectar with each twitch of her body. Jeenai drank it and felt his cock swell even harder from his body. She stroked him again then brought him to her slit. He slid inside her all the way.

  The blue put her arms arou
nd him and held him tight while his penis thrust in and out. Her mouth came down on his shoulder and left a perfect half-circle of marks from her teeth. Swept up in the frenzy of the fuck, Jeenai barely noticed.

  She shuddered again. Her conch clamped down around him and rippled along his cock. The pressure in his balls built, up and up, not allowing conscious thought, only action. Jeenai humped against the fem harder. They turned over and over in the water. He closed his eyes against the blur as they moved faster.

  She pumped him. Her inner muscles moved along his cock as firmly and easily as her fingers had, and he approached his own first climax in moments. It tore out of him. His entire body suffused with pleasure.

  The fem loosened her grip a little before she bore down on him again. In another moment, he was on the edge of his second orgasm. Though smaller than the first, it was no less pleasurable.

  Their third climax came at the same time. The fem thrashed and jerked in Jeenai's embrace before quieting. Her gill slits fluttered from her exertion.

  She pulled away from him, her nipples already returning to their non-aroused color of dusky beige. She smiled. "You are accomplished in the fuck."

  "And you," Jeenai replied.

  She looked back at the table of food, now mostly empty after the revelers had feasted while Jeenai mated with the blue. "You'd better hurry before it's all gone."

  Then with a flip of her tail, she pushed off into the crowd. Jeenai stared after her. His cock shrank back into his body and the opening at the front of his tail closed to conceal it. He couldn't deny the pleasure he'd just taken with that fem--a stranger to him--but though his body had been satisfied, his mind had not. Something was missing from that joining, and it had nothing to do with sexual completion.

  He went to the cage and reached for one of the fish inside. It swam frantically away from him, but he caught it easily and tore into its flesh. The blood slid down his throat, assuaging his hunger. He spat the bones aside, where they'd be eaten or gathered up by the crabs and bottom-feeders. He took another, and another, before his stomach stopped its muttering. Then he drank another goblet of ink and turned to face the room again.

  The revel hadn't ended, and probably wouldn't until the next change of the tide. Those who tired of it would leave for rest and food, only to return for more sex play. Partners joined and shared their climaxes, then parted to experience the next with a different partner. The water became cloudy with churned up sand and air bubbles from the thrashing.

  All at once, the sight and smells made Jeenai's gorge rise. This was not what he wanted. He'd been tempted into it by his desire to placate his brother and the undeniable attraction of the blue, but now, even though his cock twitched and began to rise from his ventral slit again, Jeenai left the hall and sought the peace of the garden.

  There he floated on his back and stared up through the darkness, imagining the surface and the lights they called stars.

  "You're crazy, staying out here all by yourself." Francine poured herself another mug of bad coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. "Helena, this is nuts."

  Helena didn't take offense. "How can you say that? It's beautiful here."

  Francine cast a disapproving eye around the small but tidy kitchen, then rubbed her shoe on the floor. It gritted in the sand that, no matter how often Helena swept, still managed to creep in. "Why not come home?"

  "To New York?" Helena shook her head. "No, thanks. I like it here. Sure, it's a bit ramshackle..."

  "That's an understatement." Francine snorted. "This place should be condemned. I can't believe you didn't just sell it."

  "I know I could get a lot of money for the land." Helena got up and went to the window, looked out to the dunes, then turned to her friend. "But I have enough money. I like it here. It's quiet."

  "Quiet? With that constant roaring and pounding? And wait until hurricane season, Helena. You'll be lucky if this shack doesn't just up and blow away. C'mon, the gulls shit on everything...."

  They did, but Helena held up her hand to silence her friend. "Francine, what's your real problem with this place? It can't be the house. I know it's no mansion, but it's not that bad. And know it can't be the location because this is ten times better than the Hamptons you adore so much. Tell me. What's your real issue?"

  Francine sighed and toyed with her mug. The look she gave her friend made Helena step back from the level of naked honesty in it.

  "You're running away."

  Helena couldn't reply at first. An image of Howard flashed into her mind. "Howard said the same thing."

  "I hate to agree with that bastard, but he's right."

  Helena crossed her arms over chest. "I'm not running away."

  Francine gave another snort. "Please. Nike should give you an endorsement contract for their sneakers, honey. You are running so fast your feet can't catch up."

  "That's an exaggeration."

  "It's not, and if you were honest with yourself, you'd know it."

  Helena sighed. "Fine. Have it your way."

  "I don't want it my way." Francine got up and dumped the coffee into the sink. "I just miss you, that's all. Hey, lots of people have bad breakups. They don't all move away because of them. New York's a big place, Helena. You don't have to leave it just because your fiancé turned out to be a philandering, lying son-of-a-bitch."

  Helena cut her gaze to the answering machine. The red display blinked "27." Twenty-seven messages, and she'd bet all of them were from Howard. "I'll admit, I came at first to get away, but now I'm staying because I like it here. Everything smells so fresh."

  "If by fresh you mean like dead fish, yeah, I guess you're right." Francine came over and took Helena's hand. "We're just worried about you, doll."

  "I'm fine." Helena squeezed Francine's fingers. "I have plenty of money. I like it here. I'm fine. Really."

  Francine gave a long-suffering sigh, but then smiled and shook her head. "I can't change your mind? Get you to come back with me? Leave this place to the gull shit and the wind?"

  "No. But thanks. For everything." Helena hugged her friend tightly. She was surprised to see tears glittering in Francine's dark brown eyes when she pulled away. "Frannie?"

  Francine swiped at her face with a chuckle. "I just worry about you, girl."

  "You don't need to. I'm fine. Really!"

  "Really, really?"

  Helena laughed. "Yes. I promise. Pinky-swear. Whatever you want to hear."

  Francine shrugged into her lightweight sweater and hung her bag over her shoulder. "Not all guys are assholes like Howard, Helena."

  "I know."

  I do know that, Helena thought as she watched Francine drive away. But knowing and feeling were sometimes two very different states of mind. Her relationship with Howard had ended badly when she discovered him on top of his secretary after another "late night" at the office had led Helena to check up on him. She'd suspected his infidelity, but that didn't make her feel any better about seeing the man who supposedly loved her enough to make her his wife crotch-deep in a bleached-blonde with fake tits and a genuine attitude.

  Helena had walked out of Howard's office and hadn't seen him since. She'd sub-let her apartment in the city and moved down here to Chincoteague to the run-down beach house her grandparents had left her several years before. She needed the time to be by herself, in the quiet. She had plenty of money left from her grandparents' inheritance, her free-lance consulting jobs provided for extras, and the rent she got from sub-letting was sufficient to take care of her debts.

  If she wasn't exactly happy here, it wasn't because of lack of funds.