Each Step Like Knives Page 5

  He'd used the formal gesture for tail, but switched to infant-hands again for her benefit. "A long tail. But I'm not a fish. We're mammals, like those you call porpoises and whales."

  He'd made the symbol for whale by imitating with his hands a whale breaching, but she clearly didn't understand. He tried the one for porpoise, the creature his people called closemates because of their ancestral relationship to the Carrageenai. That she seemed to understand.

  "You're a mermaid? A merman, I mean?" The woman took a gulp from her cup. She stared at his legs. "You must be joking. This is still a dream, right? I'm dreaming. Or I'm crazy."

  He wondered why she thought she was not experiencing this reality appropriately. There were Carrageenai who, on occasion, lost touch with the real world around them and slipped into their own minds. They were considered mad. His woman, his mate, did not seem mad.

  She laughed, though the noise didn't sound quite as joyous this time. "I must be dreaming."

  He shook his head. "You are not mad. This is real. I am real. We are real, here, together."

  She rubbed at her eyes again. "What happened to your tail?"

  He began to explain and saw her eyes follow his gestures without understanding. She bit at her lip. Jeenai stopped trying to explain.

  "I came from the water to be with you," was what he finally managed to say with infant-hands.

  "Why? Why be with me?"

  "Because I love you."

  She gasped. She had understood. Instead of smiling, though, she got to her feet and began to pace in front of him. Jeenai lurched upright, but his feet sent bolts of pain through his entire legs, and he sat again.

  "That's insane," she muttered, her face turned from him.

  She wasn't speaking to him, yet he was able to understand her. With the Carrageenai, both parties needed to face each other to speak. If one could not see the myriad of gestures and expressions of the other, the language was lost.

  "You came out of the sea to be with me because you love me." She let out another harsh burst of laughter. She faced him. "How do you even know me?"

  "You walk along the beach at night. I heard you singing. I've been watching you a long time."

  He could see she didn't understand everything he'd said.

  "You've been watching me? From the ocean?"

  He nodded. "Your song called me."

  "I don't understand."

  He made another set of gestures, but she still shook her head. Jeenai sighed, frustrated. "I came to be with you. To bring pleasure to you. To share the fuck."

  That she seemed to have no trouble understanding. Her eyes widened and her gaze fell to his now-covered crotch. She backed against the counter with her arms crossed over her chest. "Oh. My. God."

  He recognized the tone, if not the words. She was shocked. But the way her nipples hardened beneath the front of her garment and the high color that rose in her cheeks told him she was not displeased.

  Jeenai stood and ignored the pain that shot through his feet. He stepped toward her. She made a low noise. Fear? He stopped and considered her.

  Carrageenai fems could be hostile if approached when they did not desire sexplay. Yet this woman's nipples had grown hard. Her legs had parted slightly beneath the edge of her garment. He could not smell as well as he could at home, but he caught the spicy aroma of her arousal.

  Human fems are different, he reminded himself as he took another hesitant step closer to her. They did not have sharp teeth to bite or powerful tails to slam. He thought of the blow she'd given him earlier. They were not without their own defenses, however. And while it might be easy to read a fem's desire in her body's response, perhaps human indicators of arousal were as different as their defenses.

  Jeenai took another step. Now she could strike him if she so chose. The woman didn't move. Her breath caught in her throat. This close he could almost hear the thump of her heart. Below the sea, now was the time he would take her in his arms and thrust his erect cock inside her. Here, above the water, Jeenai was not so certain of what step to take next.

  He stared into her eyes, which were the color of the sea. Blue, surrounded by white, with only a small dark circle in the center. Her lips had parted. She didn't shy away when he reached for her shoulders.

  A kiss. That was what humans did. They pressed their mouths together. He would kiss her.

  It felt awkward at first, this pressure of mouth upon mouth. She sighed and trembled when he gave the kiss, and Jeenai pulled away, suddenly fearful she was going to strike at him again. Her eyes had closed. She didn't move.

  He bent to kiss her again. Her lips parted. Her tongue probed lightly at his mouth and he followed her lead. Their tongues stroked one another. The sensation made his penis surge to life inside the garment she'd given him. He pulled her closer to him. Her breasts crushed against his bare chest. He could feel the sharp points of her nipples through her garment. The feeling excited him. He pressed his penis against the softness of her belly, then nudged a bit lower to the juncture of her legs. That was where her fem parts were, the slick, heated folds and shining pearl he'd explored earlier.

  Jeenai wanted to lose himself inside her body and seek the release he'd given her before. He restrained himself. He was no longer below the sea. He was above and things were different here.

  The scent of her desire grew stronger as they continued to kiss. The touch of her tongue against his was incredibly erotic. He had not imagined this action called kissing could be so pleasurable.

  Blood surged into his cock, stiffening and lengthening it. The garment created a new sort of friction. He moved his hips against her and she responded with a moan. She parted her legs farther.

  She took Jeenai's hands from her shoulders and moved them to her waist. With gentle pressure, she urged him to lift the garment up past her hips. She was no longer bare beneath it. A tiny scrap of cloth covered her pelvis. It was smoother than the garment she wore on the top. His fingers slid along it. She shuddered against him when he found the swollen bump of her pearl and rubbed it.

  Jeenai found he could lift her by putting one hand beneath her rear end while he continued to stimulate her with the other. He pushed her up to sit on the counter behind her back.

  Now it became difficult to kiss, and he left her mouth with a sigh of disappointment. Her eyelids had half-closed. Her mouth looked swollen. As he watched, her gaze began to sharpen, to focus. Fearful he was going to lose the erotic daze she had allowed herself to enter, Jeenai bent and put his face between her parted legs.

  His lips found the center of her arousal, but the barrier of her garment frustrated him. He pulled at it, and she lifted her hips to allow him to remove it completely.

  She was open to him, and he buried his face in the scent and feel of her. Her soft flesh was warm. He lapped at her bud and was rewarded by her shudder and moan. The sound of her pleasure made his penis throb. He wanted to fill her, but first he wanted to fulfill her.

  He worked the small button with his lips and tongue until her conch swelled and trembled. Her passage convulsed under his kisses. Her hands clutched at his hair.

  She pulled him upward, toward her mouth, and captured his in a burning kiss. Her center was hot and wet and still slightly pulsing against his belly. She pushed at the garment at his waist, and Jeenai took the hint. She wanted him as bare as she was.

  She lifted her garment over her head as he slipped out of his. It came off easier than it had gone on. She slid forward, off the counter, turned her body and bent over the table so her back faced him.

  Jeenai stopped, confused. A fem who turned her back on a mal was rejecting him. His hands trembled from the force of his desire, but he did not take her.

  The woman looked over her shoulder at him. "What's wrong?"

  He could think of no way to tell her his reason, and now it didn't matter. She wanted the fuck with him as much as he wanted it with her. He could hold back no longer.

  Jeenai pushed his penis inside her slick c
hannel. Her walls clenched around him. She tossed her head. Her hands gripped the table. She lifted her rear in the air to push herself harder against him.

  He thrust once, twice, and her body again convulsed around his cock. She arched her back and cried out, over and over while she climaxed. Jeenai thrust again. His first orgasm tightened his balls, then ripped through him. His cock spasmed inside her, and he could no longer tell the difference between the ripples of her inner muscles and his own contractions.

  His second climax burst out of him, but still he withheld his seed. She might not want a child of him, and he was uncertain about human fertility. A third, smaller climax made him tighten and relax as he gave a final thrust that had her writhing in her own last orgasm.

  The sound of their breathing was very loud in the quiet room. Her hair had fallen over her shoulders, leaving the back of her neck exposed. He traced his finger from the soft skin there, along the length of her spine, down to the twin dimples on either side just above her buttocks.

  The woman raised herself on her hands. Jeenai pulled out slowly, reluctant to leave her warmth. She turned to face him. Her cheeks had flushed pink.

  "I can't believe I just did that." She put her hand between her legs and pulled the fingers away with a look of surprise. "You didn't come?"

  She must have recognized the look of confusion on his face, because she clarified. "You didn't have an orgasm?"

  He smiled and held up three fingers.

  "Three? You had three?" She seemed stunned.

  He raised his eyebrows. "Don't human mals have multiple climaxes?"

  Now it was her turn to look confused. "I'm sorry. I don't know what you're saying." She looked at her hand again. "You...there's nothing...."

  Had she wanted a child after all? Jeenai knew it would take a lot of time to learn the human ways more thoroughly. "I'm sorry. I didn't know if you wanted an infant."

  She recognized the motion he used to symbolize a baby. "No, I don't want a baby right now. You mean you can control that?"

  "Yes."

  She looked down at her body, her cheeks still pink. "I can't believe I just fucked like a mad thing on my kitchen table with a man I just met. Excuse me. A merman I just met. You must think I am some kind of slut."

  He didn't understand the last word she said, but he did understand the expression on her face. She felt as though she had done something wrong.

  "You regret having the fuck with me."

  She only stared at him, wide-eyed.

  "If I did not please you enough, I will try harder next time."

  She did not understand, and he couldn't make himself any clearer. Instead, Jeenai did the only thing he could think of. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her again.

  Her mouth was sweeter than anything he'd ever tasted. He could kiss her forever. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to feel the same way. She pushed him gently away from her and busied herself with putting on her clothes. She handed him the garments he'd worn before, and he managed to dress himself with little effort.

  "I don't even know your name. What do you call yourself?"

  He gave the sign for his name, then the sound. She imitated the noise, but it came out sounding wrong. He said it again, and it sounded wrong even in his voice.

  "Jeannie?" She shook her head. "That's not right. Johnny?"

  He nodded and took her hands. He made his name in infant-hands for her. She repeated the motions he made and said his name again.

  "Johnny."

  It was close enough. "And you?"

  "My name is Helena."

  He did little better with her name than she had with his, but the sound of it made his heart leap. They were talking. He could say her name. She could call him by his.

  "This is just so crazy," Helena said. "Are you what you say you are? How can you be?"

  He had no answer for her that she could understand. Silence stretched between them. He wanted to kiss her again, but refrained. She looked as though she might bolt if he moved to embrace her.

  Instead, he pointed to the table, on which she'd placed many items he did not know the names of. With infant-hands, he asked her to tell him what these things were. After a moment, she did.

  She lifted a clear vial. "This is a glass. Um...a drinking glass. That one is a coffee mug. Here's a plate. Fork. Spoon. Knife."

  He knew the last one, for it was the only tool the Carrageenai shared with humans. The irony of that fact was not lost on him when he moved, for every step he took still felt as though he were being sliced to bits.

  "And this?"

  "Table. Chair. Dishcloth."

  She followed him around the room, which she told him was called a kitchen, and gave him the names of many strange and wonderful things.

  "That's a microwave," she said when he pointed to a black rectangle. "Watch what it does."

  She took a mug and put some water into it from the bottle she pulled from a larger box. Then she put the mug inside the microwave, pressed the front of it with her finger, and closed the door. In a moment, the box chimed, and she withdrew the mug.

  "Careful," she warned. "It's hot."

  It was hot. He put it down carefully. "Amazing."

  She laughed, but seemed a bit self-conscious doing so. "No microwaves under the ocean? What do you eat down there anyway?"

  "Fish. Vegetation. There is not so much wonderful variety as you have above land."

  "You eat fish? But aren't you part fish?"

  He curled his lip at the insult, but quickly realized she hadn't meant it to be such. Humans knew nothing about the Carrageenai. Helena couldn't know that to call him part fish was as offensive as if he'd called her a split-tail!

  "Carrageenai are mammals. Like you. Like our closemates, porpoises and whales. We are not fish."

  "Not fish. I get it." She paused. "Carry-genie? That's what you call yourselves?"

  "Carrageenai."

  Helena crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned against the counter. "What does that mean?"

  "It means...." Jeenai could not explain.

  "Never mind." Helena's hands moved and danced, though she wasn't speaking his language, only betraying her nervousness. "So... You came up out of the ocean and grew legs."

  "I didn't grow them. The sea hag gave them to me."

  Helena bit at her lip. "Johnny, this is all very strange."

  He looked around the kitchen. "Yes. It is."

  He did not want to frighten her, so he led her into the next room and began to play the "what's this?" game again. Answering his questions seemed to calm her, put her at ease. Perhaps it was easier to accept him if she could feel she was somehow helping him. For whatever reason, it made him happy to watch her face as she explained her home to him.

  "You're not listening to me," she said after a few minutes. She put her hands on her hips. "Johnny! You haven't heard a word I've said, have you?"

  He had to admit she spoke the truth. He'd been so lost in contemplating her lithe form, her lush curves, and the way her mouth shaped the words he could not speak, that he'd completely been ignoring the words she actually said.

  "I'm sorry."