Mara's Men

Mara’s Men Faith Talbot All rights reserved. Copyright ©2011 Faith Talbot ISBN: 978-1-60521-694-2 Formats Available: HTML, Adobe PDF, EPub MobiPocket, Microsoft Reader Publisher: Changeling Press LLC PO Box 1046 Martinsburg, WV 25402-1046 www.ChangelingPress.com Editor: Maryam Salim Cover Artist: Marteeka Karland

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Mara’s Men Faith Talbot Mara left Chris and Aaron, but now she wants them back. What will she do if she succeeds? In Cancun, Mara met Chris and Aaron, two mysterious men who spend most of their time under the ocean. They showed her a world she never could have imagined -and she chose to return to her normal life. Now, months later, Mara returns to the Mexican beaches hoping to find what she left behind. But even if she does reunite with the two men who changed her world, how can she stay with them in their mysterious world under the sea?

Chapter One The glare from the blue-blue water of the ocean nearly blinded Mara as she looked out the window of the airplane. She blinked, trying to let her eyes adjust. Spots rose in her vision, echoes of the brilliant shards of sunlight. She didn’t want to look away, but finally had to. It felt like a failure, or a betrayal. She looked at her watch. The plane would land soon. Her stomach shook with the uncertainty of what would happen next. Would they come to her?

*** “Something happened to you,” Cor had said to her two weeks before. Mara jumped a little, startled. She was sitting in her favorite coffee shop with her best friend, and they had been enjoying a companionable silence for the last few minutes. The sudden sound of Cor’s voice had caught her off guard. “What? When? Nothing happened to me.” Cor gave her a knowing look. “In Cancun. Something happened. You never really talked about it.” “I told you about it.” “Not in detail.” At Mara’s exasperated look, Cor clarified. “Not that kind of detail. I mean about them. Whether you really liked them or not.” “I liked them.” “How much?”

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Mara shrugged. She’d asked herself the same question several times since that vacation getaway to Cancun. “I didn’t have much chance to get to know them.” Only in the carnal sense. “You know” -- Cor leaned forward and laid a hand on Mara’s -- “sometimes it doesn’t matter.” “Yeah.” Mara said nothing else. There wasn’t anything else to say. Aaron and Chris had been the strangest, most wonderful men she’d ever met, and she’d let them go.

*** In the dark depths of the Caribbean, even in the tropical waters that surrounded Cancun, it was cold. The dark, chilled water pressed down on Chris and Aaron where they lay curled together in sand under a ledge that thrust out from the seawall, offering them some camouflage from sharks and other sea creatures. They were on good terms with most of the fish and ocean mammals that frequented this area, but occasionally someone got cranky. Aaron shifted a bit, not quite waking from the sleep that held him. Chris lay with his face in the sand, the water fingering through his hair, making it wave and sway like seaweed. Something changed. Aaron opened his eyes, unsure what just happened, what had awakened him. All around him, the water was dark and quiet. Then Chris awakened, as well, and looked at him. “You felt it?” Chris asked. The means of communication they used when they were under the water wasn’t really speech, but it wasn’t telepathy either. Neither of them could have explained it. It just was. “I did,” Aaron answered. “Is it…?” Chris ventured. “It is,” said Aaron, and then he smiled. “She’s coming.”

***

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Mara checked into the hotel, tossed her suitcase on the bed, and dug out a swimsuit. She should settle in first, she thought, get something to eat, maybe take a nap. But she didn’t want to do any of those things. She wanted to run to the beach, put her feet in the ocean, and call out to the men who had, just a few months ago, changed her life. Would they come? And if they came, what would she do?

*** The hotel was right on the beach, so it was a simple thing to walk down, in her swimsuit and a lightweight cover-up, and stand where the water rolled up onto her toes. Come to me. They’d told her to look for them if she wanted them, but they hadn’t said exactly how to do that. It seemed like there should be a ritual, a ceremony, something more formal than just standing with her toes in the water, silently broadcasting her need out over the waves. But she didn’t know what else to do. She supposed she could call out loud, but that could end badly. She wanted to meet up with them again, find out if they could move forward together somehow, not end up in a local drunk tank for acting crazy. She stood there for a time, until she began to feel like the other beachcombers were staring at her. Finally she went to the nearest beach chair, dug a book out of her bag, and settled in to read.

*** They hadn’t been above water for quite some time -- not for an extended period, at least. When they met Mara the first time, they’d been on land for several days, enjoying the sun and the sand, rejuvenating themselves. When the urge hit them, they had to follow it -- it kept them healthy, kept them in tune. It had just been coincidence that Mara had been there at the same time. Aaron didn’t believe that, though. It couldn’t have been entirely coincidence that led them to that beach, on that day, and brought them to Mara. It had been fated, he was certain.

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“Why did she wait so long?” Chris was floating loosely in the water, head tipped back. They’d risen a few hundred feet from where they’d slept, adjusting to the reduced pressure so they could come to the surface. They couldn’t ascend immediately, but they could rise much faster and dive much deeper than any human swimmer without gear. Aaron turned to look at his partner. “I don’t know.” Air rose in tiny bubbles from his mouth when he spoke, though he didn’t need air to speak. Didn’t even need air to breathe, not when he was this deep under the surface. “She needed time, maybe.” “Time for what?” “To understand. To choose.” Chris shook his head. “I chose already.” Chuckling, Aaron angled his body, swimming a few yards closer to the surface. He knew Chris would follow. “Not everyone makes up their mind as quickly as you.” Chris worked his body quickly, closing the distance between himself and Aaron. “Have you decided?” “I know what I’ll choose when the time comes.” He turned a little, facing Chris. Their gazes met, and Aaron knew they understood each other.

*** It was nearly dark when Mara woke. Her book had fallen to the sand next to her, and she could tell by the way the pages sprawled open that she’d lost her place. A few people still lingered on the beach, couples with heads tilted together watching night fall, a few walking hand-in-hand back toward the hotel. But nowhere did she see the distinctive tall, lanky frame that belonged to Aaron, or the shorter, stockier shape that was Chris. She leaned over to pick up the book, shook the sand out of it. She let it fall shut; she didn’t really care where she’d left off reading. Not right now. Right now she was more concerned with the fact that no one had come to her.

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Truly, though, what had she expected? That they really meant it when they’d said just to call them, and they would come? How stupid was she, to believe that would really work? But the things that had happened when she was with them had been no less fantastic. They’d swum together under the ocean, seen things no one could ever see, not without an expert guide. Certainly not without scuba gear, and she’d had none. She’d only had Chris and Aaron, sheltering her beneath the water, somehow making it possible for her to live and breathe and function like a creature born of the sea. In the intervening weeks and months, she’d nearly convinced herself none of that had happened. It couldn’t have. None of it was possible. It’d been a dream, a vision. Her own imagination. But as much as she tried to convince herself of this, for her own sanity if nothing else, she never quite believed it. She’d experienced something extraordinary in the hours she’d spent with the two men, something she wanted more than anything to experience again. But they hadn’t come. She gathered her things and went back to the hotel.

*** It was nearly dawn when they finally made their way to the surface. Along the way, they’d stopped to gather their abandoned swim trunks from a nook along the rocky shore where they’d hidden them. No point being arrested for public nudity before they could get to Mara. As he came out of the water, Aaron flopped onto the sand on his stomach, feeling like he weighed a thousand pounds. “You look like a walrus,” Chris said. Aaron grinned at him, delighted at the sound of his voice. It was different when the actual vibrations came to settle in Aaron’s ears. There was a music to spoken words that didn’t exist when they were underwater.

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“Seal, maybe,” Aaron replied, rolling to his back. The words felt strange inside his mouth, and he took a moment to marvel that Chris had managed to structure an entire sentence for his first words on land after so long. They both lay quietly for a time, feet still in the water, letting the cool waves lick them. One rose as far as Aaron’s waist. As it receded, he sat up. “Don’t know if I can walk yet,” Chris muttered. Aaron wasn’t sure he could, either. His lungs still burned a bit with the transition, and his skin felt strange and tight as it dried, salt still clinging to it in a white patina. He absently brushed some of it off, and it fell to the sand. Under the water, he was part of the ocean. It moved and swayed around him, held him up. Moved over his skin, which drew from it what his body needed. Oxygen came into him through his pores, eased into his bloodstream, waste gases moving out of his body the same way. When he made the shift to land, his skin closed off. He was a single, isolated being on land. Beneath the ocean, he was simply part of the water. That was what it felt like, anyway. He wondered what it was like to be only human, always separated from the rhythm of the sea. Not able to feel the movements of the tides, or the low vibrations of the music of the whales. How could anyone live like that? Finally, he rose to his knees. The moon had come up over the horizon, casting a silver trail of light across the surface of the ocean. Next to him, Chris also partially rose. Hands and knees first, then to a kneeling position, then finally lurching to his feet. Even less gracefully, Aaron followed. “She’s near,” said Chris. “Let’s go find her.”

*** Mara stepped out of the shower, scrubbing her skin dry with the hotel towel, advertised as Egyptian cotton. It felt rough at first, then seemed to soften as it grew damp. She closed her eyes, letting herself sink into the sensations. She was in Cancun, after all. She could at least do her best to enjoy herself, even if things weren’t going quite the way she’d hoped.

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When she was finished, she slid into a lightweight cotton nightgown. It was brief, but not overly revealing. As it settled over her curves, she realized she’d even packed for the possibility that things might not go well. That they might not come. She tried not to think about it, smoothing the cotton over her breasts and belly. The memories remained; she’d never lose those. She could enjoy her vacation, then go home and start again, this time without the haunting question hanging over her of whether she’d abandoned the one thing that could make her life complete when she’d turned away from Chris and Aaron. Maybe she’d even find someone else who gave her that same sense of wholeness. A nagging voice in the back of her mind told her it would never happen. She pushed her hands through her hair as if to shove the thought back. She didn’t want it. Her life could be good again. She’d find it somehow. Fighting the sense of melancholy, she stepped out onto the hotel room’s balcony. It gave a wide, lovely view of the beach, and the portion of the hotel grounds that sat adjacent. A huge, silver moon, nearly full, had risen in the east, casting silvery light across the tips of the waves. It was bright enough to cast shadows, even where the light from the hotel facilities didn’t reach. It was beautiful. How could she hold on to her melancholy, looking out over beauty like this? It seemed sacrilegious, or at best ungrateful. Leaning against the balcony rail, she let a soft breeze play with her hair, caress her face. Mara. She froze. She thought she had heard the word, the whisper against the sound of the waves, but it had been so soft she couldn’t have truly heard it. Where had it come from, then? She peered through the moonshadows, trying to pick out details in the silvery dark. There were still a few people on the beach, enjoying the sound of the waves and the slightly cooler temperatures that had settled in with the sunset. One couple in particular seemed to be making their way up the beach to the hotel. They were a bit unsteady on their feet, as if they’d had a few too many mai tais.

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Two men, she realized as they made their way a bit closer. One taller than the other, both broad-shouldered, their bodies lean but wide through the shoulders, like swimmers… Oh, my God. She ran back into the hotel room, ran out into the hallway and, heedless of her state of relative undress, ran in barefoot abandon out onto the moonlit beach. They had come.

Chapter Two Chris leaned into Aaron as they made their way up the beach. Aaron leaned back, and Chris laughed. “You’re too heavy,” he said. “I feel like I weigh eight tons.” “Yeah. Me too.” Aaron eased his weight away from Chris, but wished he could take advantage of the support. Chris still leaned into him, though not heavily. It would take a few minutes to adjust to gravity after having their bodies supported by water. They were adaptable in every way necessary to function on the land, but the switch wasn’t instantaneous. On the other hand, Aaron was fairly sure that humans went through the same period of adjustment after spending time in the water. He took a deep breath, feeling the air pass through his mouth, his throat, down to his lungs. He could almost feel it easing into his blood cells. The light, too, was different -- harsher, even in the relative darkness. He blinked a few times, clearing the afterimages from the glare of the lights that brightened the hotel grounds. And then he saw her. She ran toward them across the sand, barefoot, wearing only a light cotton nightgown. Aaron stopped abruptly, nearly causing Chris to lose his balance. “What --” Chris started, then broke off as he, too, saw her. They both stopped, as if they had agreed on it. She came to them, running full tilt, until she struck the immobile obstacle of Aaron’s wide chest. He wrapped her in his arms.

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“Mara,” he said, his voice breathy. He felt on the verge of tears, but also very much like laughing. Then Chris moved into their semi-awkward embrace, and all three of them ended up sprawled on the sand. Then Aaron did laugh, and Chris and Mara joined him, the sound a lovely music unlike anything he’d heard since they had left Mara all those months before. He tried to regain his feet, but his legs tangled with Chris’s, with Mara’s, and instead he only lurched partly to his knees, then collapsed back to the sand. Then, somehow, out of the midst of tangled arms and legs and the gritty sand underneath everything, mouths found mouths, and they were kissing. The taste of Mara’s mouth was like the taste of home. Salt, like the sea, musk, woman. Aaron’s hand curled over Mara’s breast without his conscious instruction. Through the thin cotton, the nipple rose, pressing against the center of his hand. He felt her flinch away, and realized there were still some people around them on the beach. Only a few, but the attention wasn’t something any of them wanted. Reluctantly, Aaron drew his hand back. Even more reluctantly, he tipped his head away from the three-way, joined kiss that had his mouth, Chris’s, and Mara’s exploring each other with the joy rapidly escalating to need. “Not here,” he said. Chris backed off, and Mara laughed, sounding embarrassed. “Good idea,” she said. “I have a room.” Chris smiled and gently brushed sand from Mara’s face, while Aaron took her hand. “Of course you do,” he said, and let her lead the way up the beach. Mara had spent many hours picturing how this moment would go, the moment when the three of them were together again, ready to give themselves to each other. In her mind, it had been beautiful. Perfect. They had fallen against each other joyous, and found their way skin to skin with an ease that made it seem like they’d never been separated. In real life, it wasn’t like that.

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It shouldn’t have been difficult. She’d been with these men in ways she hadn’t known were possible. Moving into their arms should have been easy. But the moment the hotel room door closed behind them, Mara felt strange. Awkward. “It’s…” she started. “It’s been a while.” “It has,” said Aaron. Chris looked at him, then at Mara. Strangely, he seemed to get smaller, contracting on himself. Mara just stared at them both, unsure what to do. “I… I thought about you a lot,” she finally said. It sounded lame, inadequate. “So did we,” said Aaron. “We hoped you’d come back.” This was Chris. His voice was quiet and careful, as if he thought he might frighten her if he said the wrong thing or moved too quickly. She stared at them, almost shaking, and suddenly heat washed through her like a fever, and she could feel nothing but the way it had felt to have their bare skin against hers, their heat soaking through and filling what little space remained between them. The rough burn of having both of them inside her. It had been overwhelming. So was the memory. She put her hands over her mouth and began to cry. They both came to her in a quick motion, arms going around her as they eased her to sitting on the bed. Aaron’s lips pressed soft and warm against her temple. Chris’s broad hand clasped her tight, the touch straightforwardly comforting, not meant to be at all sexual. It broke her apart. Still weeping, she grabbed Chris and pulled him against her, kissing him hard. Aaron pressed against both of them as they came together. It was all heat and fire, warm hands and the pervasive smell of need. She couldn’t remember how they had fit together -- only how it had felt. They reminded her, pressing her back into the bed. The sheets, the duvet, were cool and soft, cradling her as the two men settled back with her. Chris moved to the head of the bed, settling Mara’s head in his lap. He traced her lips with his fingers, and before she could think about what she was doing, she had drawn the fingers into her mouth, sucking on

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them. The taste of salt settled onto the back of her tongue, the salt of his skin, salt that tasted like the sea. Chris cradled her in his lap, letting her lean against his chest while she stretched her legs out across the bed. Aaron moved over her body, hands sliding up her thighs under her nightgown. His narrow hips eased between her legs; she let them fall open in easy welcome. Through the thin material of his swim trunks, she could feel the hard line of his erection pressing against her. Her body flooded with heat, and she could almost feel the welcoming liquid rush into her channel, feeling herself opening for him, muscles softening, body aching for him. Chris’s free hand slid down to cup her breasts, thumb and forefinger pinching her nipple. The sharp sensation made her moan in an agony of desire. “Too hard?” Chris murmured in her ear. “No. God, no.” Surrounded by their heat and the ocean-tinged smell of their skin, she felt as if the sea were taking her away already. Aaron’s hips pulsed between her thighs, his heat and her slickness sliding across each other in the rhythmic movement. Mara reached down between them and cupped him so that the hot bulk of his cock slid against her palm. It was his turn to moan; then he leaned forward, latching his mouth to hers, and let the moan loose into her mouth. His fingers caught the edge of her panties, pulling the elastic aside, until fingertips sank inside her, circling the mouth of her vagina. She shifted her hands, reaching past the elastic of his trunks to cup his heat. She wanted the fabric out of the way, wanted him deep inside her, wanted him to take her. Behind her, Chris still held her firmly against him, hands kneading her breasts. Chris’s palm slid flat down her stomach, between her and Aaron. And then Chris was helping move clothes out of the way, pushing at Mara’s panties and Aaron’s trunks. She had to move and shift out of the way, and for a few seconds she felt as if she were part of a living human octopus, but in the end she got what she wanted -- Aaron deep inside

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her, Chris cradling her, his mouth on the back of her neck and his hands exploring every inch of the space where Mara and Aaron met. Aaron thrust hard into her, but slow, the easy drag drawing out the sensation of friction, of invasion. He fit her perfectly, and she clenched hard on him, the tightening of her body automatic, as if her very muscles wanted him to stay there inside her. Chris shifted behind her, his cock moving in jerky strokes against the small of her back. He reached forward, around her and around Aaron, to clutch at Aaron’s back. A moment later, the two men were moving in a perfect rhythm, Aaron’s stroking inside her providing the counterpoint to Chris’s movement against her back. Heat grew and spiraled inside her -- she was a moment away, a touch, a breath… And then the waves broke over them all, a pulse that took Mara, then Aaron, then Chris, so that they shuddered together as a single being, bodies bound in the relentless rhythm of climax. Mara’s eyes opened wide, and she stared into Aaron’s face, his expression carefully still even through his climax, as if he were afraid of giving something away. What could he give her that she didn’t already have? she wondered, and then her eyes fell closed again as she realized the answer. Everything.

*** Mara woke when the sunlight came in through the window, laying stripes of gold across the bed. She was tangled up with Aaron and Chris, limbs wrapped around each other, arms flung across each other’s bodies. The lines of their bodies lay warm against hers -- a bit too warm. She’d left the air-conditioning off in the hotel room, preferring the breeze that came in from the open balcony window. But the breeze wasn’t strong enough or cool enough to counteract the heat of two male bodies. She stared up at the ceiling, feeling loose and languid. She’d never had sex anything like what she had with Chris and Aaron. It wasn’t just the fact that there were two of them. It was more than that. The rightness of it, strange as the situation was,

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gave everything a deeper, more profound feeling. When she lay between Chris and Aaron, every molecule in her body knew she was exactly where she was meant to be. The heat of their bodies, as well as the morning demands of her own body, started to make her uncomfortable. Carefully, she eased her way out of the bed. Neither of the men seemed disturbed as she disentangled herself. Sound sleepers, she thought. She’d slept well, too, deep in dreams and memories, wrung out from love, peaceful with happiness. She visited the bathroom, then stood at the foot of the bed, just watching them. Aaron looked huge in the bed, knees drawn up so his feet wouldn’t dangle off it. Chris lay with his head pillowed on Aaron’s biceps. The narrow space between them where she had lain was still there, not quite closed up between the long lines of their bodies. The sheet was tangled around their legs, partially covering their nudity but not enough to preserve any sort of modesty. They were so beautiful. So beautiful and so perfect. So right. But how in the world could she keep them?

Chapter Three When Aaron woke, Mara was sitting on the balcony eating fruit out of a bowl and sipping a cup of coffee. Either she’d left the room to get food, or she’d called room service. He found it hard to believe she’d managed to leave the bed, let alone the room, without him knowing about it. Obviously, though, she had. Maybe the transition from the sea, as well as the sex, had tired him more than he’d thought. If it had, it had tired Chris, as well. The other man still lay sleeping, his face smashed into a pillow, his golden lashes spread across wide cheeks spattered with equally golden freckles. Aaron moved to the balcony, through the open door, and out to stand behind Mara. He brushed a hand down the fall of her hair. “Good morning.” She turned to smile up at him. “Morning.” Holding out the bowl of fruit, she added, “I wasn’t sure what you’d like.” He plucked a cherry from the bowl. “It’s all right. We’ll eat later.” “If Chris ever wakes up.” Mara chuckled, glancing toward Chris. “He will.” He folded himself into the other chair that decorated the balcony. He ate the cherry, looking out over the beach to the ocean, watching it cast itself up onto the sand, then draw back. The rhythm still thrummed through him, like the movement of his own blood, or the breathing that had again become second nature after he emerged from the water. “What are you thinking?” she asked him. He turned to look at her. She was so perfect, so beautiful. Why did she have to be from the land? “I’m thinking it’s time we took you down to the water.”

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She nodded thoughtfully. “I think you might be right.”

*** They dressed slowly, the process impeded by questing hands and hungry mouths. She hadn’t gotten enough of them last night. She wanted more, and the possibility that their time would again be short made the need that much stronger. Finally, when Mara was trying to draw her bikini bottoms into place, Aaron grabbed her by the shoulders and trapped her so that she fell back onto the bed. Chris, who was still naked -- Mara got the impression he wasn’t a big fan of clothes -- pounced onto the bed next to her, bouncing like a big, blond, well-muscled puppy. Mara laughed. They were so… exuberant. She abandoned her bikini bottoms; she could tell from the looks on the men’s faces that there would be no point putting them on. Not to mention the state of their cocks, which were both hard and ready. They stretched out next to her, one on either side, and she reached down to take one rampant erection in each hand. The hard warmth felt good in her curled fingers, pressed against her palms. The two men moved closer to her, rolling to their sides, until she could nestle both cocks against her hipbones, letting them slide between her palms and her body. They thrust against her, long erections sliding along the line of her hipbones while her fingers flexed and released, squeezed and stroked. She could feel both men tightening, coming closer to readiness as their abdomens tightened and clenched. The rock-hard muscles brushed her wrists with each concentrated thrust. Looking up, she found both faces enrapt, eyes partially closed, identical expressions of distant ecstasy making their faces languid. She wondered if they knew how much alike they looked, and the thought made her smother a laugh. Aaron’s heavy eyelids eased open at the breathy sound, and a smile curled a corner of his mouth. The slow slide of his cock against her stopped, and he leaned forward to kiss her.

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Chris, too, stopped, in response to the shift in rhythm from Aaron. Rather than looking mischievous, though, he looked confused. But as Aaron shifted away from Mara, Chris seemed to pick up some signal. The confusion on his face softened again, and he shifted along with Aaron. The movements weren’t exactly choreographed; it took Mara a moment to figure out where they wanted her as they began to readjust on the bed. But finally they were nestled together again, Chris facing Mara and Aaron spooned in behind her. Chris kissed her neck, teeth scraping along her jaw line as his hands stroked her, cupping her breasts, her hips. Aaron’s hips were pressed against her so that his erection prodded between the cheeks of her ass, but his upper body was bent back while he stroked her shoulders and the length of her spine, his touch turning her to molten heat. Nudging her thighs apart, Chris let his fingers slide into her, two fingers, then three prodding into her wet heat. His fingers thrust and curled inside her, sending sensations shooting through her that bordered on pain. She knew she was making sounds, but she was so drowned in just feeling that she couldn’t hear what her own voice was doing. Finally, when Mara thought she couldn’t stand another second of Chris’s relentless fingers, he drew them out of her and slid his cock inside her instead. One hand clasped her thigh, lifting it to rest against his hip, opening her wider and giving himself more room to move. She arched forward, then back as he sank deep. She could feel every inch of him as he sheathed himself, a hot blade inside her, finding her depths. As if Chris’s penetration had been a signal, Aaron’s body curled closer to her, his cock sliding between the cheeks of her ass. She’d taken them both at the same time before, but their positions had been reversed. She wasn’t sure she could take Aaron this way, not comfortably. Chris had fit snugly; Aaron, she was sure, would be a challenge. He didn’t seem bent on penetration, though. Instead, he let himself slide along the crease of her ass, the tip of his cock occasionally teasing her entrance. The intermittent kiss of his cock against her anus made her flinch and moan and long to have him bury himself in her, even if it split her apart.

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It didn’t take long for them to fall into a rhythm. Chris and Aaron seemed to find the cadence automatically every time they came together. Mara was left to find her own counterpoint between them, always moving, always straining toward the climax that beckoned. And which finally came, with Chris breaking apart deep inside her and Aaron pressed hard against her so that the tip of his cock barely breached her body. Hot come poured from him, joining her own hot wetness to mingle with Chris’s climax on her thighs, on the sheets. And her body snapped and unwound, like a string spun too far in one direction finally released to whirl itself back. She was dizzy with it, her vision red and black and broken. She closed her eyes, and let it wash through her.

*** Finally, they made their way down to the beach. Mara stopped at a refreshment station outside the hotel where they were selling sausages on rolls and bought one, putting it on her hotel room tab, though it was spicier than her usual breakfast fare. Aaron and Chris looked at each other, and whatever they shared in the glance made Mara suddenly self-conscious. “Are you hungry?” she asked. “You’re welcome to buy something, too.” Aaron shook his head. “It’s not that.” Mara bit into the sausage roll, feeling the juices burst in her mouth and gather at the corners of her lips. She chewed, swallowed. Getting the food into her stomach took the edge off the strange, shaky feeling that had begun to plague her. “What is it, then?” she asked. “Are you afraid?” Aaron’s voice was gentle. Chris watched them both with focused interest. Mara took another bite, realizing only after she’d filled her mouth that she was using the food not only to assuage her hunger but as a delaying tactic. Aaron seem content to wait, though, until she had finished chewing, so she mulled as she did so, working out what exactly she was trying to delay.

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Chris plopped down on the sand to wait, staring out toward the water. Aaron nudged him with a foot, eliciting a smile in response. Mara finished the second bite of the sausage roll and said quietly, “If I go with you now, will I ever be able to come back?” Aaron’s brows rose, and Chris turned toward her abruptly, a strange expression on his face. “You thought that was what we were asking?” Chris said. “It… it isn’t?” Mara felt strange -- she thought she knew what she wanted, but faced with the idea of an irreversible decision, the choice seemed less clear. “No,” said Aaron gently. “No, it isn’t.” Chris pushed to his feet, his expression concerned. He laid a careful hand on her shoulder. “We want to show you more. More than we did last time. We want you to know what it would be like.” “If I come to live with you?” “Yes.” Aaron moved a little closer to her and touched her, as well. “We can’t ask you to make a decision when you don’t know all the facts.” She nodded, the knots in her stomach unwinding. “Yes. Yes, it would be helpful to know.” “Did you really think we would ask that of you?” Chris sounded almost hurt. “I thought…” She paused, wanting to say this in a way he would understand, with words that wouldn’t hurt him. “I thought maybe you had to.” Aaron nodded soberly, and Mara’s wondered if perhaps he’d read the same myths and legends she had, of men who had to leave everything behind to join their mermaid lovers beneath the sea, mermaids and selkies who’d given up their lives beneath the ocean to live on land with human princes. She thought she’d been prepared to make that choice. She realized then that she wasn’t. And she didn’t want that choice to be forced upon Chris and Aaron, either.

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“We’ll take you to the water,” Aaron said, “and then you can decide what you want.” I want you, she thought, but didn’t say it out loud. She needed to find out first what that would mean.

Chapter Four She finished the sausage roll, enjoying it more now that she had acknowledged why she’d gotten it in the first place. They walked hand in hand in hand down to the water, Aaron moving slightly ahead of Mara while still keeping her fingers tangled with his. The day was rapidly getting warmer, but the breeze curling over the ocean offered a respite for now. Mara tipped her head back -- she loved the way the sun felt on her face. When they came to the edge of the water, with the slow, warm waves caressing their feet, Aaron and Chris stopped. Mara stopped, as well. She got the distinct impression that the men were waiting for something. They looked out over the bright water, and their hands simultaneously tightened a little on Mara’s. “Where will we be going?” she asked after a moment. “Down,” Aaron said quietly. “Down deep.” Mara swallowed, a thread of trepidation rising in her in spite of herself. “How deep?” Chris turned to face her. “As deep as we can go.” He paused. “Do you trust us?” She remembered their previous time together, when she had gone into the water with them and, somehow, miraculously, had been able to stay with them there, taking what she needed from the water. It frightened her, but it had been wonderful.

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“I do,” she said. If her voice shook a little, she told herself, it was only from anticipation. They both looked at her then, together, smiling, their hands firm on hers, they stepped out into the water.

*** They walked for a time, then floated, and finally paddled, moving inexorably farther out to sea, but slowly, so the lifeguards and other beachcombers wouldn’t notice they were moving farther and farther out, past the margins considered safe. But they also drifted lower and lower into the water, until Mara was sure they were barely visible to the other swimmers. And, once they’d reached a point where the water was quieter, far enough from the shore to barely register the movement of the waves, Chris and Aaron stopped. “Are you ready?” Aaron asked. Mara wasn’t, but she nodded. They moved around her, Chris in front and Aaron behind, reaching around her. “It’s not too late to change your mind,” said Chris. A thread of panic rose through Mara’s chest, but she swallowed it. She wanted this. What was a little fear compared to what these two could give her? “I’m okay.” Gentle arms tightened around her, encircling her in a protective embrace. Their touch was easy enough to be comfortable, firm enough to be reassuring. Her body stiffened a little, and they seem to sense it, just holding her still for a moment while she gathered herself. She felt as if she were standing on the edge of a precipice, as if the open water around them lay over a Pacific trench so deep that unknown forms of life thrived at the bottom of it, devouring methane or silicon or substances no one even thought could be edible in the first place. A place that, if she plunged into it, would change her. Not so far from the truth.

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She folded her hands against her chest and pressed her face against Aaron’s shoulder. Behind her, she felt Chris move closer, his body firm against hers. They were quiet for a time, none of them speaking, just floating together under the bright sun, watching the light reflect off the moving water. Finally, she opened her mouth against the warm curve of Aaron’s bare shoulder and said, “Now.” The descent was slow. For some reason she had expected it to be rapid, a fast movement into the newness of the world they wanted to bring her to. Instead, they moved slowly down into the water, as if their weight were gradually increasing. She clung to Aaron, Chris holding her securely from behind. The warm water enclosed her, slowly, inch by inch. She was all right until the water rose over her face. She had done this before. She knew it would be all right. But that didn’t change the way her body reacted when the ocean swallowed her face. The men paused the moment her body went tense. The water had come up over her mouth, her nose, her eyes, but she could still feel her hair floating on the surface. Knowing she was only a tilt of her head away from drawing fresh air eased the panic little. Slowly, she opened her eyes. It should burn, she thought. The saltwater against her open eyes should sting, make her eyeballs ache. But it didn’t. The water was soft around her, and she felt nothing uncomfortable, nothing pressing even against the vulnerable surfaces of her eyes. “Easy.” It was Aaron’s voice. She remembered this from before, the strange way they could communicate with her even under the water. The word formed in her head, without Aaron’s moving his mouth to speak it. He smiled at her as she let her gaze meet his. “We’ve got you.” This was Chris’s voice, again forming in her head. It felt almost like the word appeared behind her eyes.

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They did have her. Their arms were strong and warm around her, and as she relaxed in that embrace, she felt everything in her body settle into strange but pleasant comfort. “Are you all right?” Aaron asked. “Yes.” The word rose like a bubble in her mind, again feeling as if it came up behind her eyes. She smiled, letting Aaron know she truly was all right. He smiled back, then leaned forward to kiss her gently. Chris’s arms tightened on her just as Aaron’s lips met hers. “Deeper?” It was strange to hear Aaron speaking to her while she knew his mouth was occupied. She opened to him, stroking his tongue with hers, and thought back, “Yes.” As they moved slowly down, Mara let her head drop back onto Chris’s shoulder. His body supported her while Aaron, in front of her, guided her. She let herself relax. Last time, she had let panic take her too early, not giving herself enough time to absorb what was happening to her. This time, she wanted to let it happen, let herself experience it. A small voice nagged at her that there was too much at stake, that she might lose everything if she didn’t do the right things. She pushed that voice back; it was as dangerous to her as the voice that was trying to tell her she would drown. She closed it down. Closed down everything but the sense of the two men holding her, guarding her, sheltering her. She closed her eyes. With her vision closed off, she had no sense of being underwater. Rather, she felt as if she were floating in the open air. It was an amazing feeling -- freeing and beautiful. She had never felt safer, or more loved. Letting go, just letting it happen, was the most profound experience she’d ever had. She let her body lie limp between them, feeling them all sink, down and down. Then, finally, her feet settled into the softness of the sand on the ocean floor. The sensation of her feet moving onto a solid surface surprised her enough to open her eyes. Vaguely, she felt her body try to respond to a similar reflex to take a

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breath, but she had let herself fall so deeply into the sheer wonderment of it all that she was able to quash the impulse before it took root. Chris and Aaron began to move across the sand, toward a dark shadow looming not far away. Never breaking contact with her skin, they directed her toward what proved to be an outcropping of rock. Beneath the outcropping lay a black, narrow cave mouth. “Come with us,” Chris said. “We’ll show you what it could be.” She shifted to look at him, taking in his face for the first time since they had descended. It was dark enough here she shouldn’t have been able to see him, she thought, but his face came to her shadowed but clear. Through the softly moving water and the shifts of light, his face was a revelation. They slid into the low cave, too big for a crevice, too small to be a proper cave. Mara had to move into it on her stomach, the ceiling of the cave closing off the openness of the sea above. A momentary, pressing panic took her at the sight of the ceiling closing over her. Hands tightened on her arms, and the men slowed so that they floated forward rather than propelling her. “You’re safe.” For a moment, she couldn’t identify which man was addressing her. The vibration of the voice in her head took a moment to resolve. It was Chris. Aaron moved closer to her, his arms coming around her to increase the contact between the two of them. Chris, at the same time, shifted his position a bit, guiding and drawing her forward. “This is where we sleep.” Aaron this time. “You can stay here if you want to see what it’s like.” Mara couldn’t imagine it, not quite yet, and she had no answer to the implied question. Holding her mind as still as she could, keeping the wave of panic at bay, she closed her eyes. The tightness in her chest receded. Chris and Aaron flanked her more closely, pressing to either side of her as they settled together onto the sandy floor of the cave.

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Hands began to move, stroking over her skin, their movement echoing the motion of the water. They’d made love in the water before, but not like this. Everything now was familiar and yet completely new. This, having these two men frame her body in this narrow cleft beneath the water, was new. The water buoyed them, so that she was never sure she would be able to stay stationary as they stroked and caressed her, but their shifting movement adjusted as the water pulled at them to hold all three of them close. Certainly they’d done this before, before she’d come into their lives, though part of her hoped those encounters had been only between the two of them and hadn’t involved another woman. Unfair, perhaps, but she found herself feeling more proprietary toward them the more time they spent together. They were hers. This was hers. She wanted to be the only one to have experienced them like this, folded three together in the ocean’s shadows. Their movements were easy and fluid as they positioned her between them. They were both ready; Chris’s hard cock slid against the small of her back while Aaron’s pressed against the seam of her thighs. They rocked together like that for a time. Neither of them spoke, not in clear words, but images and brief phrases floated through her mind. They were reassuring her, praising her, their thoughts pulsing in time with the movement of their bodies in the water’s slow drift. Relax… let it happen… get used to the movement… the rhythm… the water… it pulses like your blood pulses… feel the patterns match… beautiful… your skin, your body… touch me… us… Their voices braided together, and she couldn’t tell one from the other. But both were gentle and encouraging, placating her fear before they sought to slake their own desire. The heat of her need seemed to dissipate in the water but not diminish. Instead it seemed to dance back and forth among the three of them until it bonded them together, their bodies melding in a blend of water and desire.

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Finally the tempo of the dance increased, and Aaron’s hands came down to press Mara’s bikini bottoms out of the way. He’d shoved his own trunks down to his thighs, and a slight movement of his hands on her shoulders brought her where he could rest between her legs. He slid inside her. Bubbles rose from his mouth, and she heard him grunt -- the first vocal noise she’d heard from either of them since they’d entered the water. Aaron’s entrance into her body shifted her so they all moved toward the back of the dark nook. Chris steadied her from behind. She wanted him inside her, too, but wasn’t sure how it would feel, how it would work, underwater, with no lube to ease his entrance. “Shhh… don’t worry.” It seemed like Chris’s thought, though she wasn’t certain until his lips pressed against the back of her neck. He held her anchored while Aaron thrust into her, the rhythm slow, lulling her while it stoked her need. It was a strange combination, part of her drifting, another part of her straining, wanton and needy. Chris eased against her then, and she tensed, then let herself relax. When she lay loose again in his arms, he slid his cock against her, prodding carefully. He went so slowly she wasn’t sure exactly when he breached her. But the careful, circular movements of his hips eased him in gradually, until finally she could feel Aaron thrusting deep into her and Chris barely inside, just the tip of his cock filling her. He moved carefully, not really thrusting but not holding still, either. The rhythm was careful and controlled. She felt almost like Aaron was drinking deep from her, while Chris only sipped. It was enough, though, at least for her. And as her own pleasure rose, she realized she could feel theirs, too, swimming around the three of them, wrapping them in a warm cocoon of pleasure. Aaron came first, thrusting deep into her. His come was hot -- hotter than normal, it seemed, but probably only hot relative to the water. The unexpected sensation sent Mara spiraling. Her body clenched on him, clenched on Chris, and with a sudden exhalation, a froth of bubbles around her face, and a strangled, “Gggh,” sound,

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Chris came, as well. He, too, spilled hot into and over her body. She could feel the heat on her thighs before it dissipated into the water. Aaron’s mouth found hers, and Chris’s teeth closed gently on her shoulder. They stayed like that for a time, tangled in each other, then slowly the men drifted back from her. They held the contact with her, though -- they were always touching her. Slowly, they settled through the water into a pile on the floor of the small cave. Lying on her back, caged in the men’s loose embrace, she looked up. She had forgotten everything in the movement of body to body, in the heat the men had conjured in her. She could look up now, at the dark, looming ceiling, the uneven rocks, the coral and bright fish that moved in and out with the shifting of the waves. An ease had settled into her, a sense of rightness as Chris moved closer to her on one side, as Aaron’s arms moved loosely around her. The movement of the water felt more like a soft breeze against her face. Finally, lulled by the movement and the feel of protective arms around her body, she fell asleep.

*** She woke in a sudden lurch, rising to wakefulness like a whale breaching the surface of the ocean. Her lungs convulsed but drew in nothing -- there was no air, and something kept her from breathing the water. It came into her mouth, but only far enough to touch her tongue; then it was gone and whatever barriers protected her snapped into place. Soon enough to save her from drowning, but not soon enough to stop the intense stab of fear, the wash of adrenaline. She was underwater. Too far underwater. The surface was twenty-five, fifty feet above where they lay, through layers of shifting water and deep green darkness. She could not escape it. Even if she tried, she would never make it to the surface in time… Chris shifted next to her, turning toward her. His arms moved around her, drawing her against him, anchoring her. Aaron, too, turned, curling his long, lean body around hers. As more of their bare skin pressed against her, the panic began to ease.

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“You’re all right,” Chris’s voice said in her head, at the same time Aaron said, “You’re with us.” She let herself relax in their arms, but her heart continued to pound high and hard in her chest. She swallowed, feeling the thought bubble up from the back of her brain, trying to hold back until she was certain she wanted to let it surface. In the end, though, it came up of its own accord. “I’m not sure I can do this.” “We can go up,” Aaron said. Mara started to say yes, please take me back, but something in his voice sounded so broken, so weighty with sadness, that she hesitated. “Not yet,” she said, and again the words came quickly to her mind, before she could censor them. This means of communication, it seemed, made her more honest, or at least kept her from second-guessing or changing her mind for no good reason. “Are you sure?” Aaron’s words came gently to her mind. “I am.” She nodded, the gesture making her more certain of her decision. “We could show her…” The voice, Chris’s, drifted away, as if he had focused more tightly so his words went only to Aaron. Aaron looked at Chris, presumably until the other man had finished explaining his suggestion, then turned back to Mara. “We have to go deeper,” he said. Mara’s heart lurched at the thought. Deeper? She had no idea how deep they were now, but the thought of going deeper, of deliberately placing even more water between herself and the naked air made the panic threaten again. “I don’t know if I can.” Aaron’s hand stroked gently down her arm. “We can show you the most beautiful thing you’ve ever --” Seen? Heard? He seemed to waffle between the two concepts, or perhaps he wasn’t sure which one was the most appropriate. Or -- and Mara decided this was the most accurate interpretation -- he really wanted to say both, but not as separate experiences. More like dual sensations weaving through each other until one could barely be distinguished from the other.

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She didn’t understand how that could be, but feeling the sensation from Aaron’s words-not-quite-words, the panic began to ease, tempered by his wonderment. “How much deeper?” she asked. Chris smiled. “Does it matter?”

Chapter Five It really didn’t. In the end, she simply moved along with them, always touching and being touched, and the sensation of moving deeper below the water merged with that of moving out, and away, so that she could no longer tell which was more relevant. The water around them became brackish green, indigo, dark enough she could see no more than a few feet ahead. Chris and Aaron seemed unconcerned, making occasional course changes, consulting from time to time, and once drawing Mara with them into a tight, immobile embrace while the dark, huge bulk of… something… passed inches away from them in the black. They never told her what it was. She didn’t want to know. Finally they came to a place where the water was still and the light from above slightly brighter. Looking up, Mara couldn’t see anything that looked like the surface, but shafts of light seemed to reach down through the water, passing white and gold and even rainbow light beneath the surface. Chris turned them around in a slow circle, head tilted, eyes closed, as if he were listening for something. “Do you hear them?” Aaron asked. Chris nodded, eyes still closed. He was still for a moment, then suddenly he made a sound. Mara had no idea how he did it. They couldn’t breathe air down here, so there was no way he could produce vocal sounds at all, much less the strange, droning howl that burst out of him, echoing around them so loudly Mara winced and was hardpressed not to cover her ears.

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Aaron smiled, either at the sound or at Mara’s reaction -- she wasn’t sure which. Or maybe the smile was in anticipation of what was coming, because he looked at Mara and said, “Wait.” Chris grinned at her, as well, tearing his attention away from the direction in which he had thrown the strange, growly, trumpeting sound. “It’ll be worth it.” She felt them long before she heard them. The water around her began to vibrate, as if a bass speaker were sounding loud and long, its tones too low for the ear. It prickled her skin, and she could feel the vibration in her diaphragm. The sensation came in uneven waves, as if it were a code of some kind. Long, short, then medium, then so long it was almost unbearable, the vibration going on and on, deeper and deeper, until she could feel it in her womb. “Do you hear?” Chris asked, but he nodded as he looked at her. She nodded back, knowing the expression on her face must have answered his question. After a few minutes, the sound became easier to interpret as actual sound rather than vibrations. Higher notes layered upon the deep, bass tones, producing new patterns. Sharp, higher-pitched noises, lower wails of sound -- and then Mara realize what she was hearing. Whale song. She’d heard whale song before, on TV specials about humpbacks, and in audio white-noise tracks she used sometimes to get to sleep. But this was whale song in its natural element, the music transmitted and filtered by the water. With recordings, she’d only ever been able to hear the music. Here, she could feel it. Here, she was inside it. “My God.” The thought bubbled to the surface of her brain, where it seemed to join the vibrations of the strange language all around her. “They’re beautiful,” Aaron said. “You’ll see. Soon.” “Can you understand them?” Mara asked. Aaron shook his head. “Not really. Chris can, a little.” Mara turned to Chris, whose blond hair was floating loosely in the soft movement of the deep water. “What are they saying?” she asked.

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“That they’re coming. Who they are -- their pod, their Matriarch, their individual names.” He looked at Aaron. “We’ve seen them before.” Aaron nodded. Mara was stunned -- they seemed nonchalant, as if they were expecting friends for dinner rather than a pod of humpback whales. “Are they well?” Aaron asked. “Mostly. They lost a younger mother -- she went to the Ancient Shore.” Mara took a moment to parse that. The Ancient Shore -- she must have beached herself. Theory had it that whales had returned to the sea, evolving from land animals. Could they remember their origins somehow? But the impersonal thoughts fell away when Chris added, “They don’t know why.” The sound that came to her then was a beautiful cacophony of layers so distinct she could feel them vibrating through the water, up and down her body. There was joy in it, and sadness, and a pain so deep Mara thought her heart would break. She would weep, she thought, if there were a way to weep when she was already surrounded by water. Salt water. She already swam in the tears of the whales. A dark, humping shape appeared not far from them, and suddenly they were surrounded, the whales above and below, to either side. Mara shrunk back against Aaron, afraid they might crush the tiny humans without meaning to. But they seemed perfectly aware of where the comparatively tiny beings were, avoiding collision by inches. They were huge. It was like being passed by jet airliners on all sides. The music of their language mingled with the roar of their passing. Mara felt lightheaded and overwhelmed, unable to comprehend what was happening. They were so big, so loud, so real. Aaron held her tight, and after a moment he clasped his hand over hers and held it out, and the tips of her fingers brushed along the skin of a whale. They didn’t stay long. “It frustrates them,” Chris explained, as the last, hulking shadow slid away, “that they can’t understand us when we try to speak. So they give their news, and then they move on.”

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“How can you understand them?” Mara asked. Chris shook his head. “I’m not sure. I think my mother must have taught me.” They swam for a time, following the whales as their bulky shadows disappeared into the dark. Mara was quiet, thinking of all they’d told her, remembering all she’d seen. Finally, quietly, she said, “I need you to take me back.”

*** They took a long, slow time returning to the surface. Though Chris and Aaron didn’t say as much in words, she felt the precaution was to help her -- and possibly them -- adjust to the changes in temperature, depth, and pressure. Again, a wash of anxiety swept through her as she remembered movies and articles about swimmers dying of the bends from coming up out of the water too fast. But they would keep her safe -- she knew this. Still, it was so strange, and so disconcerting. How long had she even been under the water with them? How long could she stay without causing damage to herself? She didn’t even know how long it had been since she’d eaten. The thought crossing her mind didn’t even make her feel hungry. She would never understand this. Never. Not even if she decided to come with them and stay with them forever. A soft litany began in her head, coming from the men as they lifted and supported her. Many of the words were muted, running from one into the other and forming waves of communication that were not quite words, not quite pictures, but a combination of the two that mimicked the way random thoughts often floated through her head. Everything you need is within the water. You were born of the water, and someday you will return to the water. It carries life, its beginnings and its endings. Our touch makes you like us -- everything you need can pass through your skin, directly into your blood. As long as you are with us, you are one of us.

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She could see the currents around her, somehow, though they were truly only a part of the flow of water constantly moving over her. Somehow, too, she could see the movement of her own blood, lymph, all the liquids within her body. Her skin was open to everything the water gave, absorbing it and transmitting it throughout her systems. “When we eat, we eat like humans.” This was Chris’s voice, adding explanations as if he could hear the doubts and questions moving through her mind even without her forming them explicitly to project to him. “We come to the surface and replenish the things we can’t get while we’re here. As we grow older, though, this becomes less necessary. We become more and more of the water.” Mara let herself lay back in the gentle support of the water and the arms of the men who held her. “Will there be a time when you can’t come to the shore anymore? When you’re so much a part of the sea that the land won’t have you?” “There can be.” This was Aaron, his tone soft and thoughtful. “If we choose it. It takes a long time.” She absorbed this as she continued to float with them. They rose again, still slowly, and she tipped her body back and for a time thought perhaps she had drifted off to sleep. When she came back to herself, the water around them had become lighter, the sun casting pale columns down from the surface. She stared up at the surface, where she could see tiny sparks of light glittering down with the sun met the tips of constant waves. “If I stay with you…” The thought rose of its own accord. She paused to let it settle, so she could mull it and decide if it was what she really wanted to ask. “If I stay with you, will I become like you?” There was a long pause. Mara thought at first they might be avoiding the question. Would they even answer if they thought the answer was one she wouldn’t want to hear? But as she relaxed, shedding that question and the anxiety it brought, she gained a sense that they were simply mulling it over.

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“You would change,” Aaron finally said. “It would take a very long time.” The thought rolled around her head for a long time. She felt quieter about it now, though. Much of her worry had leached away into the soft water. She drifted again. The next time she came back to herself, it was to find Chris and Aaron righting her so that her head could break the surface of the waves. The dazzling light blinded her for a few moments; then she blinked and the bright, spotty afterimages floated away. Not far away, she could see the sandy curve of the beach. They swam.

*** When they reached the sand, Mara struggled to make her way up the last few feet to the shore. The draw of gravity on her body made her feel like she weighed at least three hundred pounds. “I feel like a walrus,” she said. The words felt strange in her mouth, like strange invaders after the long stretch of silent communication. The snort of laughter from Chris caught her by surprise. “What?” She rolled over to look at him, pleased to see the open amusement on his face. “Last time…” He paused, as if remembering how to speak. He probably was doing exactly that. “I told Aaron he looked like a walrus.” Aaron chose that moment to flop forward out of the last few inches of water, his body undulating awkwardly forward. Mark couldn’t help but laugh, as well. Aaron only rolled his eyes, then languidly moved to his back, staring up at the sky. Mara moved to a sitting position, the weight dragging at her still a bit too much to easily handle. “How long has it been, do you think?” she ventured. “Not as long as it seems,” Aaron offered. He reached toward her, his hand finding hers. “A day, maybe.” Mara glanced at Chris, who shrugged. “I can never tell.”

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The comments did little to ease her anxiety. Her time with them had been so magical. When you spend time in magical places, didn’t time move differently? She remembered story after story of men lost in fairy lands only to return and find centuries had passed, all their loved ones dead and gone. Her heart tripped into her throat. How far were they from the hotel and the stretch of beach that fronted it? She could see buildings, and the skyline looked familiar… She pushed herself to her feet, almost toppling over as blood rushed away from her head. Aaron came to his knees, also wobbly but steady enough to take her by the arm. “Easy,” he said. His touch, the pressure of his fingers circling her wrist, immediately eased the pounding of her heart. She looked down at him, at the frown creasing his forehead, the soft concern in his dark eyes. “I need to see --” She broke off, unsure for a moment how to explain. The feelings and the need she wanted to get across to him were clear in her mind, but she knew he could no longer read them there. She had to find the words. “I need to see the hotel. I need to know everything is all right. That it’s the same.” Aaron’s frown deepened, and he looked at Chris. Chris seemed less disconcerted by her reaction, but just as concerned. “It’s her first time,” he said, directing the words as much to Mara as to Aaron. “It’s very strange the first time.” “Can we help her?” Aaron sounded a little broken, desperate. “Touch her.” Chris pushed up to his feet then, as well, and matched actions to words by taking Mara’s hand in his. Aaron moved up beside her to take her other hand, then shifted so his arm wound around hers. The contact calmed her, but even with both men touching her, the anxiety continued to tighten the back of her throat.

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As they traversed the sand, moving away from the shore and toward the buildings beyond it, Mara began to feel less displaced. She couldn’t name anything in particular that looked familiar, but she knew she’d been here before. There, ahead of them, she spotted the back corner of her hotel. They continued in silence. Gradually, Mara felt her body return to normal, no longer seeming to be half alien and twice as heavy as it should have been. Chris and Aaron began to walk more smoothly, as well, their bodies making the same kinds of adjustments. The silence was strange. For all the time they’d been together in the water, communication had been little more than a thought away. Now, though the silence was comfortable, it also seemed almost to echo with emptiness. “There,” Aaron said suddenly. As much as she had wanted to hear him speak again, his voice caught her off guard. She jumped a little. His hand tightened comfortingly on her arm. “It’s your hotel. Your room.” She had seen it as they’d approached, but she hadn’t made the right connections to sort out which room was the one she’d been in. Aaron, having seen her at the balcony from the beach, put the pieces together more quickly. She quickened her pace, and the men matched it, closing the distance to the hotel. They made their way to the front door, where Mara greeted the receptionist -- the same one who had checked her in when she arrived. They made their way up the stairs to Mara’s room. Only when they closed the door behind them did she burst into tears.

Chapter Six Aaron drew a teabag out of the Styrofoam cup and compressed it against the side of the cup with a spoon. He added sugar to the steaming tea and carried it over to Mara. Mara lay on the bed, supported with pillows, Chris next to her. Aaron studied her face, trying to interpret her expression. She seemed less anxious, more comfortable. Worried about her reaction, he’d ordered room service as soon as they’d settled back into the room. Protein, Chris had said, and complex carbohydrates. A salad with oil and vinegar. No simple sugars. Aaron followed his instructions. Chris could remember his own first time in the water, and what it had felt like to come back. Aaron could not. Mara let her head fall back against the pillows, her hands flopping loosely to either side on the blankets. Aaron set the steaming cup of tea on the nightstand next to the bed. “Are you feeling any better?” Mara rolled her head toward him. “I feel like I just ate my own weight in food.” She gave the empty plates and soiled silverware a dubious look. “Expensive food.” Chris reached over to brush her hair back from her face. “We shouldn’t have kept you down so long.” Aaron settled onto the edge of the bed next to her. “We’re sorry.” “No,” Mara said. “I had to know. I have to decide.” Something in her voice made the middle of Aaron’s chest grow tight. “Have you?”

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She was quite a moment. Aaron fought to hold his gaze on her face, to not look up at Chris to see how he was reacting. The changes in their communication ability always made him uncomfortable, uncertain. Sometimes he didn’t think he could bear the separation. “I don’t know,” she finally answered. “I just… I don’t know.” Aaron stroked her arm, trying to soothe his own emotions as much as hers. “It’s all right. We understand you need time.” He let his gaze meet Chris’s then, and could see the response in the other man’s eyes as clearly as if he’d spoken it. No, we don’t. But Chris said nothing. “We’ll stay tonight,” Aaron said. Mara nodded.

*** They spent the night curled together on the bed. Aaron wanted nothing more than to pull Mara to him, to feel her skin and the soft touch of her mouth, to taste her mouth, her breasts, the dark places between her legs. But she still seemed fragile, uncertain, so he only held her. On her other side, Chris reached across her, folding his fingers through Aaron’s, and they slept.

*** When she woke, she still felt strange and disoriented, and couldn’t quite remember where she was. The bed seemed to move under her, rising and falling like the movement of water. With her eyes closed, she felt like she hadn’t left the sea. Slowly, though, she lifted heavy lids and stared up at the ceiling. Chris and Aaron lay warm on either side of her, the rasp of their breathing drifting through the room. Chris moved in his sleep, rolling toward her until one arm fell over her waist. For a moment, she thought she might burst into tears, though she didn’t know why. Next to her, Chris opened his eyes. “Mara?” His voice was gentle, and as he spoke her name, he stroked a hand over her belly, soothing.

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She nodded to acknowledge him, but kept her lips pressed tight together, holding back the threatening tears. “Are you okay?” His hand moved softly on her belly, warm and comforting. She nodded again, then shook her head, not sure which answer was right. He moved closer to her, pressing the line of his body against hers. The warmth eased her. On her other side, Aaron began to stir. “What’s wrong?” Chris murmured. Mara shook her head again, but this time she felt hot tears slide down from the corners of her eyes. She hadn’t wanted them to fall. She didn’t want Chris to come to conclusions about her emotions when she wasn’t sure she understood them herself. “Mara?” Aaron had finally awakened enough to realize what was happening. His hand joined Chris’s on her belly, and they stroked her in quiet circles. Suddenly she felt like she was a puppy, being carefully gentled and soothed. The thought made her laugh, but the sound came out strangled, as if she were choking. “Talk to me,” Aaron said. Mara was afraid to try to speak, afraid nothing would come out but pointless weeping. But she parted her lips, and words emerged, though she hadn’t given much thought to what she would say. “I think… I think I’m afraid.” “Of what?” Chris’s hand kept tangling with Aaron’s; he repositioned it, stroking her breasts instead of her belly. She was certain he meant the touch to be soothing, but unmistakable arousal poured through her at the movement of his hand. Maybe it was for the best. Let desire burn away her sudden doubts. “What are you afraid of?” Chris murmured. The tone was inquisitive, with no judgment in it. “I’m not even sure.” She laughed again, and it sounded more natural this time. “Nothing. Everything.” “It’s all right,” Aaron said. “It really is.” “We love you, if that helps,” said Chris, and Aaron answered the comment with, “Yes, we do.”

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She blinked again. This time the tears had nothing to do with fear. “It does. Thank you.” Did she love them? She hadn’t given it much thought, focusing more on the need, because it had overwhelmed her. But was that love? Was it something she could change her whole life for? Before she could do much more than consider the question, Chris’s mouth closed on hers. Against the back of her ear, Aaron said, “Don’t say anything. Don’t think. Just feel.” It occurred to her then that she didn’t really have to answer them. They hadn’t had to tell her what they felt, either. Their communication bond, when they been under the water, had been such that she’d known what they felt. Their love had formed an undercurrent running beneath every thought, every non-spoken endearment. They would have felt it from her, too, because she was certain that was what lay in her heart. She lay back between them, relaxing, as if they were once again in the water. Chris’s mouth explored hers, hot and needy, his tongue questing and dancing with hers. Aaron lowered himself next to her, then over her, his mouth descending between her legs. Just the anticipation sent her body spinning, and almost before his tongue pressed against her, she broke apart, the orgasm taking her so fast it was like he’d set a match to her. He chuckled, and she smacked his head playfully. In response, he dove deeper, still chuckling, the vibrations of his laughter sending soft threads of sensation through her. She gasped. If he breathed on her right, she thought, she would climax again. Chris’s mouth drifted down, sucking and laving her nipples, his tongue stroking over her belly. Her skin trembled under the touch, still quaking in aftershocks of orgasm. She groped outward, reaching for Chris, finding him. She could reach his head, his face, his shoulders. But neither man was in a position where she could pleasure him. “Just relax,” Chris murmured against her skin. “Let us love you.”

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But I want to love you back. She didn’t say it aloud. Part of her was still convinced they could hear her without her having to speak aloud. Still another part of her was ready, willing, and even relieved to just lie back and let them do what they would. And that was what they wanted, so she did that. Chris stroked and caressed her, his square hands finding every inch of her skin. Aaron’s tongue invaded her, thrusting purposefully in and out, drawing wet and heat and pleasure with every determined stroke. She let herself float in it. Finally, she floated in a haze of lust and residual weariness that felt like it toyed with the edges of dreams. Nothing seemed real anymore, not even her body. At least four times, her body had rippled through orgasm or something close to it. The men had taken her to every precipice, had sometimes drawn her back, had sometimes let her fall, only to catch and cradle her as she broke apart. She opened her eyes drowsily to see Aaron rising over her. His gaze locked to hers, he opened her thighs with his big hands and entered her, sliding to the hilt in a single, effortless movement. She clenched again, surprising herself; she’d been nearly certain all the muscles in her body had reached the point of irredeemable fatigue a long time ago. But she clenched, and he thrust, and as she felt her body straining toward yet another climax, she saw Chris move behind Aaron. He didn’t take Aaron, though. Instead, he leaned over the other man’s back, his arm at an odd angle. Aaron gave a low grunt, and Mara realized Chris had breached him with his fingers. They rocked together like that for a time, Mara clasping Aaron’s body with her thighs, his hips keeping a steady rhythm, until he gasped out a choked sound and emptied into her. He held himself there for a moment, unmoving, and then he and Chris traded positions. God. Mara wasn’t sure how much more she could take. But as Chris entered her, her body responded, her inner walls clamping him tight, her thighs tightening against

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his hips. He leaned forward to kiss her, his tongue stroking the inside of her mouth as his cock stroked inside her body. Aaron echoed Chris’s earlier movement, and Mara felt his long fingers brushing her from time to time as Chris thrust deeper. When Chris’s climax finally came, Mara’s body thrummed along with it, then finally succumbed to the call of the sweetest exhaustion she had ever known.

*** When she woke the next time, Mara felt a bit shaky still, even after the time in the arms of her men. Or perhaps because of it -- it might not have been the best idea to indulge without replenishing her energy. They walked a short distance down the beach to a restaurant the receptionist at the hotel had recommended. There she devoured cinnamon crepes and fresh fruit dusted with brown sugar and some of the best, richest coffee she had ever tasted. Chris and Aaron followed her lead. She still wondered if they even actually needed to eat, or if they’d only joined her so she’d be less selfconscious. She watched as they sat on the outdoor porch and finished their coffee, the blond head and the darker one bent over the steaming cups. She thought about everything she had at home, her tidy apartment, her job. The boss who had made it clear she would no longer have a job if she ever pulled a stunt like this again. Her ex, who was no longer even a part of her life, but his memory floated up from time to time to make her question her choices, make her feel like less than she knew she was. Cor, her best friend. Her family, who would wonder where her mind had gone if Mara suddenly uprooted everything and came to Cancun permanently. She was mulling all these things when Chris looked at her and smiled, and the blue of his eyes was the most brilliantly beautiful thing she’d ever seen in her life. She took another sip of her coffee and smiled at him. “I have to go home,” she said, and felt Aaron tense next to her, waiting for her to lower the boom. “But I’ll be back.”

***

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It took time, but not as much as she’d feared it might. The accelerated timeline was at least partially due to Cor. “Perfect!” She almost screamed it into Mara’s ear when Mara called her from the airport with the news. “I’ll get things started.” She hung up before Mara could ask what exactly she was going to get started, but she found out soon enough. By the time she got home from the airport, Cor was already in her apartment, packing things. “If you were anyone but my best friend,” Mara said, staring at the boxes scattered across her living room, “I would be calling the police right now.” Cor just grinned and hugged her. Other elements didn’t go as smoothly, but in the end it seemed like most things just fell into place. Like it was meant to be. By the time she stood again in a jetway, shuffling her way into the plane with a hundred other passengers, she was certain it was.

*** People who live underwater generally don’t have cell phones. It seemed obvious, now that she thought about it, but it didn’t make things any easier when she was making her way from the airport to the hotel, her fingers itching to call a number that didn’t exist. What if it had all been a dream? What if she’d left everything -- her friends, her apartment, her job -- for something that had never really happened in the first place? What would she do then? She would deal. She planned to get a job here anyway, and a place to live when she wasn’t with Chris and Aaron in their more natural element. She planned to see how things progressed, letting her assimilation into the environment of the water proceed at whatever pace she decided was comfortable. She checked in at the hotel. The receptionist recognized her, but didn’t ask any questions. Upstairs, she left her luggage on the bed, not even bothering to unpack before she headed down to the beach.

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She wasn’t alone there. Tourists, mothers, fathers, children, all played in the surf, washed in the golden light of the Mexican sun, touched by the cool surges of the surf. And a tall man with blond hair, and a taller one with black hair, playing tag with the tide, laughing. She ran to them.

Faith Talbot Faith Talbot has been a body double, a prima ballerina, and a forklift driver. In her spare time, she likes to knit and play the zither. She has been to the Pacific Ocean, where she once held off a tiger shark with a sharpened snorkel. You can contact her at [email protected], or visit her website at faithtalbot.com.