Each Step Like Knives (9 page)

He looked down at his naked skin. His hands asked,
"Don't you like me this way?"

She did like him that way. Too much. "I don't think
my neighbors would appreciate it."

He made a fluttering motion with his hands and a
short, low sound in his throat. He was laughing. The sound made her
giggle, too. Something about being with him made her feel like
laughing a lot.

She pulled a pair of sweatpants and an oversized
T-shirt from her drawer and tossed them at him. She'd have to take
him to the store soon. She was running out of things that fit
him.

The thought sobered her. Was she actually thinking
this could last more than a few days? How long did he plan on
staying? What if...what if he couldn't go back?

"Johnny, do you want to go back where you came
from?" There. She'd said it out loud.

Johnny furrowed his brow then slowly shook his head.
His hands moved, so elegant, so fluid. Like he painted pictures in
the air. If only I was better at figuring them out, Helena thought
in frustration.

"Never mind. Let's just walk."

They explored her little piece of Chincoteague,
which wasn't much. Her house was in a part of the island rarely
bothered by the tourists who overran the place every year in search
of sun, surf and the famous wild ponies. She'd have to take Johnny
to see them...Helena stopped herself. How on earth would she take
him anywhere, looking the way he did?

He'd reached down to link his fingers through hers
while they walked. Every once in a while, he'd point to a bird, or
a plant, and she'd tell him what it was called. They waved to her
few neighbors, who, if they found him at all unusual, didn't
comment.

By the time they got back to her house, sweat had
broken out on his brow, and his fingers had begun to clench down on
hers hard enough to hurt. "Johnny, are you okay?"

He nodded then sat on the edge of her deck. He bent
and rubbed at his feet and legs. Helena could see nothing wrong
with them, but his lips skinned back from his teeth in a grimace of
torment when she touched his feet.

"What's wrong?"

He wiped at his face. She could tell the difference
now between his usual mode of talking and the simpler, cruder
gestures he used when he couldn't get her to understand. "My feet
cause me pain."

"Why? What's wrong with them?"

He smiled sadly, but seemed unable to answer. Helena
sat next to him and took his hand. They sat like that, in silence,
until he leaned in to kiss her.

"I'm sorry you hurt," she told him, and meant it.
"Let me take you inside and we'll go to bed."

A
horrible, jangling sound ripped through the room. Jeenai bolted
upright, confused. His arms flailed.
Where am I?

The sound came again. Helena mumbled from beside him
and rolled over to face the small table next to the soft place she
called a bed. She lifted the shiny black object from its place
there and the noise stopped.

"Hello?" She scrubbed at her face. Her voice changed
instantly. It became harsh, like sand in a wound. "Don't call here
any more, Howard."

Howard? That sounded like a human name. Jeenai
listened closely.

"No, I haven't listened to my machine because I
don't give a flying fuck what you want to say to me any more. Don't
call here again!" Helena scooted up against the headboard.

Her naked breasts were temptingly close to his
mouth, so Jeenai took one pink nipple between his lips. She gasped.
Her hand flew to his head, but she didn't push him away.

"Of course I'm alone," she said into the black
object in her hand. "Don't be more of an ass than you already
are."

Jeenai slid lower on her body to press his nose into
the sweet fragrance of her center. Her thighs parted as his tongue
stabbed toward her pearl. She wiggled.

"I'm only go to say this--" She gasped again as he
managed to slip a finger inside her slick passage. "One more time!
Don't call me again!"

She slammed the object down and pushed at Jeenai's
shoulder until he sat up. "That wasn't very nice."

He lifted a brow at her, then, looked to her
nipples, taut and darkening with arousal. Helena put her hands
across them. He touched her gently between her legs and she clamped
her thighs shut.

"You shouldn't do that when I'm on the phone."

'On the phone' must mean speaking into that black
box. The Carrageenai could send messages great distances under
water by using carefully coded sounds their aquatic relatives had
taught them. This phone must be a similar device, set up to
communicate through the air.

"Who were you talking to?"

Helena looked over at the phone. "Not that you know
what I'm talking about, but that was Howard. My ex-fiancé. The
bastard."

He gave the most common infant-hands symbol to
indicate a question. Young Carrageenai spent most of their time
asking "what," "how," and "why." Helena seemed to understand what
he meant right away, either because of the gesture's obvious
simplicity or because she was growing to understand him more
easily.

"You want to know what a fiancé is?"

"Yes, Helena." The name burbled from his lips. It
didn't sound much like how she pronounced it, but he was pleased to
see her smile.

"Do your people marry? Um...mate?"

"Yes, we mate. But not like humans do. We do not
form pairs. Our family units are matriarchal. Children are raised
by their mothers. Fems choose with whom they wish to create
children."

Helena's eyes had followed the simple movements of
his hands. "You don't marry?"

"No."

"I was going marry Howard. We had made plans to
spend the rest of our lives together. Bonded. One to one. That's
what marriage means. What it's supposed to mean, anyway. I found
out he was unfaithful to me."

He questioned the meaning of the word.

"When two people agree to marry, generally it's
determined they'll only make love with each other. It's called
being faithful. I found out Howard was fucking his secretary and
probably ten other women besides. I walked away and haven't looked
back."

"I understand. Carrageenai don't bond one to one,
but I understand about faithlessness. We do have honor and loyalty
to one another. To the fems who bear our children, we have
responsibility."

He wasn't sure he'd managed to get his meaning
across, but Helena nodded anyway. She gazed at him thoughtfully.
"Do you love?"

He reached to stroke her cheek, then the fall of her
hair. "I am not like most of my people. Yes, Helena. I can
love."

She closed her eyes and allowed him to continue the
caress for a moment. "I have no idea about most of what you're
saying. To tell you the truth, I don't want to believe what I think
you're saying. It's too fantastic. You don't even know me,
Johnny."

Her eyes opened and her gaze pierced him. "Am I so
broken and needy that I'm creating an illusion with you? Am I so
desperate to be loved I'm willing to convince myself you're telling
me you love me?"

"No, Helena."

"Can you even understand me?" she mused aloud. "You
can't speak, but you can hear. Do you know my words? Or are you
guessing just as much as I am?"

Jeenai thought he understood more of her language than she could of
his, but there was a universal language they both spoke and
understood. Their minds might balk at complete comprehension, but
their bodies had no problem communicating.

He leaned in to kiss her. "I came from the sea to be
with you. It's not in the nature of my people to mate for life, but
since the first time I saw you, I was unable to stop wanting you.
What is this feeling? Is it love? I don't know, Helena. I only know
I was unhappy being away from you, and I am joyous when I'm by your
side. It must be love."

She responded to the whisper of her name, even if
she didn't notice the elaborate gestures of his hands. "Johnny,
this is like something out of a dream."

"I never dreamed until I came above the surface," he
told her.

Her eyes glimmered when she pulled back to look at
him. "This shouldn't feel right, but it does."

He pulled her until she slid down onto the bed. He
covered her with his body, careful to keep his weight from her with
his arms. This was something else new to him. Weight.

She pushed him until he rolled onto his back and she
followed with her body until she straddled him. Her breasts brushed
his chest as she leaned over to kiss him, and when she straightened
up, he reached for the soft globes. She sighed at his touch.

"Truly, legs allow for many interesting positions
for the fuck."

She laughed as his speaking hands tickled her belly
and sides. She ran her hands down her thighs, then across his
stomach. She traced the slight bumps of his hips, then clasped his
erection, nestled between her thighs.

He leaned up and kissed her again. Her mouth opened
and her tongue stroked his. She lifted herself to slide onto his
cock. Her conch embraced and enfolded him. She threw back her head
as she rode him. Jeenai thrust beneath her. He used his thumb to
press against her pearl.

Helena shuddered on top of him. Her nipples grew
dusky and tight, and he reached for them to pluck and caress them
with one hand while he continued to circle her clit with the
fingers of the other.

Her tunnel clenched down on him. His climax burst
from him, and hers followed the moment after. Her cries mingled
with his, but he sensed she still crested. Again, her body
shuddered and this time, he followed.

His balls tightened with pleasure and he
followed.

She looked down at him, her eyes bright with desire.
Her skin had flushed a darker pink on her chest and throat. She bit
her lip. Her body convulsed again, less dramatically this time. She
sighed loudly and rocked against him one last time. Her inner
muscles bore down on him, and his cock spasmed for the final
time.

Helena sank down against him. Their breathing
mingled, as did the beating of their hearts. Jeenai put his arms
around her. She rolled to the side as his penis softened inside her
and she lay with her head next to his.

"How do you know just what to do?" she asked.
"You've turned me into a greedy sex maniac. I'll never be satisfied
with a regular man again."

Jeenai didn't know what a maniac was, but he was
happy to learn he had so pleased her. "If I have my way, you'll
never have to go to another man again."

She reached for his hand as he brought it down in
the end of his sentence. She caressed the soft, pliant webs between
his fingers, one by one. "I'm amazed at how much you communicate
without saying a word. I guess it would be difficult to talk
underwater."

She rolled over and peered deeply into his eyes.
"You can see in the dark, can't you? You'd have to, all the way at
the bottom of the ocean."

She touched his cheeks, his nose, his mouth. "You
look so much like a man, but you're not. The color of your skin,
your eyes, your fingers. You look like a man, but you're not."

He slid his hand back between her thighs and stroked
her. She sighed and bit her lip, then put her hand down to stop
him.

"You can't possibly be ready to go again." She
looked down at his stiffening penis. "Oh, my God, you are. At least
let me take a shower first. I'm sticky. And you could use one, too,
to be honest." She wrinkled her nose. "We're both rather
fragrant."

To him, she smelled like pure desire. "I love your
scent."

Helena laughed. "You probably don't know what a
shower is, do you?"

She took his hand and pulled him from the bed.
"C'mon, Johnny. Let me show you."

He managed not to hiss when he got to his feet.
Every breath burned in his chest, but he'd gotten used to that. The
agony in his feet with every step, however, seemed to grow worse
with every step. He expected to see a trail of blood behind him
when he walked.

Helena took him into a small, bright room. "This is
the bathroom. There is the tub. Here is the shower. I think you
already know about the toilet."

She twisted a knob on the smaller basin. Water
gushed forth from the silver spout. Jeenai reached for it, then
pulled back. What had the hag said?
Fresh water will do you no
harm, but enter the sea, or let even a drop of the sea water touch
you, and you'll turn back into what you were when you came into
this place.

How was he to know if this water was fresh or
salt?

He bent low to it and sniffed. Fresh. He put his
hands beneath the silver stream and laughed aloud in delight at the
familiar sensation. He splashed his face and chest.

"You like that?" Helena turned off the knob. The
water stopped flowing. "You'll love the tub."

She twisted a similar knob on the side of the big
basin. Water gushed into that. She fit a small plug into a hole in
the basin's bottom and the water began to fill the basin.