Page 8 of Fae Tithe (The Cursed Courts #1)

They burst to the surface and Helena fed her starving lungs with a gulp of air.

Panting as her heart rate lowered, she settled into his embrace.

The Merman nuzzled into her, stealing kiss after kiss, not letting her get one word out.

Helena cradled his face as leisurely flicks of his magnificent tail eventually brought them onto the shore.

She shifted herself and landed right on top of the Merman, right where skin became scale.

Helena’s knees dug into the sand and her bronzed thighs gripped either side of his upper tail.

“Lance!” she exclaimed breathlessly. Helena ripped off her goggles and fins, tossing them aside. Tears pricked her eyes as she leant forward and cupped his cheek. “I was so worried about you.”

The Merman turned his face, fangs grazing her palm, as he gave her hand a gentle kiss. She knew the shift could take time and that he could not form Seeliespeak until he was mostly in his human form.

Helena did not want to wait. She looked left and right, confirming their solitude on the beach. She leant forward and kissed his lips. Then, as she sat back, she ran her nails over his solid chest, tracing her fingertips along his tattooed blue swirls.

Helena lifted her hands from his skin. “Yes?” she signed, wanting to confirm that he was willing to continue like this.

Lance’s eyes widened and his face split into a cocky fang-filled grin. The Merman brought his hands together and signed, using the language they created specifically so they could communicate when they were underwater and when he was in his Mer shape. “Yes.”

He reached with clawed fingers into her brown waves, gripping the back of her head and pushing her to his lips.

He surged his way into Helena’s mouth. Lance nipped her exploring tongue and rose-coloured lips.

His strong, webbed hands teased his claws down her spine, working their way to her broad hips.

Lance squeezed them and palmed her ample ass.

She sat back up, waves lapping her knees in the ankle-deep water, as the Merman tugged at the swimming clothes she wore on her lower half.

He gave a frustrated grunt as they did not budge.

He hooked a claw each side of it, easily slicing through material.

He pulled it loose and tossed it aside, a smirk of satisfaction on his full lips met her eyes.

Helena’s arousal grew, bared and flush against his tail.

Her wetness seeped onto his teal scales.

Lance’s hand travelled back up her body, tracing the abundant freckles on her chest. Helena shuddered beneath his caress, spurts of pleasure spiralling from each touch.

He reached around and sliced the tied cotton at the back of Helena’s neck.

The material fell away, revealing Helena’s large breasts tipped with dusky pink nipples.

He arched his tail upwards, tossing her towards him again.

The tips of his fins draped coolly on her spine, sending tingles all the way down to her toes.

Helena caught herself on his chest and Lance reached up to grab her breasts.

He circled one, eventually rolling a pebbled nipple between his fingers.

He left feverish kisses down Helena’s neck, a moan escaping her lips, eventually taking the other nipple into his mouth, fangs scraping and tongue lashing.

Helena gasped and ground against him, getting impatient. She groaned as his webbed hand tickled circles down her stomach, his claws tracing her lightning-shaped stretch marks.

Lance reached down past the hair between her thighs and found the sensitive spot he was looking for. Careful of his claws, he slowly circled his fingers directly onto her clit. She let out a breathy moan. Her hips matched his movement and spiralled with his hand.

Her first climax was unexpected. Helena came hard and fast, soaking his hand.

Her excitement then triggered something in him she had never seen before.

This was the first time Helena had been this intimate with Lance in his Mer body.

Right beneath where she was straddling him, a long, thick cock erupted from between his scales, right about where it would be in his human shape. The Merman was hard and ready.

She looked down at it and then up his quivering body.

Helena met his eyes, hunger reflecting back at her.

He gave an enthusiastic nod, and she eagerly lowered herself onto him.

Lance’s girth stung a little as it entered her.

Helena gave a pleasured hiss as she adjusted herself to his cock.

She waited a while, relishing in the feeling of fullness he gave her.

The Merman gasped, finally sounding human. “Len.” He looked down at where they were joined, his melodious voice lilting as he moaned her name. “Len…” His abyssal, black eyes widened. “Please…”

Helena gave a languid grin. “Say please again.”

He gripped her ass and squeezed, slowly pushing her down to start the rhythm. “Please,” his deep voice begged.

Helena responded by lowering herself the rest of the way down, the complete length filling her in a way she never had been before. She ground back and forth, finding a furious rhythm as Lance arched his tail, hitting her deeper and deeper.

It had been too long for the Merman since he had felt her, been inside her.

Helena gripped him, hot and tight as she rocked on top of him.

He tried desperately not to come too quickly, determined to make their reunion last a little longer.

From the moment Helena had captured Lance’s cock inside of her, he had been teetering on the precipice of oblivion.

“Len...” he moaned, “slow down…” Lance’s gaze dragged away from Helena rocking back and forth on him and met her face.

Her eyes bore into him, as though she could never stop looking at his face again.

“This is too much. If you keep going like this, I am going to come already.” His human hands squeezed her hips, digging in his nails.

“I want you to come,” Helena gasped. “I want to feel it.” She leant forward and bit his salted lips with a near-feral kiss.

“Only after another from you,” the Merman bit back, pointed teeth scraping her chin.

Lance circled his thumb on Helena’s clit, the extra friction immediately triggering her second climax. He continued as the second blended into a third. Helena gave a breathy moan as she continued to rock back and forth on him.

“Good girl,” Lance encouraged as he continued to round his thumb on her clit.

The Merman arched his tail and thrusted deep, over and over.

Helena’s climax fed his. He came hard, stars in his vision, as he spilt himself inside of her.

She gasped, collapsing onto his chest. Together they panted and heaved in union, sweat peppering their bodies as they took their time to recover.

Lance brushed the hair from Helena’s freckled forehead. He bent his knees and his soaked cock slipped out of her.

He had finally completed his transformation. He looked almost indistinguishable from a human, except for his solid black eyes and fangs – though now reduced to smaller, pointed teeth. Those features always remained.

The Merman scooped his woman into his arms and cradled her in his lap. Lance’s hard thighs pressed into her ass as he placed a kiss on the top of her deep brown hair. He felt Helena’s fingertips circle the scar on his belly, as wide as his fist. It was the wound that had brought them together.

Lance could remember little more than flashes of the first week or so after he first washed up on this very shore.

He knew he had been speared by a harpoon from a Fae whaling ship, one he had destroyed for slaughtering Seafolk.

The lance must have been magically enhanced.

The weapon had caused a grievous wound that he was unable to heal with his powers.

Losing blood and consciousness, Lance had washed up on Helena’s beach.

“Tides-damn… what a welcome.” He chuckled, his laugh musical. “I missed you too, Len.” Lance twirled the end of her long hair with his fingers, the tips bleached by the salt of the sea.

Helena looked up through her lashes at him and smiled.

The grin was so wide that the finest lines appeared at the edges of her eyes and crinkled upwards.

She nuzzled into his neck, breathing softly there.

“Fuck, Lance…” She swallowed. “I thought… I don’t even know…

that you left me, or that something awful had happened to you. ”

He chuckled at her somewhat morbid nickname for him. I get stuck with a lance, so she calls me Lance.

He knew that Helena couldn’t speak Mer. He did not know any Landfolk that could.

Learning to pronounce his real name would be quite difficult, and he preferred Lance any way, loving the way she rolled the name on her tongue.

The Merman cupped Helena’s freckled chin.

His eyes felt prickly but, as usual, no tears fell.

He tilted her head up so their eyes met.

“ Never. I am not going anywhere, ” he promised.

“You are stuck with me, Len. But my work with the court has been… demanding. There was the census, making sure all the Seafolk were accounted for. Then the storms meant that some of the Seafolk clans had to shift early from the capital, sending us further away to complete the count.” He ran his calloused thumb over her sandy, bronzed cheek. “I am so sorry for making you worry.”

“Faedammit, Lance! I know you have your work, I know, I just…”

“It’s alright,” he reassured. “I will always come back to you. Always.” He pressed his forehead to her temple and breathed in her scent of rosemary and salt, leaving a delicious taste on his tongue.

Helena beamed his favourite eye-crinkling smile back at him. “I know you will.”

Relief flooded Lance. He had been nervous about returning after a long absence, thinking perhaps Helena would have moved on, or would turn him away.

I’m a tide-damn idiot. How could I have doubted her?

He let out a long sigh of relief. This is all I want after all: her, the family, this life, and a pup together one day.

I just wish we could be together all the time.

“A Sel for your thoughts?” Helena asked, resting her temple on his shoulder.

Lance blinked, confused for a moment. He was sure he had heard that saying before. Seafolk, however, did not have formal currency like the Landfolk in Seelieland. Instead, they depending on bartering and trading amongst the different groups. The colloquialism did not make sense to his ears.

“You’ll have to help me out here, Len. What do you mean?” he asked with a tilt of his head.

She giggled. “I was asking what you were thinking.”

“Oh!” The Merman flushed, a little embarrassed that he could not remember.

“Well, about you, of course. How this…” He squeezed her in his arms, making her chuckle again.

“…was all I ever wanted, and how I wish it could be like this all the time. That despite coming from different places and having our own roles and responsibilities, we get to have these moments together. I treasure them more than anything.”

“I feel the same,” she sighed. Helena pressed a soft kiss to the spot where his neck met his shoulder, sending a ripple of pleasure through him. “Lance?” She gestured her head to the stairs carved into the cliff side. “Shall we go home?”

Lance touched the raised, puckered scar on his belly.

His injury had been healed by Helena with nothing but common sense, time, and good wound care six years ago.

She had saved Lance, and he had adored her since the moment he first laid eyes on her.

The Merman had known the instant that their eyes met that she would be his and he would be hers.

“A little while longer. Just us, like this.” He closed his eyes and slowly exhaled. “Then, after that, I would love nothing more.”