Page 33 of Hooked by a Hero (Tales from the Brotherhood #4)

Seventeen

A fter everything Elias had endured to reach the place where he was now, after storms and betrayal, having the courage to leave a life that would have been perfectly comfortable to seek his fortune elsewhere, and after having given medical assistance and material aid to so many people, to have the survivors who he’d given his all to turn on him as they did was the hardest to bear of the lot.

“Do not let the vile opinions of ungrateful people dampen your spirits, Elias,” Caspian charged him, tightening his grip on Elias’s hand as they reached the end of the path and walked out onto the beach, near where the signal fire still burned, though the sun was setting to the point where no one on a passing ship would see the column of smoke.

“They are small-minded, ignorant people with exceptionally limited views of the world.”

Elias stopped near the signal fire, since it was the warmest place to be in the dwindling twilight. Miss Winters and Emily had returned to the encampment amidst the excitement of their return, so they had the place to themselves.

“I should have known that they would betray me the moment the veil was lifted from their eyes and the truth they’ve been staring at all this time was pointed out to them,” he sighed.

He glanced from the signal fire to the, admittedly, beautiful sunset that was just finishing on the horizon to Caspian, meeting his eyes.

“I thought they were my friends,” he admitted, vulnerability making him feel raw.

Caspian let out a breath in a small sound that carried so much in it, sympathy, shared disappointment, and love. He let go of Elias’s hand and cradled the side of his face, brushing his cheek with his thumb, before leaning in for a kiss.

As disheartened as Elias was, that kiss instilled new life within him.

It was passionate, yes, but it was so much more.

He slipped his arms around Caspian, holding him tightly as he explored his mouth tenderly.

All this time, Caspian had been his rock.

His lover was a beacon of cheerfulness in an otherwise difficult world.

He was an impossibility and a paradox, but he had remained by Elias’s side through thick and thin, when he could have simply disappeared and returned to the mystical life he’d lived before, washing his hands of silly humans and their archaic ways.

That thought bolstered Elias, but it also made him pull back slightly so that he could study Caspian’s beautiful face with one eyebrow raised. “How old are you?” he asked, heart suddenly beating faster as he waited for the answer.

Caspian tilted his head back and laughed. “I am not certain that you want to know,” he answered.

Something shivery and uncomfortable, but not entirely bad, filled Elias’s gut. “You are ancient, aren’t you,” he said, not even needing to ask it as a question. “You’re as old as the myths of mermaids that have existed since ancient times.”

“No, no,” Caspian laughed, breaking away from Elias and moving toward the lean-to that had been built some days before to shield the ladies who tended the fire from the worst of the midday sun.

They still had their packs with them, and they shrugged them off as they shifted to sit on the blanket-covered pallet under the sloping roof of woven palm leaves.

“I’m still quite young for my kind.” He paused, his lips quivering and his eyes dancing as if he were attempting to keep his laughter in check, then answered, “I’m not even five hundred yet. ”

“Five hundred!” Elias exclaimed, feeling very much as if someone suddenly hollowed out the sand under him and that he was in danger of falling through the center of the Earth. “You are five hundred years old?”

“No!” Caspian let his laughter go. “I said I am not yet five hundred.” He paused again, smile growing, then mumbled, “I’m only four hundred and ninety-seven.”

Elias gaped at him. He hardly believed what Caspian told him, but then again, he was having a difficult time believing everything that had transpired from the moment he’d fled Lady Eudora on the dock until that very moment.

“I do not even know what to begin to think of any of this,” he said, meeting Caspian’s buoyant spirits with mock seriousness. He did feel very serious indeed, but it was nearly impossible to remain grave with Caspian’s joy and vivacity so close to him.

“Do not think at all,” Caspian advised him, a sparkle in his eyes as he leaned closer to Elias, resting a hand on the pallet just behind him and placing his other hand on Elias’s thigh.

“Thinking will only make you old before your time, which will be many, many years from now, as long as we remain together. For now, I believe this is the first time we have been alone with no mission to carry out, no expectation that we return to the others, and with a complete understanding of who we each are and what we mean to each other.”

The shifting and unsettled feelings within Elias coalesced into a tight pulse of expectant pleasure that quickly filled him, settling expansively in his groin. “We are alone once again,” he said, raising a hand to cup Caspian’s cheek, then leaning in to kiss him.

It was likely madness to engage in the very thing that he had just been accused of and banished for, although, in fact, he had banished himself.

In that moment, with the heat of Caspian’s body against his in the cooling air, the salt scent of Caspian’s skin tickling his nose, and the rich taste of him in his mouth, Elias did not care one bit what the others thought of him.

They were not in England. No policeman would leap out of the undergrowth to arrest him and Caspian and drag them off to the gallows.

The other survivors might not approve of his and Caspian’s love, but they would not dare to actively punish them for something so sweet.

“I want you,” Elias murmured against Caspian’s lips. “We have waited too long, had too many opportunities stolen.”

“We have,” Caspian agreed, smiling against Elias’s lips and tugging at his shirt so that he could slide his hand across his skin.

“Come what may, as mad as the world has become around us, all I want is to be one with you, to be happy together.”

“That is everything I want as well,” Caspian said, inching closer.

“And besides which,” Elias went on, lightening his tone, “you did say that merpeople mate on land.”

Caspian let his beautiful laughter peal through the evening air.

Elias understood now why his lover’s laughter had always reminded him of the surf dancing against the shore.

He loved the sound. It made him feel as if he, too, could dive under the water and swim away to an entirely different life filled with love and acceptance.

“How do we?—”

“Hello?”

Elias nearly groaned aloud as his question about how they should proceed and which of them should take which role was interrupted, yet again, by Ruby’s careful call from where the path met the beach.

They were not very well concealed and it was entirely likely she had seen them and therefore called out instead of simply walking up to them.

“We are doomed,” Caspian said in a playfully grim voice.

It was ridiculous, but Elias could not help but laugh, giggle, even, as he and Caspian pulled away from each other and stood to greet their guest. Elias was concerned about the tented state of his trousers, but he ignored it and prayed Ruby would as well.

“I am terribly sorry to interrupt,” Ruby said walking awkwardly toward them, a bucket of water in her arms. “I thought I would bring you some water, as I was not certain you had any.”

She brought the bucket closer to the signal fire, setting it down on one of the flat stones that had been brought to the area to serve as a tiny table.

When she straightened, she watched Elias and Caspian for a moment, wringing her hands and brushing them along the sides of her trousers.

Unlike the other ladies, when presented with her trunk filled with dresses, Ruby had chosen to remain in trousers.

“Thank you,” Caspian said, nodding to the bucket with his usual easy smile and friendly manner. “The water is much appreciated.”

Most of Elias wanted to thank Ruby as well, but that tiny part of him that resented the betrayal he and Caspian had just been pushed through held him back.

Perhaps Ruby sensed his resentment. She turned a pleading look to him, then blurted, “Many of us think what just happened to you is abominable. The two of you are a part of us, an integral part of us. You are heroes, and without you, none of us would have been saved. As we speak, the others are arguing passionately about the matter.”

Elias let out a breath, his body releasing his tension. “Thank you for saying as much,” he said. “It truly means a great deal.”

“I should expect Nathaniel will set the others straight and invite you back into the settlement tomorrow,” Ruby went on.

“He recognizes what some of the others do not, that it is that horrible man, Dick, who has sown discontent among us. For what purpose, I do not dare guess. The man has been a constant annoyance since arriving in our midst.”

Ruby spoke quickly and nervously, as though she felt herself guilty of too many things, but her words gave Elias pause.

“Dick has been causing trouble?” he asked.

Ruby made a disgusted noise and said, “He has not been quiet for more than two minutes since being shackled and secured to a rather large, heavy barrel. He does nothing but shout or sing sea shanties so loudly that none of us can have a moment’s peace.”

“The man is a menace,” Elias sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “He loves the sound of his own voice.”

“Or perhaps he wishes someone else to hear it,” Caspian said quietly, arms crossed, and frowning at the sand in front of him.

Prickles broke out down Elias’s back. “You do not believe he was a lone survivor of the wreck?” he asked.

“Were there others with him?” Ruby asked, suddenly alarmed.