Page 73 of The Rake OR The Orca Who Met His Match in a Selkie Desiring Revenge

Elspeth’s next words were quiet. “And me? Would I be welcome in Sanctuary?”

His chest swelled, pride filling him up until he thought he might burst. He turned her toward him, so that he could look into her eyes. “You will be absolutely welcome in Sanctuary, and on my boat, and in my bed, and in my heart. Though you already have taken up residence in the last one.”

Elspeth bit her lip and leaned into him. "Have I?"

Smiling and blushing, she was everything he'd never known he wanted, everything he'd never allowed himself to want.

"Of course you have. You consume my every thought, suffuse the air I breathe. Do you want more? I am not sure what else I have to give but if you need more, I will find it."

Elspeth spun in his arms, looking up at him through her lashes. "Could Jokith take over for a while?"

Gods, he had no idea what her plan was, but with that mischievous smirk on her face? Surely Jokith had done something to secure the hellion he’d liberated from the Empire by now. If Jokith found it in him to tear himself away from staring at the confounded dryad. If he hadn’t, the boat could drift for all he cared. He'd let the boat go straight into the fucking rocks to follow her. "Jokith, to the helm!"

Swaying her plump hips, Elspeth sashayed from the bridge and toward the stern of the boat. When they arrived, she peeled away the layers of her clothing. "Fancy a swim?"

"Always," he rasped out. His breaths already came rapidly out of him, the tension of his desire coiling around until it held him fast. He shed his clothes, unable to remove his eyes from Elspeth as she revealed more of her supple skin to him. With a flourish, she wrapped her pelt around her shoulders like a cloak. With her hair blowing in the wind and the light of freedom in her eyes, she was a wild ocean goddess. She raised her eyebrows and dove into the ocean. Though it was well practiced, hisown shift was not quite so quick or effortless and it took him a moment to focus enough to trigger it. Hopefully this wore off at some point, because surely being this distracted around her all the time would get him killed. As soon as he felt his lunula go to work, he was diving after her, splashing into the dark sea below.

In seconds, he was engulfed, the dark waves roiled above him, but below he focused on the smaller eddies Elspeth would have created. Casting about his senses, he searched for her. After hunting for nearly a minute, he noted a small current leading away toward the shore.

Got you.

Her scent followed the eddy, and as the night inevitably followed day, so was he compelled to follow her. Confident in his course, he pumped his massive tail and plunged through the water after her.

Now that he better knew the shape of their bond, he could feel the edges and limitations of it. He could feel it, a faint connection, a single point that he could follow to her. But more importantly, it didn’t have anything to do with how he felt about her. He was bound, not bewitched. His feelings for her, though, were a raging inferno that he was shocked didn’t incinerate him where he stood, a molten heat that permeated his very being. And it wasa wonder that he didn’t evaporate the ocean around him.

Following the scent of her, that tantalizing tug that drew him inexorably toward her, he raced through the dark water. His very blood thrilled at the sight of her, as her tail appeared through the dark nothingness of the sea. Now that he knew her, he could see that her movements weren’t erratic, they were simply too aware. This wasn’t a seal that knew the movements of an orca at an instinctual level only. These were the calculated movements of the centuries of selkies passed down. This was the collective knowledge of how orcas hunted, and practiced techniques to evade those hunting tactics. Now that he saw how she moved, it was a wonder he had ever thought her unwell. In the correct context, her movements were so clear, so calculated, so obviously meant to subvert expectation.

She looked behind her, spotting him, and the game began in earnest. They sliced through the currents, and in a dance as old as time immemorial, and as new and seductive as fresh as the first glints of sun after a storm. Back and forth, she led him, testing the very limits of his skill. Every stroke of her tail showed how strong and worthy she was,and every tilt and adjustment made him remember how lucky he was to have ever caught her.

And yet, she was better now. Her turns were more precise, her calculations more measured. Instead of panic, excitement colored her movements, and joy suffused her choices.

She led him on a merry chase, narrowly evading capture several times until they approached the shallows near a beach. So close, Elspeth shifted partially, switching to her more humanoid top half. He followed suit, an action that shrank him considerably, though he was still nearly twice her length. Elspeth pulled herself from the water as the faint rays of predawn lightened the sky. Her hair clung to her, running rivulets of seawater down her breasts. Every fiber in his being compelled him to lick them from her skin, from the faintly sueded texture she bore in this form.

Those big, deep eyes beckoned him, pulling him, unerringly toward her, toward his destiny. For she wasn’t a detour, she was the destination. The Pathians had it all wrong, which was no surprise, she was the direction in the destination, the path and its terminus.

She pulled herself from the water, laying on her side on the sand, and Aegir settled himself next to her. His eyes traced the shapesof her body, focusing on small details that fascinated him as never before. Her ears, he noted, were folded in slightly different places, and her whiskers were not white as he had once thought, but clear. Her long brown hair held shades of gray and auburn, and then an umber so deep as it might just be an inky black. He could look at her for years, and still find details to fascinate him.

He had never once, he realized, in all of their time together, squirreled away a sample of her DNA, or analyzed it as he did with his usual conquests. Further, he found that he had no desire to do so. Why would he obliterate the mysteries of her? Why would he deny himself the pleasure, the adventure, of discovering them organically?

When she licked her lip, that small, pink tongue, darting out to taste the traces of the briny sea. He couldn’t decide if he was more jealous of her lip or her tongue, for each had usurped his place.

“You didn’t bite me this time,” she said.

“I didn’t catch you this time.”

“Haven’t you?” Elspeth quirked an eyebrow. “I feel well and truly caught.”

Aegir smiled and tilted his head. “I think you’ll find that it’s you who hascaught me.”

“In that case, I suppose I must decide what to do with you.” She tapped her chin, as if thinking. “I haven’t need of a beast of burden, nor of a spy, in particular, but…”

Her pulse stood out against her neck, its rapid quivering drawing his eyes like a magnet.

“But?”

“But it seems Iamin need of a partner” she blushed, as if somehow adorably shocked at her own words.

“I don’t think you are,” he said.