Page 27 of The Naiad's Lover

I trod water and looked around me.

Nothing.

Sayan?” I shouted. “Ral?” I propelled myself in a circle, scanning the lake. “Sayan!” Thrashing gracelessly back towards shore, I kept going until I felt the lakebed beneath my feet.

A tiny dark speck popped up on the horizon. I saw a flash of movement and heard a distant call.

“I’m all right!”

It was Ral.

The speck disappeared. For a moment, I thought Sayan had snatched him away again. I realised he hadn’t when I caught the faint sound of splashing water as Ral began to swim back to shore.

And when someone slipped a warm arm around my waist and tugged me against a large, solid body.

I gripped his forearm. “Sayan,” I said chidingly.

“What?” He nosed the side of my neck then scraped sharp teeth up and down the tendon.

“That wasn’t nice.”

“It wasn’tsupposedto be,” he said, sounding irritated. “Helikedit. He was laughing.”

I pulled his arm away and flapped and kicked myself around to face him. His eyes glinted at my graceless movements.

Learning a new skill at my age was very hard on the ego.

The splashing of Ral’s strong, regular strokes grew louder as he came steadily closer.

Sayan vanished again, slipping beneath the waves without a sound. I assumed he’d darted off, until he gripped my hips. I letout an ungodly groan when the heat of his mouth closed around my cock. It was there and gone before I had time to process it.

Ral swam up beside me. “He is so fast,” he said happily. “Erik, you’re going toloveit when he does that to you.”

I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy being snatched out into open water quite the way Ral apparently did, but it was possible. I hadn’t thought I’d enjoy swimming at all, and yet here I was, quite contentedly splashing around.

Ral gave me an approving once over. “You’re doing so well.”

That bruised ego of mine, well beaten down after playing the part of wallowing incompetent in front of an immortal naiad and a robust, athletic youth, perked up. “I am?”

He nodded enthusiastically and sculled back a few feet. “Why don’t you see if you can paddle yourself over here?”

“Or we could call it done for the day and go back to the cabin for lunch?”

“Come on. You’re not even treading water right now. That’s cheating.”

“Fine,” I said, lifting my feet off the bottom and splashing over to him. “But we’ll have to stop soon, and?—”

Ral lunged forwards and shoved me under again.

This time when I broke the surface, I lunged back at him and tackled him down.

We both went under in a tangle of limbs. I got an elbow in my ribs, and my knee glanced off something large and hard. I was almost certain that it was his thigh.

As soon as I touched the bottom, I bent my knees and powered upwards.

I broke the surface at the same time as Ral did. We were both laughing.

Until Sayan snatched Ral again.

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