Ένας (One)

Vibrant eyes watched them.

Unaware, the man and woman sat naked at the ocean’s edge, cool water cleaning the mess they’d made of one another. Face, tits, thighs, ass—sticky cum mixed with sweat and sand everywhere.  

Their voyeur’s attraction to the man was fervent, perhaps inappropriate; his kind might say taboo.  

Curious about the woman, she crept closer to hear their words. 

“This island will feel like a prison to me by the end of two months.”

“A prison?” Anna snorted. “Only you, Julian. Look at this beautiful place—the turquoise water; it sparkles like diamonds when the sun hits it.” She unbraided her auburn locks, which tumbled to the small of her back. “I think islands are like people, each with a unique identity. Can’t you sense its soul woven with the trees, fruits, and wildlife around us? Feel the power of the cliffs? Feel the deep connection to the natural—”

“Stop! Sweetheart, you sound like a travel magazine. And yes, I can see the island is beautiful.” He gazed across the expanse of sparkling diamonds she mentioned, considering his next words. “But you know I don’t do boundaries, and the Atlantic Ocean is a big one here.” 

She played with her hair, loosening the waves from the tight braids while giving him the stink eye. “Why do I put up with you?”

He flashed her the smile that always softened her insides. “You put up with me because I’m good in the sand, based on the last few days.”

“Oh, you!” She flicked wet sand over his legs with her toes. 

He looked down, watching the waves rush in and jiggle his balls. “Have you noticed the abundance of fish and jellies in the shallows and how strong the tide is here?”

“Yeah, it keeps tugging at the sand underneath my ass, threatening to take me with it.” She fluttered her lashes at him. “Would you rescue me if it succeeded?” 

“Of course. Who would handle all the paperwork I hate if you washed out to sea?”

She laughed to cover her hurt. She wanted Julian to say more. He knew it and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, folding her into him.

I’m pretty fond of you, Anna. But if you left, I could live without you. 

They sat in silence for a while. Their breathing started to mimic the waves—inhaling with the whitecaps rushing onto the beach, exhaling when the bubbling froth slowly rolled back to sea. 

The rhythm cleared the worldly noise, leaving Julian and Anna with their innermost thoughts. 

Sometimes, that was a blessing; sometimes, not.

She wondered if she could ever penetrate his guarded heart. He wondered about his father, whom he hadn’t seen in twenty-four years. His last memory: his mother screamed, “If you go, don’t come back!” while Julian, just a boy, begged, “Don’t go!” His father gripped his shoulders and promised he loved him… then left, never to return.

For him, love meant pain. 

Breaking the silence, he said, “I’m anxious to meet the islanders beyond the cliffs.” He twisted his body to survey his surroundings. “There’s something different about this island, yet not in the way that erects the hairs on my neck.” 

She snuggled closer, resting her head against his shoulder. “I wish we had a few more days of this, but they’re coming for us tomorrow.”

“Supposedly, although…”

“Although what?”

“I don’t know—this whole thing. I’m whisked away from my teachings at Oxford by a government org I’ve never heard of—the non-disclosures. ‘Urgent, national security,’ one of the suits said. And before we left the boat, I heard one of them say, ‘You should have told him.’ Told me what?”

“We have the satphone. Do you want to leave?”

“You know I’m too damn curious to leave.”

“Well, I’m not curious about whatever tribe lives here. I’ve loved being the center of your attention these last few days.” 

Julian knew the words “for once” ended that sentence. Fearing the direction of the conversation, he lifted her chin and kissed her hard on the mouth, using his tongue to keep her following words down her throat. 

She moaned in his mouth, and he climbed on top of her in a push-up position, nudging her legs apart with his knees. 

She abruptly rolled, dumping him off in the wet sand. “Not here! I thought I’d never get the fucking sand out of my ass last night!”

He laughed as they stood, and she pulled him by his cock away from the incoming tide.

“On your knees,” he ordered when they reached the blanket. 

She dropped into his favorite position, back arched, ass out. Julian gripped the back of her neck and pressed her face to the blanket. 

“Now I’m going to fuck you, my island princess.” His voice deepened with lust. 

Her pussy dripped from his words and soon slathered the cock splitting her open. Fucking had always been the solution to their problems.

As his pelvis slapped her ass, her heart blossomed like the night jasmine opening up around them. He bruised the soft flesh of her hips, holding her to him, forcing her to absorb the full force of his thrusts while the sun disappeared below the horizon, scattering shades of pink and yellow across the sky. 

Something moved nearby, stealing Julian’s attention from the redheaded beauty he was pounding. He snapped his head to the left. For a second, he thought the trunk of a large palm moved. A presence. Something. He couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched. It affected him. Excited him.

He gripped Anna’s hips and fucked her faster, harder, grinding his meaty flesh into her softness.  

Anna stretched her arms over her head, clawing at the sand. She believed he loved her when he fucked her like this. The fire burned away her doubts. Her pussy hugged him tightly, possessively claiming him in the only way she could.

In truth, the excitement of the unknown awaiting him was fueling his fuck. 

~~~

The sun nudged Julian awake before Anna. He swiped at the sand dustings on his arms and chest and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. 

Then his heart seized. 

He scrambled to his feet, covering his crotch with a blanket, and blinked twice at the lithe womanly figure with blue skin almost metallic in sheen, who rose from the ocean. She walked gently with a soft tread, and tentacles danced around her head.

She appeared otherworldly, but with hints of humanity.

When she reached him, she said, “You look like your father.”

Δύο (Two)

“My father? You know my father?”

“Let me look at you.” She spoke with lips small and puckered like a baby doll. 

The female-ish creature circled Julian before fingering the ends of his shoulder-length hair. “Inky like your father’s,” she said.

Her body moved closer, and he caught a whiff of her natural scent—undefinable, yet intoxicating. Arousal boiled up from his crotch, and he repositioned his towel. 

He stole a few glances at her body. Scrolled metal cupped her breasts, leaving her pierced nipples exposed. He’d seen the nipples of many indigenous tribal women, but none he wished to take within his teeth. A chain encircled her tiny waist where charms dangled. The space between the charms gave him glimpses of a hairless mound and the inviting cleft of her ass. Showed him enough to make him ache for more. 

Her eyes had no pupil or iris, just a sea of the palest of blues. To say their eyes locked was a ridiculous cliché. No, it was so much more—a palpable need poured into each other. It didn’t smother, but rather enticed.

The world stopped for them as they shared something unspoken, something dead reawakened. 

He needed to know things, so she stepped back from him, answering his question. “Jonah lived here most of my life. Your father was like a father to me.” 

“Well, that makes one of us.”

Anna stirred, stretching. Her eyes opened. Upon seeing the blue woman, she jumped up behind Julian, wrapping herself in a towel. 

Anna whispered, panicked, “Who is she? Tell me that’s blue paint?” 

He turned his head to whisper back, “I don’t think so.”

“Is this your mate?” She gestured to Anna. 

Anna replied, “Yes,” just as Julian replied, “No.” 

Julian pulled her alongside him. “Let me introduce my assistant, Anna Wilcox.” 

“I am Tula.” She moved to Anna, reaching out to touch her red locks. “Your hair is powerful, like fire.” 

Anna’s shoulders tucked up under her ears as Tula continued touching her. Tula unclasped an intricate decoration from one of her tentacles and cuffed it around Anna’s small wrist. 

“A gift.”

Anna shrank into Julian, her mind not caught up with her eyes, “Umm, thank you.” 

Tula spoke to Anna, “There’s no need to fear me.” Then she turned her attention back to Julian. To his amazement, she continued speaking in near-perfect English. “Your people would think us Atlanteans. As your father would say, ‘Long story short,’ we were born of the sea. Then, like your interests in the moon and planets, we became curious about what lay above us. A pod from the Mediterranean Sea taught hydraulics to the Egyptians, and our language to the Greeks, but we saw things about your people that disturbed us. Our kings decided we should return to the abyss until you became more civilized, for that was something we couldn’t teach you.

“Tens of years ago, our kings decided it was time to return. That’s when your leaders introduced us to your father. He taught a select group of us the most prominent languages of your people, customs, and history to prepare us to rejoin your world. Most returned to the abyss to share with the others, but my father, King Tulites, left me here to continue to learn and one day become an ambassador for my people.” 

“Where is my father now?”

Tula closed the distance between them, pressed one hand upon her heart, and the other upon his. “I’m full of sorrow to tell you he’s dead.”

“How? Where’s his body?” His voice was small. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment—only her hand kept him upright.

“His heart stopped beating. By his wishes, we burned his body and gave his ashes to the ocean. ‘Let the waves decide where I belong,’ your father said.” 

~~~

Julian and Anna quickly dressed and packed their belongings. Anna tried to talk to him about his father, but he half-raised his hand into the air, silencing her. Tula waded back into the ocean, with them following. She led them in the shallows to a stone pathway between the cliffs that her people had carved. 

As soon as they reached the last step, Julian and Anna stood, frozen with awe, at the breathtaking shades of blue stepping out from the lush foliage. 

Tula’s people surrounded Julian, bowing and patting him on his back, arms, and shoulders. Some were naked, and others wore similar metallic clothing like Tula. They were elegant people, yet Anna tightly gripped Julian’s hand.

Tula beamed at Julian. “All loved your father, Dr. Abrams. They’ve been awaiting your arrival.”

“Please, call me Julian.” He bowed to each, offering his brightest smile. 

Julian noticed a few stepping back and fading into the background. 

His eyes shot to Tula. “What was that? There were there… then gone.” 

“Our skin can change colors to blend in with our surroundings, reacting to fear and shyness. A trait we share with the octopus. A few are more timid than others.”  

Julian remembered feeling he was being watched on the beach and cocked a knowing eyebrow at her. Her tentacle hair moved on its own to partially cover her face as her skin color momentarily darkened. 

He couldn’t deny that Tula was affecting him in an uncomfortably arousing way. 

“Disturbingly beautiful” were his words for her. 

Τρία (Three)

Julian and Anna spent the first few days learning about the people, observing, and interacting. The pod resided in stone structures, adorned with a few metal and gold embellishments. “Little pieces of home,” Tula said. He also saw his father’s influence. 

Then there was Tula, pulsing with sexual energy. The air vibrated between her and Julian. Only Anna’s presence disrupted it. Anna disagreed with their wishes to take their place among the above-ground world. 

“People will fear them. They’ll never be accepted.” She shook her head. “Look at them, Julian!”

“Tula said our leaders have put them off for decades, citing this issue or that issue that needs to be dealt with first. Our world’s a mess. There’ll never be a good time, and they have every right, Anna.” 

“This is more about your father than them, Julian.”

“Don’t bring my father into this.”

“He has everything to do with it. You claim to hate him for leaving, yet you’ve spent your life trying to be him.”

“I followed his career path to understand its hold on him. Now I see why he stayed with these people—to help them achieve their goal of joining the rest of the world.”

“He left you and your mother… for them.”

“I’m not discussing this anymore.” He turned his back on her. “I’m ready to see his room.”

~~~

Tula opened the door, eyeing Julian carefully. She’d been acutely aware of his churning insides over Jonah. “This was his room. We’ve disturbed nothing.”

Anna walked in as Julian lingered in the doorway. The tobacco scent hit him first. As a boy, he’d loved the smell of it on his father and remembered many times sitting in his lap while he smoked his pipe and told him stories of his travels to document the indigenous tribes around the globe. 

Tula tapped the worn leather notebook on the small desk in the corner of the room. “Here’s his journal. You’ll find truth in here.” She walked to Julian, lightly touched his shoulder, then slipped past him, offering him privacy. She understood his need to mourn, having mourned Jonah herself. 

“Thank you.”

Anna walked out onto the balcony. “Come see the magnificent view,” she called.

Julian appeared by her side, but the distance between them remained. The air cold. Stagnant.

“I want to be alone,” he said. 

Anna turned to him, grabbing his hand. “Julian, please don’t shut me out. I know—“

“Leave me.” You know nothing of this. 

~~~

Julian wasn’t sure how much time had passed before he sensed her behind him on the balcony. He turned to find her smiling.

“What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

“No, what?”

“Just a nice memory.”

“Tell me.”

She closed the gap between them and stroked his hair back from his face. “Your father wore his hair long like you. I was fascinated by it. He’d sit on this balcony, let me play with his hair, and experiment with different braids.” She laughed in a soft, melodic tone that instantly lightened the things weighing him down. “I’m certain he didn’t like it braided, but he’d let me do it, and pretended to like it.”

Her story triggered a few long-forgotten memories that Julian had lost, reminding him of his father’s giving nature. He couldn’t be jealous of her time with his father upon seeing the sparkle in Tula’s eyes, 

“You know, I love your hair.” He reached for a tentacle, and it curled around his wrist. “It’s like it’s alive.”

She giggled. “Of course, it’s alive. It’s part of me.”

“A lovely part,” he said. He was surprised at how easily the words slipped out.

“It’s like your male appendage. It can lengthen, shorten, and thicken,” she paused, her skin color finding an even more vibrant blue, “Obey my wishes or its own whims.”

His mind twisted in erotic ways, thinking about her tentacles. Even his ass reacted, clenching at a particularly nasty vision. He tried to look away, but her gaze held him captive and drew him closer until their lips touched.

Τέσσερα (Four)

Julian sat at the desk in his father’s room, staring at his father’s journal, but his thoughts were on Tula. His tongue remembered her even though she’d quickly retreated after their kiss. 

“Do you need anything?” Tula offered, appearing in the doorway. 

I need to kiss you again. But he politely said, “No, thank you.”

He stood, and mutual attraction pulled them together, inches between their flesh.

“You read the journal.” 

He exhaled decades of doubt. “I did. He loved me.”

“Yes! Julian, he talked of you often—his smart, curious son, he’d say. Your leaders kept him up-to-date on you and sent him the pictures in the journal. It had been a requirement from him.” 

Their fingers naturally gravitated to one another, caressing one another’s backs. A tether existed between their spirits. They both felt it. 

His mood lightened by touching her. He wrote words on her back with his fingertip and smiled at her. “I thought your skin would feel more—“

“Slimey.” 

He looked up to see Anna leaning against the door, her arms tightly crossed. 

“I was worried about you being alone, but I see you aren’t.” 

The door slammed behind her. 

“I’ve upset her.” Tula stepped back, her skin lightening to the stone wall. 

Julian lunged and grabbed her hands. “No, no, no. Please don’t hide from me.” 

He pulled her against his chest, and her natural blue returned. 

“You’ve done nothing wrong, but I must handle this.” He kissed her 

She nodded, then he groaned at having to release her. He left, strode down the hall, and burst into their room. “What the hell was that, Anna?”

She shrugged. “I don’t trust her.”

“Why? They’ve been kind and open to us in every way—truly lovely people.”

“Especially Tula?” 

His shoulders stiffened. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He feigned ignorance, but knew exactly what she meant. He also knew she was right. 

Anna sneered, “I see how you look at her.” 

“You know, jealousy isn’t a good look for you.” He didn’t move to comfort her this time. 

“Damn it! I love you, Julian! I’m tired of waiting for you to commit to me!”

And there it was—the expectations he’d suspected always lurked in her mind.

“Not fair! From the beginning, I told you I was not relationship material!” His face lost its expression, his tone steadied. “You knew what you were getting.”

“I’m leaving.” She choked back her tears, her following sentence breaking apart. “I won’t stay until you leave me… me… someone who loves you… like your father did to you.” 

Julian said nothing more, turned around, and walked out. As soon as the door shut, his chest puffed then slowly fell flat as he released a deep breath. He felt guilty… about the relief that suddenly washed over him. 

~~~

That evening, Tula found Julian under a palm tree with his father's journal in his lap. 

“Have I angered you?”

He jumped to his feet, wrapping his arms around her. “No, Tula, Anna's leaving was not your fault. It was mine.” 

He’d just read something in the journal that surprised him. “Tula, my father wrote of a mate here. Where is she?” 

“She passed shortly before him. I believe his soul couldn’t live without her, and that’s why his heart stopped.” Her hands cupped his face. “I see in your eyes what she saw in his.”

“And what’s that?”

“Passion.”

“You watched me make love with Anna on the beach, didn’t you?”

Her skin darkened again, and Julian had his answer. 

“Do you trust me, Julian?”

“I do.” 

She stripped away what little clothing she wore.  

Πέντε (Five)

Julian removed his clothes as well. 

Tula led him through the shallows to a cave carved into the cliffs, above the tide’s reach. He’d never forget what awaited him. Paintings covered the walls of Tula’s world. She revealed all to him, then pointed to a drawing made by a different hand—a man and a boy with black hair to the shoulders. 

“My father and I?”

“Yes.”

He hand splat atop the drawing, and she covered his hand with hers. The island not only had a soul but a heartbeat, too. 

He lifted her chin and kissed her, not the gentle taste as before, but a passionate kiss. A kiss that shattered his remaining barriers to love. A kiss that told her he was available if she’d have him. 

Hungry hands and mouths left no flesh untouched. His teeth finally captured her nipples that’d mercilessly teased him since they met.

They knelt on the blanket together. He lay on his backside and reached for her. “Come.”

Her skin glistened as she allowed him to maneuver her into the intimate position on his face. She looked down upon his face, then arched her back and closed her eyes. As soon as his tongue found her clit, she cried out, one word echoing around them—Julian. 

He feasted between her legs. Her natural scent was sweeter than the humans he’d tasted. 

Something soft curled around his cock and his eyes flew open. She’d been watching his face and grinned. It had to be her tentacle hair as her hands were busy tugging on her nipple rings. 

The wandering tentacle tendril tightened then loosened its grip, instinctively knowing how to tease. Arouse. Drive him over the fucking edge. 

It was as if mouths upon mouths upon mouths sucked up and down his shaft at once. Such an out-of-body experience, he had to remind himself to keep licking the joyful blue pussy weeping in his mouth. And just when he thought he couldn’t take any more, one suction cup found his cock’s head and milked him. 

He saw stars where there were none. 

“I need to be inside you… now,” he gasped. 

She slipped off him, and he rolled on top of her. Her lips peeled apart to make way for him. He held his cock firmly as he began to enter her with just the tip. Once he was inside, her knees fell open. A tightness pulsated around him. He waited, allowing her to adjust to his size. When her tentacles began their sensual dance, he clenched his ass cheeks and started to fuck her. 

He shifted his hips, varying his thrusts and angles. She trembled at the friction.

“Let’s see what turns you purple.”

Instinct took over, and they found their rhythm. The rest of the island fell away. It was just the two of them in that moment. Clinging to one another. Writhing. They came together in a torrent of pleasure and happiness. Embers of love glowed around them. 

Afterwards, they lay facing one another. Genuine intimacy was no longer foreign. 

He played with a tentacle around her face, trying to find his words. “Tula.” He gained courage from her vibrant eyes. “You’ve mended what you didn’t break. You’re the first I don’t want to live without since my father left.”

She responded in the only way she knew—by entangling him in arms, legs, and tentacles.  

Έξι (Six)

“Miss, there’s no one here.”

“Look again.” Anna’s tone bit. She’d gone home, screamed, cried, and tried to fuck him out of her system before she realized she couldn’t live without him. 

Eerie silence had greeted Anna and the boat crew. The surrounding water noiselessly bubbled against the vacant shoreline. No footprints were found in the sand. No Julian. No Tula or her people. Gone were the glittering silver and gold adornments. 

The island had lost its soul. 

“Miss, over here!” One of the crewmen called Anna over to a carving found in a tree. “What does it mean?” 

Anna traced her fingertips over the symbols—ερχόμαστε. 

She stumbled backward, recoiling from disbelief. 

A thousand miles away, a lone wave rose, disrupting the rhythm and hue of the Atlantic. It held its crest momentarily before barreling toward a shore of North America with its thundering whitecaps. 

Her tanned face paled. “It says… ‘we are coming’.”