He dove under the falls and she followed, escaping the battering of the water. They surfaced together but Sean-Selkie seemed to ooze up the bank and stood there, proud in his altered form, so that she could admire him. All of him. Then he shook himself and the transformation she had seen once before, near the cave where they had taken refuge from the volcano, began.
“I get it, Sean,” she murmured, a trifle apologetic. “You wanted me to see you in all your glory. And you are glorious,” she added, smiling as the man emerged. She went to him, stroking skin instead of fur, and twining herself around him as his selkie self had done to her in the water.
“Give me a moment to adjust, will you? he said, laughing, holding her tightly against his wet skin.
Yana gave a sniff. “As far as I’m concerned, you are adjusted.” She glanced down significantly.
“Ah, but a selkie makes love differently than a man,” he said, murmuring into her ear and nibbling her throat.
“How differently? I’m game.”
It was decidedly different, wildly sensual, and extremely satisfying, and took rather more time than she had assumed, knowing something of “animal” behavior. She hadn’t known nearly enough to prepare her for all of the loving possibilities of Sean’s dual nature, both animal and man, but he understood himself thoroughly and was most adept at using all of his resources to guide her into uncharted channels of pleasure. It took her a long time to slow her pulse and heart rate and come, slightly unwillingly, back to the other reason they had gone off.
“We have to do our part in this scheme, you know,” she said, looking up at Sean’s face. They were still interlocked; it was comforting and comfortable and she didn’t really want to break the mood, but the dutiful part of her character prodded her into “active duty” now that the R & R was over.
”Which scheme?” he asked, smiling lasciviously down at her. “All right, all right,” he said, easily warding off the fist she shot up at him. His hands were very strong. “First we have to find out where Johnny Greene and Rick O’Shay are. Would Fiske Junior have it in for them for their part in seeing you all got into the special place?”
She sighed. “That’s what we have to find out. If Adak’ll let me use the comm unit, I can probably roust them out of wherever they areBOQ on SpaceBase, probably.”
“Both Johnny and Rick believe in Petaybee,” Sean said, musing aloud, his fingers playing an idle tattoo on her shoulder, “or they wouldn’t have helped us then. So, perhaps they’ll help us again. How hard would it be for them to abscond with a copter or two?”
Yana shrugged. “Both struck me as pretty clever. Copter pilots tend to be a tad devious. If they could stash enough fuel in a cache somewhere, they could help us and still appear to be on duty at the base. No matter how you slice it, it’s going to lake a few days for Marmion and that bald buzzard to organize themselves and their escort, so we have a few days. Unless Torkel clamps down on all SpaceBase activity.”
“How can he do that when the place is in such a mess? They’ve still got folks to rescue from mud slides and stuff.”
“Good point, Sean, so the sooner we get in touch with Johnny and Rick, the better. We can provide for our expeditions before Torkel knows we’re setting them up.”
“Fiske Junior doesn’t strike me as a forgetful man. Would he have thought of that, and slapped a hold on all unauthorized copter runs?”
Yana thought. “If he has, Whittaker still carries more clout than Junior. I know Whittaker will help as much as he can.” Then she laughed, her chest heaving against his. “Junior! Don’t ever call Torkel that in his hearing, Sean.”
Sean’s eyes sparkled with malice. “No? When we need every advantage we’ve got?”
The expression on his face, her current position, and the word “advantage” warned Yana that she’d better curtail this session right now or they’d lose a lot more time. She hoped they hadn’t dallied too long already. But it had been … remarkable. Resolutely she pushed him away and got to her feet.