leaving his mate’s eyes. At his back Pearl sobbed, clutching at him with frantic hands. If she only knew what her father planned, but he’d dared not tell her. Not until he knew for sure…
Then Stone removed the helmet and placed it on his own head. Confusion, curiosity, a touch of panic.
Breathing out a sigh of relief, with his mind Stone said, “Hello, love.” Then he did something he’d always longed to do—wrapped his consciousness completely around his lover’s, merging two minds into one.
“What? Where am I?” Instead of a feeble croak, Connell spoke with all the strength of the young man he’d been when Stone first found him.
“I harvested your consciousness. Now I’ll never have to be alone, and neither will you.”
“But… but… how?”
“I was a soldier, not a scientist. Do you know how the tides work? No, and yet daily they drop their bounty on the sands and retreat again. Does it matter how it works? Wherever I go, you’ll go with me. We’ll be together, forever.”
Gradually the panic faded. “I’m still alive?”
“Yes, and will be as long as I am.”
Connell peered out at the world through Stone’s eyes, Stone’s mind following along. “Oh, Pearl, don’t cry!” Though he’d used Stone’s vocal cords to craft the utterance, the words and will behind them were purely Connell’s.
“Dad?” Now came their daughter’s turn for confusion.
“I’m here, sweetheart. I’m with your father.”
“How? No, never mind how! Oh, Dad…”
And once again Stone shared an embrace with his family.
“You know you have free access to my mind and memories now, right?” Stone asked.
“Really? You mean I could…”
“Yes.” Stone swallowed hard and led his mate through neural pathways, to the time he’d been fighting and had found a baby.
“I still don’t understand how we’re doing this,” Connell said, communicating mind to mind as Stone had once dreamed.
“Sometimes you don’t have to understand something to appreciate it.” Stone knew all Connell needed was time before he’d come to accept their bond. Until he grew comfortable in his new circumstances, a little distraction might help. What wondrous places Stone could now show his love. “Come with me.”
One minute they sat on the cliff overlooking the pounding surf, the next…
Warm droplets rained down, only now, Stone’s memory added a younger Connell to the scene. Mouth against mouth, they tasted each other’s tongues and the sweetness of the water falling upon them. In the shallows, the rainbow fish danced.
Stone laced their fingers together and led Connell to another marvel he’d discovered years ago, in another lifetime. On a bed of moss, softer than a whisper, Stone settled between his lover’s spread legs. Connell raised his hands, turning them this way and that. “They don’t shake,” he said, awe in his tones. “They’re not wrinkled!”
“You are as you were when we first met,” Stone confirmed, before sealing their lips together. He’d shared his body with many a man, but never his tongue—or his heart. Those belonged to Connell only.
After delving into the wonders of Connell’s mouth, Stone lowered his lips to firm pecs to sip the water caught in the dark curls on his mate’s chest. The sweetness of the droplets and the muskiness of Connell’s skin made an intoxicating mix. Lower and lower he roamed, until his mate’s cock teased his lips. He opened, taking his lover inside. Stone tasted pre-come and honeyed water. Connell’s balls drew to his body beneath Stone’s fingertips.
“I want you,” Connell exclaimed on a gasp. Stone maneuvered until his cock slid between Connell’s lips. In their shared consciousness he experienced his own pleasure as well as Connell’s. A swipe of his tongue up the underside of his mate’s shaft sent chills zinging through them both.
He pulled out and once again positioned himself between the strong thighs he’d enjoyed for over half a century. A nudge at his lover’s opening sent shockwaves directly to his groin, but also to Connell’s. Through their connection, Stone enjoyed both.
Tight heat gripped him, while the glorious moment of entry teased his mind. Oh, fuck! He was fucking while being fucked. By the twin moons! And no need for cooking oil. “Do you feel me?” he asked.
“I feel you,” Connell replied, wonder in his voice, “and yet I am you. Is this how I always make you feel when you’re inside me?”
In answer, Stone kissed him, let the man feel the pressure in his chest, how he’d rather die himself than ever lose what he’d found on New Wailea so many years ago.
They rocked together, pressure from penetration vying