gave out. I collapsed onto my side, allowing the sun to burn me. Thirst made my throat sore and voice hoarse. Too much coming had drained my body of all its reserves.
But as much as I wanted to rest…I hadn’t earned that yet.
I couldn’t close my eyes without seeing X-rated pornography. I couldn’t settle my breathing without growling for Eleanor to put me out of my misery. And my heart, as it drummed and defibrillated itself with ill-advised, sickening electricity, my pulse became a crazed enemy in my veins, granting utmost punishment.
My villa had become the antidote I needed. My thoughts latched onto it for deliverance from this evil and redemption for what I’d done to Eleanor.
I had to get there.
Now.
My arms shook as I pushed off from the ground and tripped to my feet. I looked at my villa in the distance, cocooned by jungle, its door hidden by foliage. I jogged toward it, but then, I stopped.
Nirvana.
The cool refreshing waterfall.
Perhaps that could wash away this nightmare and christen me back into lucidity. Changing direction, I stumbled toward the crystal blue pool. I climbed over the boulders on the shore and sighed in relief as the first cool touch of freshwater lapped my ankles.
The temperature of Nirvana was cooler than the sea. The freshness of the water so cleansing compared to the salt I regularly swam in.
Yes.
This was my cure.
This would keep Eleanor safe from me.
Diving into the depths, grateful for the shelf where the shore dropped away, I gave myself to death, sinking to the bottom, happily trading cold extermination over berserk stimulation.
I welcomed the rocks below to cradle me. I removed all power from my muscles. I closed my eyes and—
Tongues.
Teeth.
Breasts.
Nipples.
Eleanor writhing on her back as I filled her.
My hand sliced through the deep and found my cock.
I opened my mouth and howled underwater as I worked myself into yet another frenzied, demented, maniacal release.
Water rushed down my throat and splashed into my lungs. I choked as my entire body clutched with pleasure. I rippled with bliss while drowning. The two experiences linked hands and made me crave annihilation.
I tried to breathe as the final crest broke.
I clawed at my chest as a debilitating ache spread.
I released my cock as bodily control over skeleton and sinew faltered.
The surface glittered above.
Air beckoned just beyond the water’s kingdom, but my legs didn’t kick when I ordered them to. My arms didn’t respond when I tried to swim. My system shut down, broken from too much pleasure and drained by too much sexual stress.
Fuck, I’m going to die.
Instinct made me inhale again, sucking back more water. My ribcage threatened to snap one rib at a time, my lungs rejecting liquid and demanding oxygen instead.
My vision went hazy. My mind blank. The only thing that still had providence was sex.
Sex.
Fucking sex.
If I found a mermaid down here, I’d try to fuck it all while I drowned. I would go to hell because all I could think about was lust instead of life.
A splash broke the glittering surface above me.
The mermaid I’d lusted for appeared from nowhere. Long seaweed hair, flashing silver eyes, and pearly perfect body.
But…she didn’t have a tail. No scales. No fins. Just gorgeous long legs. Long, strong legs that split apart to gain access to the one thing I needed more than anything.
Her fingers wrapped around my wrist.
I tried to pull her close, to pin her beneath me, to mount her, but my body no longer operated. I jerked in the throes of a death dance as the tailless mermaid pulled me closer and closer to the surface.
Pinpricks of pain from her nails punctured my rapidly fading consciousness. My eyesight traded clarity for ghostly mirages.
Down and down, deeper and deeper.
Quietness.
Peace.
No more need for sex.
No more need for oxygen.
Thankfully.
Heavenly.
Sanity.
I let go, grateful to finally be free.
Something sharp shredded my hard-won serenity. A lash of pain across my cheek. And another. Followed by lips on mine, air forced down my throat, and painful compressions on my chest.
Pressure repeated over my heart, determined and ruthless, reversing my slip into silence, dragging me back into mania and pain.
The explosion from dying to alive sent daggers of misery through my entire nervous system. My eyes flared wide. My mouth opened to breathe. A gush of water spewed out.
“There you go. That’s it. Come on. Breathe, Sully. For God’s sake, breathe.”
I choked and wheezed as the lightness of air replaced the heaviness of liquid, my lungs faltering over the new concoction. The mermaid helped