Once upon a time, on a rocky island with enchantment under the ocean ... Cadence Bell left the windswept Northern Isles and his parents’ inn for the theaters and royal masques and glitter of Londre, swearing he’d make his fortune as a playwright and poet, trading fish stew and rain for fame and adoration and a place at the Queen’s Court. Now his parents are gone and Cade’s inheritance brings him back home, where he’d never wanted to return. But magic lurks beneath the waves, a stray pearl might be a key to another world, and even the quiet local schoolteacher has secrets of his own. Jeremiah Carver never meant to hide secrets. But he promised to tell no one about the other world he’s seen, and he keeps his word. Even if that means concealing magic from Cadence Bell. Which is difficult, since Cade’s not only a dazzling literary success, but also the person Jeremiah’s loved from afar since their years-ago childhood. And he’s afraid he’s falling for Cade all over again now. When Cadence falls under the siren spell of the ocean’s magic, Jeremiah has to make a choice and return to a world he’s left behind once before to rescue his heart from the sea.

Cadence and the Pearl

He said, “You like watching me, don’t you? Getting it all over you—getting you filthy with it, my sweet eager boy—” Jeremiah bit a lip sharply. His eyes were wet too. Cade cupped his own cock, fucked himself with the weight inside him, rocked back and forth into the feel of it, the drowning radiance of it. Release came like a plucked lute-string, throbbing with reprieve, spilling itself into heady notes. Splashes painted Jeremiah’s stomach, chest, even throat: covered in him.


Enraptured, languorous, magnanimous, he murmured, “You can,” and Jeremiah groaned and pushed up into him and came, wet heat pulsing inside him, pouring forth.


Cade slid off him after a moment, finding bed-space, stretching. Jeremiah got up gingerly and found towels and water. This had become routine as well: Cade collapsed into a sated sticky heap and let himself be cleaned and pampered. Jeremiah came back and turned himself into a bulwark, a harbor, a curve of solid warm muscle for Cade to nestle in against.


Chapter 7