Chapter One
"You belong to me, Leo."
The voice spilled over him like liquid silk, the man's face a dark shadow in the twilight. Leo lowered his head to nuzzle the hairless balls, to drink in the rich, hypnotic scent he craved. Under his palms, strong thigh muscles tensed, moving under sweat-soaked skin. Leo moved his mouth, pressing kisses up his lover's long, hard shaft. Strong fingers twisted in Leo's hair, dragging his mouth to the weeping slit.
"Open your mouth; suck me." The deep, sensual voice commanded.
Leo swiped his tongue across the tip, the familiar, rich, musky flavor bursting across his tongue. His heart clenched; he loved this man with a soul-destroying passion. This man completed him. His dream lover, his ultimate fantasy. Leo moaned in bliss. He couldn't wait to taste him again and lunged forward to slide his tongue across the velvet shaft.
I don't know your name. Tell me your name.
The bed began to lurch and roll. The dream faded and he awoke achingly hard and frustrated. Damn it. Why do I always have the same dream?
"Winds of up to one hundred and fifty miles an hour . . . ."
Leo Marshall lifted the baseball cap off his eyes and yawned. What was that?
Stretching, he eased out of the chair and pulled up his fishing rod. The balmy summer day had vanished, hidden behind a violent, black storm front. Clouds of every shade of grey charged across the sky. An icy wind cut through his t-shirt and whipped the once glassy, blue ocean into angry, white caps. In the distance, lightning brought flashes of the coastline, misshapen behind a wall of torrential rain.
Fuck. Leo secured his belongings and ducked inside the cabin. On the two-way, he could hear the Coastguard giving out warnings. He radioed in his details and position.
"You won't make it to Harper's Peak; didn't you hear the warnings?" came the response. "You will have to try and ride it out. We have your position. Do you have a satellite beacon?"
Leo ran a hand through his hair. "Yes, I do, thank God."
The Coastguard signed off and Leo stood transfixed, watching the sea join the inky blue of the sky and close in around him, plunging him into twilight. The Laura Jane rolled and dipped, huge waves crashing over her bow. Leo dragged on his life jacket and pulled his way to the stern to up anchor. Wind tore off his baseball cap, dragged his long hair from its binding and whipped it across his eyes. Brushing at his face, he looked up at the savage sky; his eyes widened. "Holy fuck."
Highlighted by blanket lightning, a funnel rose from the sea. The awesome beast swirled high into the clouds and danced across the ocean like a giant hydra. Long trails of water undulated from its twisting neck with gaping maws. The wind roared, lashing salty rain into his face and tearing at his clothes with icy fingers. Leo dropped the anchor on the deck and battled his way back to the cabin. I've got to get out of here. He depressed the start button on the engine, once, twice.
Nothing.
He ran his arm over his face, swiping at seawater stinging his eyes, and tried again. "Come on girl."
The motor caught and burst into life. Leo laughed in triumphant desperation and fought frantically to turn the craft around. A great surge of boiling water picked up the Laura Jane and dragged the small craft up to the crown of a gigantic wave. Leo clung to the wheel, water swirling in the cabin up to his knees. The boat hovered on the crest then surfed down the shimmering wall at world record speed. Leo looked down the face of the twenty-foot wave and gasped. I'll never out run it.
The boat crashed into the foaming water, bobbing like a cork. It lurched to one side and the crab basket and fishing tackle slammed against Leo's legs. In his hands, the slippery wheel fought against him, spinning one way and then the other. The bow dipped sharply and the propeller broke free of the waves, the engine screaming in protest. The sea roared its discontent, and before him, a whirlpool opened up, a giant vortex sucking everything to oblivion.
Leo swallowed, fear closing his throat, ears deafened with the roar that sounded like a freight train. The Laura Jane lay on its side, dark, swirling water pinning it in its embrace. Whipped into a giant centrifuge in hell, Leo joined the speeding procession of marine debris. Above, a mountain of spinning, black water, below, a swirling orifice of black and green sank down to the depths of hell.
Leo clung to the cabin door, his legs floating in midair. The howl of a thousand devils shrieked in his head. The roof of the cabin ripped off in a whine of twisted metal. He looked up one last time, seeking the heavens. Within the madness, a strange calmness enclosed him. His fingers grew numb and slipped off the cabin door. Goodbye, Mom and Dad.