Exit Strategy
by London Lampy
Chapter 26
By the time we make it back to The Firebrat I've mostly sobered up and the Captain takes me straight to his cabin and has me strip naked.
"I wanted to see you like this in the shop, but Harry doesn't approve of people trying out his wares on the premises." He says looking at my new cuffs. He orders me onto the bed then uses a length of chain to attach my wrists to the headboard, threading it through the holes around the carved mermaids and dolphins.
"The Admiral may have questionable taste when it comes to furniture, but he's not stupid, he had it made with these holes for just his purpose." He explains while he secures me.
I'm a little disturbed at this piece of information, I don't really want to think about Quint's father tying his pets up here, but by the time he has stripped and joined me I've put it out of my mind.
"I need to meet with Zizi and Jasper to discuss what the cartel wanted, so I can't spend as much time with you as I'd like." He apologises, running his fingers over the tip of my tail. "But I couldn't not try out your new cuffs."
He moves his hand over to my cock and strokes me to full hardness, I close my eyes and arch into his hand, groaning as I do so. He trails his mouth over my chest, stopping at my nipples to tease them with his teeth before carrying on to bite and suck at the junction of my neck and shoulder, then he lifts his whole body onto mine and kisses me hard on the mouth, his tongue demanding entry, which I readily give.
I bring my legs up and lock my ankles around his back, pushing myself up until his hardened length is lying between my ass cheeks, telling him what I want with my body. His caramel skin is warm and smooth against mine and the weight of his sleekly muscled body covering me sends desire pulsing through me and I can feel pre come sliding down the head of my cock. I grind my ass against him, desperately wanting him inside me.
"Fuck Exit." He breaths as I wiggle beneath him. "You really are a little slut."
"Mm, so I've been told." I reply as he reaches across to get the lube, which he then slicks onto his finger and and rubs against my entrance.
"As long as you're only my slut." He says, penetrating me with his fingers, pushing them deep inside and making me cry out with pleasure.
"I'm a very lucky man." He carries on. "I've found two beautiful boys who love to be fucked by me."
He pulls his fingers out and quickly replaces them with his cock. I eagerly lift my hips to take him in as deeply as possible, the sensation of being filled by him is intense, and when he pulls out and thrusts back in he hits my prostate and I nearly loose it. Two more thrusts and I'm struggling to keep control.
"Captain..."
"You can come if you want." He interrupts, knowing what I'm about to say. His voice is thick with lust, and he puts a hand between us, wraps it around my length and I instantly orgasm into it, shouting out as waves of pleasure crash through me.
He thrusts into me hard, as he does so I look up at his face, his chocolate brown eyes lock onto mine and stay there until he comes, when he throws his head back and growls, filling me with his liquid heat.
Once he's finished he kisses me gently and smooths my hair back off my face. He smiles at me as he pulls out. "I really am a very lucky man."
The sunset over the city is all bright pinks and oranges and it reminds me of home.
"It's because of all the smoke and dirt in the air." Zizi points out, but I don't care, it still looks pretty.
Her, Topher and me are sitting on coils of rope at the prow, looking out at Kipp. I've almost got used to the smell, I only notice it every now and again.
We're eating plates of bread and cheese that that Zizi took from the galley as Clyde is still off somewhere in the city.
"Don't expect to see most of the crew again until the morning." She says, chewing a mouthful of bread with her small, sharp teeth. "They'll slink back looking the worse for wear, with empty pockets and hangovers swearing they'll never spend a night out in Kipp again, and next time we're here they'll do it all over again."
"Didn't you want to go into the city?" I ask her, and before she can reply Topher mutters. "I wanted to go into the city." And glares at me. I decide not to mention that I know he actually did.
"No, not really, if I hadn't needed to wait around for Quint to get back from his meeting..."
"Captain Quint." Topher adds sharply.
"...I maybe would have, but there's no way I'm going out after dark, Kipp at night is not a place for a respectable female visk to be." She laughs.
"Has Jasper gone?" Topher asks her, taking a sip from a glass of wine, I'm sticking to water.
"Yes, gone off to scare some whores with his looks no doubt."
"I don't care where he is as long as he's off the fucking ship." Topher says darkly.
"I'll drink a toast to that." Zizi adds, refilling her glass from the bottle and raising it. I ask her what she's got against him.
"He resents the fact that Quint..." She waits a beat for Topher to correct her, which he predictably does. "...made me up to first mate over him, he's been second mate since before I joined this ship and he assumed that when the old first mate retired he would automatically take the role. In his eyes, or should I say eye, that's bad enough, but even worse is me being both female and visk, he views this as some sort of huge humiliation and takes great pleasure in pointing out my every mistake to anyone who will listen. Fortunately most of the men don't like him much either, he's far too free with his punishments and dressing downs, but I suspect there's more than one who feels someone like me shouldn't even be part of the crew, let alone first mate."
"He's a shit who'll get what's coming to him one day." Topher puts in, upending the bottle and pouring the last of it into his glass.
After I left the captain I went back to our cabin, Topher was absent so I searched through his belongings to try and find out exactly what he had bought in the visk's shop. I couldn't find anything that resembled any kind of drug so I'm guessing he has either hidden the bag really well or still has it on him. I also had a nap, then despite the heat changed into a long sleeved shirt to hide the new cuffs, so he hasn't seen them yet. When I found him he was talking to Zizi, if he had been alone I would have told him, probably. Perhaps I should have done it in front of her anyway because as I put my empty plate down onto the deck my sleeve rides up and he sees what's underneath.
"Oh." He says flatly staring at my wrist. "So that's why he didn't want me to come with the two of you."
"Yeah." I reply, pulling my sleeve down as Zizi stares with interest. "I didn't know that's what he planned, honestly. He didn't tell me until we got to the shop."
"I thought that might be the reason." He says, squinting at the sun slipping down over the rooftops. "You're a total shit for not telling me though."
"Sorry."
We sit in silence for a while until Zizi breaks it with a question. "How does it work, the two of you with him, do you have some kind of sex rota?"
"Um...not really." I say embarrassed.
"He likes me best." Topher says. "But I suppose if you eat nothing but fillet steak all the time you may want to have some junk every now and again, if only to remind you how good the steak is."
It takes me a while to work this out, but once I do I loudly tell him he's talking bullshit, and he grins at me.
"So you don't, you know, all kind of do it at the same time?" Zizi picks up again. "Not that I really get it but I would have thought that was kind of the point of having two lovers. The crew are always going on about threesomes like they're the best things ever invented..." She tails off and surveys both of us.
"Shit, I've done it again haven't I? You both look like you'd rather be anywhere else. It's being visk, I can never work out what it's all right to ask about and what embarrasses humans. I once asked Teena what it was like to menstruate while I was eating dinner with her the admiral and Quint. I didn't know people could go that red. I still don't see why it's an issue though, it's just a normal bodily function isn't it?"
I shrug. "I don't know if either of us are the best people to ask about that, but as far as I know it's not something girls talk about in public."
"Humans are weird." She states, shaking her head.
"Not human." I point out, poking Topher in the ribs with the tip of my tail for emphasis.
"Hey, monkey, fuck off, that tickles." He protests, trying to bat it away.
"Topher, don't call him that." A man's voice says from behind me.
"Sorry Captain." He says, but he sounds like he's trying not to giggle as I've managed to get my tail inside the bottom of his shirt and am running it along his side. He grabs it and pulls it out as Quint comes over. It's almost totally dark by now and as no one has bothered to light the ships lanterns he could have been standing there for quite some time, I wonder how much of our conversation he heard.
He sits down next to Topher who's now holding onto the end of my tail tightly. "Let go of me!" I complain.
"You should keep it to yourself them shouldn't you?" He says smugly.
I reach over to try and prise his fingers off and I've almost succeeded when he wraps his other hand around slightly lower down.
"Argh! Stop it!" I try and get his other hand off but it's pointless, I can't remove both his hands at once. I have an idea, he's clearly quite ticklish so I lunge towards him and tickle his ribs which makes him loosen his grip and I pull my tail back as fast as I can, the result of this being him falling off his coil of rope onto his ass on the deck.
"Fuck off monkey!" He says, standing up and dusting himself down.
"Topher!" Quint says loudly cuffing him round the back of the head, I don't care, I'm far too busy laughing.
I catch Zizi's black eyes and she tilts her head in puzzlement.
"Mammals, all bloody weird." She states.
Just as Zizi described the crew return to the ship feeling sorry for themselves, at least three of them look like they've been in fights, and even Tallis is complaining of a headache.
"Too much palm wine." He says by way of an explanation. "I should know better at my age, it was good to catch up with old friends though. I told them all about you, next time we make port here they've invited you to their house."
"Thank you." I say, wondering exactly what he told them about me.
I notice Jasper stepping onto the ship, he doesn't appear to be hungover and and he strides off toward Quint's cabin without so much as glancing at anyone else.
"What do you think he wants with the captain?" I ask.
"Who knows? Far too self important that one, I can't blame Quint for not making him up to first mate, he's the type who would have a man flogged for looking at him the wrong way." He shakes his head. "Come on drumeri, we don't want to miss the tide."
A few hours later I'm off watch and I decide to go and visit Quint. I know he's in his cabin because he spent all morning at the wheel and Zizi took over from him at watch change. I'm kind of hoping he might want to try out my new cuffs again..
I knock on the door and he calls out for me to enter. "Hello Exit." He says when he sees me, he's sat at the chart table writing, and indicates for me to come in.
"Hello Captain." I say as I go and stand beside him.
"Did you want something?" He questions, looking up at me from his work.
I know he doesn't like me making the first move but I wriggle between his desk and chair and sit myself on his lap with my tail curled around in front of me.
"Oh, that's what you want." He says, thankfully sounding amused.
"Yes." I reply quietly into his ear, moving my ass until I can feel him hardening under me.
"I don't have the time for this." He says, but captures my lips with his and kisses me anyway. His tongue finds it's way into my mouth and his hand into my lap, cupping my rapidly growing erection. I wrap the end of my tail around his wrist to keep his hand in place.
He moves his mouth away from mine, trails it across my cheek, down my jaw, and he's biting the side of my neck when I hear the sound of someone clearing their throat, and we both realise at the same time that we're no longer alone in the room.
We look round to see Tallis standing in front of the chart table with a stony expression on his face.
"For fuck's sake Tallis, don't you know how to knock?" Quint snaps at him.
"Zizi needs to speak with you, she's concerned we may be off course and wants your advice." He says flatly by way of reply.
"Tell her I'll be out soon, and if you don't knock the next time you want to come in here I'll give you the cat again."
Once he's gone I scramble off the captains lap and ask him if he really meant what he just said.
"No, it's not a valid reason for physical punishment, but I might just make him clean out the bilges. Now please go away and stop distracting me."
I'm standing at the rail watching a group of dolphins leaping in the ship's wake when Tallis comes and joins me.
"I've been thinking." He says. "I can see no reason why Quint needs to retain you in your current situation, you're turning into a good sailor in your own right and I think it would be worth asking him if you could simply take a place on the regular crew. You wouldn't have to put up with him mauling you like that any more and you could bunk with the other men rather than that Surosian brat. I can't imagine it would be any trouble for him to find a replacement for you, a human one this time."
Ah, how do I answer this?
"Thank you for thinking of me, but I'm actually quite happy with the way things are." I'm keeping my gaze firmly fixed on the dolphins.
"Drumeri, I doubt he would punish you for asking, if that's what you're afraid of." He says gently.
I take a deep breath. "I'm not afraid, it's not that. I...I like being with him, and I wouldn't be at all happy if he replaced me." I reply quickly.
"You can't mean that, why would you like being manhandled by a human? A male one at that."
He's not making this easy.
I turn to face him. "Tallis, I do mean it, I've got nothing against humans, and I like having sex with men."
He frowns at me for a moment as if thinking, then smiles. "That's because you've never met any girls of our kind, if you did you'd feel differently."
"No, it's really not that..." I try and say but he talks over me.
"My friends in Kipp, their daughter is your age and very keen to be introduced to you, she's a lovely girl, come with me one day and you'll see."
I feel like banging my head against the rail, Tallis playing matchmaker with me and some echoback girl is one more complication I don't need in my already overcomplicated life.
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