Chapter 18: Deep Water

Harry read the receipt twice and folded it into his sleeve.

"I will ruin her," he said. "Slowly. Starting at the knees."

"Tomorrow," James said.

"Yes. Tomorrow." Harry looked at him with his blue-grey eyes gone dark. "Tonight I want to break my own rule."

"Which one?"

"Never in the water."

The academy pool lay under a glass dome on the north side of the cliff.

Harry locked the door behind them with a key and a twist of tide, and the bolt sank into the frame.

The pool was black under the stars.

The lamps were out, and the only light came through the glass.

Harry stood at the edge with his back to James and undid his hair.

It fell wet to his shoulder blades before it touched the water.

"Nobody has seen me in here," he said.

"I know."

"If I turn around and you laugh, I'll drown you."

"If I laugh, I'll let you."

Harry turned.

He was already naked.

A faint silver sheen lay along his ribs and hips, where the skin caught the starlight.

James did not laugh.

He crossed the tiles in three steps and took Harry's face in both hands.

"You're beautiful," he said. "Get in the water."

Harry went down the steps into the pool, shaking.

James followed in his clothes and pulled him up against the wall.

The water closed around their waists, cold and then warm, as Harry's Tidecall woke around them.

James kissed him hard.

Harry's mouth opened under his at once, and Harry's fingers dug into his shoulders.

"Take my shirt off," James said.

Harry stripped him with wet clumsy hands and threw the shirt onto the tiles.

James lifted him by the thighs and sat him on the pool's lip with his legs spread.

Then he knelt in the water between them.

"Don't hold back," James said.

He took Harry's cock in his mouth, all of it, and Harry swore in a long cracked breath.

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