Elizabeta Brooke: Never: an erotic retelling of Peter Pan

In any case, he'd failed. Failed Skye and failed Wendee.

At least when he'd been with Skye there'd been hope. With freedom, he could have devised a way of rescuing Wendee.

Now his life was defined by frustration — not only at his imprisonment, but because the means of his physical release had been withdrawn. The raging tide of his sexual appetite, awoken by Wendee and partially appeased by Skye, was out of control. He lived in a state of almost constant arousal and no amount of self-manipulation lessened his anguish. In fact, the more he touched himself, the more sensitive and aroused he became. Erections followed hard on the heels of ejaculations and there seemed to be nothing he could do to halt the feverish spiral.

At times, he completely forgot the reasons he'd wanted to rescue Wendee — the plans he'd made for their future. He couldn't remember their conversations or the uncanny way she had of guessing what he was about to say. All he could think of was sinking his burning cock into her and churning that soft, clinging flesh until he was screaming from the pleasure.

A fear that Belle's spirit had touched him and twisted his mind weighed heavily on him. He imagined the most terrible things — imagined Wendee, the woman he loved, in the caves where Skye had been. In his mind there were no others in the caves. No Nick or Tony, Mack or Josh. Certainly no Christophe. Only Long Shadow, taking what he wanted, forcing her to his pleasure, hurting her.

In his more rational moments, Long Shadow knew this was jealousy at work — his mind combating the image of her with DeMartande. But at other times he was totally lost to the fantasy, his teeth gritting painfully as he jerked at his penis in a parody of stabbing it into Wendee.

He wanted her so badly he could taste it. Yet he was frightened of what he might do if he had her.

This day, it seemed, he was about to find out.

Tony and Nick entered his cell at the normal dinner hour, but instead of bringing food, they shoved him roughly against the wall and chained him there, laughing at the rampant erection their actions precipitated.

"If we'd brought Josh with us," Nick said, squeezing Long Shadow's hard flesh insolently, "he'd have made a meal of this."

"Let me go, you animal," Long Shadow snarled.

Nick squeezed cruelly, then to Long Shadow's horror, the Greek boy began to stroke his erection, pulling on the aching flesh with the expertise only another man could possess. "Missing the blonde bitch, are we?" he said to Long Shadow. "You like a hot tongue running over your dick, do you? Tell me, did she suck your balls, Chief? I taught her that."

Long Shadow made a harsh grating noise deep in his throat. He could feel it. He was going to come.

"Stand back," Nick intoned. "Old faithful's about to blow."

Long Shadow could feel his scrotum filling — the imminence of his ejaculation. He tried desperately to think of something bad, something frightening, but the first thing that came into his head was a vision of Skye kneeling in front of him that first time.

It was the wrong thought, not that it would have made any difference. Long Shadow had no resistance to sexual stimuli. He clenched his buttocks as tightly as he could but the stream of hot ejaculate shot out just the same.

"Th'ar she blows," Nick crowed gleefully, still tugging on the flesh.

Humiliated, Long Shadow stared at a point just over Nick's shoulder, hating the familiar kick of sensation that accompanied the orgasm.

"Didn't know you were a faggot, did you?" Nick taunted, giving his penis a last painful tug before slapping it back against his thigh. "We'll bring Chris with us next time and you can poke his skinny ass. You'd like that, wouldn't you, Chief?" Nick came closer to whisper, "Or maybe you'd rather suck him off. Nothing like the taste of virgin dick. Wendee sure as hell liked it. Better than yours I'll bet."

Tony laughed at that but Long Shadow stared at the wall, his teeth gritted together so tightly his jaw ached. He knew Nick was trying to get a rise out of him, a reason to rough him up. But he had to think of Wendee — had to stay alive if he wanted to rescue her.

"Shut up. Shut up." Tony grabbed his brother's arm. His other hand was pressed against his ear. Long Shadow watched, knew he was listening to his voice-comm. After a minute, Tony's shoulders straightened. "Acknowledged." Then to his brother, "The boss is on his way. We gotta clear out."

Nick smirked across at Long Shadow. "And I was just starting to have fun."

Long Shadow glared back, his lips pressed together to stop himself saying anything.

"Keep that dick handy, Chief," Nick taunted as Tony pushed him out the door. "We'll be back."

The door slid closed and Long Shadow was alone. He wanted to shout at the closed door that he'd gouge Nick's heart out with his bare hands, but he didn't.

DeMartande was coming. He had to think.

How could he use this visit to his advantage? DeMartande would want to know what had precipitated his disobedience. Could he blame his stupidity on Skye? She was out of their reach now. It might work.

At least DeMartande's suspicions about his feelings for Wendee would have been side-tracked by his fight to save Skye. If he could build on that, assure DeMartande that he'd been temporarily infatuated with Skye — that he could be trusted again…

There was a noise outside, then the door slid open. Long Shadow steeled himself to use any opportunity that came his way.

DeMartande stood at the doorway, staring in at his prisoner. For a moment his attention drifted to his side and Long Shadow wondered who was with him. Mr Black? Josh? He hoped it wasn't Tony or Nick. If it was Christophe he stood a better chance. Christophe liked him. They'd become friends. There was a lever there he could use.

"Long Shadow," DeMartande acknowledged as he stepped over the threshold.

"My Liege," Long Shadow replied, forcing his eyes to stay on DeMartande and not stray to the dark shadow stepping in behind him.

"You disappointed me, Long Shadow." DeMartande brushed the sleeve of his coat and then deigned to look up at his servant. "Do you have an excuse?"

This was his opportunity. Long Shadow couldn't have arranged it any better if he'd written the script. "Yes, my Liege. I was hypnotised. She mesmerised me with sex. I didn't know what I was doing."

He wanted to add that DeMartande of all people should understand that, but he didn't. Better not to push his luck.

"I see. And this woman," DeMartande took a step forward. "This Skye. Why was she so special to you? Did you love her?"

"I thought I did." Long Shadow apologised to Wendee in his heart for the lie. "I'd never felt that way before. When she touched me, I — "

"You were blinded by lust?"

Long Shadow was momentarily distracted by the person in the heavy cloak drifting out of the shadows of the cell to come and stand behind DeMartande. Very closely behind he noticed, but this was out of his peripheral vision. He kept his eyes glued to DeMartande's — knew he must sound sincere. "I could think of nothing but her mouth."

"Quite a paradox," DeMartande said. "You loved her, yet you forced her to actions we both know she didn't want. Why did you do that?"

Long Shadow thought of his love for Wendee — his desire to hurt her out of jealousy — tried to link the two into a plausible excuse for his treatment of Skye. "I was jealous of the men who had taken her before. I wanted to punish her for…" Long Shadow trailed off, his eyes drifting down to the movement he'd seen.

Whomever was under the cloak had their hand down the front of DeMartande's pants.

"I understand completely," DeMartande said, his voice barely audible. Long Shadow watched him close his eyes. "I too am jealous. But in my case, it seems I am to be the one punished, not the woman who has aroused my jealousy."