STORY EXCERPT

The lake was quiet. No sign of monsters. Furio stopped to rest. He was located almost in the center of the lake, in a nice silence. Before Bolsena there was much more going on. Fixing his eyes from the glare, he could see some boats that dragged those kinds of hanging gliders and a ferry to the main island. But this part of the lake was peaceful. If he were a monster with the sole desire to eat some eels and be left in peace, he would come to swim here.

The sun beat down on him. He had not thought to take sunscreen, and his face, nose, and shoulders would be red as peppers when he returned. Furio wet his hand in freshwater and passed it on his hot face then began to paddle toward the strip of land.

Suddenly, a current shook his kayak. A large, white shape appeared through the dark water under him, and a shiver ran down his sweaty back. Furio stopped paddling, frantically scanning the water. What a stupid idea, he thought. The kayak was so light that it wasn’t much better than being in the lake. He was too scared to think of awakening the Nikon from standby mode. He simply sat there, scared to death, his breath coming out fast from his parted lips.

And here it was, the white shape. It made a big semicircle and then started to point directly toward him.

“Oh, fuck,” Furio said.

The white mass was approaching at high speed, raising up a threatening hump of lake water.

“Oh, FUCK,” Furio repeated and put the paddle in the water with the absurd intention to escape, but the hump of water enveloped him in full.

The kayak tipped over, and he went underwater without holding his breath, inhaling water in fear. A mass of bubbles was against his face. He inhaled more water, until the boat straightened itself and he was out of the water, coughing. All was quiet. The Nikon in the waterproof bag was still attached to the strap across his chest. But he had lost his paddle.

“Oh, great!”

He sighted the paddle three meters toward the island. He began to paddle with his hands in the water to reach it, but the current took it away inexorably.

“No!” he exclaimed. Nothing better than spending the day drifting on the lake, waiting for someone to rescue him. “Fuck, fuck.”

The hump of water formed again, and he held his breath, but the monster pushed the paddle to him and then disappeared. Furio watched the paddle come crashing into the side of his kayak, amazed.

“You really gave me back the paddle?” he questioned aloud. But then he felt stupid. He collected the paddle and held it, determined not to lose it for any reason.

He waited for several minutes in silence, scanning the water around him. But all was quiet.

Was it gone?

Furio coughed again and turned the kayak toward the shore. Nothing.

It seemed that the monster had veered toward the island. So he took two breaths and started to paddle in that direction.

He stopped after a few meters and listened. All was silent. So he started again. A seagull swooping down on the water’s edge made him jump. The damn monster wasn’t in sight.

It seemed that it wanted to play. It simply pushed him, and then he returned the paddle.

No, it wasn’t possible.

Furio came into view of the little, uninhabited island. He began to think that it wasn’t wrong to stop for a bit on something solid that couldn’t be overturned and broken. He paddled to the island, hopeful, but was stunned when he saw wire mesh and a sign saying, Private Property, Access Strictly Prohibited.

Private property? An island?

He watched the islet with interest. He saw no sign of a living soul. No sound. Some bird singing, a seagull flying over, was all. Maybe on the other side he would see the villa of a rich man with two yachts and three Jet Skis, but on this side the little island was deserted and peaceful.

Furio began to paddle to the north to reach the tip of the tongue of land and circumnavigate it. He didn’t want to go too far, but now that he had come, he might as well take a look.

He stopped for a moment to check out the water, but all was quiet. So he continued.

ADULT EXCERPT

“I can walk, really,” Nemel said, worried. “Put me down, please. You can’t do this with your battered leg.”

“Shut up,” Furio said. “No way I’ll let you climb the stairs with those wounds.”

He carried Nemel up the iron stairs to the apartment. His leg hurt, sure, but he wouldn’t let him walk in those conditions.

“Put me on the bed, now,” Nemel said when they finally arrived.

“No,” Furio said. “We have to clean up those wounds from the sand.”

“No, I’m fine, really,” Nemel insisted. “I want to make love again.”

In fact, his cock was hard again as Nemel rubbed his mouth against his beard. “I love your beard,” he said.

Furio was amazed. He had yet to recover from that mind-blowing orgasm. He would need to get some sleep, eat, and wash before having sex again. But Nemel didn’t seem to be able to wait. “First, a shower,” he said.

He lowered Nemel into a standing position in the shower. “Can you stand up? Does it hurt too much?” he asked.

“I can,” Nemel said, leaning against the wall and dragging him into the shower stall.

Nemel adhered to him, rubbing his hard cock on his thigh. Furio’s cock, though, was just reawakening.

“I want you again,” Nemel whispered in his ear, sliding his nails among his chest hairs.

“The water is cold, I warn you.”

Nemel seemed not to have even heard, too busy licking his neck and rubbing his cock against him. Furio opened the tap. The water was very, very cold, and Nemel screamed.

“I told you,” Furio said, laughing.

“You asshole,” Nemel said.

Furio giggled. He thought that a cold shower was just what Nemel needed. But he was wrong. Apparently, Nemel was accustomed to cold water. Furio’s cock was reduced to its minimum, and his testicles wanted to escape and retreat inside his body. Instead Nemel was able to keep a glorious hard-on even under the cold water. However, he leaned against the wall and let Furio soap his body and hair, raising his arms when needed. Then he took the soap and began to lather up the hairs of his chest, looking very thoughtful. Furio didn’t want to linger or both would risk freezing, so he washed his hair and beard, leaving Nemel playing with the hairs on his chest, then rinsed them both well and turned off the water. Furio used the last few towels. He raised Nemel and put him to sit on the toilet lid then cleaned the wounds on his calves with oxygenated water that was in the bathroom cabinet. Nemel would need a medication and some sutures, but he didn’t want to take him to the hospital. There would be too many questions to which they should respond. And then he suspected that the stitches would tear off when, once again, he became a boto at dawn.

“I should go get something to cure your wounds before the shops close. And we also need to eat.”

“No,” Nemel said. “My body heals quickly. I don’t want to be alone on our first night.”

Furio sighed. He raised Nemel to take him to bed. Nemel began again to lick his neck as he rubbed against him. His behavior, in fact, was no different from that of the boto, and his white skin had the same elastic quality, smooth, soft, and hairless.

“I’m sorry,” Nemel said. “It’s the full moon. I absolutely have to fuck all the time.”

“It seems stressful,” Furio said, kissing his damp hair.

“It is,” Nemel said. “I promise I won’t always be this way.”

“It’s not so bad,” Furio said when, after having deposited Nemel on the mattress, he grabbed his cock.

“Yes, but in a few hours you’ll tell me to leave you alone and go away,” Nemel said.

“A few hours?” Furio asked, worried. “You’ll continue like this for a few hours?”

“Darling, I will go on this way throughout the night,” Nemel said, sadly.