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I know it's beeTor grunted, rather irritated. Auntie June had managed to annoy her enough in their short time together to convince her to go to the upper decks. The young woman felt vaguely like a prized mare being paraded through the fair and shown to potential buyers and breeders. Except right now she was on the back end of the ship's uppermost deck, too close to the railing for her own comfort. June was dragging her around, introducing her to men that were close to her age and speaking so highly of "her niece." The man she was currently being introduced to was maybe two or three years older than her, a head-and-a-half shorter--eye level with the middle of her breasts--and heavy in the belly. The way he was eyeing Eric disgusted her.

"Tor is a hoss trainuh and breeduh," June prattled on with the little tidbits of information she had been able to glean. "She's on her wayuh to Settlement right now for the big fayuh."

"How interesting," the man nodded but he wasn't really looking at Tor. "And what about your human? Do you breed him, too?"

"No," Tor said curtly.

"Have you ever rented him out? He could bring in a tidy little sum each time." The man licked his lips.

Tor stepped forward and ground her heel into his toes. "No. Leave me alone."

The man yelped and stumbled backwards. He glared and adjusted his glasses. "You're no lady! I don't know why Auntie is trying to parade you around as one." He spat at her feet.

Tor kicked him in the back of his knees. "I don't like being a lady. Being a woman in a man's world is so much more fun. Now fuck off."

Auntie June t'sked as the man pulled himself to his feet and hightailed it. "Deary, he was puh'fect for you. Why on ea'th wou'yu run him off?"

"Because," Tor groused. "I don't want to have a man. I don't need a man." A low chuckle behind her made her stiffen. Creator, no. Not him. Her vivid purple eyes slid to the side as Bret walked up next to her. "What do you want?"

The tall man just smiled. "I don' want nothin', really. Just a few minutes in some pleasant company is all." He tipped his hat to both women. "Afternoon. How are you, Auntie June?"

June smiled as Tor glared at them both. "Tell me, Auntie June, just how does every single man on this Creator-forsaken boat know you?"

The older woman laughed. "Why, dahlin, I make shuh to greet each and ev'ry man. I have lotsa pretty youn' ladies in my fam'ly. So I take it upon myself to make shuh that I find them a good husban'."

Tor rolled her eyes. "Of course you do," she sniped. "Because a woman can't function without one."

June's gaze sharpened. "Now you listen and you listen good. Jus' because I do my damnedest to see my pretty girls set up with good, wealthy men does not mean I see them raised to be delicate, shrinkin' violets. They can handle their own but they do enjoy a man takin' care of the little things so they are free to do what please their notions. Now, unless you have anythin' else to add, I think I will take my leave for--"

She wasn't able to finish as the boat lurched and Tor stumbled forward into her. Neither woman immediately noticed Eric slip from Tor's shoulder and into the massive amounts of Auntie June's cleavage. He sank into the breasts like quicksand and was quickly submerged in the flesh. Tor straightened herself and had opened her mouth to ask if Eric was alright when another lurch sent her over the railing. She didn't have time to scream before she was in the water. When she remembered to breathe, she took in water instead of oxygen.

Panic quickly set in as her body's natural buoyancy brought her up to the surface. Her head broke through the waves and she hacked up water and inhaled precious air before the weight of her clothes and the current dragged her back under. She kicked her feet wildly and attempted to push the water away so she could get back to surface she could see through the murky water. She just managed to push her face up and take another breath of sweet air before she was driven under again.

Bret watched in mild amusement as Tor went overboard. He figured she would pop back up and climb up the side of the boat looking like a wet cat. When she didn't immediately break the surface, he became slightly concerned. That ebbed somewhat as her head broke the top of the water and she managed a breath only to grow exponentially when she sank back under.

"Can she not swim?" he asked Auntie June.

The older woman shrugged. "I only met her today. I don' know about her swimmin' prowess."

Bret cursed when Tor floundered to the surface and promptly sank once more. He tossed his hat to the deck, dropped his coat and peeled off his boots before pulling himself onto the railing and diving into the river. He powered through the water towards the drowning woman. He wrapped an arm around her and kicked to the surface, pulling her along with him. When the muggy river-air hit his face, he felt Tor's fingers dig into his shoulders and the back of his neck.

"Dammit, woman!" he cursed when she tried to push him under in her desperate attempts to stay above water. He peeled her off and briefly submerged her until she quit struggling so much Then he pulled her back up and looked her in the eye as she coughed up river water. "Calm down. I've got you. Just hang on and I'll get us to the sandbar." The tall man kept one arm wrapped around her waist as he used his free arm and legs to swim the lengths to the sandbar. He hauled himself and the half-drowned Tor onto the beach and let her drop to the beach.

She gasped and coughed, gagging up the water invading her lungs. She muttered something in between wheezes that her rescuer didn't quite catch. He was sprawled on his back in the sand and breathing heavily as well. A little chuckle escaped as he turned to look at damsel he had dragged from the water. Sure enough, she looked like a half-drowned cat. "Care to run that by me again?"

"I hate boats!" she yelled when she got her breath. "I hate boats. I hate them. I hate them!"

"You apparently hate swimming, too," he drawled.

"You would, too, when your brothers would hold you under until you passed out!" she retorted. "When they stranded you on a log in the middle of a river and left you to 'find your own way back,' tied your legs to a stone and dropped you off the boat, you wouldn't want to be anywhere near anything deeper than a tub, either." She pulled herself to her feet and glared down at him. "I was six. Jason was twenty. Brad was nineteen and Thomas was almost nineteen. Don't you dare tell me I deserved what I got. Don't you dare tell me I had it coming. I was a child!"

"Whoa, whoa, take it easy," Bret said, hands held up in a surrender posture. "No one here is gonna say anything like that. Promise. Now just take a deep breath. You got any unusual aches or pains anywhere? Break anything?" His green eyes scanned her sodden form, noting how her clothes clung to her curves and left little to the imagination.

"I'm fine." She turned and looked at the massive ship that was seemingly dead in the water. "Looks like it ran adrift of a sandbar. We'll be stuck for a while." Her eyes doubled in size as she patted down her chest, parted her breasts and did not find a trace of her princeling. "Eric!"

********************
Eric was currently in a situation he both had and had not been in before. While being nestled between a woman's breasts was not uncommon for him, since that was Tor's primary method of storing him when she was walking through places she didn't trust, he had never before been so wholly consumed by them that there was no light and he didn't know up from down. The copious moisture, sweat, his mind supplied, enabled him to slide ever onward in the deep crevasse of breast. He figured he would eventually come to a stop, but he was not prepared when his boot came into contact with something firm and yielding and elicit a noise from whatever he had touched.

"H-hello?" came a shaky voice. Eric was frozen. There was another human in here?! "H-hello? Who's there? Did Auntie June send you to replace me? Because I like my job and I don't want to go anywhere else!"

"Uh, no, no I'm not here to 'replace you.'" Whatever that was. "I fell off my friend's shoulder and landed in Auntie June's cleavage. At least, that's where I'm guessing I am. But who are you?"

"I'm Janella. I'm Auntie June's perfume girl."

"Her what?" Eric couldn't see a thing in the all-encompassing darkness. But he thought he heard a bit of pride in the girl's voice. And suddenly realized that what his feet touched must have been her breasts. He struggled to bring himself closer to where he figured her face was.

"Her perfume girl. You know, I soak in her perfume bottle every night and then during the day she slips me between her breasts and I make them smell good." Her voice was too chipper for Eric's liking. It didn't sound quite right.

"So, you're a pet?" he asked.

"Well, aren't we all?" she replied, as if it was no big deal. "Some of us get better owners and some of us get better jobs but we're all pets anyway. Being her perfume girl is better than those who are sent to clean her lower extremities. Or scrub between her rolls."

"No. We aren't. I'm not." Yes he was. "Tor and I are friends. I don't have to clean out anything of hers. Or do things I don't want to do. And when she puts me between her cleavage, I'm not soaked in perfume and hidden from the light. She has me there to make sure I'm safe. Like a good friend."

There was a small quake in the flesh around him and Eric wondered if the girl had shrugged. "If you say so. But that lump you have pressed against my leg tells me you like being hidden away from the light in between a woman's breasts. So maybe your owner should do it more often."

Eric felt his face heat up as the walls around them shook and trembled. Auntie June was moving. He thought he heard her speak, but everything was so muffled by the amounts of flesh he was entombed in that he wasn't sure what she was saying. "I-I-I mean, of course I like breasts! Any red blooded male does. This is like Paradise! It's amazing. But hot. And wet." Not quite like his fantasies. "I think my clothes are soaked."

The female giggled. "Uh-huh. But thanks to me and my job, they won't smell bad!"

Eric's face was still burning and he tried to switch topics. "Why is the air in here fresh? Not stale?"

"That's easy! Auntie June runs a small tube from between her breasts, just a few feet ahead, around to the outside of the dress. So there's always good air right here and I don't suffocate. She's such a caring owner."

"If she's so caring, then why does she stick you down here to begin with?"

"Because, silly, I have to pay back her kindness somehow! And this is a very simple way."

Before Eric could respond, massive digits slid between the breasts, grabbed him and hauled him up to the blinding light from above. Sure enough, he was wet and sporting an easily identifiable swelling in his pants. But those thoughts faded away as he was clutched in familiar hands and pressed tightly into a sodden shirt. "Tor?! What happened?"

But Tor didn't hear him speak. She was too busy glaring at June. "Don't touch him again!"

June arched a brow at the soaked woman in front of her. "My, what a way to show gratuhtude to the woman who saved yo' pet's life."

Tor snorted. "He could have suffocated between your breasts and you just left him there! Some saving."

The older woman rolled her eyes. "Such a tempa. Calm you'self, child. Go change intuh somethin' dry and warm before you catch yo' death a' cold."

Tor cast June one more dirty look before stomping off. She was done being sociable and being paraded around. She would change, change Eric, curl up in her bunk and not come out until the ship was safely docked on the other side of the river.n a couple weeks... But here.

Chapter End Notes:

Sorry for the wait! First, Tor wasn't cooperating. Then, Eric decided to stall. I finally got them working with me and this is all I get. Oh well. Soon enough we'll be back in their comfort zones (sort of) and the story will continue. Hopefully with slightly longer chapters. Also, #taxationistheft Just throwing that out there.

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