Page 18 of Call of the Fathoms (Deep Waters #4)

Eighteen

Alexia

T iny sparks filled her vision in stunning numbers. She’d never thought to see the ocean look like this before. All she knew was what surrounded Tau, and there was very little there. Only the few meager plants that grew around the edges of the city, and of course, Harlow’s small section of false ocean.

As Fortis drew her through the sparkling lights, she caught one of them in her hands and stared down at the little glow. “Harlow had a space beside her bedroom. She liked to fill it with all manner of creatures.”

He tensed at her back, all the muscles of his chest hardening. “I saw them. The creatures she has within that cage will not survive long. They were not meant to be trapped so deep.”

She knew that. She’d watched the dolphins wither and die, even though they had access to air and food. Something in them just gave up. She supposed, in a way, she had done the same. After all, there was only so much she could survive before it just wasn’t worth it anymore. Some part of her had wanted to fight, though, and thus she had been nothing more than a tool for Harlow to use. At least, until Alexia had been given a taste of freedom.

Biting her lips, she nodded. No response was right. Those creatures hadn’t deserved the fate they were given, and they hadn’t deserved to suffer just because Harlow liked pretty things.

Then Fortis rolled with her until her back was pressed against his chest and it felt like she was lying on top of him. For a moment, she struggled. This felt far too intimate, and she liked it a little too much. But he grabbed her forehead and forced her to look above them.

Her mouth dropped open.

Hundreds of jellyfish floated above them. So many that she couldn’t even guess at a correct number. They were all glowing bright blue in the light, floating through the water in a current that only barely stirred them. No tentacles floated below them, or at least, not many that she could see. They were little soft balls that appeared to bounce into each other, bumping and rocking through the waves as they tried to settle.

“They’re beautiful,” she said. She tried very hard to stay still as one came closer. She could see now that it wasn’t just a glowing ball of light. There were patterns within it. The outside edges refracted the light, giving it a strange bubble-like quality. The interior had a little flower shaped glow as well. Five concentric circles, all overlapping so they looked like petals.

The outside of the jellyfish undulated in the water, and then it bumped against her chest. She froze, fearing the creature might sting her, even though she was wearing a wetsuit.

“Fortis?” she asked as nerves tingled underneath her skin. “Are these going to hurt me?”

He chuckled and leaned forward. The gills on the side of his neck slid against the top of her head, and she swore she could feel him inhaling against her hair. “Nervous, virago?”

“I don’t want to get stung.”

“They will not sting you. These are not the kind of jellyfish that harm, although I find it interesting that you believe I would bring you somewhere you would get hurt.”

She cleared her throat. Perhaps he was right. There was no reason for her to distrust him at this point, and they were working on that now, weren’t they? He wanted her to trust him more, and she...

For her entire life, Alexia had been told to trust no one. She was a pillar of confidence, sometimes even bordering on arrogance, because that was who she was trained to be. She leaned on no one. She trusted no one. She did not speak to anyone about any feelings or fears.

Alexia was a starving woman, and he offered her a bounty that was hard to deny.

Pulling off the glove of her wetsuit, she danced her fingers on top of the jellyfish’s bubble. It was soft, just like she’d thought. But rubbery, as well. There was a tension to it that didn’t quite make sense. As though the jellyfish itself was covered in a thin layer that was rather thick and sturdy.

“Strange,” she whispered, before nudging the little beast back to all the others that were floating in the water. “I didn’t think it would feel like that.”

“Do you want to feel the rest?”

Yes.

No .

She shouldn’t. It would only encourage her to discover new things to experience. Alexia was so afraid that he’d eventually send her back to Tau. Filling her mind with moments like this would only make it seem like she could stay here. Like there was a chance that she wouldn’t have to go back to being so cold.

“Are you afraid?” he murmured, that deep voice rumbling through her spine and shaking her entire body.

“No, I am not afraid.”

But she was. She was terrified. Not of the jellyfish, but of what this moment would eventually do to her.

Fortis held her loosely as he swam them up through the jellyfish. His arm around her waist was no longer a prison, but there in guidance as he swam with her into the middle of all these jellyfish. Her heart thundered in her chest, although she did not understand why it would. The jellyfish weren’t hurting her. This wasn’t fear, it was...

“I can feel your heart against my hand.” His fingers slid just underneath her breast, and for a moment, something else flashed in her mind.

She wanted him to cup her. She wanted to arch against those webbed fingers, to feel the power of his hand as he touched her, kneaded her breast, flicked those dangerous claws over the hardened tips. Even in cold water, it made her entire body flash with heat.

“It’s excitement you’re feeling.” His deep voice sent her mind spinning. She loved the vibration of the sound that made her entire body tingle with some emotion she couldn’t name. “I can smell every single one of your emotions when you’re in the water. Achromos always project how they feel. Your fear is acrid and biting, but this is warm and welcoming. You want to seek them out. You want to touch them.”

She wanted him to touch her. It wasn’t a realization she was proud of, but it was the truth. His hands were so close to where she wanted him. His other hand was on her hip, a branding white hot heat that she wanted to slide down between her thighs.

Alexia had only seen sex regarding other people. Harlow and her many partners still needed to be protected, especially in moments of passion where they were completely weak. Alexia had been trained to be passive in all moments. She kept her eyes on the walls, ignoring the sounds they made and the wet slaps of flesh. But she had never been allowed to indulge in such things herself. Frankly, she’d never wanted to.

The medication they gave her made everything so dull. Sex had never been intriguing. Until now. Until her entire body seemed to come alive all at once and a pressure between her thighs made itself hard to ignore.

And then, mortifyingly so, he took a deep breath.

His hand loosened on her hip, and then clenched so hard she swore she felt the bone creak. “But that,” he murmured, his words slow and drawn out. “That I do not recognize.”

Fuck. Could he smell her arousal?

This was the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to her. Not only because he knew she was aroused, but because an undine was making her feel that way. Of all the times in her life when she could have been interested in a sexual partner, right now was the choice her body made? With a massive, finned monster who brought her to see jellyfish?

She struggled out of his arms and this time, he let her go. She didn’t look back to see his expression because she didn’t want to know if he had figured it out. What if he realized that she wanted him? That the scent he was smelling was...

No, it was too embarrassing to even think. Cheeks burning, she swam away from him through the hundreds of jellyfish that bumped against her sides. Somehow, that helped. The cool water chilling her body grounded her. The rubbery texture of the little creatures around her was a stark difference to the heated thoughts in her mind.

She took a few deep breaths, trying to make it so that her heart wasn’t thundering in her chest anymore. He’d said that was excitement, and she definitely understood that now.

Those feelings in her body were so strange. Overwhelming, almost. She hadn’t ever thought of someone like that before.

Blowing out a few more breaths, she grounded herself in the water and then turned back toward him. But Fortis was gone. The space where she’d left him was obvious. There were fewer jellyfish in that area, although many were already closing in the gap that he’d left behind.

But where...

A clawed hand dragged down her spine. The tips didn’t quite break through her wetsuit, but she could feel them. Icy points that made every hair on her body stand up, and not in a bad way.

“What is that scent, virago? It is not one I have smelled from one of your kind before.” His voice was a low, aching growl.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I think you do.” He circled her, that tail coiling around her until she was surrounded by him. The sight of all those jellyfish disappeared as he wrapped her up in him.

She watched as his gills flared wide and he drew more water through them. Thin gills fluttered like he was quite literally rubbing the scent of her onto them and then they stood out at all angles. Even the fins along his face and hips spread wide, shaking in the water so powerfully that it almost appeared as though air bubbles were being created around them.

She had no idea what was happening to him, but she was lost in that dark gaze.

“Virago,” he growled.

There was no arguing with a man like this, not when she could see that he’d lost control. He was an animal at best, a beast at worst. Something about the scent of her arousal had enraged him. Or maybe it had just loosened something deep in his chest so that now he was an unhinged beast.

She swallowed hard. “I’m not going to tell you, Fortis.”

A sound rumbled in the depths of his chest. And fuck, he was so big. Bigger than she remembered now that his tail was tightening, twining around her and pressing down on all angles of her body.

But even that felt good. The pressure of his tail, the texture of scales sliding against her wetsuit, even the strange feeling of him moving against the back of her bare hand. All of it made her want to grab onto him. It made her want to draw him closer to her, to see what it would be like if she just pressed her lips to his chest, or if he pressed his lips to many other places on her body like she had seen so many do to Harlow.

He drew her ever closer, and those gills fluttering even harder. For a moment, staring into his black eyes, she didn’t even see him anymore. She was used to a calm, collected, perhaps even heartless at times, undine who had pushed her. This was not that man. His black eyes were completely and utterly vacant of recognition.

As his tail tightened even more, she soon was pressed against his chest. Then his hands came up, curling behind her shoulders and holding her firmly against him. The lights of the jellyfish glowed behind him, turning his face into a shadow that stared into her very soul with a hunger that burned right through her.

Another low growl, this one a warning. She remained frozen in his grip as his face descended closer and closer to hers, the fins on the sides of his face vibrating so fast they were a blur.

“What is that smell, virago?” he asked again, although his voice was little more than a nightmarish monster.

This shouldn’t turn her on as much as it did. She knew it wasn’t helping the situation, but she was intensely turned on right now. She was always the biggest person in the room. Even among the other guards, and the men who had been genetically enhanced as well, she was the same height. Never in her life had she felt small or delicate or even that anyone could overpower her.

But she felt all of those things and more right now.

She couldn’t wiggle her hands free, but she could lean forward until her lips almost ghosted against his through the thin membrane of her breathing apparatus. She could feel the heat of his body and was certain he could feel hers. “I’m not going to tell you, Fortis. Now snap out of it.”

Another growl.

“Stop. Soon enough, you’ll be back to yourself and you’re going to be so embarrassed, Fortis. I don’t want to know what you are like embarrassed. Please.” The last word nearly brought their lips together.

She couldn’t stop staring into his eyes until he tilted his head. And then there was a slow glide of something warm, ridged, and slick along her neck. Had he just…

The same time he groaned, she leaned back as far as she could. He chased her with his mouth, as though he didn’t want to let her go. Not yet. As though he hunted for the taste he hadn’t gotten enough of.

She wanted that, too. Alexia licked her lips as though she could already taste him, and those black eyes followed the movement of her tongue with rapt attention.

“Pink,” he murmured, like the word was reverent in some way.

And then she watched it all fall away from him. The madness seeped out into the sea and he settled back into himself. With that came the horror at what he had done.

His tail whipped away from her so quickly that she spun in the water three times before she settled. She was facing away from him again, but maybe that was easier for the both of them. After whatever... that was, maybe they both needed a little time.

A rush of water slapped against her back, as though he had cleared out his gills and was forcibly getting rid of her scent. If that was even how he was smelling anything.

The action made her go cold. Whatever had happened, it wasn’t because he had wanted it. Maybe it was some undine thing that made them go a little feral when they knew a woman was... interested. Fuck, this was awkward.

She gestured ahead of her, even though he couldn’t see her arms. “I’m just going to explore.”

“I didn’t mean to... That is... It wasn’t...” Another explosion of water against her back and then a flick of his tail beneath her legs. “I will return.”

She was sure he would. Otherwise, she’d just let herself sink to the bottom of the sea in the hopes that she would forget all this had even happened.