Page 34 of Call of the Fathoms (Deep Waters #4)
Thirty-Four
Fortis
H e was surprised they’d done it. For a while there, it had felt like touch and go. But his people had seen reason, largely because of her arguments and because of his belief that the future was right. He knew they were fearful that Alexia was going to kill him. But he also didn’t care.
Fortis had made peace with his future long ago, and now he was lucky enough to see it come to life. He knew what was going to happen, unlike so many people who did not. He knew where he would end and how it would end. Life hadn’t always been that easy.
But now, he was just elated. After all that he had done in his life, and all the things he would leave behind, he had completed the greatest deed. He had brought his people to glory. Soon, they would battle with Tau and with the depthstriders’ help, he was certain they would win. Tau would fall. The most evil of the human cities would tumble into oblivion, and the rest was in the hands of those he trusted.
Already Mira and Anya had figured out ways to work with the humans in the cities, to convince them they could trust his people and that there was plenty of use in a partnership. They were ready to work with each other. Even the depthstriders.
A laugh burst free from his lips as he soared through the currents, disappearing into the sea as the other depthstriders were left far behind them. He hadn’t felt this free in such a long time. He hadn’t known what it was like to feel the weight of all his responsibilities and fear of the future disappear from his shoulders.
Was this what others felt like near the end? The elation of giving up the weight of life? It was maddening and so perfect.
“What are you laughing about?” Alexia asked.
“My end is near,” he replied with another chuckle. “It is a good feeling.”
“I have never met someone so excited for their own death.” She shook her head, her hands moving against his arms as they smoothed across his biceps. “Do you really believe I’m going to kill you?”
“Yes, of course. It has been seen by many people. My story has always had an end, and I’ve known it for many years now. It was odd to see you after so many years wondering who was going to be the one to end my life.” He squeezed her a little tighter, turning away from the village and heading out into the deep sea. “I’m glad it’s you. If it had to be anyone, I’m quite pleased to know that you are the one who will hold the blade.”
She frowned up at him. “I know you have proven to me a great many impossible things. But I find it so hard to believe that I would ever hurt you. I haven’t believed in your ability to see the future before, and I don’t intend to believe it now.”
“Maybe you won’t have a choice. In your belief or your ability to prevent my death.” He could see that happening. Her people were dastardly, and their plans often hurt many people. “If you have to choose between me and everyone else in the sea, then you must kill me. If it will stop the plan that we have spent so much time building, then you have to do what it takes. Yes?”
She took a deep breath. “I suppose. But I don’t want to kill you.”
“You are strong enough to do so. Maybe that’s why you were brought into our current and why the sea believed you could help us.” There, in the distance, he could already see the facility he had brought her to before. It felt right to bring her to this place where he had realized just how serious he felt about her, and how much he wanted her.
“I don’t...” She paused, and then nodded. “If that’s what it takes.”
They both knew that they would never be together for a long time. He had to believe that to be the truth. Fortis had done everything in his power to keep himself separate from her. She deserved to not mourn him after he left, at least not for a long time. If he was capable of learning this lesson to live when loved ones were gone, then she was capable of it as well.
He entered the area where the ships would have sailed through, his fins trailing along the bottom as he gently propelled them into the space. Then it was so easy to lift her out of the water and sit her on the edge of the facility with all that glass and cool blue light behind her.
Alexia was quick to remove her helmet. The braid of her dark hair was freed, swinging against her face and playing on the harsh edges of her features. She was right here, in that strange metal suit, waiting for him to do whatever he wanted.
Fortis planted his palms on either side of her hips, leveraging himself out of the water so he could loom above her.
“You told me that if you knew you were going to die, you would want to live as much as you could before it happened. Now, I bring you back here to ask...” He paused before correcting himself, “To beg you to indulge me.”
“Indulge you?” she asked, her pupils blowing out until her eyes were as black as his. “What do you want me to indulge you in, Fortis?”
He didn’t have the words to say it. He wanted her to know that he was obsessed with her. That after their moments here, all he had thought about were the little moans she had made, the way her waist would fit so perfectly in his hand. He wanted to lick every single scar that covered her body and slide his tongue between her thighs.
Fortis wasn’t sure how to ask for it, though. He hadn’t explored his desires in years. He knew women were complicated, no matter what species they were. There was a lot he could ask of her, and there were ways he could ask without touching her.
Seeing the heat in her gaze helped. She looked at him like she wanted to eat him alive, and she’d been looking at him like that like that for a while now. All he had to do was trust that the two of them were more compatible than he thought.
“Take off your suit,” he said, his voice little more than a growl. “I want to see you again, virago. But this time, I want to see all of you.”
“Are you certain about this?” she asked. “Even if I’m the one who is going to kill you?”
“I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”
It was the truth, and he hoped she could hear that in his voice. He wanted her to know that he desired her beyond reason, beyond any of his training or understanding of how he should feel. He’d spent so many years hating her kind, and especially the people from her city and yet... One look at her and he was weak.
Alexia pushed back from the water and stood. The suit was easier to take off than he thought it would be. She hooked her fingers into deep grooves on the sides and slowly took off first the chest plate, then the arms. They thudded onto the ground hard in harsh clangs that echoed around the room and bounced off the glass. Then she leaned down to take the same armor off her legs, leaving her in nothing but a tight fitting wetsuit.
His gaze feasted on the strength of her thighs and the broad power of her shoulders. Every part of her showcased the power that filled her form. There was no reason for her to be so strong, especially after all he had done to her. Starvation might have made her slightly more weak, but it did not show in the way she stood there, staring at him with heated eyes.
Then she lifted her hands and peeled off the wetsuit. Fortis had to grip the edge of the floor so he didn’t lunge across the room and devour her. She revealed pale, strong shoulders with mounds of muscles on them. Dotted with scars, she was a vision of power. Then that fabric revealed her breasts as well.
He had forgotten how captivating they were. She was beyond stunning, with those small breasts peaked with blush pink. He’d only seen coral that color before, and even then, they were never so tempting to lick.
More skin, more hard edges and long lines. Her abs were as defined as his own, although they were mottled with scars and what looked like scorch marks. He’d not seen those when he had been coaching her through fingering herself, but he also realized that his attention had been elsewhere.
Already, he could feel himself hardening behind his scales. His body wanted to surge forward, foreplay be damned. He wanted to plunge himself into her and know what it was like to be inside a woman as warm and wet as she had described herself.
He wanted her, plain and simple. And the sight of her leaning down to peel that wetsuit off her legs, the profile of the hard mounds of her glutes, nearly made him lose all reason.
Why was it he felt like an animal with her? He’d never been like this with his wife. He’d always been able to separate what they were doing and the reasoning for it. Oh, there had been some pleasure, but never like this.
Never had he felt desire gnawing at his mind, surging through it like there was another beast within him. The logical side of his mind told him to ease her through this, as he had before. To tell her with his lips and teeth and tongue that he wanted her beyond anything else on this planet. But the beast inside of him wanted to leap out of the water, grab her neck between his jaws, and rut into her until they were both screaming.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, he kept his gaze on her as she stood.
He could see the hesitation in her eyes. She didn’t want him to think that she was lesser because of how she looked. And that broke his heart.
“You are beautiful,” he murmured, the words aching as his throat seemed to close around them. “So incredibly beautiful.”
She clearly didn’t know what to do with her hands. Alexia smoothed them down her stomach, perhaps a way to ease her nerves, but for him all it did was draw his attention down her hairless body. She was perfection personified. How did she not know this?
“Virago. May I touch you?”
Her throat worked in a swallow. “What are you going to do when you touch me?”
He could feel the heat flare through him at those words. Then every gill on his body stood up straight, fluttering with all the energy and need within him. “Everything, Alexia. I’m going to do everything.”
Her cheeks turned bright red, the color spreading down her chest. “Oh, well, if that’s all you’re going to do.”
He didn’t have any patience for her sass right now. Pulling himself out of the water, he slid across the floor and grabbed onto her. Gently, he tumbled her onto the cold tile so he could loom above her.
Icy droplets of water fell from his shoulders, and each one of them rolling across her skin like pearls. Fortis leaned down to catch one that pooled in her collarbone, his dark tongue tracing along the soft skin there as though he had found his own treasure in the movement.
A low groan echoed through his chest. “You taste so sweet.”
And she did. Like spun sugar and smoke, that made him want to taste more of her. So taste he did.
She had given him permission, and he took what she offered. And more. He wanted everything that she knew she wanted and everything she didn’t know she wanted. He moved down her chest, licking and sucking at her skin until he finally reached the pebbled peak of her breast. Licking around it, he reveled in the sound of her moan that echoed through the room.
She didn’t care if she was loud, and he loved that about her. The song of her passion let him know what she liked.
“Has anyone ever touched you here?” he asked, even though he knew the answer.
“No. Only you.”
“Good. We’re going to find out what you like, Alexia. And if I remember correctly...” He bit down on her nipple, hard enough that she let out a little squeal and arched off the floor.
But when he looked up into her shocked gaze, she was staring at him with even more red on her features. She’d liked that. She’d enjoyed the slight edge of pain.
Good, she was going to likely feel it once he figured out how to put them together.
Fortis took his time playing with her, alternating between her breasts as he bit and licked and sucked. He had her writhing underneath him in only moments, but he wanted more than that.
Gliding webbed hands down her sides, he felt for every place that made her whisper out a, “Don’t stop. Right there. Yes, that feels so good.”
Finally, finally, he allowed himself to slide his webbed fingers between her folds and seek out that warm, wet heat she had described. Fuck, she hadn’t been wrong in that descriptor. She was dripping between her thighs, and though that felt very strange to feel, he couldn’t help but want to touch more of it. Leaning down, he licked his way up her neck all the way to her mouth.
“Kiss me again, virago. Like you did in the sea.”
She wasn’t hesitant about her pleasure. Alexia ground herself against his webbed hand, and he had to make sure his claws were nowhere near her. He could easily cut her, and she wasn’t looking out for herself. But then she wrapped an arm around his neck and drew him down for a vicious kiss, and it was hard for him to think of anything else. Her tongue tangled with his, rubbing over the ridges and bumps that covered it.
She moaned into his mouth, riding his hand toward her own oblivion. “You feel so good.”
“I’m going to feel much better soon. I wanted to ease you into this, but I cannot wait to taste you.”
“Taste me?” She was breathing hard, staring down the length of her own body as he suddenly moved until his face was between her legs.
Ah, her scent here was divine. Thick and earthy, feminine, just as he knew she would be. All his to devour. Fortis licked his lips, staring at the deep pink and red of her folds before he dove in.
Why describe to her what he was going to do, when he could just show her?
Her flavor exploded on his tongue, and he groaned into her flesh. The ridges of his tongue slid along her slit, finding a nub at the top that seemed to make her arch more than the rest.
Even though she was larger than the average human, he knew she was going to be tight. He had to make sure she was prepared to take him. He had to make sure she would survive this encounter, even though it might hurt a little.
Humans were delicate, he reminded himself as a haze appeared in front of his eyes while he tongued her. His jaws ached to open even wider, draw her deeper into his mouth until he was coated with the taste of her. He wanted to spread her across his chest, bury her beneath his scales, so he would never forget this moment as her thighs trapped his head between them.
It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough.
Grabbing onto her hips so hard his claws drew blood, he looked up at her and waited until her gaze met his. “Breathe,” he reminded her, before plunging his tongue deep inside her pussy.