Page 13 of Dry as a Fish (Chaos God Sugar and Spice Companion Shorts #3)

Chapter

Ten

SLOANE

I t took a moment for his words to sink through the flush of heat that had enveloped my body.

The swim over here had been... so... wanton.

I knew what he was doing the moment his hand ran down my thigh, and I let him do it.

The desperate need between my legs had twinged with every touch of his body, and I just let him do that to me, bringing me to a peak that was both deeply satisfying and unfulfilling.

I needed more, so much more. What he gave me was a familiar taste of what I had found for myself, quietly in my own bed when everyone was asleep.

I knew that there was pleasure to be found like that, but to realize how easily another person could bring me to that place was eye-opening.

What would it be like if I let him do more?

I really wanted to find out.

"Wait, did you say a trap?" I asked, my mind suddenly catching up with his words.

I looked around the large cavern. The walls weren't made of the same solid turquoise glowing rock; instead, the turquoise crystals speckled bare rock, like someone had taken a paintbrush and splattered the surface with them, making it a star-strewn copy of the night sky.

The whole cavern floor was covered in a thick moss.

There was a raised edge of a large pink raised rock in the center of the room, taking up most of it, and I could see the glimmer of water with steam rising from the center of it. Was that a raised pool?

"A trap for your heart," he said.

I looked back over at him, and he was grinning at me like a cat that had gotten into the cream, self-satisfied and mischievous.

He was flirting with me. I felt hot, bothered, and quite a bit confused.

He had to know what he did to me on the swim over, right?

If he did, why was he flirting with me? I'd already shown him that he could get what he wanted from me, that I was the kind of girl my parents always warned me I could become.

I felt ashamed and excited, the conflicting emotions twisting around one another.

"What is it?" I asked, gesturing at the large, steaming pool.

"Go look," he said as he shifted his weight, rolling his tail over the moss as if to absorb the water.

I took a step, almost tripping over one of the fins that encumbered my feet.

I glared down at them. They were attached to the suit, and I couldn't remove them without shimmying out of the whole thing, but I didn't have anything on underneath.

I looked around the room, realizing there were no towels or sarongs or anything anywhere.

I took a few more awkward steps, making it over to the edge of the pool.

I peered down into it, realizing the pink edge was just the tip of the iceberg.

It was a large, deep, hot pool carved into a massive pink rock, the water streaming into it from the far wall of the cavern, and running out of the pool in a small stream that led down into the opening we'd climbed up.

I couldn't see the bottom in the center of it, just a dark hole.

I ran my finger along the edge and, on an impulse, lifted my finger to lick it.

"Is it salt?" I asked.

"It's a salt soak tub that I made," he said from behind me. "I found the hot spring streaming from the wall and the salt deposit. It took me ages to carve the pool, but selling the chunks I've brought out of here has provided a lot for my family and community."

I took in the size of the pool. I was no stranger to hard work, and it was clear that he wasn't either if he had carved this entire thing out by hand himself.

"You did this all yourself?" I asked.

"It was a surprise for my heartsong," he said. "It was important that I do it on my own."

I turned to look back at him.

He was standing there, naked, with a piece of moss in his hand held in front of his crotch.

His body was so beautiful, carved and glimmering in the light, displaying the strength and dedication of a man who used his body to its maximum potential.

That smouldering heat inside of me flared, burning brighter, and I shifted, pressing my thighs together as if I could stem the tide of my desire.

"No sarongs?" I asked.

He looked embarrassed. "It's been just me coming here. I should have thought to stock it in advance. I can go back and get some while you enjoy the water."

He took a step towards the opening.

"No," I said, my voice sounding rough and raspy in my own ears. I cleared my thoughts. "No, please stay. "

I undid the top of the wetsuit and began to pull it down over my shoulders.

His entire body went completely still as he focused on me with every inch of his attention.

"Sloane," he said, his voice soft, with more meaning in that word than if he had written pages of poetry.

I slid the wet fabric down over one of my arms, then the other, holding it pressed against my chest for a moment. He swallowed audibly as he stared at me. I let my arms drop down to my hips, and the fabric blocking my chest fell down, exposing it.

"Sloane," he said again, the heat in his voice a match to the tempest raging within me. "You are so beautiful."

I could feel the flush over my entire body like I'd been dosed in hot water, a joy rushing through me, a delicious delight at being seen and wanted and desired by a man I chose to let see me. But at the same time, part of my heart recoiled from those words. How could he mean that?

"I'm not," I whispered, shaking my head and looking down as I hooked my thumbs over the edge of the wetsuit.

He was only saying that because I was displaying myself to him in a way I was taught never to do.

I'd been brought up to know that males were uncontrollable beasts that would take one look at a naked woman and fall upon her like she was an oasis in the desert.

What I was doing now, stripping in front of him, was me committing to being taken, being used.

I didn't realize he had closed the space between us until I felt his hands on my cheeks, lifting up my face until I gazed up into his eyes.

"Sloane, you are gorgeous," he said. "There isn't an inch of your body that doesn't radiate with your immeasurable soul. You shine from within with a song that has bewitched me and drawn me to you with undeniable attraction."

"But I'm a slut," I said, airing the poison that had rooted in my heart. "Sluts are ugly."

Delphon stroked one thumb over my cheek, his eyes searching mine. "Why do you think that?"

"Because..." I hesitated as too many answers collided with each other on their way to my mouth.

I thought that because running away from my family meant I was a bad person, that there was something wrong with me, because I could stay and be what they wanted me to be, so I was the other thing.

There were only two options for what a woman could be: good or evil.

None of those answers sat right.

How could I be bad for wanting to experience what life had to offer?

The world was vast, far greater than I had realized.

I was in a magical realm where I could learn to cast spells, galavanting around with a bona fide merman!

There it was though, the thing that made me a slut was the ache that remained between my legs, desperate to be filled.

All he had to do was press himself against me and I would part my legs like a wanton whore.

"Because I enjoyed.... I liked..." I flushed as I tried to find a way to say it. "Because I feel things."

"Ahhh, so I'm one too," Delphon nodded.

"No!" I laughed, sudden and abrupt, his words shocking me from my mental spiral. "Guys can't be sluts!"

"That isn't fair," Delphon's voice took on a low growl. "I enjoyed how you moved against me on the swim over. I would walk on shards of glass to be able to taste the nectar between your legs. "

I laughed again, this time from a mixture of surprise and embarrassment. "You can't do that!"

"Ah, disappointing," Delphon sighed, even as the smile on his lips let me know he wasn't put off by my abrupt rejection.

Then his tone took on a more serious level.

"Listen, If the word slut can't apply to anyone, and it is used to describe someone as less than another, then that word is a word of order, of control.

It is meant to restrict, to separate one type of person into the 'other' and deny you the pleasures of the flesh so that you settle for a life devoid of passion. "

A shiver ran over my skin, a cool draft from somewhere. I lifted my hands and crossed them over my chest, rubbing my palms up and down.

"Let's get in the soak," Delphon said, his eyes drifting to the goosebumps on my arms before moving back up to meet mine again. I suddenly realized that all this time I'd been standing there topless, he had been focusing on my face.

I nodded, and he stepped back from me.

I had been so focused on his gaze and his words that I hadn't realized that in changing back from a tail to legs and not putting a sarong around his waist, he was naked.

His body was just like a human man's, if that man was a champion swimmer with ripped abdominals and strong latissimus dorsi that stuck out from the sides of his ribs like wings.

I turned around before my gaze drifted lower and quickly shoved the rest of my wetsuit down, pulling it off my feet.

I grabbed the edge of the salt pool and put one foot into the water, barely suppressing a moan as the warm water closed around my calf.

I stepped into it, finding there was a bench seat carved around the edge for me to sit down on.

The hot water crept into my bones, causing me to relax into the pool that was the absolute perfect temperature. I let my hands drift on the surface, buoyed by the salt in the water.

I sat down and glanced over at Delphon to see him standing with his back to me.