Page 6 of Dry as a Fish (Chaos God Sugar and Spice Companion Shorts #3)

When I entered the living room, Delphion wasn't there, but I could smell a rich umami scent and could hear the sizzle of something cooking from a doorway.

I wandered over to it and looked through.

Delphion was in a kitchen, standing in front of a stove that was carved into the wood, with a vent chimney leading up into the ceiling above it.

I couldn't see any sunlight from the vent.

There weren't any flames coming from the stove either, but the spot where Delphon had the pan was glowing.

He smiled as he looked up from the pan at me.

"Just a few more minutes," he said. Then he nodded to a doorway just past him. "I have some drinks poured in the dining room if you want to head in there."

I walked through it. The dining room was exactly what I expected, just large enough for the round coral colored table in the center of it.

The chairs around it were made out of the same smooth pearlescent material as the table, and though the table was large enough to fit quite a bit more, there were only four chairs.

Two of the chairs were closer together and had place settings in front of them, with forks and knives.

There were two wine glasses set out in front of the chairs that already had a soft pink liquid in them.

There was a wine-shaped bottle that was open on the table in front of them.

I picked up one of the glasses, and bubbles drifted upwards through the liquid.

I took a small sip.

It was a bubbly rose wine.

"I hope you like it. I can get you something else if you don't," Delphion said from behind me. I turned to see him standing there with two plates. He stepped past me and set them down at the place settings. Then he grabbed the back of one of the chairs and pulled it out.

I sat down, and he pushed the chair back in for me.

I watched him as he sat down next to me, close enough to reach out and put a hand on my leg, but far enough that I wouldn't bump into him if I didn't want to.

"You're staring at me like I'm a tiger shark and you need to keep an eye on me in case I'm about to bite you," he said with a soft laugh.

I took another sip of the wine.

"You run into a lot of tiger sharks in an underground river?" I asked.

"No," he shook his head. "But I'm fond of the mundane ocean and I've run into a few there."

"So you can get to the mundane," I said softly, my heart unclenching just a tiny bit.

"I won't ever lie to you," Delphion replied as he leaned into me, his eyes intent. "I can and will take you back home to the mundane, if that is what you want."

"Why wouldn't I want that?" I asked. I knew I was speaking in a hostile and defensive way.

My momma always said I needed to be soft and sweet to men.

So far, soft and sweet meant that I had to deal with having my tits grabbed or being dragged through the water while a sexy siren kisses the breath into me.

"Some of the mundanes we've rescued don't want to go back to the mundane realm," he said.

"You drowned Chad," I said. "It isn't rescuing if you only save the women."

"That guy was on the list," Delphion said, running a hand through his hair.

"What is the list?" I asked.

Delphion let out a large exhale. "There is a list of Proper Students who are more of a danger to the mundanes than others. If we have an opportunity, we drown those ones."

"More of a danger?" I asked. "Who made the list?"

"They did," Delphion said. "The ones on the list made the list. They treat hurting mundanes as a competition, and they made a list to keep score of who was winning, and one of the mundane women we rescued had the list and gave it to us."

"Oh," I said.

Delphion and I both sat there silently for a moment in the intense awkwardness of the moment. I wanted to ask more questions, like how exactly they hurt the women and what they were keeping score of, but at the same time, I didn't want to know the answers.

"I made salmon," Delphion broke the silence.

I realized I had been just staring at Delphion the whole time and finally looked over at the plate in front of me.

He had cooked salmon, asparagus, and what looked like boiled and peeled potatoes.

I didn’t think we were near an ocean but I wasn’t going to worry about where or how a merman got fish.

I picked up the fork and it cut through one of the potatoes like it was made out of butter.

I lifted a forkful to my mouth and took a small bite.

"What excellent boiled potatoes," I said.

Delphion laughed. "It is an exemplary vegetable."

I paused and looked back over at him. "You like Pride and Prejudice?"

"I prefer the five-hour version, but the shorter movie is nice too," he said. "I have to admit I haven't read the book."

"If you could identify one of the main reasons Elizabeth falls in love with Darcy, what would it be?" I asked, spearing a chunk of the salmon. When I put it in my mouth, it melted there, cooked to absolute perfection so that the dill and cream were soaked through.

"It's because when she sets her boundaries, he respects them," Delphion said, a subtle sadness to his voice, an overtone of something deeper beneath the surface.

"He writes her a letter, but it isn't the this is why you should fall in love with me kind of slap back, but instead he addresses her criticisms of him, both founded and unfounded, and doesn't attempt to pursue her romantically afterwards.

He only reinitiates his romantic intentions when she has given the clear go-ahead, and even then lets her know that he will avoid her and never mention it again if she turns him away.

She falls in love with him because he offers his love through his actions, proving that he will take her desires and needs into his utmost consideration. "

I realized I had stopped chewing and swallowed the bite in my mouth as I stared at him.

I could feel it in my chest, like the thrumming strings on a cello, humming in the background of my existence.

I'd never met a man before who understood the complexity of that story, of what was actually being communicated in the back and forth between a woman dependent on marriage for her survival and a man who wanted to be loved for more than his wealth.

To hear it understood by a man with black scales framing the edges of his face, with a bandage on his neck from where I'd scratched the shit out of his gills, from a monster who promised to take me back to the home I fled from when I had no power to make him keep that promise.

.. it was more terrifying than feeling warm fingers close around my ankle as I stood in the sand.

He was the exact kind of man I could fall in love with.

The heat between my legs let me know that he was the first man I was utterly certain I wanted to get into bed with, but he wasn't a man, was he?

A single note echoed across the strings strung across my heart.

I set my fork down .

"Take me home now," I said, hearing the small crack in my own voice. I needed to go home. "Please."