LUCY
T he breathing pearl felt small and strangely warm in my palm, such a small thing to have saved my life before.
I watched Thalassar shrug out of his outer robes, the silk sliding over his bronze skin and dark scales.
My mouth went dry at the sight of his broad shoulders, his muscled chest.
The scales scattered across his skin gleamed in the light from the crystals, making him look otherworldly.
“Come.” He stepped into the water, holding out his hand.
“There’s more to show you.”
My throat tightened as my fingers closed around the pearl.
“I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“Do you trust me?”
The question hung between us.
I thought of how he’d saved me from drowning, how he’d shown me the wonders of his world.
How his kiss still burned on my lips.
“Yes.” The word came out softly.
“Then put the pearl in your mouth and hold onto me.”
I slipped the pearl under my tongue.
It tasted faintly sweet, like honeyed water.
The sensation spread through my mouth, down my throat.
“Now what?”
“Now...” His black eyes met mine.
“Now I show you who I really am.”
His transformation unfolded before me, a spectacle that rooted me to the spot.
His scales rippling outward like dark water.
His form shifted, stretched, grew.
Where Thalassar had stood moments before, a massive serpentine dragon now coiled in the water.
His scales were black as night, gleaming with hints of gold and blue.
A silky mane ran down his spine, and those same intense black eyes watched me.
“Oh.” I stepped closer, drawn by an urge to touch.
“You’re beautiful.”
He lowered his head, and I ran my fingers through his mane.
The strands felt like liquid silk against my skin.
His scales were warm and smooth beneath my palm.
He made a soft rumbling sound and curled around me.
I understood without words, wrapping my legs around his body and gripping his mane.
The muscles beneath me bunched and flexed.
Then we were moving.
The world blurred into streaks of light and shadow as Thalassar dove.
The pearl in my mouth let me breathe normally, but everything else felt surreal.
Schools of glowing fish scattered before us.
Strange creatures that looked like floating flowers opened and closed translucent petals.
For a disorienting second, the rush of water and the feeling of being submerged brought back the choking panic of the attack, and my hands clenched reflexively in his mane before the feeling passed.
Thalassar’s body undulated beneath me as he swam, the motion pressing me against him in ways that sent desire spiraling through my core.
I attempted to focus on our extraordinary surroundings - the forests of swaying kelp that glowed with their own light, the massive shells that opened to reveal pearls bigger than my head.
But the steady rhythm of his movement, the flex of powerful muscles between my thighs.
.
.
My breath came faster, and I squirmed, trying to find a less stimulating position.
He stiffened beneath me, then shot forward with renewed speed.
The water rushed past us in a blur of bubbles and light.
My thighs tightened instinctively around him, which only made the situation worse.
Just when I thought I might die from the building tension, I spotted a dark shape ahead.
An island rose from the depths, its beach gleaming with phosphorescent sand.
Thalassar’s form shifted beneath me.
Suddenly I was being cradled against a broad chest, strong arms holding me close as he strode from the water.
Droplets ran down his scales, and suddenly all I wanted was to trace their path with my tongue.
“.” His voice was rough.
“We should...”
“Should what?” My hands sought him out.
“Come here.”
He groaned and claimed me hungrily.
His tongue teased mine, and I responded eagerly to his exploration.
I realized I still had the breathing pearl.
I let him take it, then wound my arms around his neck, pressing closer.
“Tell me to stop,” the words vibrated against my ear.
“Tell me this is a mistake.”
I nipped his bottom lip.
“No.”
He made a sound deep in his throat and deepened the kiss.
His hands slid down my back, pulling me tighter against him.
Every inch of my body burned where it touched his.
Droplets of water trickled down his chest, drawing my gaze.
The glowing moss beneath me felt like silk against my skin, and the alien night sky stretched endlessly above.
His black eyes locked with mine, intense and hungry.
“You’re sure?” he asked, his voice rough.
I answered by pulling him down for another kiss.
His mouth ravished mine as his tongue worked against me in long, firm strokes that had me seeing stars.
He broke the kiss to trail his lips down my neck.
“Your scent...” He inhaled deeply.
“It’s driving me wild.”
My skin tingled where his breath touched.
“What do I smell like to you?”
“Like sunlight on warm water.” His tongue flicked out, tasting my pulse point.
“Like sweet fruit and salt air and...” He groaned.
“Like mine.”
His fingers found the ties of my dress, working them loose with careful precision.
The silk slid away, leaving me bare beneath the alien stars.
The cool night air pebbled my skin, but everywhere Thalassar touched burned hot.
“Beautiful,” he murmured, pressing kisses along my collarbone.
His hands skimmed my sides, learning every curve.
His fingers traced beneath my breast, and I arched instinctively toward him.
He took the invitation, cupping my breast as his mouth moved lower.
The first stroke of his tongue against my nipple had me gasping.
The texture was unlike anything I’d felt before - slightly rough, like velvet, sending sparks of pleasure straight to my core.
“Oh god,” I breathed as he swirled his tongue around the sensitive peak.
He hummed against my skin.
“I haven’t even started yet.”
His mouth moved to my other breast while his hand kept working the first, rolling and plucking until I was squirming beneath him.
Every brush of his scaled fingers sent new waves of sensation through me.
He kissed his way down my stomach, nuzzling into the soft skin below my navel.
My hands found his hair, threading through the silky strands as he moved lower.
The first brush of his tongue between my legs had me crying out.
The texture that had felt amazing on my breasts was absolutely devastating here.
He growled, the sound vibrating against me, and pressed closer.
“Thalassar!” My back bowed off the moss as pleasure crashed through me.
But he didn’t stop - if anything, my response spurred him on.
My thighs trembled around his head as another peak built.
One of his hands stroked up my leg, scales dragging against sensitive skin.
When his fingers joined his tongue, I shattered.
He kept going, drawing out my pleasure until I was limp and gasping.
“So responsive,” he purred, pressing kisses to my inner thighs.
“So perfect.”
I reached for him, wanting to touch, to taste.
But he caught my hands, pressing them back against the moss.
“Not yet,” he murmured.
“I’m not done with you.”
His tongue slid through my folds again, and I moaned.
Everything felt oversensitive, but the pleasure was building again already.
The textured strokes of his tongue sent jolts of electricity up my spine.
My fingers dug into the moss as he worked me higher.
The alien sky above blurred, stars dancing behind my eyes.
All I could focus on was the hot slide of his tongue, the careful scrape of scales against my thighs, the pleasure coiling tighter and tighter in my core.
When I came again, it was with his name on my lips and his satisfied growl vibrating through me.
I lay there panting, staring unseeing at the strange constellations above.
My body hummed with satisfaction, but I could feel his restrained power as he moved up to hover over me.
“.” His voice was strained.
“I need...”
I tilted my face up to meet his, tasting myself on his tongue.
“Then take.”
His growl this time was pure predator.
The aftershocks of my climax still pulsed through me, leaving me breathless, my skin hypersensitive to every shift of the cool night air.
Thalassar hovered over me, his black eyes molten with hunger, his broad chest rising and falling in restrained breaths.
“,” he murmured, his voice thick with need.
I reached for him, trailing my fingers over the smooth, scaled planes of his torso.
He was warm, solid, utterly mesmerizing---and completely in control, despite the tension coiled in his muscles.
He was holding himself back.
For me.
The realization sent another wave of desire through me, but beneath it, something else stirred---a quiet voice in the back of my mind, a flicker of hesitation.
I wanted him.
That wasn’t in question.
But this was more than simple need.
This was stepping into something unknown, something I could never take back.
Still, I whispered, “Show me.”
His gaze darkened.
With deliberate slowness, he reached for the fastening at his waist, and the last barrier between us slid away.
And my breath stopped.
Where I expected to see the familiar evidence of his desire, there was only smooth, scaled skin.
Confusion flickered through me, but before I could speak, a hidden slit parted along his lower abdomen.
From within, his cock emerged---thick, ridged, utterly alien.
Heat curled low in my belly.
The ridges along his length flexed slightly as if reacting to my attention, and I swallowed, my pulse thudding in my ears.
Then, a second cock slid free, slimmer than the first, but still just as textured.
Second cock.
I froze.
My body screamed yes, but my mind---my mind was still catching up.
What the hell was I doing?
I had been plucked from my world, thrown into the depths of an ocean I barely understood, kissed by a creature who had saved my life and was now offering me something I couldn’t fully comprehend.
“Wait,” the word barely audible above the gentle lapping of waves against the shore.
“I don’t know if I can do this.”