Page 103 of Whispers of the Deep

“There are some who say that is an impossible future.” He kissed her collarbone, his lips skating over her skin. “I have spoken with the ancients in the sea. They showed me our futures, and there were only two paths. One where we fight, and one where we are a family.”

“Maybe you didn’t see everything,” she replied, petting her hands down his hair and digging her nails into his scalp. “Maybe you only saw a piece of the future. A moment where we were alone. But maybe your future is with me and with them.”

“We have a lot of work to make that future happen. Your people. My people. None of them want to get along and I don’t think it’s entirely possibly just yet. You’ll have to translate for us before they will even speak with our kind.”

“I can do that.” She didn’t know how or what would happen if she did, but she would try.

Arges scraped his nails down her sides, and those fine points of contact made her gasp. A sudden rush of heat flooded through her veins and, oh, she had forgotten it felt like this when he touched her.

Like nothing else mattered. Like a shark could swim by her and she wouldn’t even notice. Even if it took a bite out of her, she would just smile and beg Arges to touch her again.

Arching against his touch, she tried to remember what they had been talking about. “So your plan is to work with the achromos, then? You want to make a deal with them?”

“My plan is to bring you to a grotto and fuck you where the water is warm and you can be comfortable.” He nipped at her neck, his sharp teeth likely leaving marks. “I want to hear the sounds you make again, this time with nothing standing in our way. I want to know that you are mine, and I am yours.”

She was nodding. Why was she nodding like an idiot?

Wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, she held him tightly against her. “Let’s do that, Arges. And perhaps this time I can come up with a way for both of your... needs to be met at the same time.”

He growled low under his breath and those black eyes flashed. “That is not possible, achromo.”

“Maybe not with an undine.” She reached between them and palmed where she thought he came out. A kick of his hips against hers was her reward, and she swore the scales shifted underneath her palm. “But that’s entirely possible with a human.”

“Fuck me,” he groaned, already swimming away from the dome so no one would find them.

“I intend to,” she replied with a bubble of laughter.

Forty

Arges

She let her body go limp as he swam with her through the currents. All the while, as they journeyed, he ran his hands down her sides. Down her skin. He touched her like he didn’t think he would ever touch her again. Perhaps he had feared he wouldn’t.

Even though he hadn’t said it in so many words, she could feel through his touch that he had been worried about her. He had wanted to see her, and he hadn’t lied when he said he needed to fix things. His people didn’t want them to be together. Hell, her people didn’t want them to be together.

But they were. And now they were connected as he breathed life into her lungs and dragged her through the water until they were floating in the middle of the deep blue. All around her was the same color. Just endless blue in every direction with spears of sunlight from above. They were the only people on the planet here. No sound other than what he made, and even that was slightly muffled.

His arms around her waist tightened, pulling her a little closer to him. His gills fluttered as he breathed her in and his hearts beat hard against her palms. So otherworldly. So other than human, and she couldn’t get enough of him.

Leaning forward, she pressed her lips to his gills. Those delicate fins, fluttering in the current, immediately stilled. Finally, she got to touch him the way she wanted to touch him. She could kiss along the thin membranes, flicking her tongue along them as she’d so desired to do for such a long time.

He stiffened in her arms, tilting his head to give her more access and groaning. “How does that feel so good?”

She had no idea. But she’d known he would like it from the first moment she had touched her fingers to them.

He made such a pretty picture, arching away from her as though the pleasure was a little too much, but still holding her tightly as though he couldn’t let her go. All those muscles flexing, bunching underneath her touch as she tried to touch him everywhere. She wanted to feel him, every inch, all the warm skin that she hadn’t been able to touch last time because she was so overwhelmed by the need that consumed them both.

Mira wriggled in his grasp, moving so he had to release his tight grip on her hips. His hands grasped at the water, as though his claws needed something to dig into.

“Mira,” he growled, but then fell silent as she trailed her lips down his neck, over his chest, and down to the gills at his ribs. Running her tongue along those, she looked up to see his black eyes were wide. He breathed hard. She could feel that breath puffing through her own lungs, forcing them to expand as his excitement slid into her body.

“I want to know where you hide yourself,” she murmured against his ribs. “I want to see you, Arges.”

With a groan, he rotated his hips so she could see the scales slide out of the way as his twin cocks erupted into the sea. She hadn’t gotten too much of a look at him last time, only felt his soft skin and the smooth texture before it was spearing into her. But now? Now she could look her fill.

He was impossibly smooth and so damn large. Tapered at the end, and for a second she was shocked that she had actually fit him inside her. But then again, she’d done it. So she didn’t know why she was questioning it now.

Gripping the top one in her fist, she gave him an experimental stroke. And oh, all those muscles seized again. His abs flexed, and he tilted his head back, those handsome cords of muscle standing out in stark relief compared to the blank background behind him. His hair floated around his head, and all she could focus on were the miles of muscle and strength rendered immobile by her tiny hand.

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