Page 38 of Whispers of the Deep

She frowned at him, and he hissed out a curse at the difficulty.

Perhaps she was right. She needed to be able to understand him.

His gaze heated with rage now, he barked at the robot in the corner, “You there. You can make more of these devices. Make them now, and I will bring them to my people.”

Mira was far too observant for her own good. She looked at his gestures, watched as he pointed to the device in his ear and it all seemed to click. “No,” she said quietly, before her words became more forceful. “I will not give you more of those devices. Not for your people. I have no way of knowing what any of you will do with them.”

He glared down at her, but that did not startle his little kairos in the slightest. If anything, she only struggled harder and became more determined.

“Absolutely not! I only gave this to you as a necessity because you have me trapped hundreds of feet underneath the ocean. Get off of me!”

He slammed her wrists against the stones, forcing her to stop moving. “Stop struggling. You will give me more of these devices, and my people will understand your language. We will take what we are owed from you, and you will do nothing to stop it from happening.”

Her lips pressed into a thin line. Just like many of the women of his own kind did before they were about to fight. Let her try to draw blood. He’d enjoy the struggle.

Instead, she tilted her head back and looked at the box. “Beta Iota Epsilon 427, do not print any translators for any undine. That is a direct order. Do you understand?”

The strange head of the creature lowered into the box before it let out a chirping, “Understood,” and then sealed itself inside the box.

Had she... Had she just commanded the box to never listen to him?

Anger surged forward again, and this time he loomed over her. He tightened his fingers around her wrists until it must hurt. It must be painful. And still, she didn’t even wince.

“If you’re trying to hurt me, you’ll have to try a lot harder than that,” she said, so matter-of-factly that it made his head spin. “I’m an engineer, undine. I’ve been burned, hit, and trapped in engines more times than I can count. I’ve got calloused hands and tough bones. Do your worst.”

Fifteen

Mira

He almost seemed impressed at her words, but Mira didn’t want to impress him. She didn’t care what this asshole thought of her, even if she had tilted her hips a little, so he was more comfortably resting between her legs.

Their position was horribly intimate. And yes, maybe her nipples were sharp little points, but that was just because he was icy to the touch everywhere other than his hands and gills. She didn’t care what he thought of her, or what he wanted to do right now. All she cared about was getting herself out of this damned cave.

Arges bared his teeth, the sharp points very similar to that of the sharks she’d seen swimming in the depths. But that would not scare her.

She hadn’t been kidding. She was an engineer, and she was made of tougher stuff than he thought. If she had to prove that to him, then so be it. She would.

His hips flexed against hers, or were they even hips? She could feel there was boning in them, maybe a pelvic bone like hers. But then there were individual spines that continued down the back of his tail. What she wouldn’t give to see one of their skeletons just to know what the fuck she was feeling against her.

Did he even have a dick? She knew some fish just... sprayed sperm. Maybe that’s what he did. Maybe his species laid eggs and he would just soak her when he was done, leaving her unsatisfied and grossed out.

There, that did it.

Baring her own teeth in a mockery of his grimace, she growled, “Do you need me to roll you back into the water? You sure seem like you’re going to need some air soon.”

His rib gills fluttered.

“Don’t you dare.”

Again, they fluttered, and she swore she saw him start to choke.

“If you spit all that water out of your gills onto me, I will stick my welder up them and burn you from the inside out. Get off me.”

He made an odd, grating sound, and she realized that might be the sound of his laughter. But at the very least, he finally released her hands and then scooted himself off her. Although, it didn’t escape her notice that he dragged himself down her entire body. The feeling of that muscular chest would take a while to get over. Good god, he was built.

And once he was in the water, glaring at her like he always did, she had a hard time getting the feeling of him off. Like she could still conjure up the image of him. All those muscles bunched as he braced himself above her.

There was no way he had any idea what that position reminded her of. They probably had sex in the water, upright, fertilizing eggs in a completely emotionless transaction.

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