Page 37 of Guarded By the Vodnik

She looked away, swallowing thickly. “I should have remembered about this.”

“It’s my job,” I repeated. “And we really need to talk. I expect the thing itself won’t take long, but… Ugh. Fuck.”

She frowned, seeing my discomfort. I closed my eyes, exhaling through my mouth, and pulled in a long, cooling breath through my gills.

When I opened my eyes, she watched me curiously, thankfully calm. I remembered she trusted me, and this, right now, really drove it home.

Except, her trust was about to be put to test. I had no idea what I would do if she didn’t believe me. Would I have to force her to keep her alive? My skin crawled with revulsion at the thought.

She’d better believe me.

“This is hard for you,” Zoe said after I grunted a few times, wondering how to say it best. “Why don’t you start by telling me why it’s hard?”

My chest constricted, my heart thudding fast. Oh, for fuck’s sake.

“Because I’m about to ask you to suck my cock,” I said, my voice gritty.

I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to look at her, even though I was aware this was the worst possible way for me to begin.

Her head jerked back, but she didn’t pull away, laugh, or scream. In fact, she did none of the things I was afraid of. After a beat of silence, Zoe nodded once.

“Okay.”

I reared back, confused. She couldn’t have meant that.

“Did you understand what I just said?”

She nodded again. “Yup. You want me to suck your cock. That’s a great idea. At least I’ll get to do something fun before I die. It will take my mind off imminent suffocation.”

“You won’t die,” I growled, my head spinning from her instant agreement. It made no sense. “What I’m trying to say is, you will be able to breathe underwater. Once you… swallow.”

Zoe nodded slowly, a hysterical giggle gurgling in her throat, even though her face remained completely straight. I realized I was losing her. She was about to give in to panic or whatever this was.

“You don’t have to convince me you have a magic dick,” she said, bursting into a hard, teary laughter. “I’ll do it anyway! Ha! I only wish you could reciprocate, but it’s too fucking cold in here. Oh well, I’ll take what I can. Whip it out, baby!”

I rubbed my forehead, exasperation making pain explode behind my eyes. Of course, I did it all wrong. Now I had to save the situation because we were running out of time.

At least she was somewhat willing, and if push came to shove, that had to be enough. But I didn’t want it to happen when Zoe was in hysterics, convinced I was trying to use her before she died.

I caught her face in my hands again and looked closely into her eyes.

“Zoe, I know it’s hard. I know it’s difficult to believe and it sounds ridiculous. Will you try to hear me out? Please?”

Her laughter subsided, but when she looked at me, she grinned in an unhinged sort of way.

“If I had known you were interested, we could have fucked in the safehouse,” she said, her eyes dancing with mischief and madness. “But I guess better late than never.”

“What?” I stared at her, taken aback. Was she saying she was attracted to me? It honestly didn’t even seem like a possibility.

But then I remembered how she’d called me breathtakingly hot. Could it be? But if yes, this wasn’t good news, no matter how eager it made me feel. It was bad enough I was attracted to her. This was already beyond messy.

“We could have fucked already,” she repeated, running her hands down my torso as her eyes grew hooded. “Come on. You said we don’t have much time left. Let’s do this.”

When her fingers went past my navel, I caught her wrists and wrapped my tentacles around her middle for good measure to stop her from pouncing on me. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to put a stop to it once she started, and I still needed to explain this better.

“No, Zoe. Stop. This isn’t about sex. This is literally about your survival. Vodnik sperm gives humans a temporary ability to breathe underwater. It’s not widely known. We actively hide this trait, and I can’t get into that now. But it’s real. I’m telling you the truth. Do you believe me?”

She shrugged, looking put out. Her expression was pouty, like that night when she got drunk on whiskey and spent the evening sitting on her hands and telling me she wanted the forbidden fruit but the fruit didn’t want her back. I still didn’t know what that was about.

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