Page 45 of Call of the Fathoms

“Virago,” he growled.

There was no arguing with a man like this, not when she could see that he’d lost control. He was an animal at best, a beast at worst. Something about the scent of her arousal had enragedhim. Or maybe it had just loosened something deep in his chest so that now he was an unhinged beast.

She swallowed hard. “I’m not going to tell you, Fortis.”

A sound rumbled in the depths of his chest. And fuck, he was so big. Bigger than she remembered now that his tail was tightening, twining around her and pressing down on all angles of her body.

But even that felt good. The pressure of his tail, the texture of scales sliding against her wetsuit, even the strange feeling of him moving against the back of her bare hand. All of it made her want to grab onto him. It made her want to draw him closer to her, to see what it would be like if she just pressed her lips to his chest, or if he pressed his lips to many other places on her body like she had seen so many do to Harlow.

He drew her ever closer, and those gills fluttering even harder. For a moment, staring into his black eyes, she didn’t even see him anymore. She was used to a calm, collected, perhaps even heartless at times, undine who had pushed her. This was not that man. His black eyes were completely and utterly vacant of recognition.

As his tail tightened even more, she soon was pressed against his chest. Then his hands came up, curling behind her shoulders and holding her firmly against him. The lights of the jellyfish glowed behind him, turning his face into a shadow that stared into her very soul with a hunger that burned right through her.

Another low growl, this one a warning. She remained frozen in his grip as his face descended closer and closer to hers, the fins on the sides of his face vibrating so fast they were a blur.

“What is that smell, virago?” he asked again, although his voice was little more than a nightmarish monster.

This shouldn’t turn her on as much as it did. She knew it wasn’t helping the situation, but she was intensely turned on right now. She was always the biggest person in the room. Evenamong the other guards, and the men who had been genetically enhanced as well, she was the same height. Never in her life had she felt small or delicate or even that anyone could overpower her.

But she felt all of those things and more right now.

She couldn’t wiggle her hands free, but she could lean forward until her lips almost ghosted against his through the thin membrane of her breathing apparatus. She could feel the heat of his body and was certain he could feel hers. “I’m not going to tell you, Fortis. Now snap out of it.”

Another growl.

“Stop. Soon enough, you’ll be back to yourself and you’re going to be so embarrassed, Fortis. I don’t want to know what you are like embarrassed. Please.” The last word nearly brought their lips together.

She couldn’t stop staring into his eyes until he tilted his head. And then there was a slow glide of something warm, ridged, and slick along her neck. Had he just…

The same time he groaned, she leaned back as far as she could. He chased her with his mouth, as though he didn’t want to let her go. Not yet. As though he hunted for the taste he hadn’t gotten enough of.

She wanted that, too. Alexia licked her lips as though she could already taste him, and those black eyes followed the movement of her tongue with rapt attention.

“Pink,” he murmured, like the word was reverent in some way.

And then she watched it all fall away from him. The madness seeped out into the sea and he settled back into himself. With that came the horror at what he had done.

His tail whipped away from her so quickly that she spun in the water three times before she settled. She was facing awayfrom him again, but maybe that was easier for the both of them. After whatever... that was, maybe they both needed a little time.

A rush of water slapped against her back, as though he had cleared out his gills and was forcibly getting rid of her scent. If that was even how he was smelling anything.

The action made her go cold. Whatever had happened, it wasn’t because he had wanted it. Maybe it was some undine thing that made them go a little feral when they knew a woman was... interested. Fuck, this was awkward.

She gestured ahead of her, even though he couldn’t see her arms. “I’m just going to explore.”

“I didn’t mean to... That is... It wasn’t...” Another explosion of water against her back and then a flick of his tail beneath her legs. “I will return.”

She was sure he would. Otherwise, she’d just let herself sink to the bottom of the sea in the hopes that she would forget all this had even happened.

Nineteen

Alexia

Alexia was relieved that he did, eventually come back. But she had an hour or so with the jellyfish all on her own. At first, it had been a bit of a struggle to keep herself upright and swimming with all of them surrounding her. She’d been so afraid of kicking one. They were delicate creatures, and no matter what she did, her flippers always ended up slapping one.

But she got the hang of it. They were so patient with her, too. Or maybe that was just her mind putting emotions onto them. They were jellyfish, after all. She wasn’t even sure they had a brain. Not one that she could see, at least.

Transparent and aimless, they floated through the ocean and trusted that the currents would bring them wherever they needed to go. It was a peaceful life, and she envied them for that.

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