The longer they stared at one another, the calmer she became. Her fingers, which had gripped the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles turned white, slowly unwound from their tense position. Her tight expression smoothed. Her eyes, so lovely and dark and framed by thick lashes, glittered with more than just the tiny lights still lit in the cockpit.
And then she reached for the plexiglass.
Emory’s heart skipped a beat as he watched her clawless, webless fingers tentatively press against the clear barrier.She’s reaching for me.
His own hand slid down the half-dome to meet her.
The material was too thick to support any tiny electrical pulses that might have told him much about his mate, but he thought he felt her anyway. The ghost of warmth. The barest hint of silky skin. The muted, sparkling current of her flesh — her uniquealiveness.
Emory wanted to shriek with joy, with the desire to possess this precious creature. He wanted to know every current of her being and to be known in turn. Hewantedmore than he had ever wanted in his life and he thought, for the first time, that he understood what made the Hungry God so cruel.
There wasnothinghe wouldn’t do to keep her. Nothing.
He wasn’t sure what she saw in his face, but whatever it was, it didn’t inspire the trepidation it should have.
She smiled.
Emory was so surprised by her delight that he pushed himself away instinctively. He watched, baffled, as his mate sat forward in her seat, both hands pressing against the plexiglass like she fearedheintended to leave.
Disconcerted, pleased, and aroused all at once, he darted forward to peer into her face again. She leaned back with what looked like aneepbefore she dared to smile again — a big, luminous grin that turned his mind to bubbles.
Silly mate,he thought, pushing away again to circle the submersible, then go over it to peer down into the half-dome.You should be afraid of me.
He’d never, ever harm her, of course, but she ought to be more cautious. Most merfolk wouldn’ttryto hurt her so long as she wasn’t breaking their laws, but they would almost certainly do so accidentally. And if she happened to inadvertently get too near a cove with young… Well, it wouldn’t be accidental.
After all, the treaty only applied in regards to aggression, not self-defense. That, and only insofar as there was a chance of getting caught.
This far from shore and with her communications systems down, there was very little chance of that. He could do anything to her or her vehicle now and the likelihood that the authorities would ever conclusively discover the breach of the treaty, let alone enforce a penalty, was almost nil.
But his mate didn’t seem to care about any of that. She stared up at him with her lips parted and her expression eager, like she wasexcitedto see him.
Speaking in his native tongue, he told her,“You must have liked my gifts, my mate.”
He didn’t expect her to respond, let alone understand his unique, whistling tongue, but it was still cute to watch her nose scrunch and her head shake, as if to say,“I’m sorry, I didn’t get that.”
Of course, he spoke her language just as well, but it was useless under water. Whistles and melodies worked much better. He’d be sure to teach her some, just in case there was ever an emergency.
There will not be.
Brows lowering, Emory gave the half-dome a possessive stroke before he gestured in the direction of their island. It took her a moment, but comprehension eventually dawned on his mate’s expressive face.
She frowned. Pointing at the darkened control panel, she mouthed words that probably had something to do with the fact that he’d disabled the engine.
Emory shrugged. It would reboot soon enough, but he didn’t want to wait in the open water with her any longer than he had to. They had already drifted farther than he was comfortable with.
A tremor skated down his spine at the thought of her drifting too deep, down over the edge of the underwater cliffs, and into the dark where only corpses and those who fed on them dwelt.
He’d always hated the deep. He’d hated it since he was a child and he hated it even more after he laid his parents to rest in what felt like the blackest pit in the ocean.
Now he had a new reason to hate it: his fragile mate, who could so easily drift away and never be found.
Giving his mate a stern look, he patted the plexiglass in astay-putgesture before he pushed up. Rushing to the surface, he sucked in a huge lungful of air before he dove back down again.
After getting a good grip on the docking mechanism on the roof of the vehicle, he undulated his tail in a powerful rolling motion — and they were off.
ChapterEight
Clementine learnedtrue fear the moment the lights went out in her submersible. She learned, between one heartbeat and the next, how very small she was in the vast darkness of the alien world around her. She learned that she was weak, fragile, and unprepared for any of the threats that loomed all around her.
