Chapter 15
Anatomy Lesson
They had only a handful of hours before The Argent was scheduled for departure, and Davik did not want to waste the opportunity to indulge. For all he knew, this would be the last free moment he would have with Fia before they took off towards whatever insanity he had just signed up for.
Fia was quiet on their trek, but as usual with her, it was a comfortable silence.
It gave him a chance to process the conversation in the back room of The Vesper.
The hardest part to understand wasn’t even all the rebellion and super-soldier clade talk.
It was that he might have just agreed to actual treason.
All to help a tall, slinky Icthian woman who had a name he was certain he could spell right on the first try.
God, you’re obsessed. You also would be getting enough coin to spring Marius out, but for some insane reason, that’s now second on your priority list.
Their destination came into view as they stepped out of the elevator platform.
A green-and-pink sign with animated steam lines rising from the typography in jittery holographics greeted them.
The sight of it stirred Fia from her silence, and he felt a happy flutter in his chest when he heard her excitedly whisper next to him.
“I have never been to soaking pools on a station. Only the ones on the Fleet. What are they like here?”
“No idea, we didn’t have any at the station I grew up on. Never learned to swim. Kinda avoided them. Didn’t want to hang out around a bunch of old, sweaty dudes in a sauna, anyway.”
Fia pursed her lips and stifled a chuckle as they walked in. “Fair.”
With every step down the hallway, the scent of eucalyptus and florals rose, and the humidity climbed.
Wisps of steam rolled out from the rooms they passed, and they caught the sounds of muffled conversation and laughter as they strolled.
He was trying to eavesdrop before realizing they had come to a halt.
His focus whirled back to Fia and the hostess as they were ushered into a muggy, warm room.
The floor and walls of the cozy space were covered in deep teal tiles, textured with waves like the oceans of old Earth.
Beyond the small foyer was a curtained changing stall and a pool of water about two meters wide, bubbling quietly.
Fia’s voice echoed off the tiles as she said a few parting words in Teelish to the hostess.
The door closed, and Fia was already shrugging off her jacket and hanging it up before he had finished taking in the sights. It struck Davik that this was a private room, and that realization was followed up with a throb somewhere south of his belt and north of his knees.
“Oh, I— uh, I didn’t bring a bathing suit or anything,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“That is not a problem. The hostess said they are in the changing stall. What is the word for them? Bathing clothes?”
She rolled her neck and grimaced as she did, and he watched with rapt attention as she stretched her arms above her head, exposing the soft, pale green scales of her stomach as her shirt rose.
His eyes burned a trail following the sage speckles that curved down her waist, and he had a sudden urge to follow that line with his own tongue.
Fuck.
“You, uh. You okay, Fi?”
“Mm. Just sore. That was a tense room. Now, all of me is tense.” She let out a soft sigh and glanced at the pool. “But this will be nice.”
He made a point of not staring at her ass when she turned to go into the changing room, and he utterly failed at that task when she came back out a minute or two later wearing a narrow bikini that barely covered anything.
“Davik. You are joining me, are you not?”
Oh, god…
“Yep, yep. Just gotta get changed! I’ll be out in a sec.”
She was already walking to the pool and leaning over to test the water before he made it to the dressing room.
She was bending over. The ample flesh of her wide hips and supple rear was on full display.
The green dappled skin faded to a soft creamy tone along her inner thighs, and he lost himself in the thought of burying his face where they met.
Just the thinnest strip of fabric was all that kept his eyes from searing into the parts of her he had been imagining. In vivid detail. Every night. Typically, with his cock in-hand.
He nearly tripped over himself, kicking off his boots as he darted into the changing room. He emerged with a towel around his waist just a few moments later. His far-too-snug bathing briefs barely concealed his aggressively obvious arousal, but the towel helped.
She had already closed her eyes and melted into the pool, unaware of his expert attempt at obscuring what effect she had on his body.
She was a picture of bliss, reclined and floating languidly on the surface.
He slid into the water with a graceless plop and was grateful for the bubbles that kept his lower half hidden.
It was a strange moment of conflicted joy.
His cock was straining, but his heart was melting at the image.
She was drifting gently, idly paddling the water with her webbed fingers outstretched.
The bubbles that were keeping his own arousal hidden also kept him from seeing all of her.
He had to hold back the impulse to sink underwater and see what lurid marvels the water was concealing.
Maybe I should have gotten a snorkel after all.
“Well, Davik,” she murmured, her eyes opening from their drowsy, half-lidded state. “I hope you are not opposed to sharing a pool with a … what did you call me? A ‘super-secret-soldier’?”
A wheeze of surprised laughter escaped his throat. “Icthian super-soldier was the term I used, I think. And no, I consider it an honor. Just, you know, try not to fry my brain too hard with your Sentu mind magic. I’ve gotta have at least two brain cells to clack together to do my job.”
“Hmm, I am quite fond of your brain cells. It would be a shame to do anything to harm them.”
No, no, actually, it would be the opposite of a shame. In fact, she should do whatever she wanted to my brain right now. Or the rest of me, for that matter.
Before he had a moment to vocalize the plea building in his throat, she broke from his gaze. Her tendrils flared out around her like a mane as she waded into the middle of the pool. Then, she sank below the water, barely disturbing the surface as she vanished.
He hissed out a tightly held breath of bundled tension and aching need now that he had a moment out of earshot.
She was within arm’s reach. Nearly naked.
And all he wanted to do was beg her to touch him again.
There had been so many moments when she would cup his chin, tug him by his shirt, and tease his hair.
But it would stop there, suddenly and cruelly. And he was dying for more.
Why was he choking up? Why wasn’t he able to just say what he needed? What he wanted? She was clearly interested. Wasn’t she? She touched him, flirted with him, and dropped a guard for him. And she was apparently happy to split a massive payday to help him save his brother.
Well. More like, it’s convenient for her to work with me while she hunts down this guy, but…
Doubt rattled an obnoxious tune at the back of his head. Maybe this was just a cultural misunderstanding. She was from a different age, before humans and Icthians had really co-mingled.
He gripped his hair and let out a frustrated huff of breath. His own neuroses couldn’t shut up and let him enjoy this moment without berating himself. He was in a very luxurious room, alone, with a wet and nearly nude woman who got him hot under the collar. And he was wasting time fretting.
His heart pounded against his sternum when he realized he had been brooding, alone, for what had stretched into actual minutes. She hadn’t surfaced. Panic immediately overrode his fear of inadequacy.
He surged forward, feeling around blindly in the water until his hands found purchase under her arms. He wrenched her up into the air with every ounce of strength his adrenaline and muscles could afford.
His heart thundered. Her eyes were still closed, and she was moving so sluggishly. He could feel his world bending away beneath him.
“Fia? Fi! Wake up!”
First one of her eyes fluttered open, then the other.
“Davik,” she murmured. “What … are you doing?”
“Oh my God, Fi, you’re alright! I thought you were drowni—”
You fucking idiot. She is an amphibian.
His fear evaporated, replaced with abject mortification.
“Oh, my valiant rescuer,” she hummed, her movements slow as she reached forward and pressed her thumb to his cheek. The water had warmed her skin, and he could feel the heat bloom in his chest in response to the touch. “You are precious.”
The soft curve of her stomach grazed against his, and he nearly buckled. He felt all the muscles in his arms tense with an urge to drag his fingers along every inch of her, to see where else that softness would follow.
“Yeah. I’m precious, and a bit of a dumbass.” He breathed out a shaky, relieved sigh. “Look, you put me in a room with a pretty, half-naked woman. I get a little dumb.”
“You are many things, Davik. But not dumb.” Her eyes narrowed, and she spoke with a rumbling tone that sent a shiver down his spine. “You are just eager to help.”
Eager was a wild understatement. A stiff breeze would send him off the edge right now. If any of these jets were aimed even a little more inconveniently, he would be in trouble.
She pulled back from him, gliding to rest her elbows on the ledge of the tub. She let the lower half of her body float freely, the green curves of her figure rising and falling below the surface.
“You are unfamiliar with my kind. That is nothing to be ashamed of. We both have gaps in our knowledge.” She beckoned him closer, and he complied instantly, watching her with rapt attention. “I will familiarize you.”