Chapter 12 Emily #2
We both gaze back down, watching bright flashes of orange, red, and yellow flicker through the maze of leaves. It’s like a moving painting, a kaleidoscope of sunset colors and light that my eyes can’t fully process.
I pop my head back above the water, my hand still clinging to the buoy line as I blink into the sunlight and remove the gear from my face. Alice doesn’t join me, and I watch through the distorted surface as she dives and swims among the seaweed for a few moments.
I know I’m fucked. The options for saving her from the whims of both her father and my family are limited.
But now I want more. I don’t only want to prove her innocence because of a latent childhood crush, or save her because she deserves a life free from the terror of her father’s wrath.
I want her. More than the imaginary person I created in my head based on a week watching her.
This new, real, brave, difficult version of her that I’ve come to care for.
And I can’t have her.
Because even if I miraculously convince Clara not to use her as bait, ensure Ilya doesn’t find her, and kill every threat that exists to her, I still have to tell her the truth.
That I lied a thousand times over, that I planned to use her the same way everyone who has claimed to love her did, that I am a crucial, integral part of this world she died to escape.
She won’t forgive me. I wouldn’t, if the roles were reversed. And so even if I save her, I will lose her.
Therefore, fucked.
“You have to come down there with me, I think there’s a sleeping turtle on the sea floor,” she says excitedly the moment she joins me, a brightness in her eyes I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.
“This might be the biggest kelp forest I’ve found here.
There was this big wasting sickness that affected the sunflower sea stars, and that made the urchin population boom, and they have devastated the kelp forests.
It’s really sad, but this one is amazing, you have to come explore. ”
I pull her goggles off her face and sling both pairs onto my arm before pulling her against me. Her blush could be explained by the exertion of swimming that deep and holding her breath that long, but I know better.
“I want my prize first,” I say, licking the ocean from her skin as I kiss along the line of her jaw. She still hasn’t let me kiss her lips, and I still can’t figure out why, but I’m going along with it for now.
“So demanding,” she replies breathlessly, failing in her attempt at false annoyance. Her hands travel down my back and across my ass, tracing the lines of my swimsuit in a dangerous way.
“Alice…” I warn, kicking harder to keep us both afloat as she focuses on her task. I hoist her a little higher so I can run my mouth over her collarbones, a triumphant glow settling in my chest when I see her nipples harden through the fabric of her swimsuit.
“You always make me feel so good,” she says on a slight whine, pushing against my shoulders so I’ll let her sink again.
“I love making you come, Pecas,” I swear, because it’s true.
I thought the look on her face, the way her body reacts to my touch, everything about her pleasure might lose its captivating shimmer once I experienced it a dozen or so times, but I’ve never been so happy to be wrong.
If it were reasonable, I’d spend most of my waking hours drawing those sighs and cries from her pretty little mouth.
“But I want to make you feel good too,” she demands, her fingers trailing over my breasts, down my stomach, toward the apex of my thighs. My skin flashes hot in the frigid water, and I feel the muscles in my neck tighten with restraint.
Obviously she’s touched me plenty in the last dozen or so days, but the focus of our experiences has been her pleasure, which is how I prefer it.
Ever the control freak, I like being the one dictating the experience, giving her every ounce of ecstasy her body can withstand.
She hasn’t made me come with her hands or mouth yet, but I’ve experienced plenty of orgasms just from watching her take everything I can give her.
That’s not to say I’m not interested in shaking things up.
“So eager for me,” I praise, grabbing one of her hands and placing it on my shoulder so she’s supported by my body. I slip the thin buoy under my other arm so I have additional support as I tread. “Do you want me to tell you how to be a good little prize for me?”
He breaths pick up as she nods, and I lean away from her so she has better access to my body.
Maybe the sharks won’t kill me out here, but this might.
“Pull my swimsuit to the side, pretty girl,” I direct, thankful that I wore a rather loose one. Alice takes her time, like I hoped she would, dragging her short fingernails over my covered pussy, the sensation both dulled and intensified by the barrier between us.
I don’t urge her faster, letting her explore giving like this at her pace. I’ll direct her when she needs it, but I want her to feel confident receiving and giving.
Eventually she does as I asked, slipping the bottom of the wet fabric aside and securing it between my thigh and pelvis. It’s not an easy thing, to keep treading water and be exposed like this, but I still manage to spread my legs a bit more for her.
The water is even colder on my newly-exposed skin, but I barely notice it with the way my blood is on fire. I’m watching her like she’s an eclipse, like I can’t look away, like it’ll burn my eyes to witness but I’m compelled to anyway.
“I want to know what you like,” she says softly, barely touching me as hovers her hand over my exposed slit, grazing the short, dark curls there. “Teach me to make you feel like you make me feel.”
She really is going to be the death of me.