7
“All of this for a pair of shoes?”
Vivi looked up at Psi as he leaned back in his chair.
The corner of his mouth ticked up as he finished his comment making her wonder if it was a legitimate question or a mocking statement.
She’d always found humans so difficult to read.
They could smile while they were being cruel. They could cry out of happiness.
Fish had no facial expressions. They either ignored you and gave you their backfins. Or they flashed their teeth and charged you.
“Shoes are transformative in fables and fairytales,” she said. “Your whole life can change with the right pair of shoes.”
Psi leaned over and peered down at her legs, which were tucked under his dining table.
Vivi had made sure to cross at her ankles the way she’d seen Lady Gwin do when she’d come to sit on a rock at the river.
Dame Loren often sat with her legs splayed, but Loren hadn’t been raised a lady.
She’d only come into polite society when she’d become a knight.
“Those are nice shoes,” said Psi.
He leaned forward in his chair, placing his elbows on the table and resting his strong chin in the palm of his hand as he gazed at her.
He didn’t flash his teeth, but his gaze blazed into her making her feel warm.
It was a gentle, yet insistent hum of energy.
Nothing like the invasive blast his eel of a brother had forced upon her earlier.
Vivi shuddered at the memory. She couldn’t fathom how the two men were related.
Not only did they feel different, they looked nothing alike.
Zeus had the gilded look of a goldfish, whereas Psi had the dark, silky-smooth skin of a killer whale.
The large orcas were the apex predator of the oceans, but they’d always been kind to Vivi, playing with her when she was younger and sharing their kills when she was still learning to fend for herself.
She looked down at the plate of food Psi had presented her. He’d served her a dish of raw fish wrapped in seaweed and rice. It was delectable. Much nicer than food singed by fire. Sushi, he called it.
“Women’s shoes have always seemed restrictive to me,” Psi was saying.
Vivi shook her head to deny it, and then realized that he had a point. The first time she’d put on her shoes they had been tight. But it was the first time she’d actually felt her toes. She liked the pinched feeling. It reminded her that she had her freedom.
“When you put on shoes you can go greater distances.” She plopped the last roll into her mouth; tuna, her favorite.
Psi’s gaze lingered on her mouth a moment before speaking.
“The farthest distance I’ve seen most women in fancy shoes go is up a social ladder.
Take Cinderella for instance. She swept floors and cleaned the fireplace.
Suddenly, she puts on a borrowed costume and pair of glass shoes, and the next thing you know, she’s bagged a prince. ”
“You make it sound as though she were dishonest in her quest,” said Vivi.
“Her stepmother and sisters were evil inside and they pulled on beautiful clothes to hide it. Cinderella’s fairy godmother helped match her inner beauty with her outer beauty.
In her rags and bare feet, Cinderella was already a princess at heart. ”
“All right,” Psi leaned forward. “Take Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. She stole shoes to gain power.”
“No,” said Vivi. “Dorothy got magical shoes and did everything to get them off so that she could get back home.”
“What about The Red Shoes?”
Vivi knew that story. It was about a young woman who becomes so vain about her shoes that the shoes take control of her.
They force her to dance nonstop until, finally, she goes to the town executioner to have him chop her feet off.
Before Vivi could formulate a response to the story, Psi continued.
“There are a number of stories where women move from wooden shoes, or poverty, to delicate glass shoes, or royalty.”
“I’m not interested in royalty,” said Vivi.
“So, you’re Dorothy, not Cindy?”
“I’m Vivi. I just want shoes. I want to stand on my own two feet.
I don’t want a fairy godmother; I’ve got two witch friends.
Though, they’re not my best friends. I do want a best friend of my own.
But I don’t want a prince. I’d like to keep my freedom, thank you very much.
I just left the sea. I don’t want to be kept in a gilded, high tower. ”
“I would never cage you, Vivi. I like watching you walk.”
“That’s what I want,” she said. “To walk on land. I want to find my own place in the world. I want to wear pretty clothes and high heels. I want to have friends who want my company, for me, and not just to use my powers to get from place to place. I want to find a place where I belong as Vivi.”
She stopped her tirade and looked at him. He was doing it again. He was looking at her like she was a meal he wanted to devour. He hadn’t touched any of the sushi himself. Perhaps he was fattening her up for a late-night snack, after all.
“I think you’re beautiful,” he said.
“I know I’m not. I’m pale. My hair is the color of the moon, not the sun. My breasts stopped growing back in the sixteenth century. I know men like them big along with big derrieres, as well.”
“I think you’re perfect.”
He leaned across the table. He was so near that she felt his warm breath on her cheek. And then she realized, he wasn’t trying to eat her at all.
“Are you going to kiss me?” Vivi asked.
Psi’s grin spread, flashing sharp, white teeth.
“That’s disgusting.” She jerked back, the legs of her chair scraped across the flooring.
Psi’s brows rose as his top lip lowered over his incisors.
“I’ve never understood the practice,” she shuddered. “Why would you want to stick a random piece of your body in my mouth? And the tongue at that. Why not put my toes in your mouth?”
Vivi watched Psi’s throat work as he struggled to swallow.
The movement was surprisingly hypnotic, like the dance of a tropical fish undulating in the water.
Vivi loved the taste of tropical fish even more than she did tuna.
She had the strangest urge to reach out her own tongue and nibble the column of his neck.
“I just want to taste you.” Psi’s gaze dipped down to her feet. “I promise I won’t bite.”
“Then what’s the point of tasting if you don’t—”
She didn’t get the chance to finish her sentence. Psi’s large body leaned across the table and took her mouth. Vivi tensed under the gentle onslaught of Psi’s warm lips.
Her upper lip was caught between both of his. She was falling, hook, line, and sinker. He released her lip, only for a second. But in that second, it was as though he reeled her in.
She followed his lips, covering the vast inch-worth of distance he’d placed between them until she was caught once more in his net. Psi’s lips sealed over hers, capturing both her top and bottom lips this time. She felt engulfed by him like she was drowning.
Fear coursed through her at the weightlessness of it all. It felt like being untethered, without an anchor. The firmer he pressed his lips against hers, the further she sank into the bottomless depths of this desire.
Vivi reached out, seeking some kind of support, any type of mooring or ballast. And there he was. He surrounded not just her mouth, he surrounded all of her.
Like earlier this evening, she was flying. Vivi was terrified of flying, of being cast off. But not with this man.
Psi brought her into his body. He wrapped his strong arms around her and cradled her in his embrace as he parted and probed her mouth.
She let him in, let him surround her. He held her tightly, perhaps a little too tightly.
But Vivi didn’t mind. Psi’s embrace felt like the first time she’d put on shoes.