Rosalie
Iburst up through the surface spluttering and gasping for air, but Dante, the reason I’m fully dressed in this pool, is nowhere to be seen.
Did he dump me in the water and leave?
Of course this is also the Sarkarnii who bit me because he liked me, so perhaps I shouldn’t be too shocked at the current outcome as I swim to the side of the aquium.
I suppose I should be grateful Dante recalled I asked for a bath. Even if he chose this unorthodox method of proving himself. I put my hands on the side and pull my soaking self out of the water.
Only I don’t get all the way out. Something tugs at my foot. I pull harder and it pulls back. Maggie used to wind Lydia up with tales of a monster worm which would inhabit the aquiums looking for prey, but I know it’s made up. The Sarkarnii would eat anything like that…wouldn’t they?
I kick out at what has me, holding onto the side of the pool, but then a pair of arms wrap around my waist, and I have a soggy head resting on my shoulder.
“Dante,” I say quietly.
He makes a noise in my ear which sounds very much like a purr.
“When I said I wanted a bath, I wanted to take my clothes off before I got in.”
“I can help you take them off now,” he murmurs in my ear, his chest pressed against my back and what I thought was a purr continuing to rumble through us both.
The hands around me are removed, and although I probably shouldn’t be bothered by the loss of his touch, I am.
Hands grasp at my boots, and they are pulled free, sailing over my head onto the side of the pool. Those same strong hands pull at my pants, which I slide out of easily, much to my surprise…but then I’ve never been fully clothed in a pool before.
I lift my top over my head and dump it on the side, leaning back to dunk my hair under water again running my fingers through it in order to clear out the dried blood.
“Let me.” Dante bobs next to me, taking hold of my hand and pulling me further out.
Initially I resist, but Dante is far larger and more powerful than me, easily towing me through the water in the direction he wants to go.
In the end, I give up, allowing myself to be pulled along, the lights under the surface dancing over his scales.
He is pantsless, of course, but then that’s perfectly normal for Sarkarnii, given they don’t have their junk on the outside.
Although, if Kerra and Scarlett are to be believed, when it appears outside, it could be used as a weapon in its own right.
Why am I thinking about Dante’s…male parts? I did not ask to come to the aquium for anything other than a bath. Just because he bit me and he doesn’t look like the back end of a bus doesn’t mean I will fall for him like some doe-eyed groupie.
I appear to be arguing in defiance of my body which is having an absolute moment in the water.
Dante takes me around the corner, and I find we’re in the shallower part of the aquium.
All of the Sarkarnii baths I’ve seen have a similar kidney shape, partially divided by a bulkhead.
One part, the bit Dante dropped me into, is deep, and the other side is shallow.
The Sarkarnii like to use the shallow part to shift into their dragon forms and gently toss water over themselves using their wings.
It’s quite a sight.
Once we’re in the shallower water, Dante swims away from me, using his sinuous tail to propel himself through the water like an alligator. He collects something from the other side of the pool and returns.
“Turn around,” he orders, almost like I’m one of his crew.
With not a little hesitation, I do as he says and find myself pulled between a pair of large, muscular, scaly thighs.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“I will cleanse your hair,” Dante rumbles.
“Oh.” My mouth is a little dry, even while I’m surrounded by water. “You don’t have to do it.”
“I want to do it,” he says. “If you’d like.”
“Yes, okay,” I respond, my mind a whirl of puzzlement. It’s been a day here on Dante’s ship already, and I don’t think it’s even half over.
The hidden Sarkarnii children, the experimentation on themselves. All presided over by the most chaotic creature I’ve ever come across and interlaced with a web of secrets and narcotics.
Dante carefully rubs something which smells like pine needles on the top of my head, running his hands down my hair to the ends.
“This is a cleanser of our own making,” Dante says. “We find it helps with the minerals in the aquium to keep our scales supple. You will not get this cleanser from any of the other warlords.”
For a second, my confusion deepens until I realize he’s trying to impress me. My mind goes back to Dalox’s threat. Dante has to woo me. He has to make me want to stay with him.
Everything he’s done today so far is his way of telling me he wants me to stay. He’s been showing me what he has, except it’s all broken to one degree or another.
Yet Dante thinks it should be reason enough for me to want to be with him. I don’t know what to think, not at all.
I feel the cleanser on my scalp start to foam as Dante continues to stroke it through my hair. Then he slowly massages it in with strong but gentle circles on my scalp. There’s just the mere hint of a pinprick from his claws as he works his way slowly and methodically over my head.
“My warriors and I like to help each other cleanse. It’s so much easier to get into the spines if you have assistance.”
“When you’re shifted?” I ask with a sigh I can’t keep out of my voice.
Dante hums, which turns into a purr as he concentrates on his task.
“I could…help, if you want?” I suggest, not knowing where the words are coming from unless my sanity has left the room.
“Lean back, let me rinse,” Dante orders, as if I haven’t said anything at all.
I do as he asks, and large hands scoop water to carefully remove the suds from my hair.
“Sit,” he says.
I do as requested, and he repeats the process. I relax into it. Right now, right here, with Dante, despite everything which has happened, this little act of grooming feels somehow right.
I guess I’ll deal with everything else later.