Chapter 3

Three

Perhaps she'd lost her mind. That was the only thought that brought Alys back to the same kelp forest every single week. Then it became twice a week. Multiple times a week. Almost every day.

Her father was going to realize soon that she wasn't researching the area. He was a shrewd man with an eye for her habits, and she knew that sooner or later she'd have to answer to him. But right now, she was enjoying herself far too much.

Stalling the submarine in the same spot where she had been leaving it for days on end, she waited while holding her breath. Her eyes locked on the kelp in front of her, every muscle in her body seized as she waited.

"This is getting ridiculous," her droid muttered inside the wall. "Eventually you're going to have to do something other than stare at him."

"I'm not staring at him," she replied. "I'm waiting for him."

"Sure looks like staring to me."

They couldn't even speak with each other, but that didn't matter to Alys. They talked in other ways. Hand gestures, heart felt looks. She knew without a doubt that he found her as interesting as she found him. And together, they were discovering so much about each other's species.

As far as she knew, no other human had seen a species like his. Sure, there were plenty of creatures in the ocean they knew very little about. Fish and crabs and wild looking octopi, those were all being discovered by countless droids that were assigned to certain scientists. But had anyone made contact with a species that had a language and emotions and... looked so eerily human when they felt strong emotions?

The kelp parted around a darkened hand, the flash of green scales already letting her know that he was here for her. The grin on her face almost hurt as she bolted toward the hatch above her.

Alys had made sure to wear something pretty today. Usually she wore clothing that was practical for swimming. She chose tight-fitting pants and wetsuits that allowed her to at the very least be warm. But the water here was already warmer.

The volcanoes had finally stopped their madness, which meant she could easily swim in this water because everything was still pretty warm. At least she wasn't boiling or freezing. She'd take it.

So today, she'd worn a dress. A bright blue dress with a tight bodice and many layers of skirts that she knew would billow around her prettily in the water. She wanted to see what he thought about a dress. She wanted to feel... pretty to him.

Because he was so thoroughly intriguing to her.

Placing her goggles and air over her mouth, she made sure the door beneath her was sealed into the more electronic parts of the sub and then opened the final hatch. The water rushed in so quickly she had to brace herself against the wall with all her limbs.

But this time, a strong arm reached in with it and drew her out with ease. When he did things like that, it always made her breathless.

He was so strong. Alys didn't need to see him draw her out of the submarine, as though the suction in that room wasn't enough to send her careening back into the sub. She could see it in the rippling muscles of his shoulders and the way his chest flexed. She could see it in the anchoring of his tail around her ship and how easily he tugged her against his heart.

He was...

She didn't have words for it. She wished she did.

Alys shook her head. Her palms pressed against his cool chest when she realized for all the time that they had been together, they'd only been experiencing his world. He'd taken her swimming and taught her how to swim better and faster. He had brought her seashells and fish from the depths of the sea. They had laughed at each other's antics, but she'd never asked his name.

Reaching for his face, she trailed a single finger down his forehead, cheek, to his jaw. She was so comfortable touching him, when she'd never been comfortable touching anyone else like this. Not a human, that was for certain.

"What is your name?" she asked, her voice little more than a breathless whisper.

He arched a dark brow, that devastatingly handsome face wrinkling with confusion.

Swallowing, she touched a finger to her forehead. "Alys." Then she tapped his forehead.

He didn't seem to understand what she was asking, so she did it a few more times. Never saying anything other than her name. Then suddenly she could see the realization dawn on him. His eyes widened, his lips parted in sudden shock.

"Alys," he repeated, that low voice singing the word. She'd never heard the sound of her own name be so beautiful.

Reaching up between them, he traced her jaw with a long claw. "Alys," he said again, then rumbled a word that she would never forget. "Imber."

"Is that your name?" she breathed. "Imber?"

His entire face brightened with the word as she said it, and she knew she was right. His name was Imber, and it was such a strange name for a man so large and dangerous.

Yet, he was still holding onto her. Sinking away from the sub and allowing the current to gently nudge them toward the kelp. He relaxed, allowing his body to almost lay flat in the water as she sat draped on top of him.

Naturally, her legs fell to either side of his body. Naturally, she wanted him.

Maybe it made her some kind of deviant. She didn't know anyone else who would see a monster from the depths and find him attractive, but she was lost in him. In the hard angles of his features, the blackness of his eyes, and the green scales that abraded her palms as she slid them down his chest, ribs, and sides.

Everywhere she touched him felt like molten metal. Or maybe it just made her hot to touch him. There was definitely something wrong with her.

And yet, sometimes she looked at his eyes and saw an answering flash of interest. As though he knew what was going through her mind every time she dragged her fingers down his sides. Every time she had the opportunity to drape herself over his chest just like this.

He knew. He had to know.

Somehow, she wasn't embarrassed by that knowledge, either. She was so happy that he was with her, and that made all the difference.

Sighing, she rested her head as comfortably as she could against his chest. The tube got in the way, and the mouthpiece wasn't all that comfortable to wear when she was touching something else. But it felt right to lie against him and just... be.

"Did you bring me anything to see today?" she asked, drawing a pattern on his pectorals as they finally reached the kelp forest. "You usually bring me some interesting things from the depths."

As if he understood what she was asking, he reached underneath them to draw out a small bag he must have left in the kelp forest. He popped it onto his chest, as if he also knew that she didn't want to move from where she was. At least, not yet.

She straddled him, sitting up on his abs so she could rip into the bag without ever having to stop touching him.

Healthy? No. This entire relationship would likely end in one of them dying. She'd either drown, or he would accidentally kill her. That's what her father would say, at the very least. But for now, she wasn't going to think about the fact that she was straddling a very dangerous creature, or that he was rubbing his hands up and down her thighs as she pulled the bag open.

Inside was the most beautiful shell she'd ever seen. Abalone, she thought it was called, but it was every color of the rainbow. It had been meticulously carved into the image of what looked like a wave. A swell that crested into the white exterior of the shell and then dove into swirling patterns of water.

"It's beautiful," she whispered, although her attention was certainly pulled away from it when his hands squeezed the meat of her thighs. He shouldn't do that. He shouldn't toy with fate.

They were two different species. And while he was clearly intelligent, a creature who was very much capable of learning and emotion and all the other things that made her human... How would they fit?

Alys knew without a doubt she flirted with going against nature as she looked down into his pleased gaze. But she supposed it didn't really matter in the end.

She was here. He was underneath her, and she had never been so thankful for anyone before. He looked at her like actually saw her. She wasn't the daughter of an inventor who had changed the lifespan of humans across the globe. She wasn't the girl who had to live up to her father's impressive deeds.

Imber looked at her and he saw Alys. The daredevil who perhaps took a few too many risks, but who wanted the world to see her as someone other than the girl who lived in her father's shadow.

He touched a finger to the carving and then tapped his claw to her forehead. As if trying to tell her something.

"This is for me?" she curled her hand around it and mimed like she was going to put it in her pocket.

A deep thrum started in his chest. He slid his hand with hers inside her pocket, the backs of his fingers brushing against her hip bone. But then he said something else, his eyes intense. Sliding his hand out of her pocket, he dragged his fingers through her skirts and then flattened his hand above her chest. Above her heart.

As if...

"Is the carving supposed to be me?" she asked. Tapping her hands against her chest, she said, "Alys?"

He touched the carving in her pocket and gently patted his hand over her heart at the same time. "Alys." Then he said another word. Maybe two, she didn't know.

All she understood was that he saw her like he saw the sea itself.

A thud made her chest hurt. Then another. Then she realized that something inside of her was screaming to get out, because he saw her like the sea. He saw her as some goddess who had walked into his life, a wave that crashed down upon him and he wasn't afraid of that.

Imber did not fear the wildness in her or the risks she took. He saw her as the mad woman who so many people disliked in her community because of her adventurous personality, and he enjoyed it.

This undine had carved her a message. Her wildness did not scare him, and he admired her for it.

Something snapped inside her. She ripped the mouthpiece off her face and kissed him. She didn't care that she couldn't breathe, or that she might not be able to reattach the mouth piece in time. Right now, the risk was worth kissing him.

He stilled at her movement, seemingly surprised at what she was doing. And maybe his people didn't kiss, but the moment she moved her mouth against his, her tongue sliding against his lips, he seemed to get it.

A low growl rumbled through his chest. Those gills on his ribs rippled against her inner thighs, and then his arms snapped around her. He dragged her tightly against him, almost crushing her against his chest as his lips parted and he devoured her.

Teeth and tongue, licking and biting as he learned the taste of her. The sensation of her mouth against his. Who needed air when she could simply breathe him in?

Eventually, the need to breathe made her entire body spasm. She wanted air, but she also wanted to keep kissing him, and what a cruel world it was that she couldn't. She wanted to touch him, hold him, make him more hers with every moment.

His claws dug into her thighs, and she could feel the indentations of his hands against her skin. She knew she would have marks there later. That when she was alone later tonight, she would pull her skirts up to see the tiny pinpricks of blood, and it would make her even more excited than she was now. She would...

Again her body spasmed, this time her heart thudding awkwardly in addition as it warned her there were only so many more seconds before she would breathe in water and start to drown.

But then he reached up between them. His hand glided along her side, his fingers skimming over her breast and up her throat. She arched into him, even if it meant that she was taking precious moments away from when she should be slamming that mouth piece over her mouth.

He... pinched her nose?

And then he exhaled.

Oh.

Her lungs filled with air that he breathed into her mouth, and she greedily sucked it down. Every exhale he gave her was a few more moments when she could keep tasting him. Moments when she could dig her own hands into the muscles of his shoulders, leaving the little half moons against his skin as she begged him to keep breathing. To prolong this moment.

She didn't know how long they kissed. She had no way of knowing the passage of time, only that eventually she had to stop making out with him like a teenager because another loud booming noise echoed through the ocean.

It sounded fairly similar to how he spoke, although it was not a word she was used to hearing. Or perhaps it was another language, but one he understood.

He stiffened underneath her and pulled their lips away. Without even looking at her, he placed her mouthpiece over her face.

Apparently, everything was done. Considering how tense he was underneath her thighs, she had a feeling that was for good reason. Already he'd flicked his tail, moving, so she was clinging to him rather than lying on top of him. They were moving back toward the sub. She struggled to fit the mouth piece over her face correctly, and there was some water in it around her chin, but she exhaled the last of the air out of her lungs and gave herself a small bubble from which she could breathe.

"What is it?" she asked, her eyes wide as he handed her up to the top of the sub where she usually entered.

His hands flexed around her waist, and she let herself believe he didn't want to let her go. Even his gaze said that as he looked at her, those dark eyes conveying so much that she hoped she was reading correctly.

But then he moved to put her inside the sub, and she knew her time was up.

"I'm going," she mumbled, then reached out to trail her fingers over his lips. "This was..."

He said something, and whatever it was, she took it to heart. That he didn't want her to go. That this was a life-changing experience for both of them and he was thanking her for everything that had happened.

Or something along those lines.

He flicked his tail, disappearing into the kelp, and left her to get back inside the sub. She buckled herself in, soaking wet and likely ruining some of the functions. Of course, Beta had a lot to say about that, but she didn't listen to the little droid.

Alys was in her own world. Even as she docked the sub above ground at the port where she and her father kept their submarines and ships. She didn't even notice that she'd walked through the hall to the kitchen, leaving wet footprints in her wake.

She didn't notice that her father was sitting at the kitchen island, waiting for her, until she heard his guttural tones.

"Where have you been, Alys?"