Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Which is right around the time I realize I may not be the best suited to teach a human to swim. My people move with our tentacles. Humans only have two legs. But so do demons and dragons and the rest of the people in this realm. I try to remember exactly what that looks like. It’s been a long time since I’ve had cause to swim with anyone outside my people.
I wonder if that’s a mistake.
There have been so many made in the past five years. We may be at peace, but since Brant’s death, it’s a fraught peace. It feels more like a pile of tinder that may burst into flame at any moment. The people in different territories don’t mix as much as they used to. Tensions are higher than they’ve been in all the years I’ve ruled.
None of that is a problem for right now.
I spin Catalina around until her back is to my chest. She tenses, but only for a moment. Her ass presses against me, and it’s distracting, but I force myself to focus. I take her wrists and slowly move her arms in an approximation of swimming.
After brief consideration, I shift her away from me, giving her as much room as possible. She tentatively moves her arms like I showed her and then starts kicking her legs. Soon she’s paddling in circles around the space. Now’s the time to let go of her. She’s got the idea of it, and she needs space to figure out the rest.
It’s still far more difficult than it has right to be to release her. The moment I do, she sinks several feet and freezes. But when she looks up and finds me above her, she exhales a string of bubbles and begins moving again.
After ten minutes, I hook an arm around her waist and take us both to the surface. Catalina grins at me. “Did you see me? Swimming like a goddamned fish!”
She has a long way to go before anyone would mistake her awkward movements as fishlike, but I won’t say a single thing to dampen her excitement. She looks so . . . happy. “You did well.”
Catalina allows me to hoist her onto the edge of the pool. I realize my mistake as soon as I shift back. She’s naked but for the water coating her skin, and that’s more ornament than anything else. Even as I watch, a rivulet from her wet hair slides down one breast to course over her nipple. It’s puckered and tight with the cool air, and I can’t help licking my lips. I have barely gotten a taste of this woman, and I want so much more.
Goddess, am I really jealous of water right now?
She shakes out her arms, apparently oblivious to the direction of my thoughts. “Wow, that was more of a workout than I expected. Silly, right? Of course it’s a workout, or it wouldn’t be an Olympic sport.” She lifts her legs out of the water and frowns at them. “You aren’t secretly trying to get me to work out, are you? That would be shady.”
I swear I don’t understand half of what comes out of her mouth, but I recognize the sliver of insecurity on her face. It gives me the motivation I need to dial my desire back and focus on the conversation. “I have no desire to change anything about you.”
“You’d be the first.” Before I can examine that, she continues blithely on. “I think I’ve been very good, don’t you, Thane?”
For once, I won’t be distracted by the temptation of her desire. “Who wants to change you?”
She frowns but answers, “Who doesn’t? I am hardly the perfect daughter my mother wanted, and she never hesitates to detail all the ways I’ve failed her as her only child. My father was distant, and when he got sick of my mom’s bullshit, he took off, and it doesn’t matter what I do to gain his attention, the most I get is birthday cards—usually a month or two late.”
“Catalina—”
“Then there were boyfriends and girlfriends and lovers, but none of them lasted because I inevitably did something to fuck it up. I’m too much, Thane.” She grins, though it doesn’t reach her eyes. “So I embrace that. If I’m too much for them, they can choke on me. When I get my money from Azazel, I won’t have to worry about being too much for anyone, because they’ll just be happy to let me pay their way.”
I want to pull her close and hug away the fragility lurking beneath her bravado. Considering the fact she’s bristling and obviously ready for a fight, she might clock me in the jaw if I try. Instead, I offer her the only comfort I can. My truth. “I’m lonely, too.”