Fathom (Mermaids of Montana #3) - Elsa Jade Page 0,32
his chest to slant her lips across his. His mouth opened in response.
So the impenetrable obsidian wall wasn’t unreachable after all.
She touched the tip of her tongue to his, and the kiss exploded.
As did everything else. The thunderous scrap of electrons, crystalline chime of shattering glass not in her mind…and suddenly her hands were empty.
Eyes flared wide, she glanced wildly around the computer room. He was gone. Sting had left her. Alone on an alien ship.
An airy whistle, like faint laughter, jerked her around again to face a gaping hole in the concave windows.
She ran forward, leaning out through the gap, cautious of the jagged edges of the not quite glasslike pane. From here, the central spire looked down down down to the segmented wheel below with its churning waves.
And bobbing like a big silver cork…
“Sting!”
Chapter 7
“Sting?” Small fists beat at his chest. “Sting! Wake up. Don’t die. Oh God…”
He opened his eyes to meet Lana’s frantic gaze. “I’m not dead. Yet.”
She was standing in the shallows where he floated, her hands hovering near, but not quite touching anymore.
Probably for the best, that.
She let out a shuddering breath. “I thought you had drowned.”
“I haven’t drowned,” he informed her, although he made no attempt to straighten. The waters of the Atlantyri were soothing on his gills. In some unexpected way, so was the concern on her face as she stood over him.
“You were making such a horrible noise.” Her fingers fluttered in distress. “I thought you were choking.”
“Not choking.” He pursed his lips, which felt somewhat numb. “I was laughing.”
She took a step back, the restless internal tide wavering around her. “Laughing?”
“Laughing underwater,” he clarified. “So maybe it sounded odd to you.”
Her brows crashed down like a mini landslide. “If laughing was odd right now it would be because I almost killed you. Again!”
“I told you, not yet.” Since her agitation was roiling the water around him anyway, he put his feet under him and stood, venting the water from his gills.
“And that’s funny to you? Getting electrocuted and being blown out a window and falling into this fake ocean?”
There was an edge to her question that made him narrow his eyes warily. “More amusing than actually dying.” He squinted a little more. “You sound like water boiling.”
“Because I’m—” She hunched her shoulders, still hissing. “I ran all the way down here thinking I’d killed you.” Despite the huddle of her body, she jutted her chin at him. “What did you think you were doing?”
He bit his lip as he’d seen her do so many times. Sensation was starting to come back, and his teeth were sharper than hers, so he wasn’t sure he appreciated the sensation. Perhaps he should lie to her. But he’d never been very good at it. “I was kissing you.”
She jerked her chin back in, rolling herself tight like her disbelief was a protective shell. “Kissing me?”
“Is that not the right word? According to my translator, it means—”
“I know what it means,” she interrupted. “Or at least… I know what the word means. Why were you kissing me?”
“You told me to show you how to relight the data gel.”
“What does that have to do with kissing?” With each word, the hiss in her voice boiled higher.
He looked down at her. “I have observed whenever the Earther females doubt themselves, Coriolis and Maelstrom kiss them.” He thought for a moment. “And when they are being difficult.”
Lana sputtered. “Doubting and difficult, huh?”
“Is that wrong?”
She opened her mouth, then closed it, then shook her head. “I suppose your observations were not wrong. And your friends are only half wrong to use it that way.”
He inclined his head. “I’m sorry for using the kiss the wrong way. I thought it would help you find your power.”
She made a noise not unlike his underwater laughing, a rather wet gurgle. “Well, I guess it sort of worked. Since my power only seems to cause damage.”
“Did it work?” When she lifted her troubled gaze to his, he gestured at the tight-clenched fist she’d banged into his chest. “Did your power reignite the gel?”
She blinked at him, as if she’d totally forgotten the capsule. Although that had been their mission, once again her worry for him gave him a sweet, warm jolt that had nothing to do with her electricity.
Slowly, she unfurled her fingers to reveal the capsule. Even through the translucent container, the reinvigorated gel shimmered bright enough to make him glad of the protective lenses over his own eyes.