Read WashedUp Online

Authors: Viola Grace

Tags: #Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance

WashedUp (2 page)

BOOK: WashedUp
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Safi didn't have the breath to comment. Whatever was allowing her to breathe was a little overwhelmed by the volume of water rushing past.

Spots danced behind her lids when she was finally able to feel the rush of oxygen in her bloodstream.

"We are here, Saffron."

"Safi, please."

"Safi, then. Bron is not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he is good hearted." Together they floated to the large balcony that was standard for homes in this watery world and the home owner was not slow in coming to greet them.

"Ajax, is this the survivor?" The man had deep red hair which formed a flattering contrast to his bluish skin.

"It is. Bron, this is Safi, Safi, this is Bron." Ajax's voice was suddenly tense and he backed away from them.

Safi approached the man who was all powerful shoulders and welcoming grin and extended her hand.

"Am I your first?" Bron was amused.

She blushed. "My first?"

"First suitor. You don't know how to greet someone yet."

She was sure that her skin was heating the area. "Um. Yes. You are. What am I doing wrong?"

"Extend you hand, palm up and leave it there. The person you are greeting will cover your palm with their own. We exchange body heat and then you retract your hand."

He smiled and nodded as she mimicked the motion he described.

When his hand covered hers she fought her flinch. He was far too cool for her.

He sighed regretfully. "And I can tell by your expression that I am not the male for you." He brightened suddenly. "Would you like to see my farm?"

"If you know that I am not for you, why would you want to give me a tour?"

"Well, I don't get many visitors. Anyone is a welcome distraction."

She turned to look at Ajax. "Can I?"

"Of course. Your time is yours to spend." His not-so-tactful reminder brought home that she was not long for this world, literally.

Stiffening her shoulders she turned to Bron. "I would love a tour. Lead the way."

Over the next two days Ajax took her to the homes of nine different males. None struck a chord with her. It was getting harder for her to breathe and she decided to spend her last day on her own.

Sneaking off before Ajax could introduce her to more men she didn't want, she headed for the current exchange. Safi wanted to get away from the city to see a little more of this world before she left it.

She could feel the current before she entered it and with a kick of her legs she spun herself into the current for her first solo travel.

The swirling warm water soothed her but made it harder to breathe while it whisked her into the darker expanses of the deep.

Ajax had told her that predators lived in the deep and with that ringing through her mind she tried frantically to kick free of the current. She was blacking out when she managed to work her way to the edge and tumbled loose.

The silence was absolute. No other minds were in the area and she suddenly realized that that was precisely what she had been feeling in the city, the press of minds all around her.

She looked back the way she had come, and only the vague glow in the dimness gave her the location of the city. With the current above her to give her a path to follow, she started kicking back to the place she was doomed to die in.

Hours of swimming past schools of fish, wild pods of the riding beasts, and the shadows of the occasional large predator gave her time to think. What if she simply picked one of her suitors at random? She was sure that she could grow to love one of them eventually.

Safi mentally kicked herself. There was only one of the men of Nasfron that she wanted and he had not given any indication that he wanted her.

Ajax was everything she wanted in a man, strong, funny, gorgeous and he had a body temperature that made her want to cuddle close.

Etiquette be damned, she was going to make a pass at him the moment that she was back at the city, if she managed to make it back before she died. With the way her pulse was stuttering, she wasn't sure how long she was going to last. She wanted to get back with a vengeance now that she had formulated a plan for her last act.

A wild pod of riding beasts surrounded her and before she knew what was happening, one snaked up between her legs and hooked her into riding it. It was the most peculiar feeling, but the moment that she snugged herself into place the entire pod raced for the city.

They seemed to have caught on to her urgency and it wasn't until she heard a child cry out in her mind that they deviated from their path. The moment that she heard the little girl scream the entire pod turned as one to race toward the psychic sound.

Safi looked through the gloom and a tense fury filled her as she saw a small child in a blue bodysuit trapped inches away from a huge fish. The size of the head was the only thing that was keeping the beak of the fish from nipping the child into bits.

"Stay calm and keep still." She had never spoken to someone she hadn't made eye contact with, but it was out of the question.

The child sniffled and kept still, tucking her arms and legs against her body.

The riding beasts attacked the fish, slamming into it with pointed heads and darting out of reach when it reached for them. They kept going, pushing the fish away from the hollow in the coral that was protecting the girl.

The beast that Safi was riding shot forward and she leaned down to grab the little girl before the fish could realize that it was being distracted.

The little girl hung on to her with desperation and then whispered, "We have to get the man. He got hurt trying to take me home."

"Where is the man, sweetie?"

"Over here. He tried to bring the fish away but it followed me. I wasn't supposed to play in the current but I did and now the man got hurt."

The girl was sobbing, but underwater, Safi couldn't tell if tears were the result.

"We will find the man and the beasts will take us all home."

"Okay. You are really nice, not stupid at all."

Safi raised her eyebrows at the young girl. "Why would you say that?"

"The man told me he was looking for a woman who looked like you do and that she was stupid." She nodded with a child's logic.

The man in question was barely visible, but one of his legs was sticking out of a small hollow and Safi's beast zeroed in on him without hesitation.

Safi dismounted and floated over to find the man of her dreams bleeding and exhausted. "Ajax. What are you doing out here?"

"Looking for you. Why did you leave?"

She pulled him upright and hauled him toward the riding beast. "I wanted to spend my last day alive in thought and quiet contemplation. Then I turned around determined to propose to you."

He blinked in surprise, his mind clearly not that focused. "You were?"

"Until I heard from the little miss that you were looking for a stupid woman, I was. Now I am going to die just to spite you." She snorted at his astonished look. "I am kidding, but you are not in any shape to wed me even if you were willing, which I am pretty sure you are not. Get on the beast."

"Where did you steal these? They are extremely well guarded." He settled on a larger beast that was next to the one the child was sitting on.

"They came to me."

He gave her a wary look as he fitted his body to the back of the beast. "That is impossible."

She sighed and got on behind the child again, settling into place and asking them to take them all home. "No, merely improbable."

The beasts flowed forward in a wedge of bodies, their speed leaving Safi light headed, but allowing them to run into the search party looking for the child and exchange the little one for effusive thanks.

"Now to medical to let my last day end with a bit of dignity." Safi put the image of medical in the head of her beast and it darted forward, the honour guard of the pod surrounding them.

"Have you always been able to talk to beasts?"

"Pretty much. It was useless in the city unless I wanted to summon rats. They were friendly enough, but most folks were not appreciative." She held on to the graceful neck of the beasts as they sped along.

When they entered the city folks stopped and stared at the pod. Apparently, the graceful beasts did not often come to the city if they could help it.

Smiling weakly, she dismounted when they reached medical and sent grateful thoughts to all of the animals nearby. She helped Ajax in to the facility where the doctors immediately sprang into action to seal his wounds.

Dizziness assailed her and she slumped against the wall, sliding slowly to the floor. She heard voices shouting but darkness awaited her and it was far too tempting.

"Saffron Morgan, do you take Ajax as your own?"

Charon was speaking, a camera and light focussed on her face.

"What the hell." She was barely able to speak, but it was enough.

"I will take that as a yes. Then by the official charter of the Nasfron, I pronounce you a citizen. Doctor, it's all you now."

A cool injection into her arm sent her spinning back into darkness, but as she fell she thought…
that was the suckiest wedding service ever
.

A strange aqua hand was rubbing her face. It took a bit for Safi to realize it was her own. "What the hell?"

"Hello, wife. Glad to see you are up and around." Ajax was lying in the bed next to her and she squeaked and looked for covers to pull over her naked body.

"Wife?"

"Don't you remember? You proposed. I was rather relieved. If you had taken on any of the suitors I would have had to have interfered and Father would have gotten in trouble." Ajax lifted her hand to his lips and simply let her feel the heat of his touch.

She trembled and tried to distract him. "Why am I blue?"

"You are aqua. A very rare colour for the change to have enacted but not unheard of." He continued his kisses up her arm and to her shoulder.

"Why am I naked?"

"Because it has taken two weeks to make it official, but this is our wedding night. We need to consummate the marriage to make your transformation legal." His lips were against her neck and she realized for the first time what kind of bonus speaking with one's thoughts could be. You never needed to worry about what your mouth was doing.

He nibbled his way up her jaw line and then pressed kisses against her lips. "Do you have any objections?"

She sighed mentally and threaded her fingers through his dark hair. "Ask me later."

He chuckled and moved over her completely. He fitted himself to her and she almost protested her lack of readiness, but he slid in easily.

He stretched her and butted against the mouth of her womb, but he was in without any difficulty. "How is that possible?"

"Ah. The hymen was removed and you now secrete the same substance that all of us do to retain body heat. It's side effect is the internal lubrication that allows for easy entry."

Her formal virginity had been taken and she hadn't noticed. "Why remove the hymen?"

He slowly began to move inside her and she had a hard time concentrating on his words. "Many underwater predators are attracted by blood. It isn't a good idea to have to be that alert while you are making love for the first time."

She ignored the sensibility in favour of the feel of the hard muscled body moving over her and inside her. His skin was slick with the substance he had mentioned but it made it easier to stroke all of him within her reach. She twisted against him, lifting her hips to take him deeply.

The thrusts inside her were exciting and irritating at the same time. When he stroked between them to touch the small nub at the top of her sex she twisted in surprise. Grinning, he did it again and with him rubbing at her as well as stroking inside her a shockwave burst inside her, locking her around him and holding his cock in a vise grip.

He groaned and she felt the jets of warmth bathing her from the inside. The expression on his face was intense and focussed on something that only he could see.

He rolled to one side and took her with him, cuddling her against him. "There, formalities are settled."

She blinked and got a little angry. "That was a formality?"

He stroked one hand down her back. "Only in the sense that it was necessary to allow you to live. I consider it a worthy goal."

"I still don't understand."

"Well, when you collapsed in the medical centre I had already explained to the doctors that I was your fiancé and you had the right to full transformation. They immediately summoned my father who did an emergency ceremony. It was quite touching. He asked if you would take me and you said
what the hell.
It was lovely. We will tell our kids about it."

She blinked. She thought it had all been a weird dream.

"Anyway, once you were officially a bride of Nasfron, you could undergo transformation, so they started just before you went into complete organ failure."

"Good timing."

"We thought so." He slicked his hands over her spine and cupped the curve of her hips. "Why me?"

She didn't know how to answer that and when he began to caress her breasts she lost even more thoughts. "Um. You are funny, smart, handsome and you touched me voluntarily. The others didn't even want to give me a normal greeting."

He sighed and scooted down to nibble his way over the slope of one breast, licking and sucking at the tip. "I could not stop touching you and I knew that if my scent was on you they would think twice before trying to press their suit."

She threaded her fingers in his hair again as he worked lower, teasing and tasting. "You cheated? Why didn't you mention you were interested?"

"I was not allowed to. My father considered it cheating. He was afraid that you would bond to me since I was the one that hauled you from the wreckage."

"You haven't told me how that happened. I remember the ship hitting the water, the noise of the water pressure collapsing my pod. I still don't know why the pod didn't float to the surface."

She was thinking her sentences to him as he worked his way down her belly, tonguing her navel as he spoke.

BOOK: WashedUp
6.21Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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