Page 68 of A Reckless Indulgence

She tosses her clothing aside and steps into the pool. Water laps at her ankles, and it’s like the rivulets defy gravity, flowing up her legs to pull her in.

Her heart beats in her throat. Half of her wants to turn back, but there’s only one way to know. She wades in until the water meets her calves, her thighs, her hips. Her feet slip on the smooth rock, and it sends her under with a splash. She can’t touch the bottom. The scare has turned her body against her, arms flailing as she sinks.

Aerated water swirls around her. She closes her mouth and shuts her eyes to brace for — what? Only when she stops moving does the water grow calm. Her ears ring with a noise that sounds like singing, and she swears she can feel every grain of salt prickling her skin.

Her lungs burn for air. She knows she has to breathe through her gills, but it’s been so long; the flaps on her neck refuse to open, clenched in fear.

Then the growing pains begin. It’s been years since her body stretched out of her human shape, but this cage has grown too small for her. Pained groans and bubbles seep past her sharpening fangs. Vicious spikes jut out from her forehead, a crown encircling the mass of tentacles her hair has become. Her nose flattens to two slits for nostrils. A large fin sprouts along her spine with webbing weaving between her taloned fingers.

Her legs are the biggest change, ballooning and fusing into a billowing dome with dozens of tendrils beneath. With this tail, she moves like a jellyfish, contracting muscles to propel herself through the water.

Hesitantly, she cracks one eye open. No longer is her vision blurry. Everything beneath the water appears with keen accuracy, though she knows her new eyes are foggy and glowing.

She can’t put it off any longer; she has to breathe. At long last, she flares her gills, and water rushes over them. She nearly chokes. It’s been so long since she felt this, something that was once so familiar now strange and unusual. It comes back to her quickly. No matter how long she’s been away, this is what she knows best. It is what she has always been.

She is finally home.

She soaks in the feeling. It’s tempting to stay under forever, ignoring all the reasons why she can’t. When the tide comes back in, she could slip out of the pool and back into the sea. She’d never have to surface and see the look on Cav’s face. She’d never have to watch his uncertainty spreading into horror when he recognizes that the truth of her is more than he can handle.

But she wants to see him break. She needs that finality to push her back on track. She wants the image of Cav’s revulsion branded in her mind for when it tries to wander back to thoughts of him.

With a final breath, she pushes upward. Without the insulation of the water, everything is louder. She can’t be sure Cav’s still behind her. Maybe he’s gone. Maybe he reconsidered and fled.

Slowly, she turns. From this distance, she can make out only a blurry image of the land. Pops of colorful flowers sit on a backdrop of greens and beige with a molten red figure in the middle.

Lyx can’t read his expression. She keeps still, the bell of her tail undulating beneath the water.

Cav doesn’t move. A sour taste rises in Lyx’s mouth, and her lip curls to remind him he asked for this, that he thought he wanted it so badly — but then, he speaks. He sounds like he did the first day in the grotto, like she’s his savior, a myth brought to life, a legend and fantasy all at once.

“You look just like the ocean feels.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

Cav

This is the moment Cav has dreamt about.

He’s always known there was more to Lyx, and now, he finally sees it. No matter how her features have changed, she is unmistakably the same. Same scowl, same plush body, same threatening aura, same emotions stirring in Cav’s chest.

He steps closer. If he wasn’t looking for her, it’d be difficult to tell where she ends and the water begins. Beneath the surface, her tentacles sway, a calm under the storm of her teeth and talons. She is otherworldly. Ethereal. Powerful enough to enchant and consume him in the same breath.

You look just like the ocean feels.

Her arms spread against the water. “That’s easy to say from dry land.”

It could be an invitation or a threat; either way, it doesn’t matter. Cav strips out of his clothes and steps into the pool. It’s like she expects him to turn back, but he wades up to his waist before the rocks drop off. Her tendrils twitch out of his path, but he doesn’t grapple for something to hold onto. He treads water, leaving himself completely at her mercy.

Her fins lift on end. There are more of them now. No doubt she thought he’d stay safe on shore, but that has never been Cavalier. She bares her teeth like a cornered animal, but her voice is beautifully breathless. “Reckless pirate.”

He eases forward, and water drips from her cheek onto the corner of his lips. He finds the droplet with his tongue. “What do you do to reckless pirates?”

A hiss builds in her throat, but her eyes follow his mouth — and then, she surges toward him. By the time he gasps for breath, he’s pressed against the opposite wall. Her strength and speed are thrilling. She presses her body to his, her tentacles streaming behind her. “I could drown you.”

“Do it,” he chokes out.

She falters only a moment before she pulls him under.

Water swirls around them. Her face hovers over him, blocking out the light. He lets his arms fall to his sides. There is no fear, no scramble to the surface, no desire for anything but what she gives.