He had slits in his throat, three of them cut under the back of his ear on each side, and they were throbbing back and forth in the water like gills. They must've been gills because he wasn't wearing the same protection layer as she was, but she could see his chest rising and falling. There was no shock of fear, just extreme curiosity that was about to explode.
“What are you,' she heard herself whispering as she flapped her feet in time with his body.
He turned back and they met eyes. He had shown his true self to her, but he didn't seem vulnerable at all. Instead, he playfully swept her up and pulled her into his chest so that their faces were almost touching, then he looked out as he propelled them as fast as he could through the water. The feeling of it rushing past her was exhilarating. She was screaming with excitement. He lay his head down in the space where his neck met her shoulders. She put her hand behind his back to pull him in closer so they could float together on the current, letting the water push past them.
He met her eye and suddenly she felt him peck at her lips quickly. She shivered from the sheer sensuality of it. She was doing something she never imagined possible. They sunk to the sandy ocean floor and she took refuge in the sand, laying with her elbow propping up her head. He floated above her, doing flips in the water.
“You don't seem scared.” She could hear his voice inside her protective covering as if he were right next to her. “How do you feel?”
She lay back on her head and thought about it. She was excited, but she felt natural, like she had always been able to do this, but she just figured out she could. “It's like I'm at home,” she responded.
“You're a strange person, Becca.” He plopped down next to her sending flurries of sand floating around in all directions. He reached his arm under hers and propelled them up and farther out to see. She dug her head into his chest. He wasn't as hot as she was. It was strange.
“Are you a merman,” she asked as he moved them through the water.
“No.” He looked down at her. “I want to take you some place so we can talk.”
“Where?”
“I'll show you. It's not far. In the meantime, enjoy the view.” The water was dotted with little pieces of white corral coming out of the sea floor with plant and animal life stretching up. They were just high enough to avoid anything. Lucky, because there was a patch of anemone that just passed below her.
She knew there'd be eels and predatory fish below her, but she felt safe in Dylan's arms. He could move so fast through the water that the momentum he built up could easily be used to increase his strength exponentially, and he was strong. His body was almost completely rock hard.
He seemed to know where she was going, so she didn't pay her fears too much mind. Instead she marveled at the colors below her. There was the pink coral and a school of bright white flash that moved just above it. When they passed overhead, they darted in little holes in the coral and peeked out at her curiously.
There was a little hermit crab scampering along the rocks trying to keep up with them with his pincers pointed out, ready to snap if they came near. Becca laughed at the audacity of it. The little man couldn't have done any damage to either of them.
They were almost past the reef and the, which had been bottoming out below them began evening out until they couldn't see anything except for bare sand and the water stretching out before them.
“Are you enjoying yourself, Becca,” Dylan asked her.
“I love it.” She had gone scuba diving once when she was younger. It was a simulated environment, closed off from everything else. She was allowed a few seconds underwater so she could look at what it was like, but it was just a square patch of water with no features.
She was interacting with an entirely different world, something she'd never thought possible. She could be a part of this place, and learn about it in a way that no person ever could before. It was an exciting opportunity, but she didn't understand. “Why did you choose me, Dylan?”
“Because you called to me in the water.” She was puzzled by his response, but she was too amazed by what she was seeing. A school of dolphins were swimming below them, following them along. There were four of them and one calf closely following its mother. They kept cocking their heads up so they could see the couple.
Dylan looked down at them and laughed. “Let's go say hi,” he said.
He pulled her up so that she was cradled in his arms then dropped down low enough. She felt excitement rolling through her as she realized she would finally be able to swim with dolphins. She'd never been with them so close before.
The bull, that was at the head of their triangle formation backed down closer to the sea floor when they approached and tensed up. He had tired, wrinkled eyes, a sign of his age. He was the patriarch of their school. The other dolphins stayed behind him and waited.
The male shot up, and narrowly missed the girl, but Dylan threw her behind him. For a second the world stopped when she realized what this creature was capable of. He was an intelligent, self-aware mammal in the form of a muscular torpedo that could tear through her like she was made of paper, but he still backed down when Dylan tensed up and ran in front of Becca. He stopped and nodded his head before rushing back to his family.
She didn't know what had just happened. “Is he gonna attack again?”
“No. He's just showing us what matters. He wouldn't have attacked.”
“It was a territorial display,” she asked.
“Yes. He won't let us go past him until he's sure it's safe. I can let you swim around. By seeing that, he'll know we trust him.”
“Is he trustworthy?” He was capable of destroying a house.
“He's not as fast as I am.”
“I doubt that.”
Still, Becca wasn't going to pass up the chance to swim with the dolphins. She wasn't dumb. She'd never idealized the creatures. She knew that they could be playful and kind, but that they had a dark side to their nature. Humans could be food just as easily as they could be friends to play with.
There was a way to move with them, and as she wriggled out of Dylan's arms she began to learn it. If she swayed her body left or right, the dolphin jolted, but if she let herself float straight up, his eyes just followed her. Slowly, she let her feet propel her forward and the dolphin moved up to meet her. They were on neutral ground, somewhere where both of their parties could be protected should either one encroach on their meeting.
He wasn't like a little child—ready to play and hit beach balls. Instead, he was a wizened man who knew how to be cautious and attack before he was attacked. He was well aware of his own force, so he didn't both posturing. Instead, he focused on shifting his eyes around and trying to watch the environment around him. He could meet any threat head on, but he had to see it first.
Becca moved slowly towards where he was floating in the middle of the water. She was above him so she had to curve her body downwards to reach him. Just as they were about to touch, his nose went up and traveled from her belly to her neck, brushing it with his rubbery gray skin. He was surprisingly rough in texture, but his gesture was gentle. His beak rested firmly on her shoulder, near her neck and he reached in with his fins to grab hold of her by her waist. She was going to scream, and then when he started spinning and they shot up into the air, she let out a cry of excitement. They fell down into the water, spinning the entire time as they curved down towards the sea floor where they almost made impact before he rushed up and threw her back into Dylan's open arms.
“He's playing now, isn't he, Dylan?”
“Kinda like when you bounce a kid on your knee.” He nodded his head and tried to suppress his giggles. “Come on!” The calf eyed her curiously and she waved back at it as they left the dolphins to their games and made their way further out to sea side by side.
They'd left all but the most basic features of landscape and vegetation behind. Most everything was completely barren. They did see a squid about twenty minutes after they left the dolphins behind, but Dylan
steered clear of it saying that its ink would block off her air shield and that he wouldn't be able to clean it.
She would never keep up with him, but she enjoyed the freedom of swimming on her own, so she worked to maintain a steady pace and he swam alongside her in case he needed to grab her. He'd told her early on that he could handle any threat that might come their way, but that she would have to keep a lookout. Much like the dolphin, he couldn't handle what he didn't see.
She began to understand this world a little bit better. It was teeming with life in a way that the world above water could never be, so there was more danger, more competition and infinite diversity. She saw things she didn't understand. There was something that looked like a rock at the bottom of the ocean flashing bright light and colors. There were spots of white light that seemed to travel as one creature. She didn't even know these kinds of things existed.
Dylan watched her curiosity and excitement with zeal. He would smile and point at things. They saw several schools of colored fish that came in an infinite variety of colors and shapes. The light reflected off of their bodies and shone out into the water. She was mesmerized by the way it played on the ocean floor.
Eventually they didn't see anything at all. She was starting to get tired, and Dylan saw it. “Do you want me to carry you? We've got a long way to go.”
“Please.” Her eyelids were drooping so she let herself fall into his embrace.
The water pushed softly against her face and swept her hair back, pulling her into a soft slumber as they raced over the ocean floor. It was a sweet lullaby, one that no man had ever felt before. When she awoke the first thing she saw was the rocks below her. They were made of solidified lava with jagged edges. They seemed to stretch on into the black water ahead of them. It was darker and he was moving with inhuman speed. She was scared so she grabbed tightly onto him. He instinctively reached up and ran his fingers through her hair.
“Don't worry.” She stayed silent and watched. She wasn't sure where they were, or what was coming. She was somewhere completely different. The water was murky, and she knew that there must be things around them, things that could shock and burn her or tear her apart. She didn't like this place, and it was getting darker. She felt cold. They must be farther under water, because she could feel it pressing down on her, making it harder to move. Dylan was having no problem, but she was noticeably slower.
All she could do was cling tight and let the darkness take her in until she was asleep once more and they were falling. She knew they had passed the continental divide and were falling to the ocean floor, where untold treasures existed. She stirred and looked up at his smiling face as the surface, far above them grew dimmer. His eyes were soft and he looked like an angel with his hair drifting back behind him. She wasn't sure what this man was, or how she had come to find him, but she was certain that he was carrying her to something amazing.
“I trust you, Dylan,” Her voice was soft and strained.
“Shh. Just lay there. It's gonna be hard for a while longer. We're going deep.”
It was hard. The water was so strong that it pressed her body into his arms, leaving pressure marks on her back, and she couldn't lift her head. He had to keep it up with his hand to avoid it getting snapped back. She was dimly aware of air being pressed into her lungs and the sensation of walking. Her head turned to the side when he made a turn and she saw a deep hole.
It was strange. The water seemed to flow around it. The deep void was encased in blank space She knew, without knowing where it led to, but she didn't care. All she could do was cling to him for dear life as they went inside and left Earth behind.
When she became aware of her surroundings, she was floating on top of a soft form fitting cushion that pressed against her skin softly, looking up at the sun. The waves around her were perfectly calm, but Dylan was nowhere to be seen. She started to panic, but she realized that she might fall over if she moved so she waited. Dylan would never leave her behind.
The first thing she noticed was how balmy the air was, as though it were so saturated with water that everything was mist, and she realized as she looked around that she couldn't see very far in every direction. The horizon was always too misty. She'd never seen a sight quite like it. The clouds were nothing more than a white haze covering the sun. There was no shape or form to them.
The water below her rippled, and her tiny raft capsized. Dylan grabbed her and pulled her in tight. He smelled like caramel and sea salt, rich and succulent, just like his moist lips that crashed against her, as his tongue slowly crept its way into her mouth. He barely touched the tip of her tongue before he pulled out to get a good look at her.
“I'll bet you have questions.” He sighed. “I have a lot to explain.”
“Where are we?”
“Centaur One, a moon orbiting a gas giant in the closest system.”
“Oh my god.” Becca saw it now. The way the air was so different, the barrage of strange smells and sensations. It was as if her body were adjusting to a completely different climate. It looked so similar to California, but it felt so alien in so many ways.
“This is an ocean planet with tiny land masses jutting out of the water. Life here evolved in the ocean and is sparse on land.”
“You're an alien,” she gasped. “But you look so much like us.”
“This is a shell designed to hold my body. It is about the size of a golf ball. You would think of me as a white piece of flesh like a leech or a slug.”
“It's not a real body?”
“It has many different functions, but it is not a part of who I am.”
She couldn't believe that such a tiny thing could radiate so much light. He was the embodiment of an ocean youth with his shaggy wet hair and laid back style. He was toned down but capable, more capable than any man she'd ever seen he could stare down creatures of the sea—titans--and get away with it.
He was an enigma that she had to understand fully. She had been driven by curiosity before, but this was something more. It was as if her life depended on fully penetrating all of his secrets. When she had the air shield back on her face and they drifted below, she found herself whispering, “Show me your world.”
He lifted her so that she was sitting on his shoulders and she could see down below her. They were at the top of a large crater, the size of a valley, and she couldn't believe her eyes. Glass structures, lit with green phosphorescence towered below her. She had never seen anything like the long spires that jutted out like the tendrils of a glowing crystal. They were so high up that she could barely see the bottom. All she saw was millions of moving lights like stars dotting the sky.
“What is this place,” she asked.
“This is Centaur one, or Solar City one. Our star Alpha Centauri has a harsh light so we build our cities far beneath the water and use the UV rays refracted by the water to power it. The protective crystals, which are made out of the same material as your air shield, allow us to hide from its rays on the rare occasions when the clouds part. When the clouds part, we have to stay undercover of the air shields in order to protect us from the light.
“Oh my god. That's terrible.”
“You can't go too far underground on your planet or else you get burned, and you have to wear sunblock or your skin burns. It's not all that weird, is it?”
The sea life was what took her breath away. They were halfway up to the moth of the crater when she caught sight of bright green lights, thousands of them moving her way. “What are those?”
“Watch.” He grabbed her and held her tight against his chest so that he could pull her along then he propelled them both forward as fast as he could. She gasped when she saw them. The creatures were like glowing balls of green light with tiny wings on either side. They were rounded fins used to propels them through the water.
The strangest part was when they entered the school, parts of their bodies clung to the couple, and snapped back in place when they moved away. “How do they do that,” Becca ask
ed.
“Each part of them is a separate organism that knows where the rest of its community is.”
They traveled farther on without seeing much except for the sand, which was the same color as it was at home. The only thing that really seemed different was that it was easier to move through the water. “Is your planet smaller,” Becca asked as she swam alongside him.
“It's about the same size, but it is a little bit smaller,” Dylan responded. “It makes it a little easier to move around. I don't like going to Earth.”
The incline near the mouth of the crater had turned into a sharp wall, and when they reached the top, the couple sat on the edge and looked out at the city. It moved like any other city would, but it was something completely different. “You don't all have the same bodies, do you?”
“No. We have classes. There are workers, which we call Betas and Alphas like me who are the leaders in our community.”
“What do Betas look like?”
“They have faces like your fish and tails with arms. Their bodies glow a soft blue and they have webbed fingers.”
“Yuck.” Dylan did a flip and started laughing. “You move so freely through the water. You can tell that it's your home. I would never be able to get along her like your species could.”
“It's easy. You learn.” He put his head in his hands and floated with his belly down near her face. She'd never seen anything sweeter.
She pulled his head in and let her lips linger on his. When they parted he had a wild look, like he'd just discovered sugar. “Would you like me to show you something wonderful?” She nodded her head, and as soon as she did, he swept her up and carried her in his arms as his feet flapped furiously. The ocean floor above the crater was sharp lava rock with rosy lines that all seemed to lead to one place, like the rays of the sun in a cartoon drawing.
She couldn't see very far, but she thought she could make out a hole in the ground that looked like the mouth of a giant beast it was so large. He shot straight for it, and after a few minutes of exasperating work, she was floating above it. She couldn't see very far in, just that the walls of the opening were made of the soft rosy rock and that it led far beneath the surface.
Romance: Yes, Stepbrother! Page 46