Lords of the Deep (8 page)

She
still
didn’t know why she’d felt the urge to kiss him or yielded to it!

He was an incredibly handsome devil, she admitted, but still the
same
devil that had kidnapped her!

She couldn’t flatter herself that there had been motive to the madness. Maybe it had disarmed him, but the thought hadn’t entered her mind. She hadn’t thought about
anything
once he’d begun to stroke her face, not that she could recall now anyway—nothing except exploring the desire she’d felt in him, seen in his eyes.

When was the last time a
man
had looked at her like that? Ever? With desire, yes, with keen sexual interest, but like that? As if she was the most beautiful, desirable creature he’d ever seen? As if he was struggling mightily with the urge to touch her—to just touch? When had a man ever held her as if she was as fine and fragile and precious as fine china? Touched her as if he was almost afraid to?

She shook her head at herself, but the truth was she just hadn’t been able to resist. He’d made her feel all of those things and she’d been thoroughly enthralled.

It was just as well Miles had recalled her to her surroundings. She wouldn’t have had the will or the want to stop him from doing anything he wanted to from the moment he’d kissed her.

Her entire body tensed with heated need just at the reminder, an echo of remembered desire stronger than actual desire she’d felt before—in play. And the kiss—that had been the stuff of dreams, of fantasy!

If he’d kissed her two minutes longer, she might’ve come, she thought wryly.

She dismissed the thought with an effort. However true—and she had the uncomfortable suspicion it was—it was dangerous thinking. She couldn’t allow her wayward hormones to scramble her wits.

It was all very well, and greatly appreciated, that they didn’t seem to have it in mind to dissect her to see how she ‘worked’, but could she really trust that that wasn’t the ultimate goal? They’d brought her here to study her. Once they’d satisfied their curiosity by watching her, would they think twice about taking it to the next step?

Of course, that wasn’t really going to matter much to her if she croaked in the mean time. She’d been careful not to eat much of the food and not just because she was afraid that it might be drugged. She’d detected some kind of fish in it, but nothing else had seemed familiar to her. There was no telling how it might affect her. What they ate could be poison to her.

The water he’d given her to drink with the food hadn’t been briny. It had been fresh water. Could she suppose by that that they knew more about her than she’d originally thought? Or that they also drank fresh water? And if they did, why was that when they were ocean folk? How would they even get fresh water?

She dismissed that. Obviously, they had more than adequate technology to accomplish desalination, but what sort of revolutionary quirk would create that scenario—salt water beings that required fresh water?

Or maybe it wasn’t actually a requirement, but just one of many beverages?

It wasn’t as if humans limited themselves.

She was too tried to think, she decided. Going into the bathroom, she made use of the facilities—including the shower.
That
water wasn’t fresh water, she discovered, although it seemed to have a lower salt content. At least, it didn’t leave her feeling sticky and uncomfortable and there was hot water, to her delight. It warmed her and relaxed her.

There was nothing to put on when she got out—not even anything to dry herself with. She uttered an irritated huff and then discovered when she shut the water off that the jets around the cubicle were drying jets.

Nice. No towels wasn’t so nice. Deciding to wash her ‘clothing’ instead of putting it back on, she did so, wringing the water out the best she could and hanging them up to dry. The bed had a coverlet on it at least and the moment she settled on the softness of the mattress and dragged the coverlet up, she fell off the ends of the earth.

Chapter Four

Miles was standing over her, the coverlet in his hand, studying her with patent interest when Angie opened her eyes. It was the cool air wafting over her that had aroused her from sleep, but she had no idea how long he’d been standing over examining her before her discomfort had brought her to consciousness.

Uttering a scream, she scrambled into the corner furthest from him.

Wincing, he dropped the coverlet and covered his ears. When she didn’t scream again, he cautiously uncovered his ears, studied her for a long moment and finally bared his teeth at her.

She didn’t know if it was his idea of a smile or not, but it unnerved her more. Glancing a little wildly around, she saw there wasn’t a weapon handy and finally grabbed the pillow, beating at him with it. He caught it after the third blow and tried to pull it from her grasp and dragged her across the bed when she didn’t let go. He shook it a couple of times until he managed to shake her loose and pointed a finger at her.

“Bad catkin! Don’t do that. You’ll tear up the damned pillow!”

She didn’t have a clue what he’d said, so she screamed at him again, scrambling back into her corner.

He covered his ears, gritting his teeth. “Don’t do that either, gods damn it! It hurts my ears!”

Damien entered the room. “What the hell are you doing, Miles?” he growled, stalking into the room to stand glaring down at Miles, who’d sat down on the edge of the bed.

“I didn’t do anything, gods damn it!” Miles snapped indignantly, then looked a little uncomfortable. He shrugged. “She was asleep. I figured it was my best chance of examining her short of trying to sedate her—And I’m not comfortable with that when I haven’t had the chance to discover how it might affect her!”

Damien folded his arms across his chest. “Consider yourself lucky she only hit you with the sonic! If she’d been a catkin, she probably would’ve kicked you—and maybe broken a rib!”

Miles looked disconcerted. “I was just trying to examine her. I don’t understand why she is so determined to swaddle herself, but I can’t
see
anything when she does!”

Damien smiled grimly. “Well, I have to agree with that. I’m not happy she won’t let me look either, but even I can figure out its some kind of quirk of theirs. You’ll just have to deal with it. Maybe when she gets more comfortable with us, she’ll let you look?”

Miles turned to study Angie a little dubiously. “You think she’ll get more comfortable?”

Damien turned to study her, as well. “Hard to say. I imagine it’ll take a little more than feeding her and giving her a few creature comforts to convince her we don’t mean her any harm, though. Did you have any luck figuring out the language?”

Miles produced the recording devise he’d brought with him. “Actually, no, that’s why I came. I thought I’d have a go at getting her talk, but then I discovered she had discarded the swaddling and she was asleep ….” He studied Damien’s expression. “Purely for the sake of research!”

“Right.”

Miles’ lips tightened angrily. “Alright, so I thought I might look at her genitalia again … just to see if that was really what it was. She could have
anything
in there … including a cock! She might not be a
she
at all, is all I’m saying! You know yourself it’s hard to tell a male dolphin from a female until they display!”

“So do a scan on her,” Damien suggested tightly. “That’ll tell you all you need to know about her reproductive organs without the need to put your fingers in her. That
is
what you were thinking?”

Miles shrugged. “I hadn’t gotten that far,” he replied evasively. Dismissing Damien, he turned to study Angie speculatively and finally held up his recorder. “Come on, pretty catkin,” he crooned at her. “Speak for me!”

Damien rolled his eyes, but he noticed she was studying the devise. “Why don’t you try playing back what you’ve already recorded? See if she catches on to what it is you’re trying to do?”

Miles looked a little doubtful but pressed the replay and held it up. Her face lit up immediately with excitement. She made a grab for the recorder and glared at Miles when he snatched it out of her reach.

“Give it to her,” Damien said.

“What if she breaks it?” Miles demanded. “I don’t have another one.”

“I’ll buy another … or you can take it out of what you owe me,” Damien said tightly.

“Fine!” Miles snapped. “But just because she looked pleased, it doesn’t follow that she knows what it is.”

“I know, but if she does, and she’s grasped what you want, it’s probably your best shot at getting what you need. Otherwise, you could be following her around for weeks just trying to get enough data to work.”

“True,” Miles admitted thoughtfully. He studied her for a moment and finally offered the recorder to her on his palm.

She eyed it suspiciously and refused to take it.

“She thinks I’m going to grab her like you did yesterday,” Miles said out of the corner of his mouth.

Damien took it out of his hand and tossed it to her. Her eyes rounded in surprise, and her lips. She blinked and threw her hands up to cover her face instead of trying to catch it. It bounced off her palm and hit the bed, but she grabbed it up before Miles could. After studying it in frowning concentration for several moments, she pushed the button Miles had, pushing it again as soon as it stopped playing. Pushing the record button, she started talking.

Miles studied her with a mixture of pleased surprise and disfavor. Finally, he reached for her hand and pulled on it to put more distance between her mouth and the unit. “Not so close. It’s sensitive. We won’t get anything recognizable.”

She studied him for a moment, reddening slightly, but she didn’t try to put it close to her mouth again.

“I don’t know where I am,” Angie began again, “but just in case there’s some possibility that anyone outside of this place gets hold of this, I’ve been kidnapped by some very strange beings. They may be aliens. I don’t know, but they’re really weird, and really big and scary.”

Damien grinned at her.

Miles grinned happily at her, as well, nodding encouragement.

“I’ll go get her something to eat,” Damien said. “She hardly ate enough last night to keep a minnow alive.”

“You brought food?” Miles asked with interest. “Bring me something, too.”

Damien halted, swiveling around to glare at him. “You can get your own damned food! I brought plenty.”

Miles shrugged. “Alright … in a minute,” he murmured absently, having just discovered that Angie was so intrigued with the recorder that she seemed to have forgotten she wasn’t swaddled. Although, maybe she thought she’d hidden everything when she’d drawn herself up into such a tight little knot?

Still, he could see the red thatch and the lips of her sex between her legs. Leaning forward, he reached to touch the thatch to see if it felt like the caplet on her head—which he’d had the chance to explore with his fingers while she was asleep. She clamped her legs together just about the time he was almost within reach of his goal, pinning his arm between them, and popped him soundly on top of the head—twice.

He jerked back out of her reach, glaring at her indignantly. “This is purely for the sake of science!” he said stiffly, gesturing toward his cock. “I’m not even displaying!”

He’d hardly gotten the words out of his mouth when he discovered that the pain he’d been ignoring in his groin actually
was
a display. “Well, fuck!” he muttered, staring at it and realizing he couldn’t even claim it wasn’t waving. The damned thing was pointed at her as unerringly as a compass needle. “You needn’t look so hopeful! If she won’t even let me look, she certainly isn’t going to let
you
play hide and seek!”

“He’s talking to his cock now,” Angie muttered into the recorder. “The thing
acts
like it has a mind of its own, but I think that’s doubtful. More likely, these males are a lot like their human counterparts and think of it as their best buddy. And I don’t care how badly you want me to look at it! You may as well stop gesturing at it! I
think
I can control myself and resist mounting it!”

He looked disconcerted at her tone of voice. “Can I just look at it?” he asked a little hopefully.

She narrowed her eyes at him. He could’ve almost sworn she’d understood what he’d asked. She put her hand over it. Uttering a disgruntled sigh, he got up and left to search for food.

Angie watched him leave, feeling an odd mixture of emotions. Relief, she assured herself, was foremost. At least he hadn’t forced the issue, but they had some damned strange mating customs as far as she could figure! Did they just wave those things at their females and the females rushed over and mounted them, she wondered?

Oddly enough, she discovered she felt bad. He’d looked so dejected when he’d left—
not
that she felt badly enough about it to accommodate him! She considered herself a good hearted woman, but she wasn’t a sap! Pity sex was just another way men had of getting what they wanted!

She shook her head. He was gorgeous! She’d thought Damien was handsome—still did, but Miles ran a close second, or maybe the other way around? It was hard to judge when they were both so handsome and so different at the same time. He couldn’t have a problem getting females!