Arges appeared at the mouth of the cave, a dark shadow that swayed through the depths like a shark. Or perhaps like an eel. She knew it was him, though. Because the moment he looked up, all that blue bioluminescence burst to life. It rioted the moment he realized she was looking at him, and maybe this would be easier than she thought.

He silently broke the surface of the water, black eyes already watching her.

“I thought we could talk again today,” she said, her words echoing a bit. She spoke a little slower for him, although she still didn’t know if he was trying to learn her language. He listened to her, but still conversed with hand signals.

This time, she touched her fingers to her lips, and then mimed speaking with her fingers.

A soft expression crossed his face. Almost like a smile, but his lips didn’t even remotely twitch. Maybe this would be easier than she thought.

All she needed was for him to get close enough for her to put the translator on the back of his ear. It would do the rest. The neural link might not work with him. She had no idea what their anatomy even was, but she hoped that it would work. They were close enough to each other in species that it would make sense. At least, from the top up.

“I thought we could learn more words today,” she said, watching as he came even closer. It was so effortless for him to move in the lapping eddies of the pool. She could see his tail moving beneath him, guiding his body until he was almost right in front of her.

Her cheeks burned, as they always did. Though he was still a strange, mottled gray, and dark lines were painted onto his muscular body from shoulder to navel, there was still something about him that was... alluring.

It made her uncomfortable, and she didn’t know why.

“A little closer,” she said, frowning when he stopped an arm’s length away. This wouldn’t do.

She had to trick him, apparently. And there was only one way she could think of to do that.

He clearly wanted to learn her language, and she was going to give him that. If he would just swim a little closer. Mira pointed to her bicep, flexing it a little to get his attention on the limb. “Arm.”

Arges narrowed his eyes at her.

Right, so back to the original tactic. She flattened her hand against her chest and said, “Mira.” Then pointed to her arm again, flexing the muscle, and then saying, “Arm.”

He narrowed his eyes and moved maybe an inch closer. Curiosity always did kill the cat, so the saying went.

She moved throughout most of her features like he was a toddler. She pointed to her eyes, making them big and wide. Then pointed to her nose, flaring her nostrils in a way that made him rear back before chuckling. Ears, mouth, brows. But she didn’t mistake the flaring of his gills around his neck when she pointed to her mouth again and said, “Lips.”

She parted them, and he swam even closer. Just enough for her to finally get a good reach. She could lunge forward, but that wouldn’t work either. She was trying to get him to not kill her and lunging at him would certainly ruin that chance.

What she needed was for him to be lulled into submission. If the heat burning in his eyes was any indicator, she had to keep playing this game.

Which, surprisingly... she didn’t mind at all.

Mira licked her lips, watching that heat flare even hotter in his gaze. “You like that,” she whispered. It wasn’t a question, because she knew.

This could get out of hand if she let it. Although she had her doubts about how far it could even go between them. Still, maybe keeping his mind off those thoughts would be best.

She lifted her hand and exhaled on her palm. “Breath.”

That made him straighten.

She did it again, repeating the word and then freezing when he reached for her hand. Wet hands caught her own, but he was surprisingly warm. Those webs brushed against her fingers as he turned her hand over and made her spread them wide.

“No webs,” she said quietly, watching the top of his bent head as he turned her hand this way and that. “Just fingers.”

She spread them even wider, laughing quietly at his soft sound of amazement. He had seen her hands before! Many times, in fact. And yet this time, he seemed infinitely more interested in them.

Or perhaps, what they could do.

Biting her lip, she wondered what he thought of her body. In her opinion, he was still... passable. Strange to look at, but not so unusual that she couldn’t see past their differences. The sculpted planes of his face were infinitely beautiful, not to mention the muscles that ran throughout his entire torso. If he had been a human, she’d want to lick every drop of water out of those deep hollows.

No, she couldn’t let her mind drift down that lane of thinking. She was here to make him understand her, so she could tell him that she needed to get back home.

So she curled her fingers around his, lifting his hand to her mouth and exhaling on his palm. “Breath.”

His eyes were black, so she had no idea how they darkened even further, but she could almost taste his arousal in the air. They were locked together, trapped in each other’s gazes as she breathed against his palm. The webs between his fingers shook, vibrating with some emotion she was terrified to name.

But then he rotated his wrist, trapping her hand in his. Carefully, he drew her hand down his torso.

Heat made her cheeks burn and the tips of her ears ache. Was he... No, certainly not.

Was she going to let him?

Arges stopped her hands right below his ribs, and she ripped her gaze away from his when she felt air moving over her palms. Not just air, but it felt like someone was blowing on her fingers.

“Breath,” he repeated, the word drawn out and so guttural she almost didn’t make it out.

He was breathing out of his gills, she realized. An exhale through his ribcage that feathered over her fingers and turned them icy hot. Not warm breath, not like her own. But cold as the ocean. It made goosebumps pop all down her arms, or maybe that was the strong grip that slowly hovered her hand over his ribs, his chest, his collarbone.

He stopped her fingers at his throat, and again murmured, “Breath.”

She felt it again. Another long exhale that whispered over her fingers, but warm this time. So he had gills on his neck as well, and that’s what the frills were that slowly lifted.

They were so pretty. Compared to the diamond shape of his tail, or the razor edged spines that dotted down his back, these were almost delicate. They looked like silk in the water, but even in the air, there were very specific parts that made it flare around him.

Water dripped down one, beads of it trickling into his gills and then leaking out to drip down his muscular shoulders and collarbone. She couldn’t stop herself. Maybe it was the innate curiosity of her own species. Maybe she had just lost her mind entirely.

Mira ghosted her fingers over the gills at his neck. Gently, of course. She could only guess how sensitive they were. But the moment her fingers touched those soft gills, she was struck by how much they felt like velvet.

The longer frills seemed to reach back, curving around her fingers and sliding through them. He arched into her touch, that strong thick neck bowing as though he couldn’t quite handle the touch. She thought maybe she’d hurt him, and then she heard him groan.

And oh, that sound, so filled with raw need and desperation. It made every nerve ending in her body fire hot and wild. She’d never thought it was possible to want something that wasn’t even remotely human, and yet, here she was. Breathless at the sight of this massive undine, his tail lashing in the water as she stroked her fingers through his gills.

He was magnificent. All those muscles drawn up tight, his hand wrapped around her wrist, holding her in place even as she caught the edge of one of those frills and gently pinched it between two fingers, sliding her hand down them like she would a bolt of silk.