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“As you wish, Elle of the Air,” he said, and I felt him retreat.
Donna was waiting dockside to help me undress. “Well?” she asked.
“Donna!” Marcus chastised from his spot in the crane.
“I’m not asking about the research!” Donna yelled back at him, and I laughed.
“Everything’s fine. Good, actually,” I said, peeling out of my drysuit. I was sure to do it with my back to them, and my face to the water, until I could grab my scrub top and pull it back on. “How’s the water pressure for showers here?” I asked her, hitching my scrub pants up.
“It’s great!” Donna said, then leaned forward to quietly whisper, “Also there’s nozzle attachments. Only thing here that’s kept me sane.”
I gathered her meaning and blinked, before sparing a glance at Marcus. “You sure you haven’t missed three seasons?” I teased, then asked, “Is he not single?”
“Would you date him?” she countered, then sighed. “He’s too serious about the mission. Won’t even tell me his last name.”
I blew air through my lips and gravely nodded. “Sorry, then.”
“Eh, it’s all right. My contract down here’s only for another two months.” She shrugged. “Go take your shower, and I’ll bring dinner to your room—unless you’re eating it with us?” She gave me a hopeful look, and I winced. I had a metric shit-ton of data to go through and limited resources.
“I’m sorry—I really need to get started.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s what everyone says.” She rolled her eyes but still smiled as I ejected the suit’s data sleeve to upload to my tablet, and started walking away. “Just so you know, it’s chipped beef tonight!” she called after me.
chapter 17
CEPHARIUS
I went back to Elle’s window immediately, waiting for her safe return. She went into a smaller room inside her own, and then came out of it with wet hair, and I realized what she’d been doing—I always found it curious that humans bathed in water, when no kraken in his right mind would bathe in air. She had a towel around her body, but she dropped it to dig through a small chest of drawers, allowing me to see all of her for the first time.
I knew that spying on her was shameful and I should look away, but by the time I could’ve talked myself out of it, the damage was done. I’d already imprinted her beautiful figure on my memory, the same as I now knew all of the symbols she found so intriguing. She was lithe and lightly muscular, with slender hips and no breasts or mammalian nipples, just a matched set of scars where they might be.
The sight of her scars made me rush to the window. What had hurt her? Was she currently safe? They didn’t look fresh, and I’d never gotten any sense of danger from her while in the station—had she been in battle, too?
Or were they ceremonial, like the lines of bruises on her wrists and ankles that I could now see, that I’d given her while bonding?
My eyes lingered on those for an inappropriate amount of time.
Would that I could cuff her so.
After she’d pulled on clothing, I felt her call to me. “Cepharius?”
I waited a moment before responding. “Of the Sea,” I teased, and she laughed.
“I am glad I please you.” The thoughts came out before I could stop them, and I watched her tense. “I am sorry to be so informal.”
“No,” she said. “It’s all right.” I watched her look around her room. “Where are you right now?”
“Outside your window.”
She blinked and turned to look right at me—then realized she’d been naked recently. “How long have you been there?” she asked, panicking, and I got more waves of shame from her, something to do with the man she envisioned—who I decided to hate—and something about the blue-eyed woman, and her scars.
“Not very. I also needed a break from the bond,” I managed to lie.
She’d crossed her arms across her chest—she felt violated. Perhaps not by me, but by something in her past.
Let me see you, I wished to beg her. Let my eyes feast on you as though I were starved.
Then she resigned herself and sat down at her desk—before deciding that that wouldn’t do. She grabbed the tablet and came closer, sitting against the window with her back to me.
