Page 21 of Damned and Broken Gods
“Ey! Abnificent!” Blue yelled.
Araz turned at the sound of his voice, and thank goodness he was deep enough in the water to hide his bits.
“Leela wants ta swim,” Blue said with a twinkle in his eyes.
A series of indefinable emotions flitted across Araz’s face, and then he held out his hand.
“It’ll be too cold for me.” I shook my head.
Araz’s hands begin to glow. He doused them in the water, swishing them back and forth.
Priti pushed up on her knees, her hands clasped beneath her chin. “Oh my god, is he heating the water for you?”
My throat pinched, and I nodded. “Yes. Yes, he is.” Which meant his gesture, ushering me to join him, hadn’t been an empty one. He could have accepted my excuse of the water being cold.
“Go on, chickadee,” Blue said. “I’ll keep yer spot on the picnic blanket warm.”
I pushed to my feet, out of excuses. Okay, I wasn’t out of excuses, I was just done making them.
I wanted this. I tugged off my tunic and stepped out of my skirt. The undergarments here were sturdy: a bra that was more a binding wrap and underwear that looked like boxers, so it was like wearing a bathing suit.
He lifted a hand toward me again, the other still swishing in the water, and in that moment, it didn’t matter to me that thelake between me and him would still be cold. All that mattered was that he wanted me beside him.
I barely felt the icy bite of the lake as I walked in to meet him, and the chilly caress of the water did nothing to faze me as it climbed my body. The bank fell away, and I kicked out toward him, into the circle of warmth he’d created.
He grasped my hand, hauling me toward him and against his taut, hot frame. For a moment, I was flush against his body, skin to skin, every delicious inch of him pressing against me.
He sucked in a breath, his eyes like fire, consuming me for a beat before he gently put distance between us, his hand still in mine.
“Are you warm enough?” he asked, his voice low and intimate.
I swallowed past the thickness in my throat. “Yeah, I’m good.”
We drifted, kicking water, a mere foot apart, our hands linked.
“Can you swim underwater?” he asked.
I’d taken a diving course and some lifeguard classes a few years ago, even worked as one at the local pools for a while. I was a confident swimmer. “Yeah, I can dive.”
“And how long can you hold your breath?”
The last guy that had asked me that question hadn’t been referring to diving. “Around two to three minutes.”
His eyebrows went up. “Good for a demigod.”
“Why, how long can you hold your breath?”
The corner of his mouth quirked. “Twelve minutes.” His eyes darkened, and my pulse sped up.
Was he thinking what I was thinking? I ducked my head, wishing for the heat in my cheeks to ebb. “Right, so…why did you ask?”
“I want to show you something.” He turned to Chaya, speaking in the language of the drohi before gliding toward me a fraction, his body close, his lips coasting against my ear. “It’s a secret. You cannot share it. Do you vow?”
Was this the kind of vow we had to seal with a kiss? He pulled back to study me and must have read the question on my face because that insufferable smile of his returned in full force.
“Just words, Leela. This time.”
I nodded. “I vow.”
