Page 22 of Damned and Broken Gods
“All right, come with me. Stay close.”
He dove, and I followed, pushing deep into the azure waters. Araz was up ahead, his powerful frame aiming for the deep dark blue below.
How deep was he planning on going?
The water grew colder and darker, and I was starting to panic when I spotted the large rock formation and the aperture within, large enough to admit a drohi and easily a demigod my size.
Araz turned back and gestured to the aperture.
I nodded.
He swam in, and I followed. The aperture led to a short tunnel that opened into a pool. Araz kicked up for the surface.
Was this a way out?
I swam faster, eager to be out of the water and take a breath. A shimmering green surrounded me, growing brighter as I rose.
Araz broke the surface, and I joined him a moment later, sucking in a lungful of air and pushing hair off my face.
He cupped my shoulders. “Are you all right?”
I nodded, breathing, just breathing. How was he not breathless? I looked up at the stone ceiling covered in luminous green moss. A rough circular stone ledge extended around us. “What is this place?”
“This isn’t the place I wanted to show you,” Araz said. “But it’s close. Come.”
He swam for the ledge and hauled his naked ass out.
That ass…
He glanced over his shoulder and arched a brow. “Your face is red again, Leela. It’s merely a body.”
Yeah, but it was his body. “Right…” I swam over to the ledge a few feet from him. “So you’d be fine with me stripping naked and wandering around?”
His eyes narrowed, and a stab of satisfaction rocked through me.
“Does it bother you that others see me unclothed?” he asked.
“God, no. You can do what you want with your body. I just…It’s distracting.”
“Yes…I believe I would too be distracted by your naked body.” He stepped closer. “I believe I’m distracted now.”
The pulse in my throat throbbed hard as I met his dark gaze.
His jaw flexed, and he took a measured step away from me. “Follow me.”
I ignored the stab of disappointment at his withdrawal. “Follow you where?” There was no exit that I could see in the stone chamber, aside from the one we’d entered through.
“You’ll see.”
I trailed after him, my attention on any other point but his ass, and the chamber that looked circular and uniform was anything but. It curved slightly outward, the formation like an optical illusion hiding a slender doorway. Araz slipped through, and I hurried after, stepping into a room made of rock that glistened as if embedded with diamonds.
The chamber was high and domed with a spiral ledge that hugged the walls and led to a large platform above. Water poured in from an aperture beside it to create a waterfall that spilled into a small pool in the center of the room. Rock formations surrounded the water, perfect for sitting on.
“Oh…Wow…”
“Do you like it?” Araz asked with a tentative smile.
“It’s beautiful.”
