I gasped and froze, eyes latching onto the figure directly ahead of me. He was beautiful and strange, skin a vibrant blue as if he were only reflecting and amplifying the luminescence of the stone overhead on the water. His shoulders, broad and well-defined, barely rose from the water, and everything beneath was shadow, but it looked as though he was standing and not just floating or swimming.
I stepped down once more, smiling shyly at him, tipping my head and studying his features. They were young, handsome, but also a little too far apart to really appear human.
"What's your name?" I asked.
He mimicked my smile, turning his head to the side, one eye still fixed to me. "Are you afraid of the water?"
"A little," I admitted.
"Don't be," he answered, eyes flicking down briefly as I stepped down again, water around my waist, toes almost slipping on the step. "It only wants to hold you."
The water shifted, pushing against me, squeezing around my legs, sliding and caressing suddenly. I let out a little cry, rising to my toes as the water bubbled and stroked between my legs. My eyes fluttered briefly at the feeling, so unlike anything I'd ever enjoyed before. The water was warming, pushing and pressing and licking at all of me it could reach.
This is very forward, I thought, but it made me smile. Auguste had been a gentleman. Amon had been a seducer. This was direct, and I was a direct sort of girl.
I relaxed, my knees bending, and I moaned as water pressed and sucked and nudged at my sex.
"Come deeper," the demon's voice urged.
Maybe I didn't need to know his name. This was one time only, according to Magdalena. And when I'd arrived at Rooksgrave, I'd wanted to try as many different kinds of men as I could.
I stepped forward, legs trembling, and the water tugged me along, floating me down one step, and then another, until I was up to my shoulders, water cupping and stroking my breasts and my arms, sucking on my fingers and kissing my palm. I wasn't being fucked, but I'd never been touched in so many places all at once, surrounded with the intent of pleasure before.
"Oh god," I breathed out, eyes opening again as I was stroked at the tender tight entrance of my ass.
Across the water, the demon looked every bit out of reach as he had before, and I frowned at the distance.
"Come closer, join me," I said, reaching a hand up out of the water, except I couldn't lift my fingers free, and I let out happy whimpers as the water suckled roughly, dragging my arm back down, massaging and licking every inch.
"You're still afraid?" the demon asked.
"I can't s-swim," I hiccuped, bobbing in the water, trying to find friction against the lapping between my legs, wanting to be penetrated and stretched by the same force that teased me.
The demon only chuckled as I pouted, sinking down until only his wide-set eyes were staring back at me. But I heard him perfectly as he said, "The water will hold you."
My gasp echoed in the cavern as the water lifted me off my feet, scratching over my breast, nipping the inside of my thighs as it carted me to the center of the pool, my own feet lost in the dark shadow of the water as I kicked in surprise. The water tightened around me, and I stiffened as it pulled me down, just enough to lick at my lips in a determined kiss.
Still, I wasn't any closer to the water demon. He had retreated into one of the corridors of the grotto, eyes shining silver, features losing their charm and growing entirely alien in the dark.
The thread of panic that had never really evaporated, only loosened, squeezed tight again. "Wait!" I gasped, straining to rise above the top of the water, feeling instead a strange press of weight pushing me down until my voice sputtered. Water filled my mouth like a tongue, pulled hard at my breasts, scooped and stroked against my sex. I moaned and choked, my body starting to twist and rock into the touches again.
"Come deeper. He wants to meet you," a voice, similar to the demon's, throbbed in the air, made the water vibrate against me.
I pressed my lips shut, but what I'd already swallowed slid down my throat, alive and tangible, burning in my chest.
My eyes widened, fixed to the shadow in the grotto's cavern, to the pale eyes glinting back at me.
Please, I thought, realizing this wasn't seduction. Not at all, no matter how good it felt.
"Booker!" I cried, but the water was up to my nostrils and the word was garbled. Power thrust between my lips, and I fought to shut them again, my mouth fucked by the demon's magic.
Something prodded at my sex, and I tried to twist away, the movements sluggish, trapped in the hold, strangled by water currents.
And then there was a hard yank on my ankle, and I was dragged down, the light of the stones overhead fading.
Water lapped and pushed, tugging me to where I'd last seen the eyes of the demon. Was this Magdalena's way of getting rid of me? Or was this creature, this so-called gentleman, more than a client?
My lungs burned, the water I'd swallowed sloshing and smothering me. And all the water I was surrounded by pinched and prodded, the touch rougher and ruder than a caress now. My ass was poked and stroked, my toes sucked, my thighs bitten. I thrashed and struggled, but it was more like being in thick honey than water. I only drifted where I was pulled.
The water trembled, sudden and abrupt, and the grip on my ankle slipped for a moment, allowing me to kick and squirm. It didn't matter, I still sank.
White and dark stripes were spreading out around my vision, my head pounding, and when I blinked and looked up, there was no sign of light. I was too deep in the water. Or too far into the caverns.
"I'll take you to him," the open and echoey voice promised as my cheeks puffed, and I fought the urge to cry out, to beg for air, to let more of the water into me, even as it still twisted like snakes in my chest.
"He'll make good use of you. I'll take you deeper. Take you to him."