"It's a freakin' dress." I lift up both sides, letting it fan out. "Why in the world do the women wear these here?"
"Well..." He saunters over to me and wraps his arms around my waist. "I think it's sexy." He leans down and begins kissing my neck.
Warmth spreads through me, and I let out a small moan. "You think so?"
"Damn straight I do." He kisses lower and my breathing begins to pick up. We share a room here, but there isn't enough time in the day, and it doesn't help that I never tire of him.
He throws me down on the cushions and begins exploring even lower, moving some of the fabric. "I love you so much."
"I love you too." I slide in my fingers into his hair and pull. For some reason, he loves that.
A loud knock interrupts us. "Hey, are we going or what?" Dax's tone sounds annoyed.
"Damn him." Charlie doesn't stop kissing me, and his hands begin to creep up my thigh. "Just ignore him."
Oh, how I wish I could. This is just now getting good. I try to push Dax out of my mind, but he pounds on the door once again.
"Chris, don't ignore me." Dax jiggles the door handle and sighs. "You both got me up early to go to the market."
"As much as I hate to agree with him, we did." Is it bad that I still want him to convince me to stay?
His hand stills, and he lifts his head to meet my eyes. "Fine, but you have to promise me something special will happen tonight to make up for it."
"Only if you give me motivation again." Every day, I seem to fall more and more in love with him. I don't even know how that's possible, but we fit together so perfectly.
"Don't worry. I will." He winks at me and gives me one last, lingering kiss on my lips. He stands and pulls me up by my hands. "All right, Dax. We're coming out."
Once I'm on my feet, I readjust my dress to make sure nothing is sticking out, then I open the door to find Dax leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
"So now you're a creeper?" Was he planning on standing out here the entire time until we came out? If we hadn't stopped, that would be really awkward,
"When you wake me up before the butt crack of dawn, there is no pushing it off until later." He arches an eyebrow and pushes off the wall.
"Dude, not cool." Charlie walks out and laughs. "Now she's going to be paranoid tonight."
Did he just go there? "Charlie, if you keep that up, there won't be anything to get paranoid over." I don't want everyone knowing what we were getting close to doing.
"I..." Dax closes his eyes and shakes his head. "Just let's go. I don't want to continue this conversation."
Nor do I. At least he and I are on the same page right now. "Okay, lets head out to the market." At this rate, I may die of mortification before I even get there. I reach up around my neck to make sure the amulet is there. Thank God. I always fret that it disappeared in the middle of the night or something. I love having it. I feel like a normal person with it on.
We walk out the door and into another perfect day. The weather is comfortable, hovering near seventy degrees, and the suns are out with only a few clouds in sight. You'd think since this is a water world, it would constantly rain, but that's not how it works here. From what we've learned, it doesn't rain here except on very rare conditions.
"I don't understand why you don't sell at the market?" Dax comes up beside me and purses his lips. "Since you can connect with the water here, you can spell just like the others can, and it would help us appear to be integrating into their society more."
That's a very good question. "I'm not sure if I'm ready for that. We're still getting acclimated."
"We are not in any rush." Charlie takes my hand and squeezes. "We still need to find the Water Artifact. That’s where our focus needs to be.”
The market comes into view in front of us, and one of the vendors waves at us.
For the past couple of days, we’ve spent a lot of time here. Most of the vendors aren't happy about us, but there are a few who we've made friends with. We continue our way through the market, and a few of the vendors say, “Hi.”
Melody’s table is up just a few from where we stand, and her eyes meet mine. "Hey, Chris. Glad to see you again today."
At first, I thought the ogre incident made us enemies, but that next day when she saw us, she came over and apologized for how she reacted. She felt threatened by the ogre, and knew she would get in trouble if she gave him something for free. That’s not how things work here in this water world, and she knew Tide was on his way. Ever since then, she's the one we hang out with at the market, and she's even let me recharge some of her items.
Dax walks over to her table and picks up a small bottle of water. "So these are the refills for the vapor gadget that you sell?"
"Yes, and I have a fan that can be purchased. Both parts have to be spelled in order to make the machine work." She reaches out and takes the bottle from him, placing it back on the table. "Please be careful with this. I have to pay three-fourths of the sales price for any item I have
