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I rolled my eyes but peeked at them just in case. I was now wearing one of the body suits. It was a dark grey color and cut high on my neck, but it was tight in the chest area due to my abundance of curves, and I do meanabundance.
When he stopped at my side, staring down at said boobs, Esther began cackling and I smiled through a tight jaw. “Captain.”
“Lala.”
“It’s Layla,” I corrected, as I had been with Lyv all day.
Arys scowled, mouthing the name to himself as he had before. “Layla.”
The silence after was so fucking painful I started to squirm.
“How—”
“What—”
“Can I—”
“Do you—”
Esther was enjoying this ridiculous exchange so much she had to walk off while choking on her own amusement.
Arys stiffened and then watched her with concern.
“She’s not feeling well,” I said tightly, poking at my freaky pea-green fish chunks.
Arys looked at everything but me. “Are you—are you feeling well? I’m sure we can find something that would be more palatable…”
“Oh! No! The food’s great!” I forced down a bite just to prove my point and then rolled my eyes at myself. WHAT WAS I DOING?
“Good, good.” He shifted in place, eyes dropping to my lips as I chewed. “I must go now.”
And then just like that. He was gone.
“I don’t understand that guy one bit,” I mumbled while squirming in my seat. That butt wascriminal.
Chapter11
LAYLA
“Look at that!” Esther gasped, shaking my arm while she shimmied dramatically. “It’s a floating city!”
I swallowed thickly, taking the in the scene. It indeed was a floating city but unlike anything I’d ever seen in my life. It reminded me of the movieWaterworldwith Kevin Costner but on a much,muchlarger scale. It went on for miles, for one. But also, there were buildings several stories high. The tallest at least ten. At first glance, you couldn’t tell it was floating, but as we anchored just offshore, I could see walkways woven throughout and all the water gapped in between.
But that wasn’t the most shocking of it. The inhabitants were just like Arys and Lyv, big and blue, and scaled. But there wereso manyof them. And predominantlyfemale.
Tucked onto a small raft—thankfully bigger than the pod—Lyv rowed us closer and closer to the floating dock. I was honestly surprised we’d been allowed to leave. But, after three days of being trapped on that ship—I was ready for a change of scenery and Lyv was likely bored of our complaining.
I didn’t mind being on the ship, honestly, but I didn’t necessarilyfeelwelcome on it. Most of the other blue guys avoided us completely except Lyv and I was starting to feel quiteunwelcome.Especially with that asshole Rothe glaring at us every chance he got.Lyv was great though, super attentive and compassionate. He made sure we ate and slept safely. We had clean clothes and medical care. Most of my cuts and bruises were healed up, even Alfred had been able to forgo the bandages today. Lyv shared his time and attention with us and though we struggled with a few words, we could communicate pretty well.
But babysitting us was not the most exciting job on the planet, I knew. Well, babysittingmewasn’t. Esther however was a different story. The woman got intoeverything.She was nosy like that. Lyv was constantly chasing her down. She was a curious cat and had explored almost every nook and cranny of that ship, Albert her faithful companion—thankfully, he adapted pretty quickly, and the seasickness dissipated. Which meant I was left alone quite a bit, probably why I was bored.
The one place Esther had not been caught snooping in was the captain’s quarters. Even she sensed the danger involved if she were to invade Arys’ privacy. He seemed to hole himself up in there, and when he wasn’t hiding in there, he was on the upper decks, lording over his crew.
I was starting to feel like he was avoiding me but that would be ridiculous…
He didn’t owe me or Esther or Albert anything. He was taking us where we needed to go to get home. Hadn’t asked for anything in return or thrown us out. But I still got the feeling that he was actively avoiding me.
It was strange. When I wondered above deck, I could feel his eyes on me constantly, but when I turned around, he wasn’t even looking in my direction. He never was. But each time I wassureI would catch him in the act. The flood of disappointment I would feel each and every time mystified me. What was it abouthimthat drew me?
