“How many have you seen?” Curiosity rose along with a mild case of jealousy that Elder had sailed the seas with dolphins without me.
My jealousy made no sense. Our lives had been separate just like any other couple before they met. Maybe it was because while he was free, I’d been locked up. Or maybe it was because I’d begun hoarding every moment with him and was jealous of time itself. Of not being able to go back and claim those minutes and hours when we didn’t know each other.
I’m being ridiculous.
If this was what love did to people, I didn’t know how they functioned normally. No wonder people needed psychologists—everyone turned crazy when they fell.
“Probably the biggest was off the coast of Australia. Easily in the hundreds, maybe more.”
“That must’ve been amazing.”
“It was.” His eyes glazed, remembering. “It was lacking, though.”
“Lacking how? I can’t imagine something as extraordinary as—”
He pinned me with a brutal stare that told me to stop playing games. “You weren’t there.”
“Oh.”
“Everything in my past suddenly feels lacklustre without you.”
I had no other reply but the truth. “Me too.”
Once again, tension built. How much longer could we dance around this third wheel? How much more could we take?
“We’ll get closer.” As he guided us from spectator to participant, the juveniles of the pack spotted a new toy and came to investigate.
One moment we were the audience, the next we were enveloped by grey blubber, perfect flukes, and intelligent glossy eyes peering into our bubble.
I swore one looked directly into me—right through me. He didn’t care what’d been done to me or where I’d come from. All he cared about was I was alive. He was alive. And that was something to celebrate.
I was warmer, happier, wiser than I’d ever been.
Reaching up, I placed my hand against the cool Perspex. The dolphin who’d striped me bare pressed his long nose to nudge against me as if saying ‘I see you. I accept you. Now come and play.’
Another wash of goosebumps scuttled down my spine.
Could this day get any better?
The prickle of Elder’s gaze whipped my head to face him. I quickly removed my hand from the dolphin’s snout. I didn’t know why but guilt filled my chest along with self-consciousness. “Sorry.”
His expression switched from awed besottment to a nasty scowl. “Why are you apologising?”
Why was I apologising?
I shrugged. “For being silly? For saying hello to a dolphin?”
His perfect lips tugged into half a smile. “Never apologise for that.” He didn’t elaborate, but his features darkened and lightened all at once. “I confess, you’re not wearing that bikini purely for me to stare at you.”
My skin heated as his eyes dropped to the green triangles hiding me from view. I had the insane urge to pull aside the material and show him just what his stare did to my nipples. How hard they’d become. How achy every inch of me was.
“Do you want to do more than just say hello?”
“What do you mean?” I looked at the dolphins looping around us.
“I mean...let’s go swimming.”
My heart nodded in glee already dressed in flippers and a snorkel. “Are—are you sure it’s safe?”
“Is anything truly safe?”
He has a point.
“If we stayed in here until they vanished or we returned to the Phantom, would you regret not swimming with them or be relieved you hadn’t been so reckless?” He raised an eyebrow.
Regret. The answer was immediate. There was no other reply I could give. “Let’s go swimming.”
“I thought you’d say that.” With a grin, Elder called the Phantom to tell them to cut engines and hold position. Once the yacht slowed and the whitewash diminished, he pressed yet another button and propelled us upward.
Up and up, brighter and brighter as turquoise gloom gave way to glittering sun.
My stomach flipped a little as we popped like a corkscrew and came crashing down on the surface. Considering the submarine was shaped like an egg, we didn’t roll out of balance or sink back down. The constant hum of engines and ballast kept us the right way up.
I unbuckled my seatbelt, flinching a little as a dorsal fin swam past, imagining for a moment it was a shark and not the friendly dolphins we’d seen beneath.
Elder copied me, tugging off his harness and twisting uncomfortably to undo another portal above our heads. “We have to go out the top. The side is still underwater.” He pushed it wide, making me blink from the brightness, then placed his hands on the top and hoisted himself up effortlessly.
Once again, my mind painted a fantasy of his dragon making him fly. How did such a big man come across so graceful and weightless?
Scrambling to stand, I assessed how to climb out. My bones were useless; my muscles an embarrassment after two years of no exercise and lots of pain. But a hand appeared, followed by Elder’s gorgeous face as he blocked the sun. “Take it.”
My heart transformed into a butterfly as I clutched his forearm and his fingers wrapped tight around me. He yanked me upright, through the porthole, and straight to my feet with one powerful jerk.
I wobbled as my toes landed on the slippery outer shell of the submarine. Back on the Phantom, the vessel had looked silver. Out here, beneath the sun, it glittered with the coolest luminescent blue—so light and reflective it almost became invisible amongst the waves.
The Phantom loomed above us with its gleaming brass rigging and immaculate balconies. Images of me tethering myself to one while the thunder and rain did its best to kill me brought back yet more heart squeezing memories of Elder being there with me. Of Elder protecting me even when I didn’t want to be protected. Of Elder understanding and standing beside me as an equal rather than my saviour.
I wanted all my memories to include him.
I wanted all my experiences to be with him.
“After you.” He bowed, releasing my arm as he turned to face the sea. Dolphins lolled on their backs with flippers out of the water while others swam on their sides, their intelligent eyes tracking us.
Could dolphins turn aggressive? I didn’t know the correct etiquette for swimming with these mammals, but Elder didn’t give me a choice. “Go on. Stop thinking. That ruins all the fun.”
“Worry is what ruins all the fun...not thinking.”
His eyebrow rose as if to say sometimes circumstances wanted worry, but this was not one of them. “Suit yourself.” With a smile, he spread his arms then back-flipped off the submarine.
“El—” I darted to the side; my feet slipped and gravity took hold.
Oh, no!
I made the split-second decision to leap rather than tumble.
My tummy flipped as I shed standing for flight, then held my breath as the smack of cool ocean sucked me into its embrace.
Something alive shot by my foot, followed by a quick nudge of something not quite skin and not quite slimy.
Holy hell.