by Nikki Logan
While she’d slept, he’d wandered the beaches for most of the morning, thinking. The sea and what was under it meant so much to him, had healed him and given him strength. The rift he’d caused when he held fast to his desire to study archaeology instead of fully joining the family business. His parents’ thirty-year love/hate marriage. His difficulty in holding a relationship for more than a few months, not that his father considered that a problem at all. Time at sea and on the ocean floor had been what he needed to get his own hurdles into perspective, although they paled in comparison to Honor’s. He had an occupation he loved, financial security, brains and freedom. What did she have? Loss, grief and sorrow disguised behind those enormous, courageous eyes.
He wanted to heal her and a few hours beneath the surface might go a long way to helping that happen.
Rob shoved away any thoughts about wanting more gratitude like last night. Look how that had ended up! Getting hot and heavy had just kind of … happened. It wasn’t his goal last night and it wasn’t his goal today.
If she stepped back onto this beach with fewer emotional scars, it was reward enough.
Liar!
Mostly enough, then.
Honor paused by the pile of snorkelling gear he’d left on the sand and raised one eyebrow at him. ‘You were pretty sure of yourself!’
He shrugged. ‘Occupational hazard.’
She didn’t look angry, but her righteous expression stirred him in places he shouldn’t be stirring. God, you’re gorgeous. She stripped down to reveal a new bikini—this one was no larger than the yellow job—and let him put the lightest of the weight belts around her middle. It was too loose by far so he unclipped it and tossed it back onto the sand. The last thing he wanted was for her to panic as the belt pulled her under. He’d never get her back in. He’d have to take it slowly.
The mask fitted but his spare flippers were woefully large on her slim feet.
‘Okay, forget the fins. I’ll be the motor and you can hang on to me.’ Not the worst outcome, a lascivious part of him admitted.
He carried Honor’s mask and snorkel to the lagoon edge. She followed him, showing no anxiety, then unexpectedly turned back.
‘Wait.’ She grabbed the giant-sized towel crumpled up with the snorkelling gear and laid it out on the sand, smiling shyly. ‘I like the way a warm towel feels after a swim.’
Sweet how she stalls. ‘Okay now?’
She nodded. ‘This is my lagoon. I’ll be fine in here.’ She said it as if she were creating reality.
They waded out to chest height and Rob did his best not to focus on the parts of her bobbing above the swell. He fitted his snorkel into his mask and twisted it back out of the way. Then he did the same with hers.
‘Snorkels are like an extension of your trachea,’ he explained, ‘poking above the water. The idea is to breathe in slow and deep as though you were above the water and then breathe out faster and more suddenly, like you were lifting weights.’ Honor looked at him dryly. ‘Sorry, I’ve never taught a woman. How about as though you were a whale clearing your blowhole?’
‘Flattering comparison, but I get you.’
He should have known a nature metaphor would have more meaning. ‘The water’s calm inside the reef so you shouldn’t have water splashing in the spout, but if you do the blowhole thing you’ll keep it clear. After a few minutes you can ease off and only do it when necessary.’
He fitted the snorkel and helped her wrap her mouth and teeth around it. Focus on the task at hand, he told himself as she tested it with her tongue and fitted her lips tightly around the rubber mouthpiece. It was hard not to imagine those lips on him but the cold seawater soaking his lower half kept him focused.
They moved into deeper water as Honor practised coordinating her breathing. Treading water, their bodies drifted closer together and bumped several times. He wondered whether she’d noticed. She didn’t move away.
‘I can’t believe you’ve never done this,’ he said casually. ‘You guys never snorkelled off your boat?’
‘Nate wasn’t much into … Sailing was the only adventurous—’ She frowned defensively. ‘He was very good at what he did.’
But not at seeing what was important to his wife? ‘I’m sure he was.’ He got a feel for the way the water was going, then turned out to the lagoon. ‘Okay, let’s make a start. Hang onto my arm.’
Honor moved to his side, put a hand on his shoulder and tipped her face under. She surfaced almost immediately as they moved off and had to try again. The second time, she kept her nerve and kicked her feet alongside him as he propelled her along.
Rob monitored her breathing—nice and deep in, good blowholes out. He stopped on the island side of the reef and let her take hold of its edge. He was puffing from supporting himself and Honor through the water, but that wasn’t why his heart raced. Having her slippery and near-naked body pressed close beside him made it hard to concentrate. But she needed his help to stay horizontal. She needed all her air in her lungs, not tied up in exhausted muscles.
She kicked her legs slowly, steadying herself between him and the reef ledge. Larger waves came in, splashing over both their faces, and he saw that her mask was half filled with water. He moved in close, hard against her slick body and reached around her on both sides to tighten the strap at the back of her head and drain the water out. The swell pushed her into him rhythmically. This close, he would have to be a eunuch not to feel every feminine curve of her body bumping against him with the water. Her breathing stilled in the snorkel. His chest and hers brushed briefly as he stretched around behind her to fix the mask strap. Her enormous eyes lifted to his when she thought he was distracted. The blatant desire in them nearly did him in.
He pushed back from her. ‘If you struggle at all while we’re under, I want you to look right into my eyes, do you understand?’ She nodded and made a grunting noise through her snorkel. ‘Okay, let’s go.’
He surged off from the reef edge, towing Honor alongside. He dipped his face into the water and the world changed immediately. The sharp sounds of waves breaking on the outer and inner coral became a dull, thrumming sort of drone as his ears submerged. The sound of two sets of lungs breathing through the snorkels became like a heartbeat. And the colour …
Below them, along the coral edge, the water was ultramarine—the kind of colour that came from shallower water, no seagrass and a massive dose of sunlight. Fish darted in complete disorder. Big ones, small ones, dull ones, vibrant ones—a veritable freeway of ocean traffic, all operating on unfamiliar road rules. Rob glanced back over his shoulder and saw Honor wide-eyed with excitement, peering around. He shrugged the shoulder where her hand clung to it to get her attention and she met his eyes, gave him a thumbs-up and then looked back down again. On they swam, the length of the lagoon, concentrating mostly on the first layer of the lagoon life.
Rob surfaced, pulling her to a halt and spat out his snorkel. ‘Want to go deeper?’
She nodded, raising her eyebrows to communicate her enthusiasm. An unrecognisable word tooted from the top of her snorkel and he figured it for ‘yes'. She wasn’t letting go of that snorkel for anything.
‘Okay, your snorkel is going to go under. Hold your breath until we surface, then blow.’
She nodded again and slid her hand onto his shoulder for guidance. He shook his head and then laced his fingers through hers instead. Her small hand disappeared in the circle of his.
‘You’ll lose me when I dive, otherwise,’ he explained, before taking his mouthpiece between his lips.
Hand in hand, they swam away from the reef and then, with a squeeze and a glance in her direction, he took a deep breath and sank, his fins pushing them both lower.
Honor’s heart hadn’t stopped pounding since she’d stepped into the water.So far, so good. Skimming the surface had been fantastic. She’d never looked under these waters with a mask before, a circumstance that seemed ridiculous now. How much she could have experienced if she’d only braved
the waters sooner.
She was vividly conscious of her hand held in Rob’s—he was her anchor and her lifeline and she knew she would be safe. Part of her was sorry to have had to let go of his smooth, muscled shoulder; she’d been enjoying the distraction. But he was right; she would have slipped away from him in a second.
She’d blocked the snorkel as they’d sunk below the water and not taken a particularly deep breath, assuming a lungful of air would only make her more buoyant. The first moments were fine as they descended lower by feet but, as the dark edge of the reef loomed closer and the water cooled a bit with depth, her confidence slipped. She suddenly felt so very vulnerable here in the world of undersea creatures. Terrestrial. Artificial. Her breath faltered and her hand stiffened in Rob’s.
Immediately, he slowed and turned back towards her as she pulled away from him towards the surface. He held her firm, holding her under with him.
Thoughts of drowning crowded in on her and she started to panic. Little visions burst across her vision. Nate. Justin. The ocean. She writhed and twisted in Rob’s grip, straining upwards and losing all her air in a frenzied pillar of bubbles. He tugged her back to his level and forced her to look at him with forked fingers tapping on his mask. His steady blue eyes burned into hers even as her aching lungs readied to burst from lack of oxygen.
She stared into the strength of his eyes and stopped struggling. Her lungs eased. Her posture relaxed. The moment it did, his hands slipped from her shoulders and he returned them both gently to the surface.
She exploded back into the human world with a cry, gasping for breath, but exultant. It had been terrifying but, as the calm overtook her, she felt so liberated. She spat out her snorkel as he started speaking.
‘Are you okay?’
Her breathing was shallow as her body fought to get oxygen back but she could speak between pants. ‘I’m okay. I’m okay.’
‘You weren’t in any danger. We’d only been under about twenty seconds. Do you understand?’ She did and nodded. ‘Nothing steals oxygen like panic. But you were fine and once you calmed did you feel it?’
‘It was …’ Words failed her.
His gaze was intent. As if he knew exactly what she meant. Her spine tingled under his stare.
‘Want to try again?’
Moments later, they were back beneath the surface, moving along the edge of the reef. Now without fear, Honor took to the undersea life like a fish back in water. She studied prickly starfish up close where they stuck like glue to the reef; she gently touched a vivid blue sea anemone and watched it curl in; she listened to the click-click telegraph of hidden rocklobster; she even dived right to the sea floor at one point, stretching her lungs to capacity.
Crabs moved along the coral’s upper edge, sea-slugs wobbled in the current and tiny creatures of all kinds darted around them. Rob steered her quickly away from an approaching sea snake—a healthy reminder that even beautiful undersea things could be dangerous—and towards a low point in the reef. It was where they could swim out to the deeper ocean if they wanted to.
Honor didn’t. She was feeling fantastic but not invincible. She baulked as they approached and he slowed and trod water with her.
Just then, a green turtle surfed the swell over the reef’s low point and past them into the lagoon. Honor’s fingers bit into Rob’s shoulder in her excitement and he immediately set off after it, skimming below the surface, his strong legs pumping to catch up.
What a gift.
Rob kept pace with the gentle giant. It had come in from the deep for some rest and recreation in the warmer, shallower waters. She knew the rules regarding contact didn’t stop at the shore and, though she burned to feel its leathery shell, she resisted. It swam parallel and turned its ancient beak-face and looked right at her. For a slow motion split second Honor imagined that it smiled at her.
Her heart nearly stopped.
Then she was rising, breaking through into the sunlight. She’d been too captivated to notice she’d nearly been out of air. But Rob had thought for her.
She spat out the mouthpiece. ‘Oh, my God …’
She tipped her head back and let the sunlight rain down on her face. She sucked in a lungful of air and laughed, loud and joyous, turning back to Rob. ‘Did you see her shell? She had to be close to a century old!’ She laughed again and tipped her head back into the cool water to feel its kiss on her skin.
When she straightened up, Rob’s expression was intense. Shuttered. Had he not heard her? She gripped his shoulders and trod water in front of him. It brought her body in close to his. ‘She might have been here when the Emden sank, Rob!’
His eyes locked with hers through their masks and his energy radiated towards her. Desire bubbled and spat between them like lava hitting the ocean. He moved in closer, put one hand behind her head and leaned in for a kiss …
Their dive masks cracked on impact.
It seemed the most natural thing in the world—once they’d finished laughing—to reach out to touch each other instead. It was the first time she’d heard Rob really laugh, she realised, and then understood his strange expression of moments before. He probably thought she was incapable of laughter.
After the past few years, she was starting to wonder, herself.
He didn’t take his eyes off her as he took a breath and sank below, tugging on her hand. She let the snorkel find its way back into her mouth and fell forward into the water so that she could watch him swimming on his back just below her through her mask glass. Her two hands fitted easily into his as his flippers moved them along.
They drifted in a leisurely way, Honor peering down at Rob, breathing through her snorkel and he looking up at her, holding his breath effortlessly. After a moment, he let himself drift upwards until his body slid along the length of hers. Both their skins were slick with water and sunscreen. He reached his arms around her and, at the last moment, she realised what he was going to do. She took a breath to seal her snorkel as he rolled.
The brief moment out of the water was all he needed to suck in a lungful of air and then he rolled her back above him. She blew out her snorkel as though she’d been doing it all her life.
The movement put their bodies intimately close. Honor had seen dolphins do exactly the same thing as a prelude to mating. Her eyes drank him in. He slowed in the water and momentum carried her overhead, his mask passing just centimetres from her chest, her belly.
Then he kicked his fins and moved back up along her body the same way, his thumbs splayed, running from her midriff over her breasts to her shoulders. Her body tightened sharply and she longed for him to brush back across it. Behind his mask, his molten eyes saw everything.
He crushed her to him and rolled again, refilling his lungs. Her breathing was shallow and fast when she resurfaced, but it wasn’t from fear.
His mask prevented him getting any closer to her skin and so his hands did the work.She watched, hypnotised, as his fingers moved along her ribs with gentle fascination. She knew then she’d wanted that light touch for herself since first seeing him use it on the Emden memorial. Where his fingers went, she imagined his lips. The same lips as last night. He stopped kicking again and let her drift overhead, past him. His fingers traced down her belly, over her hips to her thighs, then along her calves to her trailing feet.
Her eyes fluttered shut.
At the very last second, his lips touched her ankle, feeding along the delicate bones in her feet. The hot, wet contact was dizzyingly stimulating and Honor tucked her legs under her, broke from the now shallow water and yanked off her mask and snorkel.
Rob surfaced, ripping his own mask off, kicking out of his flippers and bracing his feet on the sandy floor below. He gathered her to him greedily and took her waiting mouth. Honor wrapped her arms around his strong shoulders and kissed him back with everything she had. Their sensuous water play had strung her as tightly as a bow. The heat of his mouth was a contrast to the cool saltwater that splashed against her face. The g
entle waves did nothing to quench the flames bursting back into life between them.
She moved against his mouth, dragging her lips up and down. In turn, he bit the tender flesh of her bottom lip, soft enough not to bruise, hard enough to send her pulse into overdrive. She’d never experienced this violent surge of feeling. It was almost too much. She panted his name—half wanton, half con-fused—and buried her face into his shoulder.
He heard her tone and slowed, wrapping his arms around her and crushing her to him. He moved them towards shore and, as the water shallowed, he tucked an arm under her knees and lifted her, still curled into his shoulder. She tightened her arms around his neck as weightlessness dropped away.
The towel she’d laid out was sun-baked and crisp against her back. He laid her gently against it, her face exposed to the sun’s kiss. And Rob’s.
Blue eyes burned into hers and water dripped from his hair, his face, as it lowered to resume the passionate kiss, his body half over hers. The intensity of her need frightened her but her body knew exactly what to do. It pressed eagerly against his and exploded into flames deep inside.
The unfamiliar sensation was enough to get her attention for the bare moments she needed to think about what they were doing. One part of her—a deep seated part—begged her to stop, to protect herself. But another part pushed its way to the fore and demanded for release after so long in darkness. It was a part that she’d never shown her husband. Feelings that had overwhelmed her when she was younger. Feelings she’d spent a lifetime suppressing.
It saw its mate in Rob’s fiery passion and it exulted.
The fact that every part of her wanted to close the distance between them was enough to force her into consciousness. She stiffened immediately.
Rob didn’t miss it. ‘Honor … ‘
Was that confident, cocky, experienced Rob sounding so vulnerable? She opened her eyes and gasped at the desire she saw reflected in his. Raw emotion. Hesitation. Her stomach flipped at the unexpected expression. He looked just like she felt—truly, entirely and thoroughly aroused. She couldn’t remember ever feeling that way with Nate.
