I still my search, scrutinizing her face. “Are you sure?”
She kisses my chin, giggling. “Yes, I’m sure. You won’t kill me. I won’t ever be dead after we make love.”
“You better not!” I shout.
My little human simply goes on smiling at me, despite my distress. “We have all day together, Moby. We can do anything. Go anywhere.”
My heart weighs down with an avalanche of affection. “What would you like to do?”
Her eyes twinkle. “Go for a swim?”
“In the pool?”
She shakes her head. “In the ocean.”
My grin is cocky. “I think that can be arranged.”
Seven
Darla
We are walking hand-in-hand toward the edge of the ocean when I spot the jet ski rental counter out of the corner of my eye. Every day since my family arrived in Hawaii, I’ve walked past the water sports counter, and I get anxiety every single time. But I don’t feel like a fragile accident victim right now. I feel vital and capable. After all, I’ve made love with a stacked seven-footer twice now and lived to tell the tale. And when I think of how I stabbed my mother’s breakfast roll and stood up to my mother this morning, it makes me want to be even more brave. To take chances again.
To face my fears.
“I think you’ve made me feel invincible,” I lean my head back to say to Moby.
He stops mid-stride and bends down, putting his hands on his knees so we’re closer to eye level. “What do you mean?”
Shifting side to side in my sandals, I lean sideways to peer past Moby to the water sports counter. “I was thinking…I wantto get back on a jet ski. I’ve been having nightmares about the accident for such a long time. Maybe some immersion therapy would cure me.” I lean in to give him a peck on the lips, and he rumbles in response, his eyelids drooping. “If I’m going to face my fears with anyone, I want it to be you.”
Affection makes his gray eyes softer. “My brave girl.”
Strings pull taut in my chest.
Is it crazy that I’m already falling in love with Moby? I’ve never experienced so much acceptance and safety and connection with anyone else. Not in my whole life. Leave it to me to need a whale to shift into a man in order to get a boyfriend.
Oh, my goodness, this hunky marvel is myboyfriend.
I can barely stop myself from squealing into a tap dance.
“We will go out on this jet ski, Darla. I will not let anything happen to you.”
“I know, Moby,” I whisper, kissing his chin.
Again, he rumbles, but this time, the sound is a little more breathless. “I love your kisses, little human,” he says, adjusting the growing bulge beneath his towel. “But please wait until we’re somewhere I can mate you before you give them to me.”
I’m beaming, I can’t help it. “Sorry.”
He scans the packed beach, then looks down at my body. I’ve dressed in my yellow bikini and short, white sarong for our day out, and his heated gaze tells me he likes my outfit very much, but he likes what is beneath even better. “Here is definitely not a good spot to mate?”
“Definitely not,” I giggle, pulling him toward the rental hut. “Come on.”
He makes an anguished sound but allows himself to be dragged to the hut. I tell the resort employees my room number and set about securing the rental for the afternoon, although the water sports attendant keeps one fearful eye on Moby the entire time.
“You need a j-j-jet ski that will fithim?” asks the man.
“She needs one that will fitbothof us,” Moby corrects him in a no-nonsense tone. “She will not leave my arms.”
