“I’ll go first,” he says, gallantly, then starts stripping off.
I sneak a look at him once he’s lost the clothes. Tall, toned, and lean, with an irresistible, incorrigible smile.
“Your turn.”
So I peel off my dress, then lose my underwear, realizing as I’m doing so that I don’t feel as self-conscious as I thought I might. In fact, standing here like this with him feels like the most natural thing in the world.
Stars spill like glitter across the velvet folds of cloud and sky above our heads. On the surface of the water, the moon has splintered into a million shivering shards.
Caleb passes me a woolen hat. “Here. It’ll help keep the heat in.”
I pull it on, then grin. “How do I look?”
He keeps his eyes on the horizon, shakes his head. “I’m actually tryingveryhard not to look at you right now.”
I laugh. “Oh, sorry.”
He takes a step closer, grabs my hand. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be, I guess.”
Together we step into the sea. It’s cryogenically cold, like wading unclothed into snow. As we go deeper, the water reaching first my knees and then my ribs, my chest contracts and I gasp with the shock of it, growing more hesitant with every step.
To my left, Caleb is swiftly becoming submerged. Eventually, his hand slips free from mine. “Just go for it,” he says, his voice slightly stiff from the shock of immersion. “It’s just like... ripping off a plaster.”
My own voice is by now an embarrassing hoot-gasp hybrid. “It’s worse than that!”
But I know he’s probably right, so I take a breath, then launch myself inelegantly forward like some sort of hefty sea creature. In an instant the water is up to my chin and my heart is hopping, my breaths rapid and shallow. By my side, Caleb reaches for my hand, then releases a whoop that startles me so much I start laughing. He sounds so buzzed you’d think we were skydiving, or surfing some undiscovered reef in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
It takes me thirty seconds or so to rein in my breathing, my flailing limbs, my galloping heart. But once I do, I start to relax, and I canfinally begin to appreciate the tight, chilly pleasure of the sea gripping my body, the sensation of being surrounded by nothing but salt water and stars.
We tread water side by side, as it laps gently between us.
“That is... an excellent moon,” Caleb whispers.
I look up, taking in the bold, creamy face of it. “It is. It’s beautiful.”
“Are you okay? Cold?” he asks.
I turn my gaze to where he’s bobbing up and down next to me, and smile. “No, I’m fine,” I say, even as my breath is jerking in my chest. “This is amazing.”
“Isn’t it?”
I nod toward the beach. “Just hope nobody sees us.”
“Ah, isn’t that half the fun?”
I laugh, narrowing my eyes. “You’re not about to tell me you’re a closet nudist, are you?”
He laughs too, spins round to face me. “Er, no. Despite all appearances to the contrary, I’m not some kind of needy exhibitionist.” Beneath the water, his hands find my hips, the words leaving his mouth in gasps. “But the point is, no one can actuallyseeus right now, Lambert. Well, only our heads. Hardly indecent.”
“Until the police turn up and order us out with a megaphone.”
“If they do, I’ll be demanding a foil blanket.”
“So,” I say, continuing to pedal my feet, my lips starting to swell now with the cold, “do you do this a lot?”
“Not as much as I’d like. And I have to say, it’s really nice to have someone to do it with.” He moves his hands up and down my hips. “It’s supposed to be good for immunity and your skin and have all these crazy health benefits, but... I don’t know. I just like the feeling of it, being out here, just me and the sea and the sky and the elements.” He delivers a salty kiss to my lips. “Don’t think I’m a nutter, do you?”
