Slippery When Wet

“It sounds fun, but I have a date with a book and a sun couch,” Taylor said.

“Ah, you break my heart, señorita. Perhaps I will see you tonight at the show, though. We are having a dating game show. You could enter, maybe, if you are not already preoccupied.” He grinned, his teeth very white against his skin. “Enjoy your day.”

TAYLOR LAY ON HER LOUNGER, reading a novel.

“Hey baby,” said a lounge lizard voice, “can I buy you a drink?”

She glanced up to see Dev standing by the sun couch, holding two plastic glasses. He leaned down to give her a quick, hard kiss that stretched into long minutes. Then an icy drop of condensation from one of the glasses dripped onto her bare breast and she gasped and jumped.

“Chilly?” he asked, reaching out with a fingertip to wipe the cool water away from where it trembled on her skin, just above her aureole.

She caught a breath at the brush of his finger. That was all it took, she marveled. Even after making love all night and all morning, it took just the merest touch to send her pulse thumping. She made a stab at a reproving look and reached for her glass. “No groping me on the beach, you.”

“I bring you offerings of boat drinks and you scold me?” Dev stretched out on the lounger next to her and gave her a long, leisurely look. “I thought the rule was no rules.”

“Not for us, but there might be Iberonova rules,” she said, nodding toward the guard standing twenty yards away in his blue trousers and white tunic.

“You’re cute.” He leaned over to kiss her shoulder. “Trust me, Jorge is more interested in looking good for Marisa than in harassing an innocent guest brushing water off his lover.”

She glanced over to where the guard brushed at his gold braid and preened for the barmaid. “You may have a point. In that case…” She moved her glass and let a bit more water drip on her breasts and shrugged enough to send a drop rolling toward her nipple.

“Now you’re being cruel,” he said, running the tip of his tongue across his lips.

“What do you mean?” she asked innocently, brushing the water away, watching his eyes darken.

“You’re so bad,” he said, shaking his head.

She took a sip of her margarita and settled back. “I’m just sitting here reading my book.”

“Whatcha reading?”

“Find out for yourself,” she suggested, handing over her book of erotic short stories. She watched as he read, his brows rising. After a few minutes, he handed it back to her and gave her a speculative glance. “Your mama know you read stuff like this?”

Taylor pushed her sunglasses down her nose and gave him a wink. “I read at least two books off the New York Times notable books list each year. I chat with my mother about those and she’s satisfied I’m looking after my intellect. The rest of the time I read to please me.”

“Makes my Robert Parker look a whole lot less interesting.” He paged back a little more. “No wonder you just wanted to lie on the beach and read.”

“I always have my reasons for everything,” she purred.

“So I see. Don’t suppose I could get you to read me a bedtime story one of these nights, could I?”

“Only if you’re really good.”

“That sounds like a challenge to me,” he said, stroking a hand up her leg.

A horn sounded as the dive boat came in to dock. With a hollow clanging, a pair of assistants from the dive shop trundled a small cart full of air tanks out to meet it. A straggling line of guests in wet suits, clutching masks and regulators followed.

Dev stared at the boat speculatively as it settled in at the dock to exchange old passengers for new, then turned to Taylor. “You sure I can’t lure you out for a snorkeling trip?”

She adjusted her sunglasses. “Tanks and wet suits make me claustrophobic.”

He reached out to encircle her ankle with his thumb and forefinger. “You don’t need that for snorkeling. All you need is fins and a mask. And a bikini top, of course.”

“I just want to lie here and relax.”

“Look, it’s only a half-day trip. You’ll love it, I promise you.”

“I don’t know about this.” She pushed her sunglasses down her nose to look at him, laughter in her eyes. “What if I do it and I don’t like it? What do I get?”

Dev stroked her calf. “The trip will be my treat.”

“Not good enough. You’re asking me to give up a half day out of my vacation.”

He nodded to her book. “I’ll read you page 132, in glorious Sensaround.”

“Promise?”

“Sure, if the Iberonova has a trapeze.”

THE DIVE BOAT BOBBED in the blue water off the coast of the island, near the Columbia Shallows. It didn’t bother Taylor to be in open water. The waves were gentle, and she was an experienced swimmer. She swished her fins experimentally and was gratified when she shot forward. She slid the mask down over her eyes.

“Okay, are you ready?” Dev asked from where he treaded water next to her.

“You guaranteed me this wasn’t work,” she reminded him, adjusting her mask.

“It hardly is when you’ve got fins on. Anyway, there’s enough of a current that you only have to float and let the water take you. I can get you a life ring if you want,” he said, with an impudent look.

“I can swim for myself, thanks.”

“And look mighty good doing it,” he added, ducking his head under the water to survey her. “I don’t think I’ve seen this bikini before. I definitely haven’t taken it off you.”

“Well don’t get any big ideas out here. We might lose it and some barracuda would be flouncing around in my suit.”

“It probably wouldn’t look nearly as sexy as you do,” he offered, but she swatted his hand away.

“We’re out here to see the reefs, remember? Now where are they?”

“Just look down.”

Taylor blinked in surprise, then put her head down into the water. If she hadn’t had a snorkel in her mouth, she’d have gasped. Below her spread a fairy land of unimaginable variety. Red-orange coral towers rose next to whitish tubes with pink centers. Fronds of kelp waved gracefully in the ocean currents. Sea sponges fanned out next to the solid, crenelated spheres of brain coral.

She ducked under the water and swam closer. A small school of mottled peach parrot fish wove along the edge of the reef, skimming over an octopus swirling gracefully along to its lair. Behind all of it was the intense, immense blue of the sea.

Taylor ran out of air and rose to the surface, blowing the water out of her snorkel as she did. She yanked her mask down to her neck and whooped.

Dev surfaced next to her. “What do you think?”

“It’s amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Put your mask back on. You’re just getting started.”

Below her, the reef rose in a solid mass, separated in places into serene white towers. A school of tiny silver fish made its way along the edge of a reef and then with no apparent provocation made an abrupt shift to the right before swimming forward again.

Time stretched out, paced by the measured sound of her breath in the snorkel, by the infinite peace that stretched below her. In the cool blue twilight of the sea was a world of color and mystery.

Dev swam up to her, pointing downward and then to his chest. Understanding, she took a trio of deep breaths to charge her lungs and then they were swimming down, hand in hand. A puffer fish floated by, looking like a large, spiny sphere. She felt her ears pop as the reef rose alongside her, and she felt more a part of the ocean than ever. Dev gestured toward the reef, and she saw it. At a dark hollow in the coral, the glittering eyes of a moray eel stared back at her. She looked up, and somehow it was the surface and the air above that looked like another world, and the sea around her that seemed like home.

Then her lungs began to burn and she swam for the surface. She broke through to the air, trying to absorb the wonder. Dev rose next to her. “There’s so much to see, I can’t stay down there long enough,” she said shaking her head.

“We’ve got more time. Take a deep breath and we’ll go back down.” His mouth curved. “Unless it’s too much work for you.”

She splashed him and dove under.

THE ENGINE OF THE BOAT vibrated and rumbled, taking them back to the resort. Taylor sat on the padded boat seat. “That coral that was like fairy fans, it was so gorgeous. And did you see the school of those fish with the yellow edging?” She was too wired to relax as she pulled on her tank top.

“Angelfish,” he said, watching in bemusement at her bright-eyed pleasure. He hadn’t quite understood the impulse that had led him to cajole and persuade until he’d talked her into going out to the reefs. He’d only known he’d wanted her to experience it. The underwater universe had been a revelation to him. When he found that she’d never been, he’d suddenly found himself consumed with helping her discover it. “Now you see why I wanted to bring you out here?”

“It’s wonderful.” She leaned in to kiss him, lingering with her forehead pressed to his. “Thank you for giving this to me. Now take me for a real dive.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “I want to go deeper and stay down longer. Will you teach me?”

“We can get you qualified tomorrow and be diving by afternoon. Just say the word.”

“Yes.”

“Yes to what?”

She threw her arms around his neck and gave him a smacking kiss. “Yes to everything.”

The dive captain passed around a cutting board with spears of pineapple on it. Taylor picked up one of the juicy spears and took a bite.

Dev leaned back against the cushions, watching her suck the spear of pineapple. She took another bite, then held it out to him. “Have some. It’s good for what ails you.”

He leaned closer to her. “You’re good for what ails me,” he said softly, pressing a kiss on her lips. Then he took a bite from the spear. The tart, sweet flavor banished the saltwater taste from his mouth, just as her simple joy banished the memory of his self-absorbed ex. “Now I seem to remember that we’d arranged a guarantee in the event you didn’t like the trip, but we never discussed any kind of tip or compensation for me if I turned you on to something good.”

“I didn’t realize you were doing this for a fee,” she said in amusement, popping the final bite of pineapple into her mouth, then holding her hand over the side to rinse it in the spray from the boat.

He clicked his tongue at her. “You of all people should realize that no service comes free.”

“And here I thought this was an all-inclusive resort. What do you expect for payment?”

He tipped his head to one side, considering. Then a slow grin spread across his face. “Surprise me.”

BY THE TIME THE BOAT DOCKED, the gathering clouds had coalesced into a tropical downpour. They hadn’t even reached the end of the dive dock before they were soaked.

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