They’ll need their own island.
Good job Sully had so many vacant ones in his empire because the look in Jess’s hazel gaze hinted just how much she wanted a family and just how much she’d tried to bury such a calling.
She’ll end up with as many kids as Sully and I have creatures.
“That would be...nice.” Jess cleared her throat. “I’d appreciate that.”
“Appreciate what?” Cal asked, appearing sneakily through the sand.
Tasmin and Jess broke apart, their cheeks matching pink. Jess leaped up to press a kiss to Cal’s rough cheek, her eyes glowing. “Nothing. None of your business. Not yet, anyway.”
“Humph.” Cal huffed and swatted at Pika as Skittles’s boisterous brother hurtled himself to me and plopped into my hair. He wouldn’t have come to me if he still had Sully to annoy.
Instantly, I stood and looked at where the men had been by the shore.
Nothing.
My heart pounded with worry. “Cal...where’s Sully?”
Cal rolled his eyes. “That’s why I’m here. Time to go. I’m driving you guys out on the speedboat.”
“But where are Elder and Sullivan?” Tasmin stood too, peering into the dusky twilight that’d abandoned colours and chose heavy greys instead.
“There.” Cal pointed at the quick splashes in the ocean, fading from view. “They decided to swim.”
“Swim?” My eyebrows rose. “All the way to the yacht?”
“Yep.” Cal snapped his fingers, moving toward the pier. “That’s why we’ve got to go now. I want to beat the bastards.”Chapter Seven
THE OCEAN HAD ALWAYS been a place that washed my mind clean, eradicated the shit I did, and baptised me into the sin I’d chosen.
It was also my personal gym—a nightly ritual to swim in the moonlight as often as I climbed the slippery rocks by Nirvana before leaping off the top and plummeting with the falls into the pool.
I liked to think I was fit and strong. I knew how to propel myself through waves and salt. I had an affinity with the finned creatures beneath me and wasn’t afraid that something could bite me for invading their domain.
I belonged in the sea.
And that was why it gave me cocky belief that I would win over the man who’d become more and more distracted from our conversation about yacht building and business dealings the moment his Phantom had appeared.
He’d practically walked into the ocean fully dressed, signalling an end to our discussions and his undeniable need to trade shore for sea.
Cal had been the one to challenge us to a competition. Jokingly, perhaps, but he was still the instigator and the reason Elder had stripped his shirt, pulled off his trousers to reveal tight black swimming shorts and passed his belongings to Cal. “First to Phantom wins.”
“Wins what?” I crossed my arms. “Another yacht?”
“Respect?” Prest’s lips twitched. “An IOU, perhaps? A favour for the future.”
I didn’t like the thought of owing anyone—even someone I’d grudgingly started to like while sharing a few beers and talking nonsense. He was standoffish and guarded but also quick with sarcasm, which I found mimicked my own love of duelling with conversation.
Cal and I had made it a game.
Elder made it a challenge.
So, of course, I wasn’t going to let him wade into the ocean without accepting his current dare. Stripping off my t-shirt, I kept my shorts on and dumped my cell phone and keys to Singa Laut into Cal’s hold. “See you there, Cal. Bring my wife.”
Cal rolled his eyes. “It’s dusk.”
“So?”
“Feeding time for sharks.”
“Only if they catch us.” I smirked.
“Only if they catch you, you mean.” Elder sniffed. “I’ll be too far ahead for them to bother.”
“Pride goeth before the fall, Prest.”
“We’ll see.” Elder traded dry sand for lapping waves, rolling out his shoulders in preparation.
I followed, sighing in pleasure as the sea welcomed me back, licking at my ankles. “See you soon, Cal.”
Standing beside the man who had admitted he was well trained in martial arts and even that he played the cello—two things that I’d guessed about him back on Calypso—Prest cocked his chin arrogantly. “I’ll warn you, Sinclair. I swim every night around Phantom.”
“I swim every night around Batari.”
His hand came up. “In that case, let the best man win.”
“You’ll be eating my bubbles, Prest.” I shook his hand before tossing our grip away and striding into the water.
He followed, our speed increasing the more competitive we became.
We dived at the same time, swallowed by the sea we both loved, and the rest was a blur as we cut through the warm salt and struck off toward the towering floating city about a kilometre away.
The thoughts in my head vanished.
My body became master over my mind, falling into a meditation of stroke, stroke, breathe. Kick, kick, push.
I didn’t bother looking at where Elder was. I didn’t waste time or energy worrying if he would win. I set myself to the task of pulling ahead and propelled myself as quickly as I could.