“Sure, they’ll take a little nibble, sayblech, and swim away. Meanwhile, they have my leg caught in their teeth, and I’ll live the rest of my life as a half-cyborg.”
He shrugs. “There are worse things in life than being a half-cyborg,” he says, grabbing another bucket and dumping it in the ocean.
He would know, he practically is one.
“If it’s not so bad, get in the cage and stick your toes out. Let me know how dandy it is when it’s bashing you on either side of the cage while it slowly tears your leg off.”
He grunts. “It wouldn’t be slow. Your leg would be gone before you could blink. They have incredibly powerful bites.”
So maybe he knows what he’s talking about, but I can’t get that image out of my head anyway.
“Maybe I shouldn’t go. I wouldn’t want to lose my favorite toe.”
His brow furrows. “Do I even want to know?”
I point to my pinkie toe. “It’s cute. Sharks like cute things. They eat seals. Seals are cute.”
He looks to where I’m pointing, then shakes his head at me. “I don’t think they care much about how it looks. More like how it tastes.”
“I’m talking myself out of this,” I declare, anxiety starting to make me feel a little nauseous.
“So, stop doing it.”
I purse my lips. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m going to do this. For sure.”
I’m lying again, and we both know it.
“Vieni qui,” he demands roughly, his hazel eyes searing as he reaches out his hand and motions for me to come to him.
I shiver, the beautiful lilt of his voice and its roughness gliding across my nerves.
Swallowing, I approach him and let him grab ahold of me, immediately shivering from the feel of his rough skin on mine. He directs me toward the back of the boat, where it’s an open flat ledge.
Somehow that’s even more terrifying.
“Kneel,” he whispers, his voice dipping low and reaching into the pit of my stomach where arousal is blooming.
I’m ready to question him, but then he starts to lower as well, so my body follows along without further question.
“Put your hand in the water,” he directs.
“Fuck no.”
“Nothing is going to come up and bite you. Just feel it.”
Exhaling a shuddering breath, I lean forward and brush my fingertips through the cold water.
“You’re touching an entire universe right now. A microscopic portion of a universe. It’s an ecosystem full of millions of species, some of them you couldn’t even imagine.”
His hands drift to my hips, cupping them in his large palms and squeezing, sending delicious tremors down my spine. “What you’re touching right now is sacred. It’s to be respected.”
Hot breath fans across the shell of my ear, followed by his wicked voice, “It’s to be feared.”
I swallow, my eyes fluttering when his fingers brush up my stomach, eliciting goosebumps.
A sharp gasp leaves my lips when I see something massive and gray swim beneath the surface. I jump back, bumping into Enzo, but he’s solid stone and doesn’t allow me to get very far.
“Oh my God,” I breathe when a great white shark breaks the surface only mere feet away, swallowing a large chunk of chum in the water.