“Well, I wasn’t,” I smile, eager to feel her core yet again.
As soon as she is settled, I begin. I take several deep breaths in a row, finally holding one and then submerging myself beneath the surface of the warm water. Notching my knees under the ledge of the rock, I open my eyes to see the wondrous, turquoise-shaded spectacle of her open thighs in front of me. Holding my breath, I take a moment to imprint this vision on my memory. I never want to forget this. The sinews of her upper thigh where they connect to her pelvis. The gradual opening of her pussy lips. The barely-visible ruffle of the secret lips beyond.
Pulling her closer, I cover her sex with my mouth. My tongue parts her seam with one smooth movement. She releases a sweet pulse of juices into my mouth that I swallow just a bit of, not wanting to drink too much salt water. But she is too sweet to pass up. Her fingers soon tangle in my hair as I tongue her slit, letting the water flow over each whorl of her unfurling flower.
I feel her hips writhe and tremble, her thighs flex as I delve deeper, spearing her entrance with my tongue as I nose the delicate pearl of her clit. My lungs begin to burn but I can’t surrender. My task is too important. With two fingers, I reach just inside her to find the ridges of her G-spot and stroke them gently as my lips suck at her clit.
She pulls me closer. Her hips slide into the deeper water but I can’t let her go. I won’t stop until she comes in my mouth. Sucking just a bit harder, I pulse her G-spot insistently, sure that the precipice is just beneath her. All she has to do is step across it and…
YES.
She begins to come, her juices changing the water all around us. Her thighs clamp over my ears and she twists a handful of my hair. I suck her clit until she releases me, then take one last look at her before emerging from the water. Now she is open. Blooming like a hibiscus flower, her petals all flamboyantly displayed.
When I take my first breath in the sunlight, for a moment I’m afraid I will pass out. It is too much like a dream. The air sparkles with reflections. Her sighs fill the enclosed cove with music.
Heaving myself up, I take a moment to sit next to her in the warm, soothing pool until oxygen returns to my blood.
“I think that was more than three minutes,” she pants, smiling sleepily.
“Really?” I ask. “Then I broke my record.”
“You could have hurt yourself,” she scolds me playfully. “You could have died!”
“Totally worth it,” I smile, squinting against the light.
With water on my eyelashes and the midday sun overhead, it’s almost impossible to see. Turquoise spots swim in front of my eyes, obscuring everything but this mermaid vision.
“Well, let that be a lesson to you,” I finally sigh.
“Lesson?” she asks.
“That’s twice that I have told you I can do something, and you doubted me.”
Her expression clouds. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“First, you didn’t think I could fly the jet. You were wrong. Right? And now, I told you I could hold my breath for three minutes. And I could do even more than that.”
“Yes, you certainly can do more than that,” she smiles shyly.
“Okay, so now you know. If I say I can do something, I can do it. Believe me now?”
She takes a few deep breaths, smiling vaguely as she runs her fingertips over the hair on my chest.
“Yes, Cal,” she agrees quietly. “I think I do.”
Chapter 16
OPAL
When I get back to the resort, still holding my flats in my hand, Irving glances up from the shade under a linen canopy as though he knows I am coming. The quick smile that spreads across his cheeks makes me smile back. Just two days ago, that expression would never have been offered to me.
And now everything feels completely different.
Giorgio leans on his knuckles on the other end of the table, smoothing the sheaf of papers with his hand. He continues talking as Irving watches me approach, unaware.
His eyes flicker toward me when I enter the tent, then back to the plans.
“All of this, here, is designated for power production,” Giorgio sniffs, scowling at the plans.