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He glanced at me, a lopsided smile transforming his face. “Don’t worry, bear. You’re the only one I want to kiss.”
“I better be,” I intoned, placing my hand on the small of his back and guiding him toward the attendant taking tickets.
Once we were admitted, his hand threaded through mine, and he tugged me toward a section labeled Ocean Wonders. The overhead lighting was low, all the attention on the large built-in tanks bursting with life found in the sea.
“Look at those,” Matthew said, pointing to a display labeled for seahorses. He leaned in, studying the habitat, then made a sound. “There,” he said, pressing a finger to the glass. “He’s there. They blend in so well it’s hard to find them.”
I leaned in, using it as an excuse to brush my chin along his shoulder. “There’s another one,” I said, keeping my voice quiet while pointing.
He said nothing, but his body shifted into mine, and I looped an arm around his waist. He pointed to another and another. “They swim so slow,” he murmured.
I laughed lightly. “Not like you.”
“I’m not the fastest on the team.”
“Does it matter?” I asked.
“Nah,” he answered, watching the seahorse undulate its dorsal fins. “It’s not really about the competition for me. I just like being in the water.” Thinking he said something wrong, he turned his face from the tank to look at me. “But I still try my best. I wouldn’t drag down the team with shitty effort.”
“I know, baby.”
His eyes averted. He moved away but kept hold of my hand. “Hey, it’s Nemo,” he said, pointing out a tank with clownfish. “That’s what Max calls Wes.”
“Nemo?”
“Yeah.”
We wandered through the entire exhibit, spending extra time at the octopus habitat, and then through the penguin habitat. The penguins were cute, but they seemed to bother Matthew, and when I asked why, he said it made him sad they were trapped behind the glass with so little space to explore.
His heart was so big, and the more of it I saw, the more I loved. It also made me that much more primed to protect him.
Because it was a Monday evening, the aquarium wasn’t crowded, and that made it feel like we had the place to ourselves. It also made it much easier to tug him into shadowed corners and kiss him just like I promised I would.
After petting some manta rays, we washed our hands and took the escalator down to the lower level where we held hands and wandered through an underwater tunnel with massive coral displays, sharks, and other aquatic life swimming overhead.
Partway through Reptile Alley, he slipped his arms around my waist and pursed his lips. Chuckling, I leaned into the sweet invitation and kissed him slowly. Somewhere nearby, a child laughed, and I forced myself back.
“You hungry?” I rasped.
“Starving.”
“There’s a restaurant in here somewhere. The walls are all made of glass so we can watch the fish while we eat.”
“That’s not the kind of hungry I meant,” he said, stare dropping back to my mouth.
Pressing against him, I wrapped my hand lightly around the front of his throat. “Don’t you worry, princess. I’ll make sure you’re fed.” I nipped his lower lip. “In every way.”
I sat beside him in the booth at dinner, and he hooked his arm through mine, resting his head on my shoulder as we watched fish float past the table. When our burgers and fries came, he ate the fries off my plate and ignored his.
I asked him what was wrong with his, and he just shrugged and said mine tasted better. Apparently, the same must have been true for my soda because he drank that too.
I didn’t know how to love someone this much. It overwhelmed me in ways I hadn’t ever expected, and I had no choice but to yield.
“Are you gonna help me eat this?” he grumped, making me glance down at the half-eaten slice of chocolate cheesecake I’d ordered him.
“Seems like you’re doing just fine with it on your own,” I teased. Clearly, Matthew had a weakness for chocolate.
And I have a weakness for him.
