AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But it wasn’t forever because Sylvia was on her way back to the land down under. In the end, she realized she could never pack her entire life into two suitcases and a carry-on. So, she grabbed what she could and called for a ride to the airport. All that time waiting to board, then sitting on the airplane, and finally taking a cab back to the same resort she’d visited with Penny, all she could think about was how big a mistake she might be making. If she hadn’t already drained her remaining vacation time and invested the rest of her savings on this trip, she would have cancelled and returned home. Home was safe. Or was it? She’d felt no more secure there than any other place lately. The sharks were always in there, gnawing at her mind, and it seemed Queensland had beckoned to her.
Walking through the lobby this time was so different from the time before. Penny had been exhausted that day. Sylvia remembered trying to cheer her up with a quick drink at the bar while they waited to check in. She’d made cheesy jokes and had flirted with one of the waiters. She’d glanced at one of the guys at the bar with her “fuck me” stare. Now, she felt timid and shy. She kept her purse slung across her neck and shoulders, settled in the front of her body as if she were afraid someone might run by and try to snatch it from her. She peered into the bar as she walked by, but instead of scanning the crowd for possible booty calls, she searched the faces of men and wondered if any of them might grow fins in the presence of salt water. Had any of those guys been responsible for the carnage she’d endured. It was quite possible. What better place for malicious shark shifters to hang out other than in a bar full of tourists. She’d once looked forward to wading into Australia’s dating pool, but now she worried that it might be nothing more than a meat soup with bloody broth and pieces of bone, a feeding ground for the demons of the deep.
Stopping there in the lobby, right in front of the bar, Sylvia closed her eyes and imagined the hotel pool bathed in crimson. She watched herself step down the pool stairs and lower herself into the water, bare-breasted, her tits lowering into the thick, red water. She imagined a fin heading her way and as this fantasy consumed her, she felt a cramp in her pussy and she squeezed her legs tight. She imagined a faceless man with an impressive body rising from the water to meet her, his fin still there on his back. Her hands pressed against his chest, feeling the carved-out muscles, and imagined the skin as thick as a shark’s. His cock would be even thicker.
“Ma’am,” someone called out to her.
Sylvia snapped out of her trance and looked left to see a bellhop standing at her side.
“Your bags are at the desk,” the young, clean-cut man said as he tipped his hat at her. “All you need to do is show your ID and I’m sure they can get you settled in your room rather quickly.”
He was cute. Handsome but way too young. Then again, Sylvia hadn’t had sex in what felt like an eternity. She considered asking the guy if he wanted to earn a big tip by coming up to her room and fucking all this shark nonsense out of her mind. Or, she supposed, if that were to happen she would have been the one getting the big tip.
My God. I’m thinking of turning a bellhop into a prostitute. Get a hold of yourself.
Once she was in her hotel room and had unpacked, she couldn’t wait to have a drink. She raided the mini-bar and downed a tiny bottle of vodka to calm her nerves. Even peeking outside the window gave her instant anxiety. The ocean was so close. It was so calm from way up there in her safe room. She could see a sailboat in the distance and someone was crazy enough to be out there skiing. Hadn’t anyone told them about the sharks? About how dangerous it was out there on the water?
Sylvia’s heart raced, and she threw the curtain back into place before racing back to the mini-bar to grab another bottle. She didn’t even look at the label before twisting off the top and downing the entire thing. It burned in her throat and tasted like butterscotch.
“Fuck,” she said. “This was a mistake. What am I doing here?”
She wished she could talk to Penny. If she only knew a way to get a hold of her. Penny had practically gone off-grid when she moved out to the island. Shamrock Island. That was all she knew. Penny had told her the name of her new home but hadn’t given her any way to reach her. She wondered if any of the local fishermen or anyone at all would know how to find the place.
Bellhops know everything.
Sylvia picked up the phone, dialed the front desk, and asked for the bellhop who’d helped her earlier.
“Hello?” she heard from the other end.
“Hi, you helped me up to my room earlier,” she said, “and I need a favor. I can totally pay you. I just need some info. Do you know a guy named Juan Diego? He’s a captain of one of the boats down at the docks.”
After a long pause the guy replied, “I don’t know all those guys at the docks, you know?”
“He’s Latino,” she said.
“Some of them are,” he replied.
“If you can find him, I’d really appreciate it.”
About an hour later, the bellhop showed up at her door with an older Hispanic man by his side.
“I think this is him,” the bellhop said. “His name’s Juan Diego.”
Sylvia hoped it was him. How many Juan Diego’s could be working anywhere near the hotel? Plenty she figured, but maybe luck would be on her side. The bellhop held out his hand and she forked over much more cash than she’d ever planned to her first night in town. For all she knew, this was some stranger he’d found by the pool named Jose. The man wore a dirty sky-blue polo, a floppy hat, and cargo shorts with sandals. His face was tired and sagging, but his smile was bright.
It turned out, this was the Juan Diego she was looking for, and after explaining the situation, he agreed to call Thane.
“I can’t promise you anything,” he said. “Mr. Thane is a busy man. He always keeps his phone in the cabin and he is never in the cabin. But maybe Ms. Penny will be there—"
“—Can’t you give me their number and I’ll call?” Sylvia interrupted.
“Pardon me, Ma’am,” Juan Diego said, “but I am trusted with very secret information and I can’t just give it out to anybody. Surely you must understand.”
“Sure,” she said.
Juan Diego pulled a cell phone from his pocket and turned his back to Sylvia as he dialed the number.
“It’s ringing,” he said to Sylvia over his shoulder.
