CHAPTER 58
We found a diner by the beach and ordered waffles with bacon and syrup and strawberries, a breakfast that Zen wouldn’t eat in a million years. But here I was eating it, and scooping the last remaining splotches of syrup up off the plate with the edge of my fork and pouring it into my mouth. When we were both done, syrup and coffee and enough stimulants in us to forget we’d spent the entire night out, Noah put his elbows on the table, cupped his face in his hands and looked at me.
“So, we did the teen years last night. What about re-living something a little earlier?”
I pushed my plate to the end of the table and copied his body language. “What?”
Noah looked out over the sea and started thinking. “I’m trying to remember what I was up to at age twelvish.”
“Well?”
“Mmmm . . . Paintball, laser tag, movies, first dates, theme parks, waterslides—”
“Like that.” I pointed to the poster on the wall behind us.
Noah swiveled round. “Yes! Exactly like that,” he said with a grin on his face, and stood up. “Come on!” He slapped some notes down on the table and stood up.
I looked at the poster for a while and then turned my attention back to Noah.
“Okay, but we’re going to need to buy swimwear. I’m not doing that in the bikini Sindi gave me,” I said, imagining bikini bottoms and tops being ripped off by the force of all that water.
Noah nodded. “Let’s go.”
“I don’t know if I can do this,” I said, looking up at the massive waterslide in front of us. We’d found a surf shop, bought some swimwear and were now at uShaka Marine World, Africa’s biggest aquarium and water park.
“Of course you can.” Noah slipped an arm through mine and gave me a little pull as he walked us towards the waterslide, which seemed to reach up into the sky. “You have to, anyway. No childhood is complete without waterslides. Besides, when you’ve done them once, you’ll want to do them over and over again. It’s the law of waterslides: they’re addictive.”
I reluctantly walked towards it and stared up. I doubted this would be addictive. I was sure I would do this once and never again. But I was determined! “Okay,” I said. The whole point right now was to try and live the parts of my life that I’d missed out on. To throw off the heavy chains of fear and anxiety that had weighed me down for so long, to throw caution to the wind and, and . . . I faltered.
“Can’t we do a smaller one first?”
“Nope! Where’s the fun in that?” Noah’s grip on my arm tightened and he started pulling me a little quicker now.
“You’re right! Let’s do it,” I said, trying to psych myself up. “Sure. Why not! Yes!” But the more I said that, the less it actually made me feel psyched.
The staircase up to the waterslide was absolutely terrifying, and it quickly became evident that I hated heights. Something I wouldn’t have known, since I’d never been up anything so high before. I grabbed onto the railings on the side and crouched down as I walked, making myself as low to the “ground” as possible.
Noah chuckled.
“What? It’s not funny. It’s terrifying . . .” I said, getting even lower to the stairs now.
“It’s all part of the experience. You’ll be okay,” he said, and then, my heart stopped, and it wasn’t from the height, it was from the feel of his hands on my waist as he reached out and placed them there.
“You’re safe,” he said softly. And I did feel instantly safer, but I also felt something else, something . . .wow!
No one, no man—no one—had ever put their hands on my body before. Not like that, anyway. Hands that felt protective and caring but also hands that made me feel like Amanda had felt when Sheik Khalifa had pulled her into his bed. When he’d put his hands on her and . . .
Something that had being lying dormant for long inside her, maybe even forever, had been ignited. A passionate fire that blazed with the intensity of a thousand suns. She’d never felt the heat of a man like this, as it pulsed through her entire body.
That’s how I felt right now, as Noah and I climbed. I forgot about the height! I forgot everything that I was afraid of. His hands had a way of dulling that. His hands seemed to be a cure for everything that was bad and scary in this world.
“Almost at the top,” he whispered. His voice had taken on a different tone now and I wondered whether he was feeling something too. But I had no way of knowing. I had no idea how to interpret anything at all. I’d never had to interpret a man’s feelings before and figure out if there was a spark between us. I’d only been with two men my entire life, and it had been nothing like it had been in my romance book.
Instead, it had left me feeling that sex, in real life, was not even the slightest bit worth pursuing. But now I was starting to wonder if that was really the case. I was starting to think about sex. With Noah, and well, that was a very unusual thought for me!
CHAPTER 59
We finally reached the top of the slide, and I think I was starting to feel a little better about the whole thing, until I looked down.
