Hugging her remaining water bottle to her chest, she peered suspiciously into the dark abyss further inside the shell. The flashlight wasn’t strong enough to penetrate all the way to the back. “I’m notsure this is a good idea.”
“Are you afraid after having to share a hotel room with two beds, you won’t be able to resist me once we’re in a one-seashell type of situation?”
“I mean, what if there’s something living in there?”
Trey stopped and appeared to be listening intently. “I don’t hear anything. Do you think crabs live inside of shells? They’re basically made of shell.”
“What about hermit crabs?”
He tipped his head as though giving this some consideration until there was a scampering noise coming from a short distance away from them. They shared a brief moment of eye contact before arriving at the exact same conclusion: hiding in a conch shell was worth the risk of running into a hermit crab or some other creature. Trey led the way with his flashlight as she nervously followed close behind him. The surface was slippery, but the sand, which had made its way inside, made it easier to walk deeper into the shell. Sound echoed around the interior, and there was a constant atmospheric hum, reminding her of electricity but softer, more natural.
The further back they went, the more they could stand upright, and Trey’s flashlight revealed no creature ready to spring out and eat them. Feeling safer, she could appreciate the beauty of their shelter. It was something ethereal and unworldly but still beautiful.
“This is amazing,” Trey said, taking her picture as she leaned against a shell wall to set down theirremaining stash of food and water. They had almost nothing remaining. Catalina tried to focus on what they did have, rather than what they didn’t.
She held up a hand to block him. “Stop. I look even more disgusting than the last picture you took of me.” She still had the occasional dried meat chunk flaking from her hair. Why couldn’t they have found a conch shell with a warm waterfall shower or something?
The top center of the shell had been broken at some point, creating a jagged natural skylight. It allowed some of the moonlight to spill into the shell. Trey turned off the flashlight, returning his phone to his pocket. While it was considerably less bright when he did this, at least they weren’t plunged into pitch-black darkness. Her husband was merely shadowed as he continued to watch her. “You look like a badass crab-fighting queen, and therefore you’ve never been more beautiful to me.”
“Trey.”
“What?”
She sighed, pushing herself off the wall, coming to where he stood. “How’s your leg?”
He looked down at it. From what she could make out, there were angry, red slashes, and it looked a little swollen, but considering what it could have been, they were lucky it wasn’t worse. Trey lifted his leg, twisting his ankle around. “I think it’ll be okay. It was just more of the shock and getting the wind knocked out of me. Plus, he ruined my clothes even more.” He fingered the ripped edges and holes in his T-shirt and shorts. Both their outfits became more distressed the longer the day went on. At this rate, they would be naked in a week… Not that she would mind seeing him that way.
Catalinahmm’dand worked her fingers over the worn fabric of his T-shirt before coming to the hemline. He didn’t fight her when she raised it up, peeling it over his head and arms. The sight of bruises dotting his chest pained her, even if she had to be sporting her own. “I’m sorry you got hurt.” She pressed a kiss on one bruise and then another. His chest lifted in response as he took a deep breath.
“That’s nothing as long as you’re safe.” He slid his arms around her, pulling her close, and pressed his face into her hairline. “Your hair smells like delicious empanadas.”
She snorted a laugh into his skin. “Great. Just what I want to smell like.”
The amused, rumbly noise he made in his throat vibrated all the way through her. “I love it. It’s going to make for some interesting dreams tonight.”
“I guess we should get some rest. That would be the smart thing.”
Disappointingly, his arms fell away from her. He took his T-shirt and folded it until it was pillow-shaped, putting it on the ground. She studied him, thinking she had to look like a discarded rag doll while he continued to look beautifully rugged and tanned. Watching his muscles move smoothly under his skin as he peeled off her cover-up and attempted to make a resting spot for them was hypnotizing. Her fingersitched to touch all of him, to inspect him with her hands, to find and kiss all the tender spots he may have gotten throughout the day.
“We can use this as our bed. I should warn you, though. I also might smell like empanadas and sweat,” he said.
“I hope that’s not where you’re going with reason number nineteen.”
He smiled easily. “No. Reason number nineteen is I just love you. I love you with every part of me, whether I’m over six feet tall or just over an inch. Somehow my body is still able to contain everything I feel for you while also feeling it’ll never be big enough. And every silly reason I invent is just a different way of expressing the same thing over and over.”
“I know, babe.” Catalina did know because she was experiencing something similar. Her eyes burned with unshed tears. What she had with him was important. Their love was important.
“Don’t youbabeme, unless you mean it.” Trey growled low and dangerously. His expression was mostly shadowed except for the parts lit by the night sky coming through the shell’s skylight. Shadow and light accented the muscles across his chest and arms as though lovingly trying to enhance them like a Rembrandt painting.
She leaned closer in a tease, tilting her head up while lowering her lashes. Through pouted lips she slowly said the word "babe."
He responded with force, dragging her to him upward until he was holding her. Catalina’s legswrapped tight around his torso. Cupping his face, their mouths clashed together like colliding trains, teeth bumping together and tongues tangling. His grip on her ass tightened.
The first time they had gotten together back in college, the air had been filled with lust but also a lot of fumbling and giggles and something very sweet. This was something new altogether, as though an out-of-control hunger would consume each other.
“Babe,” he said on a heavy breath in the small moment of separation as the heated angle of their kiss changed. Trey bit her lower lip.
She moaned in response because she was vibrating with tension, wanting to explode from it, tired of dancing around how much she wanted him, how much she was willing to bend all the way over for him. “You might have a concussion,” she said through pants.
