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“Have I told you how much I love hearing you call her sweetheart?” Neri said softly, her eyes alight with love.
“Bana kocam demeni sevdigim kadar degil.” (Not as much as I love hearing you call me your husband). I completely forgot about everyone else. It was a curse. A gift. A compulsion to trip into Neri headfirst with all my being.
She licked her lips.
I instantly hardened.
“Get a room.” Ayla smirked, picking up a line she’d overheard Jack saying. He’d finally called us out on the wicked few weeks Neri and I had enjoyed while they’d been in New Zealand all those years ago. I didn’t know how he found out, but one night last month, when we’d popped round to theirs for homemade pizza night, he’d casually informed us that it was about damn time we bought them a new couch, dining room table, and probably a kitchen sink, considering what we did on them.
Neri had choked on her pizza.
I’d exploded into laughter.
And Ayla had looked between us all with a scowl, trying to get in on the joke.
“I agree, little moonbeam.” Teddy squished my daughter into his side. “They’re sickening, aren’t they?”
I chuckled and struggled to tear my eyes off Neri.
“Nah, they’re cute. Like puppies.” Ayla smirked. “I like puppies.”
“Gee, thanks.” I rolled my eyes and tore my attention off my delectable wife. Resuming my job at filling people’s glasses, I said, “I would prefer being called a lion, but you know...whatever.”
“Rawwwwr.” Teddy chuckled and held out his glass. “Thanks, mate.” Bouncing on the spot, he grinned. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe after all this time, it’s actually happened.”
“This is insane.” Eddie chugged back his champagne before I’d even finished pouring. With a shaking hand, he held out his glass for more. “Someone pinch me. It doesn’t seem real.”
“Sapphire!” Ayla yelled, bolting to the side of the sparkling brand-new, two-cabined boat we’d named Denizati after the Turkish word for seahorse. “She and her pod are here to celebrate with us!” Her small hands went to her turquoise dress, ripping it over her head as she danced around in her navy one-piece. “Hi, Bubbles. Oh yay, Rocket is here too! Wait for me!”
“Ayla Kara, you stop right there,” Neri barked. “You’re not going swim—”
SPLASH.
“Bloody hell.” Neri rolled her eyes. “She’s a menace.”
Jack chuckled. “Payback is ever so sweet.” He went and kissed Neri’s cheek. “Now you know what it was like trying to keep you out of the water, little fish.”
“I was never that bad.” Neri chuckled, quickly slipping out of her calico sundress and revealing the ever-present Lycra beneath. Today’s choice was a plain black bikini with glittery ebony thread.
I could see my wife naked a million times.
I could taste her, touch her, thrust inside her, yet I would never stop being stunned stupid by how absolutely gorgeous she was.
“Close your mouth, Aslan. You’re drooling.” Teddy snickered.
I gave him the finger as Neri threw me an apologetic grin. “Be back soon.”
Before I could reply, she sprinted for the railing, leaped up to the top rung, and swan-dived into the ocean.
“You sure they’re not part mermaid?” Eddie laughed. “I swear I saw scales on Ayla’s legs in the pool last week.”
“The minute my wife grows a tail is the day I finally understand why she’s so intuitive. If she ended up being a mystical creature, it would explain a lot of things.” I grinned even as my heart skipped a few painful beats, reminding me that for all the perfection of today, my heart wasn’t perfect.
Not anymore.
Not after Cem’s machine.
It was the one and only secret I kept from Neri.
In the dark, alone in our bed, on the nights when she worked up the courage to ask me about my leg, the caves, and the electrocution, I was nothing but honest. Probably too honest.
But I never told her that for all my happiness and lack of nightmares. For all my gratefulness and completeness, my heart was the only part of me that let the past affect it.
“You guys truly did it.” Jack grinned, ending my slight worry and toasting Anna as I filled their glasses again.
“I’m so proud of all of you,” Anna said, her eyes covered with huge sunglasses. “I can’t wait for the tour.”
“Well, that won’t be till next year, I’m afraid,” Teddy said with a smile. “Today marks the momentous occasion of finishing our first anchor. The prototype will be transported here next week and assessed on interaction with the environment, water-tightness, and other necessary functions for a few months. Then...if it proves as successful as we hope, we’ll begin the permanent hub.”
“I just love that you found a way to encourage coral to grow on the spheres.” Anna sighed in awe. “You’re not just putting foreign buildings into the reef, you’re giving wildlife a brand new habitat.”
