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“Yes, you did.” He shot me daggers with his stare. “That was what you whispered just now, remember? You said without the moon and the sea, we would never have met.”
My heart hiccupped.
Just like I’d had a slightly out-of-body experience when I’d first met Honey and she’d mentioned her brother, the gay architect, and how he wanted to create a community safe from all disasters, and I’d said he’d have to live beneath the sea for that, I had another one.
He’s right.
Without the moon guiding the people-smuggler to shore and the storm that knocked them off course and the sea that carried Aslan to me...we would never have met.
My knees almost buckled at the thought.
To think he might’ve stayed in Turkey, and I would have grown up in Australia, and we would’ve existed our entire lives without ever knowing who we belonged to.
“Thank goodness for the ay and the deniz then,” I murmured.
“For the luna and the mare,” he whispered, his eyes locking onto mine and making the world drop away. “I’m not grateful it took away my past, but I am grateful it gave me you.” He cleared his throat, looking worriedly at my parents. “All of you. I’m grateful for all of you. Not just Neri.”
“Ah, Aslan.” My dad strode over to him and scooped him up in the biggest bear hug. “You’re gonna make me cry, mate.”
Aslan tolerated the hug before forcing a smile as Dad let him go. “You all set?”
“All set. We’re just going to investigate the report of illegal spearfishing. Apparently, some punks have been shooting starfish all over this reef and leaving them to rot.”
“Assholes.” Aslan crossed his arms.
“I would’ve used a stronger word, but that one works too, I guess.” Striding toward the cage where scuba tanks and gear remained safe on voyages out to sea, I watched in silence as Dad shrugged into his tank, tightened his weight belt, and then carried Mum’s to her and strapped her in.
Once they were ready, Dad gave me a stern look. “Do we need to go over the rules again, little fish? No freediving with that monofin. Not on the reef. No trying to cut up loose nets and save any doomed turtles until we return. And no giving Aslan a heart attack by holding your breath for days. If you must swim, stay on the surface where he can keep an eye on you.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not twelve anymore, Dad.”
“No, you’re much worse because you’re seventeen and think you’re invincible.” Mum laughed under her breath. “Anyway, be good. We shouldn’t be too long.”
Not looking at Aslan, I smiled as innocently as I could. “I’m not planning on swimming today, anyway. Might sunbathe for a bit. I’ve lost my tan with all this ‘being trapped in a classroom’ nonsense.”
“Put cream on then. Byeeee.” Mum secured her mask and her regulator, then fell backward off the side of the boat. Dad followed her, their bubbles dispersing as they sank below the crystal water and became black blobs on the sea floor.
Only once I was sure their equipment worked correctly and they had no reason to resurface for a while, did I push away from the side, and stride with as much sensuality and invitation as I could toward Aslan.
“Neri...” He jerked where he sat on the plastic chair. His eyes hooded as he drank in my barely covered body, lingering on my breasts and the necklace he’d given me twinkling in the sun.
“Behave. I beg you with every bone in my body...please fucking behave.”
“Oh, I’ll behave. I’m going to be such a good girl. So very, very good.”
He scrambled upright and backed into the scuba cage. “Your parents are only a few metres away.”
“With a wall of water between us. They can’t see or hear us.”
“They could come back at any moment.”
“Guess we better be quick then.”
He gulped and held up his hand as I stopped within touching distance. The cage rattled behind him, blocking any chance of escape. “Don’t.”
My fingers toyed with the strings on my hips. “Don’t what?”
For all our fumbling and touching and coming and licking, he’d never seen me fully naked. Never stripped me to nothing, just in case we got walked in on.
