going on?!” I whisper-screamed at Theo.
“It’s the police,” Theo said, but there was no panic in his voice. In fact, he smiled when he looked over at me. “Guess we aren’t supposed to be here, after all.”
My eyes widened. “Oh my God! Are we being arrested? I told you it was illegal to swim in here!”
Theo laughed then, shaking his head and reaching for my hand under the water. “It’s just a little fine. But, sadly, I do believe we have to leave now.”
The police officer continued yelling, and the way he was moving his flashlight, I knew he was saying we needed to swim out of the cave now.
Theo swallowed, not bothering to fight back his smile as his thumb traced my wrist under the water. “What a pity,” he whispered. “Just when things were getting interesting.”
And I couldn’t help it then.
I laughed, too.
Theo was slapped with a fine equivalent to something around six-thousand U.S. dollars.
It was enough to make my eyes pop out of my head, but so little for Theo that he almost laughed at it when the police officer had him sign the paperwork. Then, we were escorted back to the yacht, and warned that should we try to swim in the Grotto again, we would be thrown in jail.
Wayland was on the lower deck when we pulled the boat in.
He watched us both curiously, his eyes holding mine with about a dozen questions swimming in those warm brown irises. But he didn’t question either of us, just helped us secure the rowboat back on the yacht, and then Theo quietly wished for me to have a pleasant evening and I muttered something about needing a shower before we both disappeared — Theo going one way, me going the other, and Wayland pretending not to watch us leave.
When I rounded the corner on my way back to the cabin, I nearly ran over Ivy, who tilted her head with a satisfied smirk at the guilty look on my face.
“Have a nice swim?” she asked, eyeing my wet clothes. Her eyes flicked behind me to where Theo and I had just been with Wayland.
When I finally calmed down, the first thought I had was to smack that smirk off her stupid face. But the second thought I had was that she’d just seen me with Theo, and I didn’t know exactly how much she had seen.
“Don’t worry,” she said, not bothering to wait for me to answer her question. Instead, she brushed right past me, turning and walking away backwards with her finger pressed against puckered lips. “Your secret is safe with me.”
She laughed to herself as she turned, and I thought about stopping her, asking her what the hell was wrong with her, confronting her about the pool party.
But honestly?
I had more pressing things on my mind.
I rushed back to the stateroom, thankful to find it empty as I peeled off my wet clothes.
In the shower, I finally brought myself to climax.
I was so worked up from the evening — from my time alone in bed and then the cave with Theo — it only took about sixty seconds for me to fly apart.
So much for staying away from him, I thought, as I guiltily got dressed for bed. But the guilt was so overshadowed by want that I wondered if I really felt guilty at all.
Mostly, I just felt excited.
And desperate for more.
The next morning, I woke up in an empty bed. Joel clearly hadn’t slept beside me, and he either didn’t realize I’d been off the boat or didn’t care.
I reached for my phone, wondering if I’d have a missed text from him, but instead, there was one waiting from Theo.
Come to the top deck when you’re ready. I need you to “work” today.
There was a winking smiley face next to the text, and my stomach did a little flip as I stared at the words.
As I got dressed, thoughts of Joel hammered me with the annoyance of a dentist’s drill. I wondered what he’d done all night, where he’d been, who he was with. Then, I thought of our fight, of our string of fights lately, and how he seemed in no rush to make things right.
My eyes washed over the dresser, and sitting right there on top was the key to the storage under our bed.
And I didn’t care that he didn’t want me to find what he was hiding there.
I’d had enough of the lying, the avoiding, and if I couldn’t