Thousands (Dollar 4)

Doing my best to change the subject so I didn’t throw myself into his lap, I laughed quietly. “So far, this is the best date I’ve ever been on.”

Recognising my smile for what it was—a gateway out of this intensely dangerous, unknown territory—he returned my light-heartedness—or as much as he could for such a serious thief. “I aim to please.”

“And you do please.”

His eyes turned from charcoal to blazing black flames. Tearing his gaze away, he focused on the controls. A small buzzing filled the bulbous cabin, sending us forward. I sat taller, my attention fighting to remain on Elder but finally succumbing to the incredible view outside.

We climbed upward, chasing the Phantom as it speared through the sea, causing white froth to spill behind it.

And there, at the front of the missile-shaped yacht, were the dolphins.

Leaping and lolling, swimming and sojourning. Having a great old time riding the Phantom’s wake. Their grey, streamline bodies effortless and quick.

“They’re still here,” I said.

“If they’re having fun, it’s hard to get them to leave.” He added a touch of speed. “They’re like dogs…just wanting to play.”

“We should teach them to fetch.”

He chuckled.

The closer we got to the pod, the more my heart burst with joy. This day. Oh, my God, this day was the best day I’d ever had, and it wasn’t even afternoon yet.

“There are so many of them.” I tried to count, but they moved too fast and in a flipper-cloud. One twist of their powerful bodies and a flash of dorsal fins later, they appeared twenty feet from where they’d been two seconds ago.

“Twenty? Thirty?” Elder squinted at the twining, threading creatures. “Not the biggest pod.”

“How many have you seen?” Curiosity rose along with a mild case of jealousy that Elder had sailed the seas with dolphins without me.

My jealousy made no sense. Our lives had been separate just like any other couple before they met. Maybe it was because while he was free, I’d been locked up. Or maybe it was because I’d begun hoarding every moment with him and was jealous of time itself. Of not being able to go back and claim those minutes and hours when we didn’t know each other.

I’m being ridiculous.

If this was what love did to people, I didn’t know how they functioned normally. No wonder people needed psychologists—everyone turned crazy when they fell.

“Probably the biggest was off the coast of Australia. Easily in the hundreds, maybe more.”

“That must’ve been amazing.”

“It was.” His eyes glazed, remembering. “It was lacking, though.”

“Lacking how? I can’t imagine something as extraordinary as—”

He pinned me with a brutal stare that told me to stop playing games. “You weren’t there.”

“Oh.”

“Everything in my past suddenly feels lacklustre without you.”

I had no other reply but the truth. “Me too.”

Once again, tension built. How much longer could we dance around this third wheel? How much more could we take?

“We’ll get closer.” As he guided us from spectator to participant, the juveniles of the pack spotted a new toy and came to investigate.

One moment we were the audience, the next we were enveloped by grey blubber, perfect flukes, and intelligent glossy eyes peering into our bubble.

I swore one looked directly into me—right through me. He didn’t care what’d been done to me or where I’d come from. All he cared about was I was alive. He was alive. And that was something to celebrate.

I was warmer, happier, wiser than I’d ever been.

Reaching up, I placed my hand against the cool Perspex. The dolphin who’d striped me bare pressed his long nose to nudge against me as if saying ‘I see you. I accept you. Now come and play.’

Another wash of goosebumps scuttled down my spine.

Could this day get any better?

The prickle of Elder’s gaze whipped my head to face him. I quickly removed my hand from the dolphin’s snout. I didn’t know why but guilt filled my chest along with self-consciousness. “Sorry.”

His expression switched from awed besottment to a nasty scowl. “Why are you apologising?”

Why was I apologising?

I shrugged. “For being silly? For saying hello to a dolphin?”

His perfect lips tugged into half a smile. “Never apologise for that.” He didn’t elaborate, but his features darkened and lightened all at once. “I confess, you’re not wearing that bikini purely for me to stare at you.”

My skin heated as his eyes dropped to the green triangles hiding me from view. I had the insane urge to pull aside the material and show him just what his stare did to my nipples. How hard they’d become. How achy every inch of me was.

“Do you want to do more than just say hello?”

“What do you mean?” I looked at the dolphins looping around us.

“I mean…let’s go swimming.”

My heart nodded in glee already dressed in flippers and a snorkel. “Are—are you sure it’s safe?”

“Is anything truly safe?”