Part 16 (1/2)
”Let's go walk it off then,” I suggested with a smile, ”It's low tide, so the pools down at Dana Point should be awesome!”
She nodded her agreement and sipped at her water, ”Sounds like a plan.”
I waved down the waiter and asked for the check.
”Thank you for dinner,” she said once we were back on the sidewalk, ”That was probably the best sus.h.i.+ I've had in my life.”
”I told you so.” She had wrapped her hand in mine again, so I lifted it to my lips and kissed her fingertips, ”I wouldn't lie to you.”
She met my gaze and, to my surprise, there was none of the wary trepidation that had been there before. Something had changed. There was softness in her eyes that I hadn't seen before.
”For some crazy reason, I believe you when you say that.”
I kept myself from wrapping my hand around the back of her head and pulling her in for a kiss-just barely. The urge to dominate her, to own her, to pleasure her, to protect her, swelled inside of me like a tidal wave.
But Holly Nash is not one to be taken. Owned, maybe, but on her terms. I'd make her come to me.
We crossed the street and climbed inside the car.
”Straight south from here. Just look for the pirate s.h.i.+p.”
”The pirate s.h.i.+p?”
”Yeah. It's usually moored in the marina. You can't miss it.”
”What the h.e.l.l kind of adventure are you taking me on Porter Hale?”
I flashed her a wicked smile, ”The kind you'll never forget.”
She put the car in drive and pulled out of the stall. It was only a fifteen-minute drive, and the look on her face when she saw the ma.s.sive privateer and its five thousand square feet of sail was priceless.
”That, my dear, is the Spirit of Dana Point. It's a replica of the s.h.i.+ps built during the Revolution. Mostly used for local boy scouts and troubled teens now, but they do the occasional joy ride for the public if you ask really nice.”
”It's beautiful! I was expecting a sign in the shape of a pirate s.h.i.+p or a cheesy restaurant or something, not a full-blown real-life boat floating in the bay!”
She pulled into a stall near the s.h.i.+p and almost left the car running in her excitement to get out and see the thing close-up.
We walked along her starboard side from stern to bow, Holly reveling in the beauty of a handcrafted s.h.i.+p, and me reveling in the beauty of her excitement and pa.s.sion over something so far outside of what I expected her interests to entail.
She named off parts of that s.h.i.+p that I didn't even know had names. After my thorough education on the finer points of maritime architecture, we made our way across the parking lot and down a long set of concrete stairs to the coa.r.s.e sand of the beach.
”This is more my area of expertise,” I informed her as we stepped to the edge of the first tide pool, ”I don't know a whole lot about sailing, but I can name off hundreds, if not thousands of plants and animals that live in these things.”
”I think I could probably give you a run for your money,” she winked up at me before crouching down and pointing to the bottom of the pool, ”sebastes umbrosus.”
I knelt down beside her, nearly dipping my chin into the water to get a better look, ”No way! That's a sebastes semicinctus! The umbrosus has white spots and a more p.r.o.nounced dorsal fin!”
She giggled next to me and nodded her head, ”I know. I was just testing you!” She moved her finger a few inches to the left, ”Scorpaena gutatta.”
I smiled when I spotted the flash of brilliant red as it darted under a rock.
”Strongylocentrotus francisca.n.u.s,” I said without pointing.
”The red sea urchin. Watch out for those little b.a.s.t.a.r.ds,” she held her fingers a few inches apart, ”nothing like a couple dozen three inch spines buried in your foot to ruin a day at the beach! Anthopleura elegantissima.”
I had almost missed the tiny bed of brilliant magenta and green anemones, ”You've got a pretty good eye.”
”Tide pools fascinated me as a kid. The fact that they change every day and each one holds such an insanely diverse ecosystem just enthralled me. I used to sit at the edge of them until the tide came back in and my parents made me move. I always wanted to know where all the animals went when they weren't landlocked anymore and what caused them to climb down into these holes in the first place.”
I pushed myself up from the edge of the rocky depression, ”First one to find a Ruby Octopus gets to pick the movie we watch on our next date!”
I took off running before she even had a chance to get herself upright. I had already spotted a pool big enough to make it likely that there would be one of the elusive octopi in it and knew I had the contest in the bag. I skidded to a halt at the edge of the eight by four foot cauldron in the ground and scanned the bottom for the telltale signs of the expert pract.i.tioner of crypsis.
Thanks to the chromatoph.o.r.es in their skin, they can instantly change to any shade of red, brown, orange, black, or yellow they need in order to blend into their surroundings. They also have expert control of the papillae, the small b.u.mps on their skin, and can mimic textures ranging from smooth to spikey, rendering them nearly invisible.
”I win!” she cried from a few yards to the south of me.
I cursed under my breath and headed her direction to confirm her success.
”You're full of s.h.i.+t,” I announced after surveying her pool.
”Are you kidding me right now?” she had her hands on her hips and a single eyebrow lifted.
I scanned the pool again, looking more closely for an eyeball or a stray tentacle that tended to give the creatures away.
”I'm still not seeing anything.”
She let out a derisive snort and bent down close to the surface.
”I'm disappointed in you, Porter!” She quickly dipped a hand into the pool, poking the wall nearest her. Much to my dismay, it bloomed to a brilliant shade of red and released a small cloud of black ink as the adolescent octopus shot to the opposite wall and puffed up in an attempt to scare her off.
”Son of a b.i.t.c.h,” I grumbled, ”You're gonna make me watch a chick flick, aren't you?”
”There's a definite possibility,” she teased, ”Not because I want to watch it, but because you don't.”
I rolled my eyes and rose from the edge of the now-murky tide pool. I had spotted a rocky ledge that b.u.t.ted up to the surf and wanted to be on top of it when the sun set. I had a high level of certainty that she would follow me without me having to say anything, so I headed across the sand, carefully skirting tide pools in the ever-dimming light.
Holly didn't disappoint.
She took my offered hand and joined me on the flat surface of the short, narrow ledge.
As we stood there, her hand still in mine, we looked out over the Pacific in silence as the sun sank toward the distant horizon. The thin wisps of cloud still lingering in the sky flamed orange and pink, bathing us, and our slice of heaven, in its rose-gold glow.
The constant spray of the surf cras.h.i.+ng against the rocks at our feet chilled the summer air and surrounded us with its briny scent. As the sun finally touched on the horizon, its golden reflection stretched toward us like a pathway we could follow to the end of the Earth and beyond.
Holly stepped into my side and s.h.i.+vered slightly. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close to my chest, using my own body heat to help keep her warm.
Neither of us said a word as we stood there watching the last of the day's light disappear below the horizon.
I rested my chin on top of her head and tried not to think about the beast inside of me that she had awakened. I could feel it s.h.i.+fting around and knew it was only a matter of time before it was fully alert and took control. I wanted to enjoy the time we had together before that happened and we were forced to go our separate ways.