Master of the Deep

by Cleo Peitsche

  “We need to get back,” he said.

  “I’m stuck on my back until you get off me,” she said, squeezing him again. She could feel him inside her, lengthening, hardening.

  He made a low, male sound. “I guess you are. So if I decide I want to fuck you again…”

  Her pussy clenched, and she felt her face heating. She didn’t say anything, instead rocked her hips against his.

  “You really like having sex when we’re supposed to be doing something else, don’t you?” he asked. “That’s very naughty, Monroe.”

  “Someone needs to teach me manners.” Her face heated even more. She couldn’t believe she was saying this, that she was playing this game with him. This wasn’t her. Just like when he’d pressed his thumb into her ass the night before and she’d liked it. That wasn’t her, either.

  Maybe that was the whole point of vacation flings. To try things outside your comfort zone.

  “Teach me manners,” she whispered. “Punish me like the naughty girl I am.”

  He didn’t say anything, and she wished she could see his face. Had she gone too far? Turned him off?

  “You don’t know what you’re asking,” he said. But as serious as his voice was, she could feel that his cock was throbbing hard, swollen to the maximum.

  “Maybe not,” she agreed. “But someone needs to teach me. It doesn’t need to be you, don’t worry. I can find someone in New York.”

  Koenraad grabbed her tight around her waist. “Don’t play with this, Monroe.”

  “I’m not,” she said, not whispering this time.

  “You look so sweet and innocent, but you’re trouble in a too-small bikini.”

  “Technically, half a bikini,” she said. “I lost the bottom.”

  “And you won’t be getting it back. That’s your punishment. Now we have to go.”

  Despite having been warned, she couldn’t believe it when he actually pulled out. She felt every swollen inch of him, too. It was almost painful.

  “Your whimpers make it all worthwhile,” he said. His mouth was just over hers, and when he kissed her, she dug her fingers into his hair and greedily kissed him back.

  So maybe his cock wasn’t in her, but it still took several minutes before they were able to let go of each other. Then she fumbled in the dark, trying to fix her clothes.

  “My bikini bottom—”

  “No,” he said, his deep voice firm.

  And inexplicably, she got wetter.

  Chapter 9

  Outside, the sun was blindingly bright. Monroe covered her eyes to give them time to adjust. When she peeked through her fingers, she saw Koenraad looking up at the sign.

  “You’re right,” he said. “I’ve seen it many times, but I never saw a smiley face.” He nuzzled her neck. “The world through your eyes is much nicer. I like it.”

  Not only did she blush, but she plunged her gaze down to stare at the wooden slats of the boardwalk. It was a hell of a compliment, and she didn’t know what, if anything, to say. Thanks seemed like too little. She was profoundly flattered and touched.

  He looped his arm around her shoulders. She wanted to tell him how happy it made her when he did that, but the feeling was too emotional, too vulnerable, so she didn’t say anything. It didn’t matter; he did it all the time, and she doubted he would stop just because she didn’t encourage him.

  “This might be a stupid question, but are there were-pterodactyls?”

  “First, we’re shifters, not were-whatevers. No magic. The full moon is just another night. And I hate to break it to you, but pterodactyls are extinct.” He stopped walking and faced her. There wasn’t time to avoid colliding with him, so she didn’t fight it, instead letting his strong body absorb hers. It felt so good to trust someone else completely. She raised her face to look at him, and he kissed her gently.

  “What was that for?” she asked.

  “Trying to soften the blow about the dinosaurs. Did it work?”

  “Umm… not sure. I’m feeling pretty disheartened right now.”

  “In that case…” He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her again, his tongue pressing into her mouth. It was a bedroom kiss, and she was too breathless to pretend not to be affected.

  He let her go, and they resumed walking. “I think I’ve done a bad job explaining how it all works. There aren’t any weird animals. No prehistoric monsters. Just shifters that have two forms instead of one.”

  “Two forms plus little extra mini-forms,” she said.

  “Ok,” he said good-naturedly. “Two major forms.”

  “None that have more than two forms?”

  Koenraad shook his head. They’d reached the lab building, but Koenraad made no indication that they would go inside. “Supposedly,” he said, “there used to be shifters who could take multiple shapes, but there’s never been any proof. It’d be nice to have that kind of ability.”

  Monroe laughed. “So greedy. You can turn into a shark, but you want more.”

  That made him grin, and as she looked up into his face, she had that feeling again that this was right. This was where she was supposed to be, now and forever.

  She wasn’t sentimental. She didn’t fall for men at the drop of a hat. But even setting aside the shifter stuff—not that she really could for long—Koenraad was special. If he’d been a bike messenger who showed up at the office twice a week, she’d have had the same feeling.

  This felt right.

  “Maybe this doesn’t need to be said given what happened in the bowling alley, but I’m ok with what you told me earlier,” she said. “It was just shocking.”

  “I know.”

  “Though maybe the next time you drop that on someone, don’t do it in a boat that looks like a mid-life crisis in full force.”

  “The guy I bought it from is my age,” he said. “But yeah, he’s a bit unconventional. Not going to argue. I’m curious… if I’d told you in an elegant restaurant…?”

  “Maybe things would have gone down differently.”

  “Spencer thinks I should have told you everything up front.”

  “Spencer is a wise man,” she said.

  “Well, I’d say you know the worst, but there’s a nice dinner in our future,” he said. He raised his eyebrows, and she nodded in understanding: there was more he had to tell her.

  The door opened and Spencer stepped out. He’d changed and now looked nothing like the scientist she’d seen in the lobby. His brown hair was mussed in a stylish way. He was… cute. Not exactly her type, but definitely cute. Apparently, all the hot guys lived in the Caribbean.

  She noticed how dilated his pupils were. Nothing like Koenraad’s, but… yeah, she’d bet anything that he was a shifter. For some reason, having figured that out made her inordinately happy.

  The woman who’d driven them from the dock pulled up in the car. As Monroe got into the back, she wondered how the boat would get back to Tureygua.

  With a little luck, it wouldn’t. Maybe someone would steal it. Or better yet, sink it. She turned her head to hide a smile.

  And as terrible as she imagined the boat’s original owner was, Spencer seemed to be an upstanding guy. So maybe instead of docking Koenraad points for having a friend who was obviously maturity-challenged, she should be giving him points for being so open-minded.

  Aw, hell. Koenraad didn’t need more points. And anyway, she liked him the way he was. Especially when he gave back the bikini bottom in the car. He handed it over when Spencer was leaned forward, talking to the driver, and she set a world record for putting it back on.

  The plane, she soon found out, was even smaller than the boat. While she hadn’t imagined a jumbo jet, she also hadn’t expected it to look like something two strong men could pick up and carry away.

  In fact, maybe it was her imagination, but it seemed to be swaying in the wind.

  “It’ll be fine,” Koenraad murmured into her ear. But even his solid presence couldn’t loosen the knot in her stomach.

&n
bsp; Spencer climbed onto the wing and opened the door, and Monroe stared in horror. Planes required stairs or platforms to board, and you didn’t crawl through a doghouse-sized door to get in.

  She managed a few hesitant steps. The plane’s interior looked like that of an old car.

  “Do you want to sit in the front?” Koenraad asked.

  She shook her head, and Spencer moved aside the front seat, then offered her a hand.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I got rid of the step during a remodel.”

  Koenraad’s hands tucked around her waist, and he swung her up. “How long is this flight?” she asked.

  “Twenty minutes,” Spencer said. His smile was warm, and she saw understanding in his eyes. “You can endure anything for twenty minutes.”

  She snorted, but she accepted his hand as she crawled inside. There were two seats in the back. She quickly strapped herself into one and jerked the straps to make sure she wouldn’t be going anywhere.

  Just when she thought Koenraad had run out of new and distressing experiences to torment her with, he always found something to prove her wrong.

  The men got inside—and the plane definitely wobbled as they moved into position.

  “Here.” Koenraad handed her enormous over-ear headphones that reminded her of the ones landscapers wore. There was also a little microphone.

  “What are these for?”

  “It gets loud.” Koenraad squeezed her knee. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Since we’re flying, we’ll get back to Tureygua in time for dinner with your friends. Assuming you still want me to meet them.”

  Monroe ducked her head to hide her smirk. The man knew how to make a good bribe.

  While Spencer fiddled with controls and made different parts of the plane move—some sort of safety check, she assumed—she looked out the scratched-up window.

  Shouldn’t have done that… there was a smaller window with hinges on the bottom and a little latch on the top. Heaven help her. Airplanes weren’t supposed to have windows that opened. And when she turned her attention back to the symphony of movement in the cockpit, she noticed what looked like a parking brake between the seats in the front.

  “Did they put this together out of spare Chevy Nova parts?” she mumbled.

  Through the headphones, Koenraad’s laugh sounded intimately close. “You think those are rivets on the wings. Here’s a secret: Spencer buys super glue by the truckload.”

  “Don’t listen to him,” Spencer said. “I ran out, so I’ve been using chewing gum.” The men roared with laughter, and Monroe found herself smiling.

  “I know she’s not much to look at, but this is probably the best-maintained plane you’ll ever be in.” Spencer’s voice was rich with pride, and Monroe couldn’t help but be charmed by him.

  “How long have you had it? Had her.”

  “Since we were in high school,” Koenraad answered.

  The front propeller had started spinning slowly and was soon whirring in a blur. There was more jiggling of the zillions of controls and knobs, and then the plane was rolling down the runway.

  It didn’t roll very steadily. It wobbled, in fact, and that couldn’t bode well for how it would fly.

  Yet she kept her eyes open through takeoff, and a thrill ran through her as the small craft climbed into the cloudless sky.

  “How are you holding up?” Koenraad asked.

  “Fine,” Monroe said. And she really was.

  “Koenraad has some fun planes to fly,” Spencer said. “He’s not nostalgic like I am.”

  “I don’t have time to do the maintenance, and if I’m going to hire someone, I might as well get something more comfortable.”

  She laid one of her hands on Koenraad’s broad shoulder, and he covered her fingers with his. “Just so we’re clear, I don’t want to try your planes.”

  That made both men laugh. Outside the windows, Monroe could see the land, could see boats. They weren’t buzzing over the water, but they definitely weren’t super high. That was probably a good thing.

  “You skipped the safety features of the plane,” she said.

  “In case of water landing, jump into the arms of the closest shark,” Spencer said.

  Monroe liked how Spencer talked to her as if they’d been friends forever. She didn’t know if he was generally friendly and outgoing or if he accepted her because she was with Koenraad.

  With a flick of her wrist, she pulled her long hair over one shoulder and began to plait it loosely. She’d never liked Thomas’s friends, so it hadn’t upset her that they never double-dated. But what did that have to do with Koenraad? She was done comparing Thomas to Koenraad. It wasn’t fair to Thomas, it made her feel bad, and there really was no comparison anyway.

  She wondered if Spencer was single. But then, all her friends were paired up.

  Her thoughts swung back to Thomas, and she wondered if he was still stalking her hotel, looking for her, driving the staff crazy. She hoped not. If there was any sense of fairness in the universe, he would already be on a jet back to New York.

  “When we were in high school, we used to jump out of planes,” Spencer said.

  “This is going to shock Koenraad,” Monroe said, “but I’ve never been skydiving.”

  Spencer laughed, and Koenraad’s fingers tightened around hers as he twisted in his seat to look at her. “It wasn’t exactly skydiving,” he said.

  “Nope. We’d just jump out, then shift shark right before hitting the water.”

  “You’re… joking.” She thought about it. “Actually, I guess if I could turn into a shark, I’d do it. Why not?”

  “If you don’t hit the water just right, it’s painful,” Koenraad said, but he didn’t sound like he had any regrets.

  The plane dipped to the left, changing course and making Monroe’s stomach rise. She clamped her fingers tighter on Koenraad’s shoulder until the plane was flying straight again.

  “Your Koenraad used to be the biggest daredevil of us all. You should ask him how he got the scars sometime,” Spencer said.

  “He said a propeller. From a plane?”

  “No, from a boat.” He glanced at Koenraad. “Can I tell her?”

  “I’d rather you didn’t.” He turned to look at her. “It’s not top secret or anything. I was stupid, engaging in the kind of behavior that would send a wise woman running in the opposite direction.”

  Monroe gestured with her free hand. “I think we’ve established that I’m not one for jumping out of planes. Nowhere for me to run…”

  “Not stupid. Heroic!” Spencer practically squirmed with excitement. “I’m gonna tell her.”

  “Spencer—”

  “The woman isn’t going anywhere. And it’s a good story.”

  “I’ll tell her later,” Koenraad said tersely.

  “It’s fine,” she said. A little suspicion told her there might have been a girl involved. Hard to imagine that, though; Koenraad didn’t seem to much care what others thought. But then, she couldn’t imagine him as a daredevil, either. Something had changed him. She wondered what.

  She spotted land not far away, and she asked what they were flying over.

  “Curaçao,” Spencer said. “Have you ever visited?”

  “This is my first trip to the Caribbean. If Koenraad has time, we’ll explore some other islands.”

  “They’re all worth checking out,” Spencer said. “Whatever you don’t see on this trip, you’ll have to explore during your next visit.”

  Koenraad squeezed her hand, and Monroe’s stomach felt like the plane had dropped out of the sky. He already knew he wanted her to come back.

  At least, that’s what she thought it meant. Though she was pretty sure.

  “I was hoping Koenraad would come up to New York next,” she said. “I figure it’s an island, so that’s a good start.”

  That got her another hand squeeze. Definitely a good sign.

  “I just have to figure out some terrifying things to make him do,” she said.
r />   After a landing that wasn’t half as awful as she’d have predicted, Spencer flew off again. A chauffeured car drove them to the garage where Koenraad had left his car.

  “To the hotel?” Koenraad asked as he backed out of the space.

  Monroe nodded, but nervousness twisted in her stomach as they got closer to the resort area. She hadn’t been trying to hide Thomas’s arrival from Koenraad, but if she brought it up now, that would look awfully suspicious.

  “Maybe I should go in alone,” she said. She couldn’t think of a good justification to add to her proposal. Not unless she wanted to out-and-out lie. Though she couldn’t think of a good lie, either.

  “No problem,” Koenraad said, and she realized she didn’t need a reason. He trusted her judgement. “I need to check my post office box. I’ll be back here in ten or fifteen minutes, but take your time.”

  And then he smiled, one of those megawatt dazzlers that made her nervous and excited and convinced she was dreaming the whole thing. It also made her want to scrap the whole dinner idea and go back to his place. Who needed food?

  He brought the car to a stop in front of the hotel. “Thanks for coming with me today. I know it wasn’t the most exciting way to spend a day of vacation, but I had fun.”

  “Are you kidding? If that’s your idea of not exciting, I’m requesting we only do really boring things for the rest of my week.”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “You’re hot when you’re exaggerating.”

  She made a face and was about to throw down a witty comeback, but then his lips were on hers. Hot, eager, demanding.

  She moaned as she returned his kiss. His hands slid up to her face. His fingers tangled in her hair, and he tilted her head back. Slowly, he grazed his lips down her neck. She loved when he kissed her there, but he kept teasing. Within seconds, she felt like she was going to explode, like her skin had gotten too blistering hot.

  Koenraad pulled away to say, “I have half a mind to take you behind those bushes.”