Forbidden Depths

Chapter 9: Revealed

They lay there for a moment in the afterglow, thunder, and lightning gradually becoming softer and fainter in the night. Their sweaty bodies still stuck together, catching their breaths as Asher finally groaned, pulling out and turning to take off the condom.

“You're…incredible. That was…I'm really glad you were back at the Charm Bar tonight." Asher struggled to put together a sentence and Seeley rolled to her side, feeling a little sore but way more relaxed.

“I'm glad too. I wasn't going to be, but I ran into Barlow at his family's surf shop, and he told me there was a discount so…" Seeley smiled, running fingers through her hair to tame it.

“Barlow!" Asher called out as he threw away the condom and came back with a warm washcloth. “There was no discount. I think he was trying to set us up."

The dark-haired surfer gingerly ran the washcloth around Seeley's sensitive area until she grabbed it from him and finished the job. She was happy he started it, but she could also clean herself.

“Really?" she asked, surprised.

“Yeah…uh, he and I are friends…and I recently went through some things…" Asher's green eyes dulled a bit, casting them down to the bedsheets next to Seeley and the freckle-cheeked woman pushed herself up to lean against the headboard.

“It's nothing, it's dumb." Asher pursed his lips and rubbed the back of his neck, not meeting her eyes.

“It can't be any dumber than selling all your stuff, moving out here for your boyfriend only to catch him calling you an 'easy mark' with another woman in what was supposed to be our 'new-start suite'." The copper-haired woman pulled her knees close to her chest; the dull ache of betrayal still rubbed her raw.

The dark-haired surfer's eyes snapped up to hers, a look of complete surprise and incredulity spread across his features.

“It's true." She motioned with her head to the boxes lining the foyer of the hotel room that he missed.

“Wow, his loss. Massively. I'm sorry," Asher said, his eyes lit up almost like a cat would in the darkness.

“Yeah, I keep telling myself that. One day I think I'll believe it." Seeley sighed wistfully. She knew time healed all wounds, but it would take a while before she could pull the bandaid off this one.

The tan muscular surfer sat on the bed and pushed up to be next to Seeley. “The sort of opposite happened to me."

“Hmm?"

“I was dating this girl for a long time, first love kinda deal. Was even going to propose with my grandmother's ring. We had a few patches where she was a little distant, and I tried to fix it, but she said she was just focusing on her influencer career. No matter what I did, flowers, fixing up the house, asking her what she wanted, none of it landed." The tall, handsome surfer's voice no longer sounded confident and self-assured, but more reserved and brittle.

“That's tough. It sounds like you tried, but she just has a demanding career," Seeley empathized like she had any idea what it was like to date or be an influencer.

His eyes cut over to her for a moment, looking dark in the reduced light, as if assessing if she meant what she said.

“One day, I came back to our apartment, and all her stuff was gone. Everything down to those things she puts her hair up with. Poof, vanished. It was as if our entire life together was a dream or a figment of my imagination," he continued, sounding distant as if he was standing across the apartment, and his gaze was out the window as if he were miles away.

Seeley wanted to hold his hand but didn't know if that was okay, or within bounds.

“It turns out she thought I was holding her career back or holding her back." Asher's voice peaked a bit, and the copper-haired woman leaned over to see his face.

The chiseled, gorgeous man's green eyes were flat and dull as he chewed his lip

“She may have been right… Anyway, it's been an embarrassingly long time since I've met someone who has put a smile on my face like you, and I think Barlow noticed, so that's why he wanted you at the cham bar tonight," the handsome brunette said with a tight smile and the redhead got whiplash from the change in subject.

“Well, honestly, same." She smiled and now she didn't know what to say next.

'We should do this again sometime?' His smile returned in full.

'Do have i********: or t****k? Or do you want to be old-school and just get my phone number?'

'You can spend the night if you want…'

Seeley's phone began to buzz…and buzz....

She scrambled to find it in her purse and pulled it out to see it was Kristi.

She hit ignore on the call, and tapped out a quick, 'Can't talk, what's up?'

All she responded with was, 'Pics or he didn't happen.'

Seeley groaned.

“Everything okay?" the handsome, tan surfer asked, lounging out on the bed like a lion.

He weirdly reminded her of Pirate, only without the eye infection.

“My sister…she…you know my ex? Well, things were complicated. He was a private person, so I never sent her a photo of him, and she teased me that he didn't exist. Well, I tossed him before we could take a photo together and now I'll never hear the end of it." The toffee-eyed woman gave the fit, green-eyed man the quick and dirty version.

“So, she has no idea what he looks like?" A devilish expression curled across the surfer's chiseled face.

“No…"

He motioned to himself. “Let's take a photo now. Send it to her. That should get her off your back." An impish grin flashed in the moonlight under shimmering green eyes.

The freckle-cheeked woman should say no. She should not get Asher involved, but her chest filled with light when his eyes sparkled like that, and really…it would just be a little white lie.

She'd fess up to everything once Kristi arrived.

“Okay, but neck up." She scrambled back up the bed to sit and lean next to him and snapped a quick selfie.

When she checked the photo, her heart skittered in her chest. She had to admit, they made an attractive couple. She sent the photo before she could talk herself out of it.

'Happy?' she texted as a caption and put her phone on silent and on the charger.

“So, this is the part where I say I teach an early surf class tomorrow…" Asher said, his upper body stretching, and the beautiful calligraphy of his tattoo danced on his flexing chest.

“You can stay if you want if your place is far. I mean. I um…I also have to wake up kinda early for an 8 a.m. dive." The caramel-eyed diver's heart insisted that he stay, but her brain knew what this really was.

The rational part of her brain told her that were each other's rebounds.

And rebounds were basically forbidden from getting too close.

“I have to get up earlier than that, I might wake you," he said, pausing, his lips parted.

He was halfway out of the bed, and halfway silhouetted by the window, and the moonlight caught his green eyes just right. The rain had died down to nothing but a faint patter on the window and the redhead thought she'd never see an image so captivating in all her life.

Again, a side of Seeley she didn't know existed roared to life.

“I was sort of banking on that." She winked.

“Oh, I see…you're insatiable. I like it." He leaned over and kissed her quickly on the lips. “I am going to take a rinse in the shower," Asher said, and Seeley pointed to the towels.

A part of the redhead wanted to get up and join him, but all of a sudden, her body felt anchored to the bed, and her eyelids impossibly heavy. She fell asleep on top of the cover before the handsome tan surfer returned from the bathroom.

Seeley awoke when it was still dark to find herself not only tucked under the sheet but with a warm, muscular arm draped around her.

For a moment her mind spun. Where? Who?

Then she smelled cedarwood, and lavender and remembered. She turned a bit to see the man in a deep sleep, face relaxed and lips parted, softly breathing. 'The lavender scent must be from the hotel shampoo,' she thought, yawning and turning back to go back to sleep. She was safe.

When she awoke again, it was to someone planting kisses down her neck, nibbling here and there, tickling her.

“Mornin'" his voice drawled, though the sky was still that grey before sunrise, technically not morning yet.

The redhead was typically ambivalent about morning s*x, she usually preferred sleep and did not prefer her morning breath, or Colton's, but this time, she couldn't resist.

They made love tenderly, but also with urgency because they both had places to be and in less than an hour he'd have to leave this magical moment they had created for themselves.

Soon the magic that people in Tucunia talked about would be over, like Cinderella or any other fairytale.

As stars and spots, and ripples of glowing, trilling ecstasy shook her down to another climactic mess on the bed, Seeley had never felt this…peaceful.

The handsome, tan surfer planted a sloppy breathy kiss on the blissed-out redhead before standing up.

“I gotta run. Someone has to teach all those impressionable tourists how much more exciting it is to ride the waves on top of the water than it is to swim beneath it," he sassed out and Seeley just rolled her eyes.

“You're such a hater. I bet you'd even be a good diver," she said, sitting up and watching him get dressed back in his clothes from last night.

“Not a chance. You can't work your ocean magic on me, beautiful, Barlow's tried." He winked.

Beautiful? Ocean Magic? He must be joking but the past ten or so hours were pretty magical.

“I'll see you around?" he asked, his voice lilting up in what anyone would take as hope.

This caught Seeley off-guard because she didn't really know if he wanted to see her again, that maybe he just saw her as just a one-night stand. Then it struck the toffee-eyed diver that the surfer may think the same of her.

“Well, I can't turn down half-off calamari and an uneven billiards table." Seeley grinned and Asher laughed.

It was easy. This was easy.

“I guess I'll lose in pool later then." He winked and left and shut the door well before the sun had even come up.

Seeley flopped back against the pillow, a huge smile spread across her face. She still had a few hours before she had to get ready for the dive. She had already taken out her gear and checked it.

She turned to get her phone to set another alarm when she realized that she never checked to see Kristi's reply. She checked their chat.

She'd been left on read.

The toffee-eyed woman snorted in laughter. It may be in bad taste, but Asher was right, it did shut her up!

She set an alarm for a few hours later and fell back asleep.

****

“Well, someone looks refreshed and ready to dive! Was last night's storm just electrifying or what?" Barlow smiled with all his teeth at Seeley as she entered Seacret Divers right on time.

Other divers getting ready turned to the display and a blush bloomed bright pink across Seeley's face.

Barlow definitely knew.

“Stop pestering our good customers and fuel up the boat!" Loretta chastised from the back, but the Cheshire smile never left the tall man's face as he tied an orange bandana over his hair.

“Right away, Ma," he called back.

“Don't 'right away Ma' me, like you're innocent in court." Loretta emerged from the back, swimsuit on, holding a mask.

“All right everyone, it's a beautiful morning and there's a chance to see some dolphins, so let's hurry up and dive!" the older woman beamed.