Charlie

I watched her run off to her room and I can’t say that I could hear much over the hard beating of my heart in my chest. I had not expected to see a sex toy come out from underneath her towel and I was at a loss of words. I could also see that she was embarrassed by it, but I was stunned. I was admiring her beautiful slim body when she had first come out. Now I was thinking about what she was doing in there and who she was thinking about when she had been playing with herself. It was distracting as all get out and a big part of me wanted to go knock on her door and see if she wanted some of the real thing.

But she didn’t come back out of her room. I was supposed to go to bed early, but there was no way that I was going to be able to now. Instead of waiting around for morning to come, it was still pretty early in the night. I knocked on her door softly and when I tried the knob it was unlocked. I couldn’t believe it and when I pushed it open a little bit, I saw her lying on the bed. She was asleep and I didn’t have the heart or the guts to wake her up. She just looked so peaceful and I felt like a horny animal that was going to disturb her.

Instead I went to the bar. I saw Bill and I knew that he was just the person that I wanted to see. He was alone and I wanted to get some advice. He had one of the hottest girlfriends in Nome and knows that they were married; I knew that he was the one that was going to help me get Merle. I don’t know why, but the more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that I had to have her.

“Hey Bill. Long time no see. Been a while since you came off of that mountain.”

He grinned at me. “Yeah well with Ayla around, it is hard to leave the house. I thought that the woman was going to wear me out before, but now that she is about to have a baby, she is even worse than before.”

I told him that he was a lucky bastard and I could tell that he liked to hear it. It was hard for him to see that everyone was jealous of him, but after what lengths he went through to keep her safe and after what happened to Trent, no one was willing to mess with her. Yeah she was cute, but he had made it clear that he wasn’t going to let anyone touch her. No one had and everyone kept their distance. I didn’t want to go that far, but somehow I wanted the same results. I wanted Merle to be mine and only mine.

“I think I have said it before Bill. You are one lucky son of a bitch. But I have my sights on someone else now. No one looks at Ayla anymore.”

He had a satisfied smirk on his face and I had a feeling that I knew what it was about. He had gone through hell for that to happen and I could tell that he thought it was worth it. I wasn’t going to argue about it, no one was. If nothing else, all of the time spent in jail worried about his future, at least he had taken the worry out that he was feeling about Ayla. There was an ease to the feel of knowing that she was untouchable.

“Oh?”

“Yeah I met a new diver yesterday. She is supposed to work for Kevin, but I convinced her to come out with me.”

“Go out with you?” Bill whistled. “She must be hot as hell if she is going to convince you to get back on the water. I didn’t think I would see the day.”

I ignored the comment, but I knew that it had been said a couple of times before. I didn’t like the water, it was known by all, as was the reasons, and I wasn't sure why he was giving me a hard time.

“Well it’s not so bad. I try not to think about it, but it is about time that I went back out there. I do have two boats making money every day. Doesn’t make sense for me to not be out there when I got them running all of the time.”

He made a face and I knew what he thought. I was chasing tail and it was pretty true. If it wasn’t for Merle, I wouldn’t be out there and I knew that, but maybe that was a good thing. I can’t think of anything else that would get me back on a boat, not after what happened a few summers ago when first started scraping the bottom of the ocean for gold. I was young and cocky back then, but I had soon learned my lesson as my boat sank and me and a couple crew members had to swim back to shore. The water was always frigid and that swim was a long one and there were a couple of times that I didn’t think all of us would make it.

“It’s good Charlie. I would like to meet this new girl. I haven’t heard anything about a new woman in town.”

“Because you are always up on that mountain, but trust me when I say that no one is feeling bad for you. I think half of the town would like to be you for a day.”

He had a smile on his face, but I could tell that he didn’t like the observation. After all of that, Bill was still touchy about Ayla. If he wasn’t so damn scary when he was mad, I would have ribbed him further, but instead I wanted to pick his brain and I needed him level headed for that.