Reese

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“Baby, I don’t want to pretend it didn’t happen. I want to shout out to the world that I slept with Reese Briden. I want to put it in the morning email I send out to all the employees.”

I bolted into a seated position and glared at him. “You wouldn’t.”

“No. I wouldn’t.” He laughed and I hit him gently on the upper arm. “But I don’t want to act like we aren’t seeing each other, but it’s up to you. I know you’re worried about it. Just don’t say you can’t handle the fact that I’m your boss. I won’t accept that answer anymore.”

I swallowed. “Okay. Maybe we should keep it on the down low for now. We don’t have to hide our feelings, but we don’t need to announce it either.”

“I can do that.”

“Just promise me you won’t treat me differently. I don’t want any special privileges.”

“Okay. I promise. Now, come swim with me.”

With my arms around Adrian’s waist, we stood in shallow water while he positioned a pair of goggles over my eyes. “I’m going to shift into my dolphin. When I come close and circle around you, take hold of my dorsal fin, that’s the one on my back. Hold on tight, because I’m going to take you for a ride.”

I gasped slightly. “Wait.”

“I’ll keep you above water so don’t worry. I won’t just go under without a warning. When I stop swimming for a few seconds, that’s your cue to be prepared to hold your breath because when we start again, I’m taking you deep.” He grinned and skimmed his finger over my bottom lip.

Oh my, God. What if he took me too deep? “Adrian, wait. What if I can’t hold my breath that long?”

“All you have to do is tap me on my back three times and I’ll take you back to the surface.”

Okay, I could do this. I wanted to do this. I wanted to swim with Adrian’s dolphin.

“Got it? Three times,” he said, and I nodded as he dove under water.

When he reappeared as the dolphin, I did as he’d requested and grabbed his fin and held on. Then he took off through the water. It was amazing how easily we glided over the surface. He dipped down a few times, causing my head to go under, but we came right back up and holding my breath during those times wasn’t an issue. Then Adrian stopped and I knew he was ready to go under. I held my breath as he dove down. Underwater was amazing and I was thankful for the goggles that allowed me to see everything. We swam by a coral reef and he pointed at some of the fish that hung out there. It was beautiful with so many different colors. I was beginning to lose air and I tapped him three times on the back and he immediately brought me to the surface. But only long enough to take a breath and we headed back down.

He turned abruptly and I lost his fin and started to panic. But then Adrian’s dolphin bellied up against me and I wrapped my arms around him as we danced in the water to music in our minds. He was just as charming in this form as he was in his human body.

We spent the rest of the day playing around in the water. Sometimes with Adrian as a dolphin and sometimes as a man. We snorkeled, swam, and even surfed again.

“The day went by too quickly,” I said as I turned to snuggle against Adrian’s naked body. We were in his bed, and I was exhausted after being in the water all day, as well as completely sated after what we’d just finished doing in bed.

“It did. I hope you enjoyed swimming with me.”

“It was amazing. I never realized how much fun it was to go fast in the water. I’m fairly certain I’m going to want to swim with you frequently.”

“It will always be my pleasure.”

By late Monday morning, our little secret wasn’t a secret anymore. It didn’t take long for everyone to figure things out. Especially when Adrian took my hand in his first thing when we arrived Monday and walked me to my office. At first, I’d pulled mine away and looked at him with disbelief.

“Are you crazy?”

“About you,” Adrian smirked and grabbed my hand back again.

“What happened to keeping things quiet and not making any announcements?”

“I’m not making any announcements.”

“You are by taking my hand in yours for everyone to see.”

“I said I didn’t want to act like we weren’t seeing each other. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m not going to talk about it though. I promise.” He made the sign of the cross over his chest.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes, conceding I lost the battle. Keeping this quiet was not going to happen.

But it turned out to be okay. No one gave me weird looks or treated me any differently. Not even the four clowns who’d thought it would be funny to make me late my first day on the job.

The week flew by, and Monday quickly turned into Friday. The day we were to head down to the hotel to test the air ducts. Reporters milled around the dock, where a large ferry sat waiting to take us out to sea to the elevator shaft. I gulped at the thought, rubbing my sweaty palms against my black slacks.

Larry, Jason, Phil, and Carl stood huddled around a laptop computer that was opened and perched on a small wooden counter next to the edge of the dock. They were talking technical stuff that sounded like a foreign language. Today was the day we were to test the air locked elevator and the first phase of the hotel. That elevator would take us ninety-feet below sea level.

I wanted to throw up. I knew I’d have to go down eventually. I just wasn’t prepared for it to be so soon. I was aware of the inevitability when I accepted the position, but the reality was so much more frightening than the idea was when the HR rep told me how much I’d be making in my first job in the real world. Weighing my options, I thought it would be okay. Albeit, scary.

I stood with my back to the wall of the guard station at the dock, keeping my distance from everyone, not really wanting to be noticed by anyone. My palms were sweating uncontrollably, I wiped them on my pants several times, but they never seemed to dry out.

Adrian stepped up and handed me a glass of champagne. “Here. You look like you could use this.”

I glanced at him with a timid smile. He could have passed for a romance book cover model with his dark hair slicked back, lush curls peeking out from behind his ears. His brown sports jacket hung open over a darker brown vest and a white button-down shirt that splayed open at the collar, giving a hint of a smooth muscular chest. His jeans fit snugly, showing off slender, firm thighs. This was the first time I’d ever seen him in anything but shorts and a golf shirt or T-shirt. Looking at him made me want to forget everything else and take off somewhere private, so I could peel off each garment, slowly, one piece at a time.

The closeness we’d been sharing over the past week coated me with warmth. Since Saturday I’d spent each night with Adrian. Being with him was all still so new and wonderful, yet so comfortable as if I’ve known him my entire life. All I wanted was to be near him, no matter what we were doing.

When he told me I tamed the wild beast in him, I laughed. I hadn’t noticed a wild streak in the man anywhere. Just fun and pleasure. Each day we swam together and surfed. We dined at the finest restaurants. Except for the few times during the week we ate tacos at the local beach hut after a sunset swim. Those were the best dinners actually, relaxed, casual, nobody noticing us. Just two people enjoying some great tacos. And let’s not forget the sex. Oh my God, there wasn’t a moment when we were alone that I wasn’t ready and wet for the man. He just kept turning me on with everything he did or said. I was falling hard for him, more and more each day.

“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.” His voice was soft yet positive.

I managed a small smile, though it felt more like a scowl at the thought of going down the elevator. I took the fluted glass and sipped, hoping it would settle my anxiety a bit.

He leaned against the wall of the guard station beside me and ran his pinky finger along the edge of my hand that I’d splayed against the wall. He didn’t care if anyone in the office knew we were seeing each other, but out here with the press things were a bit different. With so many reporters around, we both knew it would be best to keep things on a professional level. “You’ll be fine. I promise. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

I turned to face him. His dark gaze always made me dizzy and I wanted to stay captivated by it forever. “You say that now, but you know shifting in public wouldn’t be wise.”

“Reese, if something goes wrong to the point I need to shift to stay alive, everyone would be in danger, not just you. The reporters would drown and their videos would die with them because you are the first one I would save. You’re the one who matters the most to me.” His words coated me like a warm blanket and I wanted to wrap my arms around him.

I took another sip of champagne and saw Victor emerge from the double doors of the parking garage elevator. I glanced at Adrian, saw his face contort into an angry scowl.

“Fuck,” Adrian mumbled under his breath. “Just what I need. Stay here.” He left me, taking wide strides across the dock toward Victor.

What was Victor doing here? I didn’t know what the deal was between Adrian and Victor, but I didn’t like the scowl on Adrian’s face. Victor didn’t seem to be harming anyone. I’m sure he was just there out of curiosity. But I knew Adrian didn’t care for the guy, and I considered following him over there to try to keep things civil between them. However, Adrian was a grown man. I didn’t think it would go over well if I suddenly showed up to console him. Or worse, have him think I wanted to talk to Victor. I was no dummy. I knew Adrian was a bit jealous of the guy. So, I stood there looking on as Adrian’s finger went up into Victor’s face.

Was that some kind of warning?