Blood of a Werewolf (11 page)

They were searching for the hiding seahorses in one of the tanks and since she was shorter than him, he would cozy up behind her at most tanks.
 
He seemed conscious of not being to close to her in case she didn’t like it, but she did.
 
At this tank, she purposely leaned back to meet his body.
 
He put his chin on her head and kissed her.
 
His arms came around her waist and held her.
 
Safe in his arms, warm from his body against hers – this was bliss.
 
His lips slid gently down to her ear and he whispered, “It is… I totally agree.”
 
She closed her eyes in contentment for just a second and as if reading her like a book, he tenderly kissed the ear in which he had just whispered.
 
They stood there for a while, still searching for the tiny seahorses, when over the speaker they heard, “Mr. Bloomington, would you please proceed to the designated door?”

He whispered in the same ear, “A surprise.”

Her mouth open, and caught completely off guard, she followed him through the crowd to a door in the middle of the aquarium.
 
In white letters the door read “Employees Only” and below that was a red number three.
 
Devon reached for the door and knocked.
 
A few seconds later a man answered the door in wet suit holding a bucket of oysters and clams.
 
“Are you Mr. Bloomington?” he asked.

“I am.”

“Follow me.”

They walked for a while down a long corridor, turned right and then right, and then left.
 
All the while, they passed door after door with tiny windows in them, giving tiny glimpses of university faculty, oceanographers, and all kinds of aquatic animals.
 
They finally came to a door with the number 111C painted on it.
 
The man with the wetsuit pulled out a set of keys, from where, she wasn’t sure, and she was pretty sure she didn’t want to know. He opened the door.
 
Behind it was a tank with 4 baby sea otters and their mother.
 
Apparently, Darby and Devon were there to help feed the little babies, whose mother had been injured in a fishing net and was being nursed back to health.
 

It was the most amazing thing Darby had ever done.
 
Feeding these little adorable creatures and laughing at them playing, well, it just filled her heart even more. After meeting Devon, she didn’t think her heart could hold any more love, but like the ‘
Grinch Who Stole Christmas’
, it grew at least two sizes right there.
 
Devon seemed to be touched too, and enjoyed the little guys as much as she had.
 
Darby knew that she would remember this experience always.

After about a half an hour of playing with the baby sea otters, they found themselves back in the corridor, winding this way and that. They finally found the door that led back into the main part of the aquarium.
 
He looked down at her and asked if she was hungry.
 

“I am.
 
Not terribly hungry, but...” Darby started to say.

“I’ve got the perfect thing for that.” He smiled smugly.
 
As before, he led her by the small of her back out of the aquarium and past the hotel to the harbor.
 
They walked down the dock past a locked gate that Devon just happened to have the key to, and almost to the end.
 

“Are you going to make me fish for my snack?” she jokingly asked.

“Even better,” he said.
 
He raised his right hand towards the forty-one foot sailboat docked there.
 
He guided her to the boat and the captain popped his head out to welcome them.
 

“Are you Mr. Bloomington?” he asked.

“I am, and this is my guest, Ms. O’Rielly,” Devon answered.

“A pleasure to have you aboard, Ms. O’Rielly.” The man held out his hand to assist her onto the boat.
 

“I am Captain Gordon, and this is my first mate, Daniel.
 
Why don’t you both make yourself comfortable? Mr. Bloomington has provided a sweater for you, Miss.
 
Would you like Daniel to get that for you?
 
The sun will be setting in about 45 minutes and it will get a bit cool.”
 

Darby looked behind her, first at Devon and then back at Captain Gordon and said, “Yes, Captain Gordon, I think I would like that sweater.”
 
Captain Gordon nodded at Daniel who jumped below deck and grabbed a gorgeous ivory cable knit pull over sweater that felt like it was made of cashmere.
 
It was big on her; maybe it was Devon’s and that made her snuggle her face into it even more.
 
It smelled wonderful – it smelled like him.
 
She smiled and sat down on the deck in front of Devon, between his legs.
 
He now, too, was donning a wool sweater that looked lovely on him.
 
His hair was swept back from the breeze that was starting to pick up now that the sun was so low in the sky.
 
He was a vision – like a picture from a magazine.
 
She had her arms wrapped around her knees and then he snuggled in to her, wrapping his arms around all of her.
 
She felt so small, so safe - so perfectly happy that tears started to well up in her eyes. He kissed her ear and whispered, “Are you ready?”

“For what?” she said.

“For us! For this! For our own sunset! For you and me – for all of it!”

She had never been more sure about anything her life.
 
She leaned back and turned so she could see those lovely brown eyes in the low glorious sunlight and answered, “I am…I’m ready for all of it and you…always for you!
 
You keep holding me like this and I will follow you anywhere for as long as you want me there.”
 

“Good, I was hoping you’d say that!” he said, hugging her tighter. She kissed his cheek.
 
By now they were out of the harbor and the sails were up and the sun was just about to set.

That’s when the champagne came out.
 
Daniel offered each of them a glass with a strawberry in it.
 

“You went to way too much trouble for me.
 
I mean, I love it, but I would have been just as happy having pizza and beer with you by my side holding me like this.
 
Trust me, I’m a cheap date and pretty easy to please.”

“Well, maybe so, but you only get one first date and I wanted ours to be perfect – something we would look back on many years later and remember how things started.
 
Like the opening paragraph of a book, it’s got to be good to keep you interested or you’re not going to want to read all 500 pages!” he joked. He held his glass up and Darby turned to look at him and held hers up too.
 

“Here’s to the first of many sunsets I hope to share with you, Darby O’Rielly.” They tapped their glasses together and Captain Gordon sailed them off into the sunset.

“So can you hear it?” Devon asked Darby.

“Hear what?” she said.

“They say that when you watch the sun set, if you listen hard enough, you can hear it sizzle as it touches the water.”
 
he answered.
 

“Hmmm!” she said contently, “Nope! But it is beautiful just the same!
 
So, should a puff of steam come up, when the sun is completely engulfed by the sea?”

“I don’t know! I guess we’ll just have to watch and see what happens,” he whispered in her ear. Daniel came out with some fresh shrimp cocktail.
 
Darby fed one to Devon. He seemed to truly enjoy this treatment.
 
She laughed and they watched as the last tiny bit of sun glided down into the water.

“Awwww! No puff of steam – Oh well, maybe next time?” Darby giggled and had another sip of champagne. When Darby finished her champagne she fed the strawberry to Devon, and he kissed her with strawberry lips.
 
They laughed and held each other until the boat was back in the harbor and docking.

“Oh, thank you, Devon, this has been the most amazing date, no – the most amazing day I think I have ever had in my life. Absolutely perfect in every way! And I’ve never had a date remotely in the same dimension as this date, so again, thank you for that too,” Darby said as Devon took her hand helping her to the dock.
 

“I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it, but it isn’t over yet, unless you want it to be.
 
I mean, there is still one more surprise left.”

They turned, waved, and thanked Captain Gordon and Daniel.
 
“Thank you again for everything.
 
Have a good night!” With that, they continued up the dock.

“Hmmm, I don’t know about the last surprise.
 
The day has been so utterly perfect, aren’t we tempting fate? Maybe we should do the other surprise another day, so it has a better chance of making another day perfect.”

“I have no idea what you just said.
 
I don’t see how anything could go wrong with the last surprise, aside from maybe burning the hotel down, but that is pretty unlikely.
 
But hey, if you’d rather not, it’s okay with me. I can take you home right now.”

By the tone of his voice she could see that he was baiting her. Teasing her with what might be another incredible surprise.
 
Then she knew she was a goner when he cracked that sunshine smile that he and his brother played so well.
 
They both knew no one could resist the “Smile.”
 
They knew it and she knew that from now on whenever he wanted something, she was going to see that smile.
 
She knew that she needed to find something that she could do that would work on him, like that smile did on her; otherwise, it just wouldn’t be fair.

“All right,” she pretended to sound reluctant, “I guess...since you did go to all this trouble, I should at least see what the last surprise is.”

“It’s very kind of you to be so accommodating,” he said, slyly smirking at her.

She couldn’t take it anymore and she started laughing. “You know that smile of yours is lethal.”
 

“What?”

“Yes. Lethal.
 
Your brother is just as bad.”

“Oh, now my brother is involved?”

“Yes.” She turned to him and smiled. “You do know that I can’t say ‘No’ to you, when you use that gorgeous smile on me.
 
It’s lethal! I love it, but…”

He smirked and admitted, “I kind of had a feeling.”

“Okay, well let’s go see the last surprise.
 
Now that you really have my curiosity aroused.”

He checked his cell phone for the time and said, “Okay, it should be ready by now.” With that he took her hand and set it in the crook of his arm and they walked back to the hotel.
 

At the front desk, he asked, “Can I get our key? Bloomington Suite.”
 

“Here you are, Sir,” the young man said as he handed him a card. Darby wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw the young man wink at Devon.

Still with her hand on his arm, they went to the elevator and Devon hit the button for the top floor.
 
‘
The Girl From Ipanema
’ was playing in the elevator as they went whizzing up.
 
The doors opened and they stepped to the left and went to the end of the hall.
 
He slipped the card in the door, opened it, and led her in.

Chapter 7

She had never seen anything like it.
 
The windows overlooked the Monterey Bay, and though the sun had set, it was not completely dark and she could see the waves crashing on the beach and the lights of little cities all around the bay twinkling.
 
A window seat full of comfy cushions was below the window.
 

To the right was a fireplace, with a roaring fire licking the wood in its grate.
 
A gorgeous bouquet of at least two-dozen lavender roses adorned the mantel above it.
 
The smell of roses in the room was delicious.

To the left was a queen-sized canopied bed. The comforter was pulled back, beckoning sleepy guests.
 
A mint was placed on each pillow and the entire bed was covered in lavender rose petals - real rose petals, not silk petals. At the foot of the bed were two folded, big, fluffy bathrobes and slippers on the floor.

In the center of the room was a small table set for two.
 
A stand up champagne bucket stood next to it and silver-domed covers were over both plates.
 
Somewhere, she didn’t know where, there must have been a small stereo, for there were violins playing softly in the background.

And if this was not enough to make any girl swoon, there must have been a gazillion candles lit in the room.
 
Even the bathroom was completely lit with candles and next to the gigantic bath tub was a huge glass bowl of more lavender rose petals, presumably to be put in the water, if one so opted to have a bath. Yet, another champagne bucket was placed near the tub.