Finn
FINN
“Make it stop.” I leant over the boat as the waves bounced us around. I’d put a life jacket on as soon as we started moving and began throwing up over the side about three minutes later.
Jasper rubbed my back as Travis did his captain thing, which I wished he’d stop, so he could take us back to dry, solid, safe, flat, unmoving land.
“We’ll be there soon,” Jasper offered.
My head snapped to the side as I righted myself, wiping my mouth on my sleeve, disgusted with myself that I’d stooped so low. “We’ll be where soon? A whirlpool to another dimension?”
Jasper laughed, and I hated how handsome he looked. He rubbed his hand up and down my back and offered me a pained smile. “You’ll get used to it, I promise. But can I ask? Are you wearing the life jacket the whole time, because orange is absolutely not your colour?”
“I hate you.”
He shook his head. “No, you don’t.”
I couldn’t help the dreamy warmth that spread through me as I stared at him, our conversations over the last few days firmly in my mind. They wanted me. I wanted them. We were going to give ‘us’ a try. And I couldn’t be happier… or more worried that I would fuck this up.
“No, Professor, I don’t.”
“Seriously, are you going to stop calling me professor?”
“Are you going to stop calling me little one or Travis, my Lord?”
He shrugged. “Probably not, little one.” He winked.
“Well, then.” Bile swelled in my throat, and I had to dip my head back over the side, vomiting violently again.
“Oh, God, you promised to make sure I didn’t die, but right now, I feel well on my way to the afterlife.”
“Open.” I did as he asked, and he popped a mint in my mouth. “Now, suck and take some deep breaths. The key is to look at the horizon and not stare at the waves.”
“It would be easier if the waves were less wavy,” I complained as I sucked manically.
“A couple of days and you’ll have your sea legs.”
“A couple of days,” I cried, wanting to sob at the idea of feeling this lousy for days.
He eased me onto his knee, where he sat on the fixed bench that I knew the divers went off when they back flipped into the water like neoprene-covered seals.
“And until then, we’ll take care of you like we promised.”
He pulled me into his chest, and I breathed in his now familiar scent, and I suddenly didn’t mind the rocking or the lack of solid ground.
“Better,” he murmured as his hand stroked up and down my back.
“Better,” I replied with a groan as his lips found my neck, my discomfort forgotten.