18. Garrett #2
“I knew there were rules, Nate. I didn’t know there were extra rules!”
“Extra rules?”
A sound escaped him. I thought he was about to club me right there, but then his shoulders shook.
“Nate.”
He covered his mouth.
“You laughing at me?”
He turned his face away, but there was no hiding it now. Laughter broke from him, sharp and helpless, filling the tight cabin.
“You challenged me,” he managed, “with absolutely no idea what you were doing.”
“I knew what I was doing.”
“You did not know right of way existed.”
“I still almost won.”
“You did not almost win, you oaf! The right of way in fencing means the sequence of actions. It determines who is attacking. I initiated the attack, so when we both landed, the touch was mine. It did not matter whether your blade arrived a fraction before mine.”
“Well, that… ah, fuck.”
“I already had the attack. I knew the touch would be mine even if we both landed, and I was exhilarated. That was when I winked!”
“Exhilarated?”
“Yes. I was thrilled, Garrett! You had tested me to my limits. I was so impressed and attracted. I’ve trained for years. I have been in tournaments, but never did I have an opponent like you.”
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered.
“You honestly believed I had distracted you deliberately.”
“Yeah. So… you won fair.”
“Yes,” he said softly. “I did. But you were extraordinary. And I wanted you just as bad too.”
He leaned towards me. “I had spent the entire week watching you. Then I discovered you loved the same ridiculous stories I did. You were so handsome.”
“Nate…”
“I thought after the match we would speak. That it would be the beginning of something. I was flirting.”
“You took off your mask smiling,” I said.
“Yes.”
“I thought you were laughing at me.”
“I thought you were about to kiss me.”
I choked. “Right there?”
“I mean… I would not have objected strongly.”
“Holy shit.”
A soft alarm sounded. This one brought Nate’s attention fully back to the controls.
“We’re approaching the bottom, but… hold on… we’re not done. Give me a minute.”
“Okay.”
I sat back and closed my eyes. At some point, the whale songs had stopped.
We were probably too far below. I had a headache from all these new truth bombs being dropped and the emotional roller coaster I had been on over the last 24 hours.
My life was simple. I was a simple man. All these fucking feelings were killing me.
I opened my eyes to take a look at the ocean floor.
It was nothing like I’d imagined. I thought it would be grey and dull, full of sand-like sediment. The submersible’s light showed pale sponges, strange leafless shrubs, and even stranger small creatures that I had no idea about.
“Okay, we can settle here,” Nate said. “The substrate is stable enough, and it gives you the angle you requested. I’m deploying the remote probe now.”
I nodded, but then realized he couldn’t see me in the dark, so I snaked my arm around his waist and pulled him closer.
“What are you doing?”
It didn’t feel enough to just hold him. I lifted him. Nate yelped as I pulled him sideways and settled him across my thighs.
“Garrett!”
“What?”
“I am the pilot.”
“We’re parked.”
“I am still responsible for the submersible.”
“Hmm. Controls are right there.”
“You… you…” He made a huffing noise but made no effort to move.
The inspection probe detached from the submersible and I watched it drift away from us, along its programmed route. It would get into the crevasse where the skeleton lay and get us additional imagery.
Nate checked the route, adjusted one setting, then settled his full weight on me.
“Okay, now we wait. One thing I don’t understand. Why would you think I looked down on you? I’d never even spoken to you at that point.”
Nate twisted in my arms.
“Because of what you said after the duel.”
“What did I say?” he asked.
“You said you wouldn’t look twice at men like me.”
He looked down at his hands. “You’re right.” He sighed loudly. “I do remember saying that now.”
I remained silent.
“But it still doesn’t explain why you thought I looked down on you even before I said that.”
“It was obvious, wasn’t it?”
“What was?”
“Our difference, sweetheart. You were a scientist, educated, wore designer clothes, spoke posh, and here I was.”
“What do you mean… why’re you talking like you are someone beneath me or something ugly like that?”
“Isn’t that what it is? My whole life, I’ve walked into rooms where people hear the way I talk or see what I do and decide that I’m just the hired help.
Not the man with the brains to come up the big plan.
I’m just the ranch hand. I don’t have no fancy degrees.
My folks weren’t rich. We weren’t poor, but you know, ranch life is no joke. ”
“Wait a minute. I love your background. I literally fantasized about you being a cowboy. This is not… I never imagined anything inferior about your intelligence or competence. Oh… shit, I’m terribly sorry.”
“It’s okay, darlin’, but you repeated it on the ship, and I just believed you.”
“No, it’s not okay! When I said men like you… I meant men who liked the way I looked until something about me challenged them. They wanted softness from me. Beauty. Compliance. Then, when they discovered I had ambition or strength or boundaries, they treated those things as an insult.”
My hands curled into fists.
“When you accused me of using my looks,” he continued, “I heard all of them. Every man who had wanted me and then tried to reduce me to the part he found convenient. But Garrett…” He took my face in his hands.
“Listen to me, please. I didn’t mean your work.
Or your job or your background. I absolutely love the way you talk.
I don’t talk posh. I just talk British.”
“Yeah, that I know now.”
“I admire your amazing technical skills. Holy hell, your math skills are insane.”
“Really?” I breathed.
“Of course! You don’t need me to validate that. Didn’t you see how everyone at your conference regarded you with respect?”
“I need it from you. Only your opinion matters where it counts,” I replied. I lifted one of his hands from my face and placed it on my heart.
“Oh, you damn romantic. If only you knew… Garrett, I’ve been crushing on you for a year.
A whole year. No one interests me anymore.
No one can hold a candle to you. God, the way you handle everything with such confidence.
The way you are so soft with Dexter. I’m…
aahh, this is so embarrassing, but please trust me, you’ve been the literal man of my dreams. If you saw my sketchbook—”
“I have.”
Nate squeaked and almost fell out of my lap. The inspection vehicle’s lights appeared briefly in the distance, moving along the far side before vanishing again.
Laughter rumbled up from my very depths. “I saw all the drawings,” I said.
“No!” Nate stared at me in horror.
“I never knew knights—”
Nate slapped a hand over my mouth. “No! You don’t know anything.”
I grinned beneath his palm and pulled him until he was plastered against me.
Nate’s eyes closed and he breathed slowly. “I think I started falling for you before we ever crossed blades,” he said shyly. “I mean literal blades. Not our … oh my goodness, the innuendos.”
I laughed harder and removed his hand from my mouth. “It’ll be our story.”
“I think I am falling in love with you,” he said.
My breath caught. “Sweetheart, I’m already there. And I should’ve told you before, but your pretty smile distracted me too much.”
I looked at him in the dim light. Sitting at the bottom of the ocean felt like the appropriate time to tell him the whole truth.
“Haven’t wanted anybody else since last winter. Don’t reckon that’s gonna change, neither.”
I heard him gasp and then his mouth found mine and his fingers tightened in my hair.
For the first time since I had met him, nothing stood between us.