Chapter 19
Junie
I’ve barely cracked my eyelids when his lips brush mine. I moan softly, tangling my arms around his neck. I love every moment of being with someone who worships my body. All his silence and grumbling were hiding a deeply passionate man.
“We’ve got about thirty minutes before Sweetie’s release,” he murmurs, pressing kisses onto my cheeks, my lips, and trailing down my chest.
“I’ve got to get ready!” My eyes fly open. But then his warm mouth latches around my nipple and my back arches off the bed.
“Not yet,” he whispers as he coaxes a groan from my throat. Skilled fingers pinch and roll my hardened points and I melt beneath him. “There’s something I have to do first.”
He kisses and nibbles down my navel, leaving cool air in the wake of each hot, wet point of contact. I give up the fight immediately, surrendering to him. I’ll stumble down to the docks in yesterday’s clothes if it means that he won’t stop touching me—I want him everywhere.
“What do you—” I start to ask, but my words break into a garbled cry as he tongues the opening of my slit.
“Shhh,” he says, pushing my willing thighs open wider. He hooks them over his shoulders and his hot breath against my mound makes me tremble. “I need to taste you first. I won’t be able to focus all day if I don’t have my brekkie.”
I laugh but the sound catches in my throat as he licks me. The barest nudge against my clit has me squirming, stretching, giving him better access and silently begging for more.
“You taste so fucking good.” He takes another long, leisurely swipe with his flat tongue. I buck my hips, chasing the feeling, burying my hands in his messy bedhead.
“Steven,” I moan as he laps my clit. The sounds of him feasting don’t just send me over the edge—I’m on a rocket to the moon. Before I can fully catch my breath, his big hands trace patterns on the sensitive skin between my legs, then two thick fingers nudge at my entrance.
There’s an agonizing pause while he sucks his fingers, then his tongue finds me again as they slip inside. I shudder and my voice cracks on a moan as he fills me. The curl of his fingers drives me wild. The suction on my clit and the pulse of his hand thrusting inside is more than I can bear.
I still feel half asleep, trapped in a dream of pleasure and vice. Is this real life? A sexy Aussie between my legs in the Gili islands?
His appreciative noises vibrate through my folds, burrowing deep into my core, and making me clench around him.
“Mmm.” He smacks his lips, my woman's slick coating his face. “You’re so pretty when you come, Junie. I love how you fall apart for me.”
I’m fisting his hair like I’ll float away without that anchor. I move his mouth where I want him, grinding against his face, chasing my release. He sticks his tongue out, stiff, obliging me, swirling it around my sensitive bud, giving me everything my body is begging for and more.
When he slips a third finger into my soaked entrance, I lose control.
My orgasm isn’t a gentle fluttering, but a tight, hard, clenching around him.
My hips lift off the bed, my thighs wrap around his head, and I hold him in place with two tight fists as I pulse and shake.
He carries me through my release with light, teasing flicks of his tongue as I cry out.
Any words I try to say are unintelligible.
I mumble for him to stop even as I pull him closer, demanding more, and he gives me everything I didn’t know I needed.
When the sensation finally subsides, I slump back onto the bed, spineless as a jellyfish. I pant, embarrassed about how vocal I got and how tightly I squeezed him, but he grins from between my thighs as if Christmas has come early.
“You’re fucking perfect.” He rests his head on my knee.
“Get over here.” I tug on his shoulder and he slides up my body. My scent is all over him, but I don’t care. I kiss him deeply, tasting my musk. His erection strains against my flesh, leaking pre-cum and leaving me dizzy with lust.
“There’s no time.” He presses kisses into my neck that make me ticklish. I giggle, but ignore him, reaching down for his thick, hard cock, and lining him up with my slick entrance.
“Fuck that.” I dig both hands into his ass cheeks and pull him into me. He sinks inside me with a pleasure that feels like coming home. “We’re on island time.”
“That’s my girl,” he growls, picking up the pace, filling me with deep, long thrusts. He doesn’t stop until I’m full of him, dripping with him, and both of us are spent.
Then we shower, dress, and get ready to release a sea turtle.
*****
The boat smells of diesel and feels charged with electricity as we line up on the edge to see Sweetie off. I circle around the group, taking photos and videos for Instagram as excitement bubbles in my chest.
Moments like these feel bigger than me. Every day at the sanctuary, I contribute to something important—but the energy of all of us together is intense. Everyone is eager to see Sweetie back in the ocean. Time slows down, colors seem more vivid, and I feel grateful and humbled to be part of it.
Steven grapples with her big green carapace on deck as Mike slips into the water with a GoPro. He’ll film her reintroduction to the sea, following her on her first dive back in open water.
If turtles could be said to smile, Sweetie definitely is.
Her flippers are waving frantically as she scrabbles to the edge.
She’d had fishing hooks removed from her mouth and throat several weeks ago and has been kept at the sanctuary while her wounds healed.
But these creatures aren’t meant to be locked up in tubs.
My heart aches for Jimmy and all of the sea turtles in aquariums all over the world. We can’t help them all—can’t protect even most of them—but the sanctuary might’ve saved Sweetie’s life and it’s incredible to be a part of this moment.
“She’s ready. I don’t think I can hold her back anymore.
Everyone in position?” Steven asks. As always, he looks like a bronzed God—wearing only his red board shorts, stomach muscles taut and strained in a deep vee I want to follow with my tongue.
I know where it leads and what it tastes like, and I don’t think I’ll ever get enough.
Sweetie is no crocodile but as he wrangles her shell closer to the edge, he reminds me of Steve Irwin crawling through the bush. He flips his long hair out of his eyes with a flick of his head then lifts the heavy hawksbill up and over the edge.
She zooms off without a backward glance.
We all follow her with our eyes for as long as we can.
Mike swims off with powerful kicks of his fins and takes video below the surface.
We watch his snorkel disappear as he fills his lungs and dives down after her, keeping a respectful distance as she’s re-introduced to her home.
“She looked so happy,” I say, wiping a tear from my eye. I hadn’t expected it to be so moving. What we’re doing here really matters. I’m lucky to be a part of it.
“It’s a good reminder of why we’re all here.” Mason stares out at the deep blue even though all we can see are a few of Mike’s distant bubbles.
“They do good work here.” Victoria nods.
The sun has barely crested the horizon and the boat rocks on gentle waves. Mike reappears, waving the camera over his head.
“She’s beautiful!” he calls. “She already found some sponges to eat. Her form is perfect. There doesn’t seem to be any lasting damage. I think she’ll be okay.”
Steven finds me on the deck, places a kiss on my head, and pulls me into his arms.
“Do you ever get sad when you let them go?” I ask, trying to swallow the hitch in my breath that threatens to undo me.
“No.” He adjusts our bodies so that I can lean into him for comfort. “This is where she belongs. Free. Everything we do is just to get them strong enough to return home and have a fighting chance.”
I blink and swallow past the ache in my throat. I can’t help feeling like we’re not talking about turtles.
“We’ll miss her,” he says, giving me a squeeze. “But she’ll come back to these reefs to visit and hunt. This is where she’s safe and comfortable.”
“And Jimmy too?” I ask.
“He’ll be ready soon. I hate keeping them confined at the sanctuary, but if we send them back into the ocean before their wounds heal, they might not make it. If they get infected, they could lose flippers or worse, and we want to give them the best chance possible.”
“How do you find the balance?”
“We just do the best we can.”
“It’s still early yet, should we go check out Nest before the feeding frenzy?” Victoria asks as she gives Mike a hand back onto the boat.
“Have you been yet, Junie?”
“I don’t think so. What kind of nest?” I wipe my eyes, pushing down my sad, reflective thoughts.
Steven and I need to have a deep talk soon.
Our conversation styles are extremely different and I don’t want to keep reading into his silences and projecting my worst fears. But this isn’t the time or place.
“They’re underwater statues. As soon as the sun is fully up, it gets swarmed with tourists who can barely swim—but it’s a must-see at least once.” Juliette says.
“Oh, I think I’ve seen pictures of it! Can we really go?” I ask.
Captain Baylu signs off and spins the boat around toward Gili Meno. I’m surprised by how close we are to the shore when everyone grabs a snorkel and jumps off the side.
“Ready?” Steven holds out a hand. I adjust my mask, grab on, and we jump in together.
My skin tingles as we sink below the surface in a cloud of bubbles, then bounce back up from the air in our lungs.
I instantly recognize the statues. Fifteen stone couples embrace in a circle, teeming with algae and inquisitive fish.
In the middle, more stone bodies lie stretched out on the seafloor.
They’re beautiful but eerie. The sound of the waves and my own breathing fill my ears as we swim closer.