I wake up in a world of pain this morning. Not from drinking too much but from being curled up in a deck chair all night. My neck hurts, my leg hurts and I'm stiff all over. Slowly standing up, I stretch with purpose before hobbling below deck to see if Elena ever made it back. I tried to stay awake but obviously my fatigue was too much causing me to drift off to sleep. I briefly remember feeling a kiss to my forehead. Although I don't know whether I dreamed it or if it was real. The sunrise is beautiful this morning displaying oranges and pinks and yellows. The sea is pristine as the boat gently rocks when the waves lap against the port side.
"Morning Damon," I hear just as Ric shoves a mug of coffee at me.
"Good morning. Did she come back?" I ask him, concerned about Elena.
"Yeah Elijah walked her back here last night. You were already asleep in the chair."
"How come no one woke me?"
"You looked just too cute. No one had the heart," he teases, winking at me.
Shaking my head, I roll my eyes at him before a little chuckle of my own escapes my mouth.
"I'm going to go take a shower. I'll be back in a little bit. Thanks for the coffee buddy," I tell him.
"No problem, boss," he tells me with a mock salute.
When I step into our room, she's still sleeping soundly on the bed, cuddling with my pillow. For some reason that puts a smile on my face. As quietly as I can given my disability, I walk over to the bedside and brush her cheeks ever so softly with the back of my fingers. When she reaches up to rub her nose, I shake my head jovially. After pressing the wispiest of kisses to the crown of her head, I go into the shower.
Dripping wet, I step out of the shower, grabbing a towel to tie around my waist. Taking a second towel, I ruffle my hair a little bit. I usually like to let it air dry. Once again as quietly as I can, I step out in the main room and slip into a pair of boxers and my jeans. Before I can grab a hold of a tee shirt, I feel a hand in the waistband of my jeans pulling me.
"Good morning," she says, covering her mouth with her other hand while she yawns.
"Morning," I whisper, bending over to lift a kiss from her lips.
"I was worried about you, Elena."
"I'm sorry that I worried you but when I saw you carrying on with that woman, I got a little crazy."
"If I were to be honest with you, I got a little crazy when I saw how you and Elijah had your hands all over each other."
Taking a hold of my hand, she adds, "I thought I told you that he's an old acquaintance. There's never been anything nor will there ever be anything romantic between us."
"I know that Elena. I'm sorry too. I'm new at this... whatever 'this' is," I tell her, using my hand to gesture from her to me.
"Other than a girl I dated in college, I've always been satisfied with one night stands, friends with benefits, that type of thing. It's different with you though," I tell her, dropping onto the bed where her legs are curled up.
Taking my other hand in hers, she gives them a squeeze at the same time she leans forward to join our lips passionately. Gasping, I pull back completely breathless.
"Wow," I utter, lacing our fingers together.
"As much as I'd like to continue you this, we need to get up top. We're going to venture into the Sea of Cortez today and with any luck, we're going to tag a great white shark. Hopefully we'll see some whales and other wild life. We'll be sailing through there both today and tomorrow. Then on Thursday, we're going to try to get to my island." Shaking my head, I lower my eyes.
"Listen to me, it's like I own it or something," I chuckle, giving her hand a fond squeeze.
"If it's what I think it is, I'm going to try to have it declared a marine sanctuary or preserve so it's protected from poachers and low life's like Nick. Is Elijah here with him by the way?"
"I honestly don't know if they came down here together or not. I did notice when he and that girlfriend of his walked into the cantina. Elijah and I didn't talk to them though. I guess if I were to make assumptions, I'd say they probably did arrive together. As exasperated as Elijah gets with Nick sometimes, they are brothers," she adds, leaning against my chest.
I press a kiss to the top of her head while wrapping my arms around her at the same time, holding her tightly against my chest. My heart is thrumming violently against my rib cage as it does each time I hold her. There's always so much electricity arcing between us when we touch. Sighing happily, I gently push her back far enough so I can cradle her beautiful face with my palms and tilt her head just the way I want so I can kiss her like there's no tomorrow. This time it's her that breaks the kiss causing my heart to stutter even more chaotically when I see how swollen her lips are and how her eyes appear unfocused.
"I'll let you get shower and get dressed." After stealing one last kiss, I get up and walk out of our room with an effervescent skip to my steps..
Elena and Caroline are chattering away. I can't help but laugh at how animated my sister in law is sometimes. But I have to break up their little gab fest so we can get to work.
"Elena, can you come here? I want to show you these," I ask, holding up one of our pop up satellite tags.
"Those are your tracking devices right?"
"Yep. We insert these at the base of the dorsal fin after we lure them in with the tuna carcasses we have in the freezer. After a set period of time, the tags detach from the shark, float to the surface and transmit collected data such as light, temperature and depth. We've had these tags remain attached for up to one year. They have given us invaluable information on the behavior and movement of the white sharks. Also daily diving patterns and long range migratory movements. With the use of this technology, we have learned that sharks can dive as deep of over three thousand feet and that they spend as much as half of the year away from land out in the middle of the Pacific. We have tagged sharks here at Guadalupe that spend autumn and winter here and begin their offshore migration in late winter to early spring. They spend spring and summer offshore between Baja, California, Mexico and Hawaii before returning here in late summer. We know they travel out to the middle of the Pacific Ocean but what pulls them out there is a mystery," I explain, handing her the tag to look at.
"In conjunction with our satellite tagging, we have also been studying the white sharks through photo identification. We have developed a unique system for identifying individual sharks by their color patterns and currently we have a catalog of over one hundred and fifty sharks from this island. The vast majority of them having been sighted for several years. The data we collect from this project helps to not only track individual sharks but also monitor the status of the overall Guadalupe white shark population calculate an index of abundance to determine if the population is increasing, decreasing or stable. This is important data in white shark management and conservation," I add, my voice echoing the passion I feel for these creatures.
"There's that 'O' face again," she teases, pressing a wispy kiss to my cheek.
"I can't help it Elena. I love them so much. Nearly one hundred million of them are slaughtered every year. How can a population survive that kind of carnage? Can you imagine that absolute devastation if the ocean lost its apex predator?" I shudder even thinking about it.
"They need to be protected," I add, my voice echoing the passion I feel for these gorgeous creatures.
"Really? I didn't know it was that bad."
"It really is," I utter, blowing out a puff of air before continuing.
"Through the combination of pop-up satellite tags and tracking through photo-identification we have been able to show that male sharks return to Guadalupe Island year after year while mature females often disappear for almost two years before returning to the Island. This pattern is most likely associated with mating and giving birth, but where they go has been a mystery. Following the track of satellite- tagged mature female white sharks, we have been able to show that they stay offshore in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for as long as fifteen months. During the known pupping season we have tracked two tagged mature females into the Sea of Cortez, and two additional females to the Pacific coast of Baja, most likely to give birth."
Picking up another kind of tag, I hand it to her. "Pop-up tags provide great data with respect to habitat preferences such as temperature, depth and diving behaviors. However the location data is not very precise and the tracks are not longer than one year. By working with the electronic tag manufacturer, we have developed a new satellite tag to address the weaknesses of pop-up tags. These tags, called SPOT. It stands for smart position or temperature transmitting. These tags, can send near real-time position data up to six years! The drawback is that the tag must be mounted to the dorsal fin of each shark, so the sharks must be captured, tagged and released. However, we have developed handling methods that have proven to be safe and effective, and we are now answering research questions that can be addressed in no other way." I tell her, continuing to explain our work.
"Additionally, the opportunity to exam these live adult white sharks has opened the door to brand new avenues of research that we had never before even considered. We are currently collecting data relative to when and where these sharks may be mating, where the females go when they disappear from seasonal adult aggregation sites like Guadalupe and the Farallon Islands, and where they may go to give birth. White sharks continue to fascinate us, even after more than a decade of research. The more we learn about them the more we are surprised by what we learned and by how many new questions there are to address."
Raking my hand through my hair, I look at her. "What do you think?"
"It's fascinating but I'm still not all that keen on sharks," she hedges.
"It's time to put your feet in the water, figuratively that is," I tease, taking a hold of her hand and pulling it towards the small boat.
"I usually go into the boat because they're all afraid I might slip on the cradle given my leg and all. I've gotten to 'pet' a few great whites though...," I add, my voice trailing.
"We're going to go into the shark cage first. Do you want to join me?" I ask. I can tell she's nervous cause she starts chewing on her fingernails and teetering from one foot to the other.
"You don't have to Elena. You can watch from up top here. Matt is going to go in with me."
"Maybe I'll stay on deck this time."
"That's fine. I'm going to put my wet suit and swim leg on. I'll be right back," I tell her, walking off. When I come back, I see her laughing excitedly, pointing at something in the ocean.
Shrugging my shoulders, I walk over to them to see what they're gawking at.
"Look at the whales, Damon," she squeals when I reach them.
"Gray whales. They are beautiful aren't they?"
"I've never seen whales in the open ocean before. I need to grab my phone so I can film them," she yells, pushing me aside to run down to our room.
Shaking my head, I go over to help Brady put our shark cage together. One we make sure it's secure, we hook it to the winch and the two of us lower it into the water. Matt, wearing his scuba gear comes over to stand beside me. Once I slip my oxygen tank on and the mask over my face, I drop down to the edge of the boat and tumble overboard. Seconds later I'm climbing into the shark cage, Matt follows almost immediately after me.
The water is clear today. A good fifteen to twenty minutes pass and suddenly I feel Matt squeeze my shoulder. When I turn to face him, he points off into the distance where I see not one but two white sharks swimming towards us. Feeling a shiver run I my spine, I still marvel at how magnificent they are. Their beauty is in the eye of the beholder for sure but their sleek lines and white underbelly are a sight. I never tire of seeing them. One of them swims off to the side while the other once starts to butt the cage with her snout. When she takes a hold of the flotation device, shaking from side to side, the two of us thrash around violently.
Finally she lets go and I breathe a sigh of relief. I can about imagine that Caroline and Elena are having kittens up top. I'm ready evacuate the cage when Matt once again grabs a hold of my upper arm, pointing as the two sharks move in on us again. As frightening as this is, I can't stop the big teethy grin that forms on my face as it swims by, close enough for me to touch it's sharp, sandpaper like skin. Once they swim off into the distance, I feel the shark cage being raised. Matt swims out first, I'm right on his tail, watching as Ric helps him on board. Just as I reach for the edge of the boat, I see a dorsal fin break the surface as it moves in closer to me. Brady grabs one arm and Ric the other, pulling me on board just as the white sharks reaches the edge of the boat.
"Did you see that?" I gasp excitedly when I pull the mask off my face, staring at the shark as it finally swims away.
"Are you okay?" Elena asks, running towards me. She has her hands everywhere on me even turning me around to look at my back. If we didn't have an audience, I'd like this much better.
"I'm fine, Elena," I tell her, wrapping my arm around her shoulder when she finally gives up looking for bite marks.
"Did you the one when it went after the cage?" I ask, my voice giddy with excitement.
"I did see them. Their 'smile' kind of gave me a chill," she says, shaking her head.
"Rows and rows and rows of razor sharp teeth," I tease, my voice low and foreboding.
"Yeah, let's not talk about that," she says with a shudder of breath.
"Tell me about the Sea of Cortez."
"Well, it's also known as the gulf of California. It's a seven hundred mile long body of water embraced by mainland Mexico and Baja, California. Mexico catches seventy percent of it's commercial fish here. The Pacific plate once moved northwest off Mexico's west coast and the Sea of Cortez did not exist. Over several million years, the plate movement slowly rotated counterclockwise and produced incredible stresses upon western Mexico. This eventually moved the fault line eastward and slowly ripped off Baja, California," I explain, taking a seat after taking off my wet suit.
The peninsula lifted along the west side of the newly forming gulf. This is a dramatic view of this escarpment of mountains above the town of Loreto. Farther north we're more familiar with this fault also known as the San Andreas. In the south, the ocean filled the growing basin to create the youngest gulf in the world. It now has a remarkable depth of over two miles at its mouth. Much of it's width is over eighty miles across. The basin holds and incredible amount of water." Exhaling sharply, I take a drink of water and continue.
"Tides from the rise and fall of the Pacific Ocean pour in and rush out in a massive movement. The water mixes to a depth fifteen hundred feet and causes a continuous clockwise current of 0.67 miles per hour around the gulf in winter and a counterclockwise current in summer. The northern end has a thirty two-foot tidal range, the third largest in North America. Wind-induced currents also cause major movements of water during the winter. The wind drives the water at three percent of the wind speed and transfers as much as forty percent of its energy.
When water moves away from an island or coastline it is replaced by water from below in a process called upwelling. All this water moving around in the gulf brings up not only deeper water, but large amounts of nutrients as well. All you need is an energy source of plentiful sunlight. This combination spawns productivity, enough to grow a crop of phytoplankton that might turn the water red," I explain making a 'voila' motion with my arms.
Laughing, she rolls her eyes when she watches my theatrics. "Damon, you do know how to make a girl swoon with all this romantic talk," she says sarcastically.
"I guess I'll just have to continue then," I tell her with a wink.
"The Sea of Cortez has been called the Vermilion Sea. The soup of phytoplankton feeds invertebrates that are gobbled up by more than eight hundred kinds of vertebrates including fish, blue and fin whales. The fish are consumed by people, birds, dolphins, porpoises, sea lions, sperm whales, humpbacks, and Bryde's whales to mention just a few. There are also over five hundred and fifty five whales that are residents in the Sea of Cortez all year long. It's also one of the best places in the world to see blue whales in February and March. I'd love to bring you down here to see them, Elena. Blue whales are magnificent," I breathe, giving her hand a squeeze.
"The islands within the gulf have their own stories. Native people were active here and traveled by rafts made of aquatic bulrushes called tules. Archaeological sites are common on a number of the islands. Stone flakes, piles of discarded shells and signs of habitation provide evidence of early people found here long before European contact. Few islands have a reliable source of water, however, so they haven't felt the heavy hand of modern man. Biologists working on how plants and animals become established where they are find the perfect laboratory within these islands. There is enough variation in island histories, ages, locations and topography to test and form theories about island biogeography. This place just has so much to offer for a marine scientist," I explain, before raising my water bottle to my lips to take another swallow.
"I'd love to explore the Island a little bit," Elena remarks.
"We may be able to arrange that. I'm hoping we'll be able to explore my island," I tell her, raising my eyes seductively before grabbing onto her arm and pulling her into a torrid kiss.
"Okay Elena, you can go on the smaller boat with Matt and Ric. Brady and I will be here waiting to go onto the cradle once you lure one in. Is that okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay with that," she says as I help her put her life jacket on since they'll be in a smaller boat. I hold onto her hand as she carefully takes step onto the boat as it sways with the tide. Ric extends his hand to help her in safely. Once she's in the other boat, Matt starts the engine and starts to pull away. I gesture to my hand held radio to make sure we can communicate with each other when they start to bring lure a shark towards us.
Approximately a half hour later, I hear a crackle on my radio. "We got one, we're about two miles away from you, get the cradle ready," Ric screams excitedly.
I watch the horizon and in a few minutes I see them coming towards us as they pull the shark along. Brady has the cradle ready just as they near our boat. Fortunately for us the shark swims onto the cradle on the first pass. That almost never happens. Quickly, Brady flicks the switch to raise the huge white shark out of the water.
Once it's safely onboard, we work quickly. Matt jumps onto the lift, covers its eyes and shoves the hose in its mouth to keep its gills aerated. Brady clips off the hook. I grab the drill and one of tags and affix it to the dorsal fin. We're a well oiled machine after several years of doing this together. We're done in mere minutes.
"Elena, do you want to touch it quickly before we let it go?" I ask, turning to face her as I pet the white shark myself.
"Um..."
"You have to decide now. We've got to get it back in the water."
Nodding, Brady offers her his hand so she can jump from the boat and onto the lift. She holds his hand tightly till he releases her to me. I take her hand in mine and together we pet the white shark. Her eyes are closed and lips are pulled into a grimace but she is doing it.
"Open your eyes," I whisper as I continue to stroke the shark with her hand.
Although she opens her eyes, they're as wide as saucers. When her hand starts to shake uncontrollably, I pull it away from the shark. "It's okay. Get on the deck, we're going to release it now," I tell her, giving her a little nudge towards Caroline.
Once all of us are off the cradle, we lower it quickly, clapping loudly when our great white shark swims off.
Yawning widely, I cover my mouth with one hand while opening our bedroom door with my other hand. Elena is still on deck with everyone else going over tomorrow's plans. Ric, Matt, Brady and Caroline are going to stay on this boat while Elena and I will be in the smaller one. My hope is that we can find some place to make landfall on 'my' island.
I sit down on the edge of the bed, dropping my face in my hands. I'm just exhausted for some reason. Sucking in a deep breath, I get up and go into the bathroom to get cleaned up for bed. Once I'm done in the shower, I slip on a clean pair of boxer briefs before walking to the bed. Seeing as how Elena is still up top, I drop onto the bedside, take my leg off and crawl under the covers.
"Wha.. what?" I ask, lurching upright when I feel a hand massaging my belly.
"It's Elena, are you okay?"
The room is pitch dark so I can barely make out her facial features. Placing my hand atop hers, I give her a kiss on the lips.
"I'm fine. I was dreaming."
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asks.
"Every now and then I still dream about the day I lost my leg," I tell her, reaching up to wipe the sweat off of my brow.
"Lay on your stomach. I'll give you a back rub."
"You sure?" I ask. When I see her nodding I flip so I'm laying prone on the bed, laying my head on my crossed arms.
After she straddles my waist, I feel a cold dollop of lotion plop onto my lower back. Then I feel her hands as they massage my muscles into compliance causing a moan escape my mouth.
"Your muscles are so tight, Damon. Just relax okay?"
"I'm trying but it's hard with you sitting right there," I whisper when she rubs the palm of her hand down the crease of my behind.
"Careful Elena," I whisper, biting on my lower lip when I feel my dick twitch.
"What if I don't want to be careful?" she asks, laying on top of my back as she whispers in my ear before sucking my ear lobe into her warm cavernous mouth. Rolling my eyes as lust seizes my body, I raise my hips to test the waters. She rolls off and pulls me towards her. Now it's me who's one top as I push my lips against hers firmly, hoping to convey everything that I feel inside for her.
I stiffen for millisecond when she reaches between us and takes a hold of me. Stroking and squeezing she has me in a frenzy in no time at all. When she lowers her body and takes me inside her hot moist mouth, my eyes fall back into my head as I pant in need. When she takes me in far enough to touch the back of her throat, I lose it, erupting like a teenager.
"I'm sorry Elena, I didn't have any warning. It was that spectacular," I breathe, pulling her into my arms to kiss her beautiful face.
"It's okay. I like it that I made you lose control like that," she whispers. I can almost see as her cheeks bloom a bright red color. I roll her underneath me again and bite onto her nipple through the flimsy tee shirt that she's wearing. I nip and suckle one and then the other while using my fingers to tease the neglected one. When I try to take off the tee shirt, she shakes her head no.
"Do you want to stop?" I ask, hoping the answer is no but I won't ever force myself on her or any woman for that matter.
"No, I just don't want to take it off," she says, turning her face away.
"It's okay," I whisper, capturing her lips in another scorching kiss.
This time it's me who reaches between us to find her lady parts moist and wanting.
"Are you absolutely sure?" I ask.
"I'm sure."
Feeling my jeans on the floor beside my bed, I reach into the pocket, grabbing my wallet to pull out my 'emergency' condom. I always have one on me just in case. After using my teeth to open the packet, I hand it to her. She rolls it on me skillfully then pulls me on top of her, spreading her legs to make room for me.
Cradling her face with my palms, I lift another from her kiss swollen lips and push inside, joining us for the first time. Pulling our lips apart, I drop my forehead to meet with hers but never take my eyes from her as I push in and pull out. She raises her pelvis in tandem with my thrusts and soon I feel the tightening in my lower belly. Unable to keep my eyes on hers, I drop my head into the curve of her neck, nuzzling the soft skin there with my lips.
Wanting to make this good for her, I pull out then help her roll onto her hands and knees so I can push back in from behind. I can't even find the words to describe what this feels like with Elena. With the others, it's just been sex for mutual pleasure. There was nothing deeper there. But this, this is different and it's thrilling and scary and a world apart from the others. I speed up to chase my release while reaching down with my hand to the apex of her thighs to fondle and stroke her engorged bundle of nerves. When I feel her body start to convulse at the same time a cry of rapture escapes her lips, my orgasm rips through me with the force of twelve megaton bomb. We both collapse, completely boneless. My heart is still thundering against my rib cage when I pull her into my arms, lifting a torrid kiss from her lips.
When I finally have the strength to roll onto my back, I pull her close so she's snuggled into the crook of my arm. I press a kiss to the crown of her head, whisper goodnight then close my eyes. As tired as I am, I can't stop thinking about this. Turning my gaze to Elena, I lightly caress her back through the fabric of her tee shirt. I want whatever this is but I'm scared half to death too because I've never experienced something this profound before. It almost felt like we were one person as I could feel the electricity surging between us as I made love to her. And then it hits me full force, the magnitude of what happened tonight. 'I. MADE. LOVE. TO. HER'.
With the others, it was just sex. But with Elena... I stare at the ceiling for a long time before I finally roll over and drift off to sleep.
And there you have it...
Thank you Eva for everything my friend. Thanks to all of you for indulging my love of sharks with this story. I appreciate and thank you for your reviews and interest in this story.
Chapter title: 'If She Knew What She Wants' by 'The Bangles'.
I will be updating 'What if I Was Nothing' and 'Rainy Days and Mondays' over the weekend. Please give those a look.
Please remember to hit that review button. And as always, have a safe and lovely weekend. Thank you again. Until next week...