Chapter 33 Kailua-Kona Seahorses
Wednesday May 26
We gathered with everyone and five minutes later the rest of the group was there and we headed out. It was a beautiful and relaxing two hour and fifteen minute drive up the west coast of Hawai'i. We drove with the radio on, playing relaxing Hawaiian music and holding hands.
A little after 13:00 we arrived at Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm. Stephanie and I led the way into the giftshop which was small and there was no one inside. I rang the bell at the counter and a young blond stuck her head in.
"I'm sorry sir the tour is already sold-out and the next tour isn't until 2:00."
"I don't think we had a scheduled time. I'm supposed to ask for Carol."
"Carol is the owner she doesn't do tours." She said snidely.
"Will you let her know the Manoso group has arrived?"
At that moment a tall middle aged woman with short blond hair came through the back door.
"Carol this is the Manoso group they say they have a tour."
"Thank you Shauna. I'll take it from here."
She turned to me. "Hi I'm Carol. I'm the owner here. Your travel assistant was very persuasive. I don't usually do the tours here anymore."
"Yes she is a wonder. It is her job to keep the family happily entertained and she will go to extraordinary lengths to do so."
"Are you Carlos?"
"Yes that's me. This is my family but I am basically in charge of the group."
She held out her hand to me. "Nice to meet you Carlos. She told me you had twenty seven people. Our tours are usually about ten to twelve but we can split your group into two and work it that way."
"Whatever works for you." I told her realizing that my men were not part of the tour. Of course I didn't know how many of them would want to learn about fish anyway.
She followed me outside as the family gathered in the parking lot and started counting off people. Another brown-haired woman carrying a black and yellow box attached to a hands-free headset microphone joined her. They were dividing my family up and my men were swarming around.
I walked out into the parking lot where many of my men were standing and called them all around.
"They only have room for the family to come on the tours and so I want ten of you to stay for afterwards and the rest can go do what you want. Drop off the rental cars to the airport by 16:00. The ship leaves at 17:30 and you have to have plenty of time to get to the port and catch a tram. I assigned my men: Ram - Stephanie, Ian – both grandmothers, Pace - Leyla, Dillion - Angelia, Manuel - Isabella, Zero – Mama, Zip - Oshanna, Eddie – Rachel and Julie, meet back here in about an hour. You're on call till the women are back on the ship. Questions?" There were no questions.
"Dismissed."
I went back over to the family where they were being split in two and dragged Stephanie over to the group Julie was in led by Carol.
"Mr. Manoso," Carol addressed me, "I had you in the other group."
"Well, Julie there," I pointed, "is my daughter and I would like to be in the group with her." Besides I am paying you thousands of dollars for this I can be in whatever group I want, I thought to myself.
Carol led the group down to the rocks by the seashore where there was a big hole filled with sea water, put her headset on and began speaking into the mic.
"Hi, I'm Carol, I'm the owner of Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm. I started this project back in 2007 because there was a problem with the seahorses around the world. Seahorses in the pet trade were in high demand and they were taking a million seahorses a year out of the wild to meet this demand. But wild seahorses don't do well in captivity. Many of them die after just a year or two. So the demand only increases because people are constantly replacing them.
I knew that we could breed seahorses that do better in captivity, are friendlier and survive longer. A healthy seahorse can live up to fifteen or so years in the wild and we wanted our seahorses to live at least that long. Plus we domesticated them, we got rid of disease, got them to eat a wider variety of food, and we got them to be happy. That number of a million went down to twenty thousand a year now because we provide a better animal that lives longer and is healthier so people prefer our animals over others. We breed over thirty different species here and can provide enough animals to meet the global demand for pets."
She continued explaining, "We spent $20,000 to dig this deep hole, eight feet below low tide, into the rock so that we could get these little red shrimp called opae ula that seahorses like to eat. The shrimp are high in DHA and EPA long chain fatty acids. These acids when fed to most animals, including seahorses, trigger reproduction."
She set down the speaker and got a net on a long pole and swished it around in the water and came up with a scoopful of these little red things. I was standing in the back of the group so I couldn't see well, but I could see that there were little tiny red creatures in the net. "These little shrimp are part of the secret to our success. We feed them to the seahorses and they breed we take them away and they stop. We feed them to our babies and they grow strong and healthy."
When she was done she led us back up the way back around to another building. There was a line of sinks and everyone had to wash their hands and arms up to their elbows
This was their hatchery and there were twenty or more fifty gallon blue barrels that all had pipes leading in and out of them. You could smell the salt water and hear the water running as it was pumped in and out of the tanks. She explained that this was where all the babies are kept till they are big enough to be sold.
After looking in various barrels she led us around to the wall where there were fifteen more fifty gallon barrels lined up against the wall. These were some of their side projects they were getting into breeding some rarer fish that are also in demand. She walked us through the area of white round tanks where they breed their own food like phytoplankton and brine shrimp. Then she walked us to an area of much larger round blue tanks covered with black tarps that I would guess are several hundred gallons.
She showed us some juveniles and explained that they grow slowly and take a year and a half to get to market. After the juveniles she showed us fully grown seahorses and once the lid was off they all started coming to the surface looking for food. She explained that when people order seahorses they often request certain colors and patterns and because they breed so many they are able to fill these requests.
She showed us a multi-tank set up that is called a saltwater aquaponic system. There they grow saltwater tilapia and use them to produce sea asparagus. It is an affordable and sustainable system. Sea asparagus is a new micro-green that has all the good stuff of green food but also has fatty acids. The system is powered by the sun and she talked about sharing this technology with other developing nations that are starting to eat their reefs because this provides meats and greens and they can even grow enough to sell and they don't need an electrical grid to plug into. I asked her several questions because in the face of some kind of disaster and global food crisis this is the kind of setup I could put on the roof of the building and feed my men and have safe sustainable food. She explained that you could use it to grow any kind of food, that you can use fresh water tilapia and the fish produce the phosphates to support a whole garden with no pesticides. I would have to talk to Louis about this.
She took us to some huge, probably thousand gallon, round black tanks where they grow their own mesocosm system. There they feed a lot of microplankton to the system and those start to grow and some of the more delicate species of seahorses live in them and graze off the bottom. She showed us some huge ten foot tall, twenty feet across tanks where they are trying to breed other reef fish. She explains about the millions of reef fish taken off the Hawaiian and Australian reefs every year and that the reefs can't sustain the demand. But if they can become successful at breeding them and domesticating them they can help save the reefs and provide consumers with a better healthier animal that survives better in home tanks.
She showed us some smaller round white tanks, two and a half feet across and four feet tall, that are part of their school education project. Kids come out with school groups and get to pick out their own seahorses, name them and paint their own coral. Then they come back once a week to clean out the tanks and feed their seahorses.
She took us around to the front and told us this is where tours normally start, but since there were two other tours going right now she had showed us all this other stuff in the back first. She showed us a huge tank full of little floating shrimp that we may have raised as kids called sea monkeys, also known as brine shrimp. She showed us a jar of the dried eggs and explained how they grow their own shrimp here for the baby seahorses and how the shrimp will eat anything so they learned to feed the shrimp all the phytonutrients that seahorses need so the seahorses grow strong and healthy.
Then she took us to bins where they grow seaweed and encouraged everyone to eat some. She explained that seaweed is very healthy and very economical and will save us from radiation coming out of Japan. Julie took some but made a face. Then she took some out of a second barrel and I could see her chewing it. I just had a seaweed salad yesterday so I didn't feel the need to try some again. As a group they discussed how the first barrel was greener but kinda slimy and they didn't like the texture. The second barrel was crunchier kinda like sprouts and everyone liked it better. She offered water for those that needed it because seaweed is rather salty.
She discussed how healthy it is for you and that there are lower cancer rates among people who live near the sea and eat it. She took us back to some tanks of seahorses. She handed Julie and Becky each a small container of frozen shrimp that she added water to and asked them to shake them until they were not so frozen. She explained that they had to teach seahorses to be not just hunters but scavengers to extend their lives, but they wouldn't eat the frozen shrimp. She caused the group to laugh when she introduced a seahorse they named Mikie because Mikie liked the frozen shrimp and other seahorses saw him eating the frozen shrimp and they would then try and eat the frozen shrimp. Over the course of a year they moved Mikie from tank to tank and let him teach the other seahorses to eat frozen shrimp. Then they had a discovery. Once the new babies were born to seahorses who would eat the frozen shrimp they didn't have to be taught. They would automatically eat the frozen shrimp.
Then she opened the top to two different tanks and had the girls dump their frozen shrimp into each tank and we watched the seahorses race to eat them. There was still a big chunk of frozen shrimp and it took a few moments but the seahorses found it and started picking it apart.
They had one other trait to overcome to domesticate seahorses. Seahorses want to mate for life and are often taken off the reefs in pairs because mated pairs live longer. But in a huge tank of seahorses it is hard to identify the specific pairs and make sure you get the right mate. So they worked on breeding them in big groups and soon enough they were no longer monogamists. They would mate with other seahorses and now they are still sold in pairs but the pairs aren't life long pairs, they can be mixed and matched and they will still bond and mate with each other.
She thanked us for coming and explained how they started this business on their life savings of $50,000 and started selling the seahorses and pumping the profits back into the business. She explained that all the money from the tours goes back into their breeding programs that she has shown us.
Then she showed us their leafy dragons breeding program. She explained that the problems with leafy sea dragons is that they don't breed till they are about five years old and they don't survive in captivity well. In fact most don't live two years. They are in very high demand by aquariums all over the world who want them because they are so beautiful. Because they are endangered there was only one way to get them. One man in Australia has the only permit in the world to take one pregnant male off the reef every year. He could take the babies when they hatched and sell them but the male had to be returned to the reef.
They cost about $10,000 each once you include shipping and there are only about fifty to sixty born each year. She tried to get this man to sell to her but he refused to even sell her one. Then six months later he had four baby dragons that the deal fell through on and he wanted to get rid of them. So she got those four baby dragons. They found out quickly that the dragons loved the little red shrimp from the hole and that is what they began to feed them exclusively.
The dragons grew and grew and survived. When they got to be five years old the females began to produce eggs but they had problems transferring the eggs to the males. Finally they got deeper tanks and the next year the females started getting the eggs to the males and they hatched the first ever sea dragons in captivity. Now the dragons have been producing babies for three years and they have finally started selling them at two years old because they are so much in demand, but they are trying to get enough stock to have them be mostly full grown and eat a greater variety of things before they sell them so hopefully they will live longer in captivity. In the wild they will live at least fifteen years and she wants to be breeding sea dragons that live longer in captivity.
We walked by two tanks of sea dragons that were juveniles and smaller than the breeding ones she had shown us when we were in the back. She made sure everyone's hands were still clean and took us to two tanks where we could "hold" seahorses. To "catch" a seahorse you held both hands in the tank with the tips of your fingers from each hand touching but spread wide so you were a bunch of little round tubes for them to grab hold of. I was just going to watch but Stephanie grabbed my hands and dragged me to the barrel. Julie was across the barrel from me so I stuck my hands in and within a few minutes a large seahorse came and wrapped around my finger. Julie squealed because she had three wrapped around her fingers.
"Dad I want some. This is what I want for my birthday I want some seahorses."
"Julie they are a lot of work. You have to feed them and take care of them and clean their tank every week."
"Dad I can do that. I'm gonna be 13 and I'm responsible now. Please Dad. You know I can do this."
"Well your mother has to agree. I can't say if you can have a pet or not but if she agrees we will see."
She shrieked. "Yes" and stood there entranced at the little creatures clinging to her fingers.
After several minutes Carol started walking around carefully getting the seahorses off of us and I had to ask her.
"My daughter says she wants some. Are these animals hearty enough for a thirteen year old to take care of?"
"Well I would have to say it depends on the thirteen year old. My kids are younger but they are responsible enough to take care of a pair of seahorses. Of course they have been around them their whole lives."
"Over all she is a responsible kid. She is in soccer and plays flute and babysits her brother and sister. What if I paid for her to come out here for a week this summer? Could you teach her how to take care of them? Put her to work on the farm so she knows how much work it really takes?"
"I've never done that before, I would have to talk that over with my husband but I'm willing to consider it. These animals are not cheap and most parents are not going to spend this much money on something so delicate for their children. You have to think long term. They can live ten to fifteen years, who is going to take care of them when the kid goes off to college?"
"If they live that long and her brother and sister don't want them I will be glad to take them off her hands. In fact I have a man who takes care of my building I'm thinking of sending him out here to learn how to farm with tilapia."
"Oh you don't need to send him out here. You can find the plans for such set ups online."
"Probably, but I think seeing it in person is inspiring and he and his wife deserve a vacation anyway. They could just spend one day of their vacation here learning, then I can write the whole thing off as a business expense."
"I'll be glad to show him if he comes out here."
I stuck out my hand. "Carol thank you for seeing us today and giving us a personal tour. My family and I appreciate it."
"Thank you for your generous donation. We need some new tanks for our tropical fish expansion and this will help buy some more."
"How much do you need?"
"Well ultimately about $50,000, but we are going to do the expansion in phases."
"Can you use the money from your non-profit towards this project?"
"Yes that is where half of the money is coming from."
"Well I'll have my travel assistant call you. I'll be glad to donate another $10,000, especially if I can use it as a write off."
"Follow me back to the giftshop and I'll get you that information." She spoke louder to the group. "Everyone follow me back to the giftshop and we'll wrap this up."
Back inside the giftshop the teen girls, knowing I would buy them what they wanted, were shopping. Stephanie got a t-shirt and hat that both said Ocean Rider Sea Horse Farm. Julie got a sea dragon notebook, sea horse pen and a sea horse crossing sign. Each of the girls got stuffed sea horses, Julie got a male one with three little babies in its pouch. When I didn't stop them there they got magnets and stickers. Knowing we were just going back to the ship I didn't really care what they bought.
Then Stephanie added a cloth shopping bag and I told Carol, who was busy ringing things up as they piled it by the register, to ring up several more shopping bags that we would take everything in them. Julie asked me if Freddie could get something and, realizing the boys hadn't gotten anything yet and weren't use to shopping with me, I announced that everyone could get whatever they wanted, they just had to carry it back to the ship. Suddenly it was like a feeding frenzy hit and the pile on the counter grew.
I stopped the carnage and told everyone to get all their stuff off the counter, that we would ring everyone up one at a time. The pile dissipated just as quickly and everyone was walking around with a hand full of things.
"Carol. You have so many plushies and stuff but only one t-shirt. I would like for you to take some of the money I have donated and make some different shirts to sell. I know if you had cooler, more colorful t-shirts all the kids would want one."
"I've looked at it before but I would need to hire an artist to draw some ideas and then have a screen made for each shirt."
"Add some money to my order. $500.00 should get you started. I'd like to see them on your website later this summer. T-shirts are a good moneymaker and free advertisement. Honestly keep the logo you have and just put a picture of seahorses on the back or some leafy sea dragons. You would sell a ton of them."
"Well I can't promise this summer but I will get some good designs and have them made. Why are you doing all this?" She asked while the girls were looking at earrings and the boys were picking out magnets.
"Honestly I have come into some money and want to spend it on worthwhile things. Your company is making money and helping to save the planet. Not many people make it their life's work to make the planet a better place today and for our kids in the years to come. I want to support that and buying things for my family makes them happy. I am working on being their favorite uncle and this will help." I told her.
"Ok," I announced, "one at a time come up to the register and let Carol ring you up." I told them.
Stephanie was waiting in the back and I walked over to her and took her in my arms.
"Babe, did you get everything you wanted? Do you want some earrings or a seahorse pen?"
"Nope just this. I really like the hat. It is better than the black one you got for me and I got a stuffed seahorse and earrings for Mary Alice."
"Yes I like the hat better too." The line was moving along and suddenly Angelia was there buying plushies for her kids and a video about a day in the life of sea horses. I noticed that Isabella was not around and I went outside where they were loading up in the SUV.
"Isabella, I'm buying stuffed animals and seahorse knick knacks for all the kids. Why don't you bring your little ones inside and let them pick something out?"
She and Diego got their kids back out and brought them inside. I notice my mama had a t-shirt too and my abuela's were looking at the earrings. When all was said and done Stephanie went up to the register last and gasped and went to go put her t-shirt back.
"What's wrong babe?"
"It's up to $1,756.32. That's too expensive I don't need these." She said as she folded the t-shirt up and put it back on the shelf. I picked the t-shirt back up and whispered to her.
"Babe I threw in five hundred dollars as a donation and I have plenty of money now. If you want the t-shirt let me buy you the t-shirt but definitely get the hat and the stuff for Mary Alice. It's for a good cause, all the money goes back into the business and saving the reefs of the world is a good business." I said handing them back to her.
"Ok" She said taking them back from me.
When all was said and done I gathered my family back out into the parking lot.
"We just have time to get to the airport and turn our vehicles in. But I have a plan, why doesn't everyone go to the port and I will have my men take care of the vehicles for you, that way you aren't juggling luggage and kids." Even as I said it I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. I was just thinking since they were driving they could drive to the airport but this made much more sense and is safer. And it would get everyone back onboard the ship faster. I had my men follow us back to the port.
The boats had two trams that they called tender boats that ran one way each half hour so we had a thirty minute wait before they got there and there was a line of passengers that had gotten off the boat in Kona and were waiting to get back on. Fortunately the tender held over seventy five passengers and we all made it on the next one.
It was past 17:00 when we finally got onboard. The ship is a ways out in the port and the tender moved very slowly. I was hoping all my men would be able to catch the last tender that we passed headed to port, halfway out to the ship. We all had just enough time to get to our rooms, unload our luggage and all our stuff then head to the dining room for dinner. We didn't have our own dining room on this ship but one whole corner of the dining room was taken up by large round tables full of my family and my men. We were sitting at a table with Rachel, Ron and the kids. While we ate we talked.
"Babe we never discussed what you wanted to do for the next two days."
"What is there to do?" She asked.
"I sent you a text."
"No, I never got a text." She pulled out her phone and started scrolling through it. "Oh you did send me two texts yesterday. Why didn't you tell me?"
"I just sent it to everyone. I didn't think about discussing it with you."
"Well I would like to see part of the town and island and do some shopping. I have made a list of people I need to buy gifts for and I haven't really started yet. I want to get something for my parents, grandma, Lula, Connie and something for some of your family. Your mom has been so nice to me."
"Babe you don't need to buy my mother anything."
"Yes Carlos I do. She has been so nice to me and working with her on the wedding is so much better than working on it with my mother. In fact she has told me she will work with my mother so I don't have to. That alone means I need to get her something. Then there is Val and her kids."
"We were at the Seahorse farm today. You could have gotten them all something there."
"Well I loved the seahorses, they were amazing and I got stuff for Mary Alice but I didn't think the other two would appreciate seahorses like Julie does." She nodded her head in Julie's direction. "Rachel what are you guys planning on doing tomorrow?"
"Well once we get a car we are going to go to Wailua Falls, then Julie and Freddie have surfing lessons at 11:00 and we are going to hang out on the beach for a little while. Eat some fabulous Hawaiian food and do a little shopping. On Friday we are taking the half day kayaking excursion to Secret Falls and we are still discussing it but I think we are going to go on a helicopter ride just for the fun of it. That or go snorkeling."
Stephanie stared at the list on the phone. "I'd like to see the waterfalls and some of the island. The Kilohana Plantation sounds interesting. Of course you know me anything with food and shopping will make me happy. I would like to go snorkeling here in Hawaii, that would be beautiful."
"Babe have you ever gone ziplining?"
"No"
"Let's add ziplining to the list. It is a lot of fun."
"Yeah but you have to hike a bunch and climb a bunch."
"Not so much hiking, but you do have to get up high so you can zipline down to the ground."
"Isn't it dangerous?"
"No it is perfectly safe. They put you in a harness with a helmet and hundreds of people do it every day. It is like rollercoasters. Safe when done right."
"Ok I'll try it."
"Yeah Mom, ziplining sounds like fun." Julie said.
"Especially if it is like roller coasters." I interjected knowing how much Julie likes rollercoasters.
"Thank you Carlos," Rachel whispered across the table. "I may not have, on purpose, mentioned ziplining to the kids when I read them the list."
"It's perfectly safe Rachel or I wouldn't take Stephanie to do it. I would be glad to take Julie and Freddie and Ron if you don't want to go."
"No I'll go and stay with Cassie." Rachel huffed.
"Cassie can come too. I've seen kids smaller than her do it and they loved it. Kids love ziplining because they don't have as many fears as adults." I explained.
"Fine we'll all go. We can do it tomorrow afternoon after the beach and lunch." Rachel said.
"Great I'll text Skylar." I told her.
"No I'll text her. She has been texting on and off all day with the plans for our trip." Rachel explained.
"Babe I also sent you the list of things to do in Oahu on Saturday. I have a special morning activity planned but then you can plan the rest of the day."
I had wondered earlier why I hadn't heard from Skylar all day. I knew she had everyone's information including their fake names and phone numbers but it never dawned on me that she was contacting everyone individually to make plans for the next several days.
"That's great." I agreed and texted Skylar what Stephanie and I wanted to do while in Nawiliwili. I realized that with my current plan of only working eight men a day that all of dayshift would have one day free on the Island. I made final assignments for the next three days only assigning eight men per day to be working, giving them all two days off in Hawaii, so they could make plans too. I did the same for nightshift only working three men each night and giving them all two days off. I texted them the list of activities and Skylar's number. Hoping she didn't get mad at me for unleashing all my men on her.
During dinner I thought about my men more and texted all of them that after Sunday they would all get a week off with pay and that every man would be getting a ten thousand dollar bonus. Also if they wanted to stay in Hawaii for their week off they were welcome to. I texted them Skylar's information so she could help book them for all their needs. It only took a few minutes for my men to look up from their phones and cheer or look at me and give me a thumbs up.
Then I texted Skylar.
'I'm working you too hard and I have done something very bad.'
'Do you need to be spanked? Is it worse than what you did over the weekend?"
"What I did over the weekend was very, very good. But this is bad for you. I gave my men several days off here in Hawaii and all of next week and then gave them your number.'
'You do realize I'm a professional travel agent? This is what I do for a living.'
'Yes but I have thirty three men on this trip, who are all going to bug you.'
'I don't mind as long as you don't mind the fees. I'm still charging you for all my work.'
'Charge away sweetheart. I'm good for it.'
'I'm assuming that you are at dinner again with your real sweetheart and that's why you aren't calling?'
'Bingo'
'Really soon I want to meet her. She must be something really special.'
'She is precious to me.'
'Well you'd better let her know that and you better treat her right! Treat her as good as you treat me and you'll do okay. Your men are texting me now, got to get to work.'
'Thank you my most perfect, amazing travel agent you make this so easy for me.'
'Anytime Ranger.'
After dinner Steph took me to a stage show in a half-full, medium sized auditorium that rotated shows every night and tonight was a luau display. My parents were all ready here with my abuelas sitting several rows up and Leyla and Richard came in behind us and sat two rows back.
The show started out with sixteen dancers in traditional luau attire, long grass skirts, skimpy tops. They danced around for a while with men that had shorter grass skirts and grass around their biceps and calves. The women did a solo dance, then the men did a solo dance. While one single woman did a slow dance the rest of the performers did a quick costume change. Then more dancing and dancing and as a red blooded male after the first dance I was done. You see all those swinging hips and you know a way to make hips swing that is much more pleasurable and you want to get to it.
On and on, I guess it was beautiful and I'm sure it was traditional but I was already hard and thinking about Stephanie. Finally I plucked her out of her seat and sat her on my lap and rubbed against her. She squeaked when I grabbed her and put her arm out to try to push me away.
"Ranger" she tried to hiss quietly.
"I need you, Babe."
"The shows not over."
"Do we have to wait for the show to get over. The whole thing is going to be more of this with more costume changes and then more of this." I told her waving my arm at the stage.
"But I like this and I really like looking at all the half dressed hot men who know how to shake it." She giggled quietly.
"Babe I'll be your half dressed man and I'll shake it for you where you will really like it."
"In a grass skirt?"
"Babe I'll get a grass skirt and shake it for you but no pictures."
"I'll bet these guys will let me take their picture."
"I'm sure they will, but they are actors trying to get their face and name out there. I'm in the security business trying to keep my anonymity."
"Ok fine, you get a grass skirt and I will leave and let you dance for me."
With out another word I lifted her up off my lap, grabbed her hand and drug her to the back and out the door. I took her out in the hallway and walked down the length of the auditorium and started looking for a door. Fifteen more feet down there was an unmarked door and I pulled it open. Bingo, the backstage. I dragged her along behind me till I saw a door marked dressing room.
I walked in and to my dismay there were several women in there dressing and doing make up. I apologized and backed out and went to the next door. It was unmarked and turned out to be a room full of props. I looked around hopefully for a few moments but there were no costumes in there. In the next door I struck gold, rows and rows of costumes and right up front were several racks of hula costumes. I grabbed one off a half empty rack and held it up to me, sure enough it was a male costume. I worked my way down to the other end of the rack and the grass skirts here were longer. Maybe if I was lucky I could get her to put one on for me. To hell with luck, I was a persuasive bastard and I would convince her.
She was still standing out in the hallway and I walked out tucking them under my arm.
"Come on Babe."
"You're not just going to take those are you?"
"They have plenty of them they will never miss it." I grabbed her hand again and pulled her along behind me.
As I passed the door marked dressing room a woman stepped out into our path. I paused to see which way she was going to go and she turned to look at me.
"You can't be backstage." She said.
"Sorry, we got lost looking for the bathroom. Which way is it again?"
"Go back out to the hallway and you have to go all the way down to the back of the theaters. There are bathrooms outside the theaters."
"Thanks I said as I pulled Stephanie along my treasures tucked under my arm and draping down past my waist.
"Wait a minute. I know what you're doing. You got all hot and bothered by the hula dancing and now you are going to go do some private hula dancing of your own."
If she was a man I would just offer her money but women tend to get more offended by such things so I knew tact and sweet talking was my best way out of this. I stopped in my tracks, dropped Stephanie's arm and gave her my two hundred watt smile.
"You caught us. Newly wed and all that. Just wanted to try something new."
"Well you can't just sneak in here stealing costumes. We need those."
"I'm sorry," I said, "We'll just borrow them and bring them back in the morning."
"After what you are going to do with them I don't know that we will want them back."
"So do they sell costumes like these in the gift shop? I would gladly buy a set."
"No and I doubt you could afford them. These are professional costumes made to be worn hundreds of times. Not some cheap, one night of the year Halloween costumes."
"What's wrong with Halloween costumes?" Stephanie demanded.
"Nothing is wrong with them. I wasn't making myself clear. These are expensive outfits made to be worn over and over. You can't afford them."
"Fine" I told her. "I'll pay you double what they are worth. You can give half to your boss to buy more and keep half for yourself."
"Ok $100," She demanded with a gleam in her eye that said I would refuse.
"$100?" I clarified, "for both costumes?"
"$100"
"Fine" I told her again and pulled out my wallet. I pulled out a hundred dollar bill and tried to hand it to her but even in the dim lighting she had gotten a look at the thick wad in my wallet and she wasn't reaching for the money.
"$100 each" She raised it up.
"And that's it, $100 each?" I was firm and starting to give her a menacing glare.
"Yes, $100 each." She said in agreement. I pulled out a second bill and handed them to her.
"Thanks," She said cheekily, "Don't wear them outside your cabin. You go walking around the ship in them and you'll get stopped for indecent exposure." She smirked and disappeared back into the dressing room.
I grabbed Stephanie's hand again and led her back out into the hallway. I was a man on a mission and nothing was going to slow me from my destination. We got back to our room quickly without any additional interruptions.
"Babe you get dressed out here." I said laying her outfit on the bed. I headed into the bathroom and as soon as I got the door closed and saw the less than a foot and a half of room that I had to dress in, I knew this was a bad idea. Well it was going to be slightly difficult in an area so small I could barely turn around, but I was determined to make it work and have a grand entrance. I put the toilet seat down and laid out my costume on top of it. Then I shimmied out of my clothes dropping them on the floor and picked up the skirt to investigate. It velcroid in the back and that's all there was to it. I slipped it on and found with my skinny waist it sat low on my hips. With it were four, six inch grass elastic bands that went around my biceps and calves. A multi color flower lei went around my neck. Then there was one scrap of cloth left, a little baggy skin-colored cloth that tied on both sides around the waist and I threw it away from myself realizing this was what the men wore under their grass skirts.
I looked at myself in the mirror and thought I looked much better than all of the men on that stage. None of them had the muscle definition I had in my chest and arms and none of them were cut like me. I flexed in the mirror and was impressed at how good I looked in this costume. I have never been one to dress up for sex, dress the woman up in something I could take off yes, but never myself. I wondered what she would think.
Before I went out there I shook my hips a few times. This was harder than it looked to go fast and it had an expected response of driving more blood to my already hard manhood which stuck out through the grass skirt. I pushed it down a little bit not wanting it to make its appearance just yet. Then I opened the door stepped out and struck a pose watching her to see what she thought. She gasped and smiled big.
"You look better than any man out there. You know that?"
Yes I knew I looked good and I smiled at her. She looked edible herself. I could imagine climbing under her grass skirt and licking her while she shook her hips and my smile grew wider. She came over and took my hand and led me to the bottom of the bed. Then she climbed on the bed, put her back to the headboard and waited.
"I need music." I said. She reached over to the clock radio and switched it on. It blasted out rock. She started pushing buttons on it and it was all rock and pop. Finally she dialed in the station we had been listening to in the car and looked at me expectantly.
I started slow. Anyone who can dance the salsa or bachata knows how to swing their hips. I just had to do it a little faster. I was going to give her five minutes of this then have her dance for me. I swung my hips back and forth seductively and waved my arms in the air and she laughed.
"No you're doing it wrong." She explained. "Your arms go out in waves like this." She held her arms up and did a little movement. Fine if she wanted to get picky. I did the arm movement and flicked my hips and she smiled.
"Better than the stage show?" I asked.
"You look delicious." She said. I hoped this was turning her on as much as it was me because I was ready for her and to prove it my cock was inching out of my costume again. I waved my arms a few more times, slowly and suggestively swished my hips back and forth as I lowered my body down and she smiled. Then I thrust my hips out several times and my manhood was totally standing at attention outside of my grass skirt and she gasped and licked her lips.
I slowly crawled up the bed to her and kissed her on the lips then I delved into her mouth and as always, she is so sweet. I grabbed her legs and pulled her down underneath me. Laid down on top of her, kissed her like I meant business and started thrusting against her core wondering if she was wearing underwear under her skirt and how fast I could get her naked. A minute or so into my musings she was pushing against my chest.
"Not so fast, caveman. You were supposed to dance for me."
"I did dance." I whispered against her lips.
"Not even one whole song." She admonished.
"Now I want to dance with you." I said. "The horizonal hula."
"We have all night for the horizontal hula. I want to see you in that costume more. You have to dance at least two or three songs for me. That hula show would have gone on for at least another hour and besides," she smiled at me, "you look really hot."
"Fine" I said dismissively as I rolled off her. I got the costumes, I danced for her, what exactly did she want? The song that was playing was a little faster beat and I threw my arms up in the air like the men had done at the start of their dance and acted like I had a spear and shield. Stomping my feet and jumping back and forth like they had done. I turned around in a circle feeling more than a little ridiculous and very turned on. Then I went back to slower sensual hip movements and watched as she tried to use her phone to take a discrete picture of me. I wasn't going to say anything. I would just pretend that I didn't see her and delete it later off of her phone.
Finally the song ended and a commercial started and I climbed back on the bed predatory like I was stalking her, kissed her for several long minutes then I grabbed both her hands and drug her to the bottom of the bed. I patted her ass and said "Your turn Babe."
I swung myself around to put my back against the headboard and watch.
"I never said I was going to dance. This was about you making up for me missing the luau performance. You're lucky I even put on the costume." She waved an arm down at her outfit.
"Babe you look beautiful. Better than any woman up on that stage. What are you wearing underneath that skirt?"
She pulled the sides of the grass skirt apart to show me some blue underwear.
"Its more fun if you take them off." I said as I waved to my erection sticking out from under my skirt.
"You may have more fun poking out but I don't think that works the same for women."
"Just try it. Go in the bathroom and take them off." I encouraged. She looked doubtful at me but went into the bathroom.
"Carlos you left your clothes in here on the floor." She sounded shocked as she closed the door behind herself.
"I'll get them later." I called to her through the door.
Two minutes later she was back smiling shyly at me. The music was back on and I waved at the bottom of the bed for her to proceed. She walked over to her bags and quickly tucked her panties into a side pocket. Then walked down to the bottom of the bed and started to do a slow hula dance. She gave a slow wiggle of her hips while she undulated her arms first to the right and then to the left. She waggled her hip left and right then stepped left and did a little wiggle then stepped right and did a little wiggle. She had obviously never learned this or belly dancing, as when her hip went one way her opposite shoulder and boob went the other. She was shaking top and bottom and it was adorable and a turn on.
I did something I had never done in front of her before, I spread the grass skirt on either side of my erection and slowly stroked myself up and down. She stopped moving, arms in the air and just watched me. I gave myself another slow stroke and she licked her lips. Then she did the unexpected and began crawling up the bed to me. Halfway up the bed she laid down, ending with her mouth at my dick. I let go and she wrapped her tender hand around my rigid form and licked the precum that had formed off the tip.
She sucked my hard length down and I admired how terribly aggressive she was becoming again with her wonderous mouth. She had started being the aggressor more the last two days we were in Hawaii last time and being back seemed to be having the same affect again. She was delicately working my bulging head and then started giving me long sensual licks from the base to the top that was heating up my blood. Actually it was zinging up my spine and starting a fire burning in my belly. She took my tightening balls in her sensuous mouth and licked and sucked for long moments while she gave long hard strokes to my solid length.
She turned her full attentions back to my stiff dick and sucked me deep and hard while stroking me with her hand and I felt the flames building up in my shaft and filling my belly with the need to explode. I wondered if she meant to get me off or if she was just priming my everlasting pump. Then I decided I was thinking too much and just went back to enjoying the molten sensations building between my legs. Every suck sent a ripple of hot warmth up my belly and down my spine to my balls that were buzzing with the overwhelming sensations. I could feel the intense pleasurable pressure building with every suck and stroke.
I wasn't sure if she was just trying to prime me or actually get me off. She had never given me a blowjob before and if she really wanted to I was going to let her. She looked so hot with her little bare butt peeking out from under her grass skirt and even my grass skirt spread out on either side of her was turning me on. Suddenly she pressed her thumb into the base of my dick and I felt my dick filling up getting even harder than before, ready now to explode in her hot mouth.
"Babe, I'm going to cum." I thought she deserved a warning and if that wasn't her intent I wanted to let her know. She squeezed my dick tighter, sucked a little harder and tugged with more force, sending me over the edge and I let go. Suddenly I was spurting into her mouth over and over and over and she was swallowing me down as she continued to stroke. When I was done she looked at me with a huge smile and sense of wonder on her face.
"Wow" she said as she pulled herself to a sitting position. "I've always wanted to do that."
She reached up and kissed me deeply and I could taste myself on her. It was such a turn on that my woman had blown me. Then she broke the kiss and spread her skirt and the next thing I knew she was impaling herself on my half rigid manhood, the hot pressure inside her making me harder again.
"You know most men can't keep it up after a blow job. In fact for most men it means the night is over." I told her.
She smiled at me. "Lucky I'm not with most men."
She was so wet and I was so hard, I let her ungulate her hips up and down, riding me with gusto as her scorching drenching core held me tight with-in her. I guess sucking me was a turn on for her that or my dancing really did it for her. Her small hands poised on my wide shoulders gripping each time she slid up my hard throbbing length and down it was staggeringly pleasurable. The heat was building again in my belly and swarming intense pleasure through my veins. I kept kissing her and every time I tasted myself on her sweet lips I swear I got a little harder.
So she rode me face to face, chest to breasts. I reached up and stroked her breasts, then tugged on her nipples and she gasped sliding back down hard on my aching firmness. Her eyes were half closed in passion as she picked up the pace driving electrifying sensations down my length and causing my balls to contract with desire. She flushed with need, sped up, and minutes later was crying out and collapsing against my chest.
I divested us of our outfits, flinging both skirts to the floor and climbed back on top of her kissing, licking and sucking till I got to my ultimate goal between her long legs. I was going to return the favor and spent long moments licking and sucking at her wonderfully responsive, portal of passion. Her fingers threaded through my hair encouraging and guiding then fervently holding me to her as if my tongue would suddenly vanish.
"Oh God Caarrlooosss," she cried as she arched into my mouth and I got my sweet reward as she came, gushing her flavorful syrup onto my lips. I licked her velvety sweetness that was hot, wet and swollen for me still. Several minutes later she had come down off her cloud and was calling for me to enter her.
"Hold onto me Babe," I said huskily and I climbed back up her exquisite body kissing and licking at overheated, tenderized quivering flesh as I went. I climbed over her and drove into her tight silky core. I took my time moving in long slow hard strokes running the length of my hard throbbing cock, murmuring tender love words as I held her soft frame tightly to me feeling her body run hot beneath my ministrations.
"Carlos more." She whispered quietly entreating with her voice while her feverish body arched and lifted against me, her heels digging into the bed, her arms wrapping around my back, clutching me close and I tried to give her everything she was begging for. I lifted off her enough to get a better perch and intensified my driving down thrusts, testing the limits of her pleasure. I increased the pressure and her hands skimmed down my back to grasp my butt pulling me back to her on every powerful plunge into her abyss.
I took her pink lips and kissed her hot mouth diving into every sweet corner of it and we broke off panting as I went back to ravishing her. Her body becoming desperate now as I slid in and out of her hot slick core until her body was flushed pink and her breathy moans were driving me on. I pounded into her silky sweetness with a violent thrusting need I felt to the tips of my toes.
The catch in her voice and her body going rigid beneath me signaled her imminent release and I pumped into her almost violently, dark torrents of passion rushing through my body and I bowed tight, feeling her quivering ripples inside, I let go and discharged myself into her depths. Filling her up as she moaned, pouring my throbbing orgasm deep within her. I collapsed on top of her with the intensity of my release and I marveled at how it could get better and better every time I had her.
I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close, feeling as if we had once again become one. I couldn't get enough of her and my arms, like steel bands, wrapped around her thin frame and pulled her close.
"I love you," came her faint slurred words from beneath me.
"Love you too Babe." Forever I thought again, knowing in that second that I would do whatever I had to do, take as many lives as were needed, to protect her; she was my world. I rolled onto my back pulling her with me and she took up her usual sleeping position, with her spread across me as her own personal body pillow. I realized as I fell asleep that we had done it again. No condom.
To be continued….
A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! They are all read and very much loved and appreciated! This chapter is dedicated to Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm that is a real place and really works hard to provide healthy seahorses for pets and save the reefs and the wild animals that live on them worldwide. Please read and review.
As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint you spur me on!
Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.