Page 83 of The Plan

“You were supposed to bring these twenty minutes ago. She’s already here.” He laughs at her and shakes his head. “Just give them to August.” Sage shrugs and apologizes shyly before walking off.

“Augustus!” she calls out, and my head snaps in her direction. Wait, is that his real name? When my eyes land on August, he’s telling her to stop calling him that, and I break into another laugh. She’s literally going to be the life of this party. I’m so glad she was able to make it.

When I turn back to Sire, his eyes are on my ass. I tap the bottom of his chin, and he looks up at me with a smile. “You should take these off.” I smile and untie the scarf that’s covering the bottom of my bikini. When he leans in to kiss me, I curve him and walk away.

I hear him laughing behind me, and just as I turn my head, he slaps my ass. I burst with a laugh because I was expecting that, buthijo de la gran puta,that hurt.

The rest of the party gets here, and the boat starts moving. We’re all listening to music and having a good time for about half an hour, then I’m told we’re staying here, and the anchor is thrown into the water. I look around, and we’re in the middle of nowhere, but the water doesn’t look too deep.

Not having seen Sire in a while, I go in search of him. I quickly notice he isn’t on the main level, so I head inside the boat and find him sitting on the couch. “Hey.” At the sound of my voice, he looks up at me and offers me a smile, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Are you having fun?” he asks as I close the distance between us, taking a step between his legs and wrapping my arms around his neck.

“I’d be having more fun if you were out there with me. Why are you just sitting in here?” He shrugs his shoulders and smiles again, but he seems off. “What’s wrong?” He takes a few seconds to reply, then lets out a soft sigh.

“I don’t want to ruin your birthday. I had this whole thing planned, but…” He trails off, and I feel myself growing confused.

“But what? And what did you plan?” Getting me this boat was more than enough, so now I’m curious as to what else he has planned, but I’m more focused on why he thinks he’ll ruin my birthday.

“I’ve never been this far into the water.” He kind of just leaves that in the air, but I quickly catch on, and my heart sinks a bit.

“Oh my god, Sire.” I take a seat on his lap. Why the hell didn’t I think of that? I should’ve known he most likely wouldn’t feel comfortable being in the middle of the damn ocean. He still has nightmares about the car crash his bio mom caused in the lake. They’re better now, but I should have known something was wrong.

“I’m fine.”

“Sire…”

“No, really, I am.” I search his eyes for any sign that he isn’t. “I thought this would be harder, but I’m good. I just came in here to search for a life vest.” He chuckles softly, and I give him a sad smile.

“You can’t swim, can you?”

“I can.” I shoot him a confused look because if he can swim, why would he need a life vest? As if he read my mind, he shrugs. “I still wanted to make sure there were life vests. You know, for reassurance or whatever.”

“Well, there are.” He nods and takes a deep breath, like knowing that calms him.

“Okay, come on, I want to show you something.” I don’t ask any questions and follow him. We go out to the rest of the party, and a few people are jumping off the boat into the clear water below us.

Sire takes my hand, and we walk to the edge where they’re jumping off from. He looks down at the water like he’s unsure about something. “We don’t have to jump.” He turns to me, and I point to the ladder. “We can climb in.”

An appreciative smile lights up his face, and he gives me a nod. Once we’re in the water, I keep my eyes on him, and he looks nervous, but for the most part, he’s doing fine.

With a proud smile, I swim closer to him and leave a short kiss on his cheek. “You’re doing so good.”

He leans in and kisses me quickly, then takes my hand. “Okay, I think I’m good to go.”

“Go where?” His face lights up, and he nods his head to something behind me.

“Follow me.” Once again, I don’t ask questions and follow him, but not even a minute passes before he turns to me and grabs my hand. “Don’t let go, okay?” I reassure him that I won’t.

It’s a bit harder to swim while holding hands, but we do. We make it pretty far out to where the water is darker beneath us, like there’s a drop or something.

“Okay.” He pulls something out of his pocket and then hands me a pair of goggles that cover your nose. I’m a bit confused, but I wait for him to explain. “Just signal to me when you need to come up for air. Okay?”

“What are we looking at down there?” I glance down at the water, but although it is clear, I can’t see the bottom.

“You’ll see.” He sounds excited and quickly puts his goggles on. I do the same and take a deep breath as we dive under the water. I stay holding his hand as we swim a few feet down.

The water is crystal clear, and I can see a beautiful, colorful coral reef. He takes us a bit deeper, and my ears feel weird at the pressure of being this far under. We quickly make it toward the edge, where the drop starts, and then he points to something in the drop. I look over and almost gasp when I see a fever of rays.

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