Page 18 of Omega Island
I liked the soft tone of his voice. It calmed me, reminded me I didn’t have to anticipate the loud baritone of Straten anymore.
I wondered how long Senta would allow me to stay on the island. Maybe I could find a job here. I was good at fixing things, good with my hands.
“Your face is busy,” Senta said.
“What?”
“I believe I can almost hear you thinking.”
I bobbed up and down in the water. “That’s not possible.” I hesitated. “Is it?”
“I’m very intuitive. I know you have a lot of things on your mind. If you want to talk.”
I couldn’t figure out why someone like him would want to talk to someone like me in more than a polite host-like manner. “You’re saying that because I’m Luca’s brother-in-law?”
“No. I do find it nice that you dropped by here this morning. I’m happy not to swim alone.”
“Sure. It’s safer.” I felt my voice drop to shyness.
“Well, that’s true, but that’s not why. I enjoy different company. I know everyone who works here. They are like family, but I also employ them, so they tend to be on their best behavior around me. The patients, well, they’re my job when I have consults with them. But you’re new and a guest. A break from my routine.”
“Oh.” I almost gulped a mouthful of water as my body surged downward and made waves. “I don’t think I’m all that interesting.”
“Everyone is interesting. Everyone has a story. Or stories. Plural.”
I looked at the pool’s surface, watching the way it rippled in all directions from my body. I was like that. Moving chaos in my life. Never still. I thought Straten would tame me. I thought I wanted that.
“I don’t have much of a story.”
“You do. Of course, you do.”
His words did something to my insides. I didn’t remember the last time someone told me I might be interesting. Straten wanted my body, not my mind. The crowds I hung with from town to town were more interested in partying, or what I could give them. Not my thoughts.
I started to float closer toward him when he suddenly inhaled hard and clapped his hand over his belly. He made a strange face and doubled over, starting to slide into the pool.
Without thinking, I reached out and caught his knee, my hand sliding up his lower thigh to help him balance. He was heavier than I thought and I pumped my legs to keep afloat, gripped the edge, and held him back with all my strength.
I found myself stuck as most of his weight leaned into my arm. Without a solid purchase, I thought he’d tumble right into me.
“Senta!” I called out. “Hey! I got you!”
I pumped harder, my thighs burning, my arm pressed to the top of his thigh. He rocked forward, then back and the weight alleviated just enough so I could get my hand to his shoulder and push.
He fell back and I followed him, leaping out of the water like one of those dolphins I’d seen in the lagoon. Dripping water all over the concrete and Senta himself, I pulled him back so his knees were above the lip of the pool. His trunks tugged partway down his hips, but I ignored that, resting my hands on his arms that crossed his stomach.
“Are you in pain? Should I call someone?”
He let out a long breath, hissing. “It’ll pass. Give me a minute.”
“Are you sick?”
“No. Not that.”
Before I knew what I was doing, I brushed back his dark hair from his forehead and put my arm under his head for a pillow. His form shook. “Okay. Okay. We’ll just sit here a minute. Then you tell me what you need to do.”
The muscles around his eyes were hard, the lids half closed, but he looked at me with a desperation I couldn’t quite fathom.
Then I smelled his heat.
