Page 72 of Seal of Approval

I stared at her. What was she talking about?

“Sex on Legs.”

I rolled my eyes. I hadn’t come up with a name for her yet. I smiled when it hit me. “Well, the OQ would know.”

“The what?”

“Orgasm Queen.”

Jasmine rolled over and planted a kiss on my lips. “Sex on Legs created her.”

I smiled. I’d never had that effect on anyone before.

She rolled onto her back and stretched. “I’m going to shower.” She gave me a smile. “I should probably pick up the kids.”

Always a mom. One of the things I respected most about her. And one of the things I liked most. Another thing was that body of hers.

I imagined her naked with the water flowing over her curves and my tongue trailing the stream. I imagined fucking her senseless against the cool tiles. And?—

No. I adjusted my hard-on. Enough. I had work to do. I was falling behind on my data collection and report.

“I’ll make us breakfast. Then I might head to the office to do some work on my project.”

“OK.”

Was that disappointment in her voice? She rolled out of bed. I expected her to walk away, but instead she knelt on the bed and gave me a warm, lingering kiss. Then she got up and smiled. “Tonight we’ll need to use our quiet voices.”

I laughed as she walked out of the room. Tonight. Tomorrow night. And every other night... for three more months until I had to return to my old life.

We never spoke about it. I’d never promised more than this. But was my silence a promise? Was it telling her there was more when there wasn’t? Or did we not speak about it because there was no point? We both knew how this would end.

I went to my bathroom and took a quick shower before heading into the kitchen to start breakfast, Jasmine’s favourite—bacon and eggs on toast. All of it tasted different in Australia. The bread wasn’t full of sugar, the bacon was salty and fleshy, and the eggs were fresh. It was like a food paradise.

I looked out the window to the beach. Paradise out there and paradise in here as well. Maybe I was seeing things from a different perspective and forgetting the other important things. I just needed to refocus, that’s all. I wouldn’t forget I was here for my dissertation.

* * *

I studied the stats in front of me I’d been collecting over the past few months and switched over to my report. It needed to be ground-breaking. Information that hadn’t been shared before. What I had was good. But I needed to make it great.

I began writing, but the silence soon distracted me. That didn’t even make sense. I came to the office for peace. I found a radio station on my computer and turned the volume to low for background noise.

I was only fifty pages into the report which should extend to three hundred. What did I have so far? We’d recorded the biological stats of the sea lions when we’d tagged them. We saw the movements of those we’d placed transmitters on, and I’d been out to visit the places they frequented most. I’d noted the changes in sea lion behaviour on tour days and non-tour days.

Next, I needed to visit the colony two inlets over to see if the sea lion behaviour there was the same when people invaded their space like we did most days here.

That meant more research. But I needed to formulate a plan on what information I would record. It was all about the behaviour of the animals and whether human visitors changed that behaviour. I needed a drone first. The drone would allow me to record normal behaviour before we arrived, behaviour on boat approach and behaviour on arrival. Jack could help me with his drone. Then I should do that for the Haven Bay colony too and compare the results.

Children’s laughter filtered through the open door, drawing me to the window. Bailey and Rose were creating a huge sandcastle on the beach. Timmy lay on a blanket in the middle of it, watching their antics, like he was king of the castle. I chuckled. That kitten was as good as any dog. Jasmine sat next to them, reading a book. Is that what they’d been like before Max and I turned up? Relaxed and carefree?

Maybe not before I’d turned up seeing that Jasmine had been working seven days a week. But was it much better after I’d arrived? Not really. She was out there helping me a lot. Moments like the one I was witnessing were rare. A partner was supposed to make life easier, and I wasn’t sure I did. I was her partner at work, but the load wasn’t evenly split, even if I took in the part-time factor.

I needed to let them have more time like this, on their own, free. I could ask Jack for help with the drone, and I could do more of the research on my own. It might serve two purposes—time together for them and increased concentration for me.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Jasmine

Bailey stopped on his way back from the water with a full bucket. He was watching something near the jetty. “Where are Ethan and Jack going?”

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