Page 20 of Beneath the Surface

“Why don’t we shower and get dressed? The sun will set soon, but until then I could show you around the jungle.”

“Ah… the jungle. I… huh. I’m not really sure about that. There are all sorts of things in there that can kill you.”

“I grew up on the island. Trust me, I know the jungle. I’m not going to take you too far into it, just enough to show you different types of plants and animals. Nothing too scary, I promise.”

“Well, um, okay, I guess. It could be interesting.”

Once dressed, they headed to the very outskirts of the jungle. They didn’t go too far into the jungle, much to Kannon’s relief. He was immediately overcome by the screeching of tropical birds.

They sounded so much louder now than what they did from the bungalow. The chatter of monkeys high in the trees echoed around him. Odd noises like odd croaks and peeps came from every direction. Nisha pointed out the Seychelles black parrot, which was the national bird.

“Come here and look at this.”

Kannon joined Nisha by a tree with long, wide fan-shaped leaves.

“It’s called coco de mer, and it’s a species of palm. They only grow on certain Seychelles islands, and it’s dioecious. That means it has separate male and female parts. It has several nicknames, but the most popular one is ‘love nut’ because of its suggestive shape.”

Kannon looked at the bilobed fruit and choked with laughter. “I can see that.”

“The the coco de mer is also the world’s largest seed.”

“It’s twice as large as my head, so yeah, I can see that too.”

When the sky began to darken, they returned to Kannon’s bungalow.

Kannon pushed his hair off his neck. “Jeez, I’m hot. How the devil is it you’re not even sweaty? That’s just wrong. I feel like I could melt.”

“Really? Melt, huh? Well, we certainly can’t have that.” Nisha picked Kannon up and headed for the pool, an evil grin on his face.

“What…? Oh hey! No! Nisha!” Kannon kicked, laughing madly. “I’m not that hot!”

“Sure you are.”

Nisha tossed Kannon into the pool, clothes and all.

Kannon surfaced, spluttering. “You… you…That was—”

Nisha jumped in after him.

“Holy crap!” Kannon spluttered again as a wave hit him.

Before long there was a pile clothes by the pool, and Kannon found himself on his knees on the pool steps sucking Nisha off.

Afterward Kannon fixed them something to eat. They watched a little TV, and when Kannon yawned several times in a row, Nisha suggested they go to bed. Kannon was surprised Nisha didn’t try to fuck him through the mattress.

Instead all Nisha did was wrap his arm around him and pull him close. He didn’t have time to fret, though, because he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

THEY SPENT Thursday wandering around the resort and doing some of the activities they missed the day before.

Later that evening Brett called. “Brooke and I are going down to the private beach that connects to the resort. There’s a couple of open fire pits down there. We’re going to cook out tonight—nothing fancy, just hot dogs. She wants to make s’mores too. Does that sound good to you?”

Kannon looked out the sliding doors at Nisha, who was sitting by the pool. Nisha stared back at him. “Sure. That sounds like fun.”

Nisha strolled over to the sliding glass doors and leaned against them, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Okay, meet me on the beach right outside of the resort about nine o’clock tonight,” Brett said. “I’m going to call Nisha and ask him too.”

“It just so happens he’s standing right here. You want to talk to him?”

---