Page 112 of Knot Your Sunshine
"Where exactly are we going?" I ask for the third time as I follow my alphas along a secluded stretch of the resort's beach. But Noa just throws that mysterious smile over his shoulder.
"Patience,omega." The way he says omega sends another pulse of warmth through me, the ache that's been building all morning intensifying with each endearment.
Josh and Noa are each carrying enormous duffel bags, the kind that look like they could fit a small closet inside. The bags bulge, mysterious with their contents, and Josh adjusts his grip as we approach what looks like nothing more than a natural rock formation jutting out from the beach.
"Here," Noa says, running his hand along the rock face until... click. A section of rock swings inward, revealing a softly lit tunnel with a spiral staircase descending into the earth.
"You have got to be kidding me," I breathe.
"After you, Sunshine." Keanu gestures toward the entrance with a flourish, somehow managing to look graceful despite the massive bag slung over his shoulder.
The tunnel is cool and smells faintly of salt and wet stone. Our footsteps echo softly as we descend, the lights embedded in the walls casting a warm glow. My anticipation builds with each step down, down, down, until we reach a heavy sealed door.
Noa punches in a code and the door unseals with a soft hiss.
"Close your eyes," Josh says softly.
"Josh—"
"Trust us," he says, and I do. I close my eyes.
I hear the door open fully and feel Noa's hands on my shoulders, guiding me forward. The ambient sound becomes muffled, deeper somehow, and the air changes, filled with a subtle energy I can't quite place.
"Okay," Noa says. "Open."
I open my eyes and my knees nearly buckle.
We're standing in a vast, open-plan living space, but the walls... God, the walls and ceiling are seamless glass, and beyond them stretches the most breathtaking underwater vista I've ever seen. Sunlight filters down through crystal-clear water, illuminating a coral reef that seems to go on forever.
"It's... magical," I whisper, the words completely inadequate.
A school of yellow tangs, hundreds of them, streams past the glass in a brilliant flash of gold, and I actually gasp, my hand flying to my chest.
"One of our best-kept secrets," Keanu says, setting down his bag and rolling his shoulders. "The reef here is protected, completely untouched. We had this built with zero environmental impact. Solar powered, water recycled, the works."
But I'm barely listening because I'm already drawn to the glass like a magnet. The living area is enormous: plush sofas in soft grays and blues arranged around a low coffee table, bookshelves, a kitchen area with gleaming appliances. But everything ispositioned to showcase the underwater view, and I really only have eyes for it.
"That's a parrotfish," Josh says, appearing beside me as a fish the size of my thigh swims past, its scales an impossible shade of turquoise. "And those are brain coral formations, some of them are over a hundred years old. Oh, and look—"
A ray glides past, its movements so graceful it looks like it's flying through the water rather than swimming.
"That's a spotted eagle ray," Josh continues as I stand there with my mouth hanging open like one of the fish outside.
"Josh knows all the names," Keanu teases. "He spent three months studying marine biology in-depth before we built this place."
"Of course he did," I murmur, but I'm smiling. The living seascape before me is mesmerizing, constantly shifting, endlessly beautiful.
"Come on," Noa says. "Let us show you the rest."
They lead me through the space, and each room is more incredible than the last. The bathroom has a glass wall overlooking a deeper part of the reef slope where the coral gives way to mysterious blue depths. In the distance, I can make out graceful, multi-colored shapes gliding through the water.
"You can shower while watching whales sometimes," Keanu says casually, like that's a normal thing.
"Whales?"
"Humpbacks pass by during migration season. They come surprisingly close sometimes. We're completely safe behind the glass, of course."
"Of course," I echo faintly, trying to imagine showering while a whale swims by.
