16. Something Big and Fun on the Cruise: Larry

The next morning, we woke up to more announcements from Jax. Apparently, we were stopping for the day to play in the water. They were rolling out some kind of water slide and adventure park items off the side of the boat.

While I wasn't excited about any of that, Todd seemed to be. He bounced out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel and looking sexy as hell with wet hair and no glasses. "It's going to be fun. Even if we don't do it, we can watch our friends do it. But I have to do the slide for sure. Right?"

"You're going to rope me into going along, aren't you?"

"Don't raise your eyebrow at me, mister." He pointed and tossed his towel at me, leaving him standing there naked and me wanting to get my hands on his highly appealing body. But he turned, shaking his tight ass, and pulled swim trunks out of his drawer and put them on. When he turned back around, he shot me a sly look as if he knew exactly what he was doing to me—teasing. "Oh, are you pouting now? Come on. Take a quick shower and let's get breakfast while the team sets up the fun."

"I admit I'm curious about this other adventure stuff, but we could have our own adventure right here. Alone. You and me. What do ya say?" I patted the mattress beside me.

"Huh. Plenty of time for that later, Mr. All-Sexed-Up-Now. Let's go."

Reluctantly, I gave in because, truthfully, I'd probably do anything he asked at this point, including walking him around on a leash while he wore that cute yellow puppy mask. In fact, that sounded quite appealing. But we were being roped into water fun, so a quick shower later, we were off to breakfast.

After the huge buffet, we headed to the top deck outside the dining room, where people were already gathering. Off the side of the boat was a huge water slide, similar in construction to Levi"s bouncy house at his birthday party, but I was guessing it wasn't exactly the same, hung over the side. The thing was at least three stories tall, given the size of the yacht, but people climbed up a ladder excitedly, ready to slide down into the water of the Gulf below. Even though that giant thing was expected from Jax's description, it was still impressive, but the rest of the setup was not. To one side, a crane held a climbing wall, like a rock wall. The wall was inflatable, but a significantly sturdier material than the slide. There were already a few people climbing. Then, out farther away from the yacht, but within a short swim of the landing zone for the slide, was an inflatable jungle gym on top of a platform in the primary shades of red, blue, and yellow.

It was an adult playground at sea. I held my hand to my eyes and looked out beyond the play area the team had set up and saw nothing but water glistening in the sun. And beside me, Todd was bouncing on the balls of his feet with ten times the energy I had. "You going down that slide?"

"Yes!" He clapped his hands together.

It looked safe enough. Jax had even included two lifeguards positioned around the landing zone, outlined in floating buffers that people could easily climb on. Still, there was no way I was letting him go down with no one at the other end waiting to make sure he was okay. "I'm going first."

"What? Yeah. Let's do it." Todd grabbed my arm and practically jumped in my arms. He kissed my jaw and chin as if he were throwing kisses at me and letting them land wherever they happened to end up. His excitement and joy had my heart spinning in my chest. Or maybe that was my lungs because suddenly I couldn't breathe.

Before I could think past these new feelings, I was shoved forward, and down the slide I went. My heart leapt clear out of my throat on the way down, and I was pretty sure I screamed in a way that would normally embarrass me, but I couldn't think about that either. In the next moment, I was underwater. I pushed back to the surface and quickly moved out of the way for the next slider, which I expected to be Todd.

I held one of the float-boarders with one arm while I watched Todd fly down the slide with his hands in the air. He landed feet first and only took a second to pop back up. I reached out to him and called, "Todd."

He swam to me, and I pulled him in. He was a strong swimmer, proving my worries unfounded, but I couldn't help caring. "You okay? How was that?"

"So much fun." He slushed water out of his face.

"What did you do with your glasses?"

"Jax has lockers up there." He pointed up to the top of the slide. "I figured I better tuck them away. Didn't want to risk losing them here."

"Smart." I kissed him on the top of the head.

"Ready to go again?"

"If you don't want to check out the rest of this stuff."

"Nope. More sliding."

We swam out of the landing zone to the platform with three ladders for people to get out, then we headed back in to climb the stairs to the top deck again. This side of the boat had stairs with marine materials that kept people from sliding and falling with wet feet. Otherwise, the stairwell was cement painted a soft blue, and chrome handrails lined the walls. Safety first. I approved.

I swear we climbed those stairs five or six times that day. And each time was followed by a wild slide into the Gulf. By the time Todd was finished playing, I was exhausted. We swam out to the jungle gym thing and hung out a while with Quinn and Royce who weren't as excited to slide. Levi and his friend Danny, on the other hand, tried everything and slid twice as many times as Todd and I. Hudson sat on the platform, chuckling at his antics as he played. Eventually, he called Levi over, and we all decided to call it a day.

Stomachs were grumbling and pups and boys alike were tired. We all got sandwiches from the lunch buffet that was set up while we played, then headed to our respective cabins for some afternoon naps.

When we got in bed, Todd's personality took a decidedly noticeable shift. He crawled over the bed and gave me puppy-huffs and licks. He turned around in circles three or four times before cuddling up next to me. I pet his head. "You okay, boy?"

Todd's response was a half-whine, half-bark, and he pushed his nose into my hand. I knew he was testing the waters with me, and I certainly wasn't going to disappoint him.

I rubbed his face and ran my fingers through his hair until he settled in and closed his eyes. "Good boy," I told him. And his lips stretched out in an ear-to-ear smile.

The day had been a lot of fun. I would never have done anything like this without him. He was changing me but in the best way. My chest felt warm, and I wanted nothing but a million more days like this. Perhaps minus the giant water slide, but together with Todd, doing whatever he wanted.