In this sizzling tale, billionaire Alex must confront a catastrophic leak in the ocean that threatens his salt mining operation, his livelihood and the delicate ecosystem of the ocean. Desperate for a solution, he turns to Lila, a brilliant and nerdy scientist who might just hold the key to saving his business and the ocean. But as they work together, they discover a chemistry that that the ocean can't cool. They must navigate the dangerous waters of love, lust and betrayal while still trying to save the ocean and Alex's business.
Chapter 1: Oceanastrophe
Alex sat in his office, staring out the window at the ocean that comprised his backyard and his office view. His office was a large, open space with floor-to-ceiling windows that gave him a panoramic view of the water. The walls were painted a light blue, and the Darkwood floor was covered with a thick, white carpet. Alex was expressly impressed with his Darkwood floor. The tree was incredibly hard to find. It only grew in one Federally protected forest that was ominously named The Darklands National Nature Preserve.
While the entire name sounded like it might be a place of natural beauty and peaceful ambiance, it was anything but. In fact, the natives in the area only referred to it as The Darklands, and entering it usually meant an extremely painful death. Almost everything in it that could be classified as alive was lethal. The grass could cause painful skin welts. The dragonflies were as big as two-human hands and had the bite of a cougar. The houseflies were as big as peaches, and they liked to lay their eggs in the back of human necks. Even the butterflies had a bite that could bring the world’s heavyweight champion to tears. To say it was dangerous to step more than 12 inches inside that place was an understatement.
Still, Alex wanted his wood, and he’d paid for it. Almost half a million dollars to get a team of ten to go in through the back of the property and harvest enough trees to make the floors in his house, and that cost didn’t include processing the trees and creating and installing the flooring. The end result, however, was marvelous. His floors were the envy of all who saw them. Of course, due to the dubious way he’d acquired the wood, Alex never told anyone where he’d gotten them, and every crew that had worked on them signed contracts that explicitly stated that if they wanted to keep the money that Alex had paid them, they’d keep their mouths shut.
He stood and stretched. His office was also the envy of all who saw it. It was a masterpiece of style and productivity. There were several large desks in the office, as well as a conference table and a few chairs. In the center of the office was a large, black leather chair that Alex liked to sit in on occasion. That spot had the best view of the ocean.
The ocean was his favorite place in the world. He loved the sound of the waves crashing on the shore, and he loved the smell of the salt air. He loved to swim in the ocean, and he loved to surf. However, he was less than pleased today. Today, he had gotten a letter from the Oceanic Guardians, a new organization created by the Federal Government to oversee the ocean and look for pollutants, and they, so far, could not be bribed. It dismayed Alex. He offered the world the best salt in the universe. It was mined from a very specific spot in the ocean over the Great Trench.
Twenty years ago, they started selling parcels of ocean like they do land, and Alex had snatched up two miles of that precious water for a premium price. In fact, it’d been so expensive, he’d been forced to take out loans to finance part of the water and underwater land purchase and the machinery, fences and security he needed to build to keep people out of it. Luckily, his ocean salt mining operation had proven to be an excellent investment, and his loans were now paid off.
Of course, he’d had to take shortcuts. Been a little lax on his oceanic preservation and anti-pollution measures. If the news were to be believed, his oceanic salt mining operation was the single worst polluter of the ocean. Worse than plastic bags, fishing nets and water bottles. Alex had a hard time believing that. The plastic bag, fishing net and water bottle island was so large now that they were thinking of turning it into its own floating country. Alex supposed they would have done it by now if they could find a buyer for that pile of crap.
Thankfully, the pile of plastic shit was not Alex’s concern. The potential Federal lawsuit was, and so was the last set of scientific data he’d received from his own team of research and data nerds. Not only was the water around his salt mining platform toxic to every type of living thing on the planet, the water itself was wrong.
Alex had to ask how they’d found that out, and the scientists had simply said that they removed all the pollutants then tested what would normally be a raw sample, and it was wrong. He’d asked for clarification or a theory. They didn’t have any clarification beyond the fact that it was wrong, but they theorized that there was a leak in the Great Trench somewhere near the mining platform.
Alex told them that was impossible. The ocean could not develop a leak. Where the hell was the water going to go? Leaking into what, exactly? It made no sense to him, but his scientists were resolute in their theory. The ocean had a leak.
Alex had ordered more testing and hired a boat and a submarine so that his nerds could take a closer look at this ocean leak theory. Their departure, and Alex would be on that boat, was tomorrow morning. He only had one problem. He needed a lead nerd. Alex had his best people on the task of finding a lead nerd before tomorrow at five in the morning, but he still had his doubts that they could do it. If they couldn’t do it, it would be crotchety old Harold Scallop. The man had two clumps of crazy gray hair, glasses thick enough to make a bullt proof shield and a perpetual frown. When Alex had hired him, his birth date made him 85 years old. He was now 106 and even more onry and disagreeable. Alex didn’t want him anywhere near his boat, much less on it because he was certain to make it an absolutely miserable experience.
Alex turned his head when there was a knock on his office door. “Come in.”
“We found her,” a man in a black suit said.
“Found who?” Alex asked.
“Your lead scientist,” he said.
“Who is she?” Alex asked.
“Lila Buttercup.”
Alex laughed. “What?”
“Her name is Lila Buttercup.”
“Good god. All right. Where is she?” Alex asked, even though he was pretty certain he wasn’t going to be able to take that name seriously. He’d have to find another one for her. Maybe, Lady B. Otherwise, he’d spend too much time laughing and making stupid puns.
“Working on a manure farm just outside the city. Here’s her contact information.” He handed Alex a stack of paperwork in a pale yellow file folder.
Alex glanced through it. “Thank you. I’ll call her myself.”
He sat down and picked up his landline cell phone. While almost no one had an actual hardwired phone these days, Alex’s was secure and encrypted. He dialed Lila’s work phone number. He felt she might be more willing to answer an unknown call on that one rather than her personal digital number.
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