‘Uh-oh.’

‘What?’

‘Problem in the transformation, Captain. I still sense a few molecules of the nymph hidden under the business facade.’

‘You sense right.’

‘Laura?’

‘Yes?’

David took her hand. ‘I love you,’ he began, his eyes misting over. ‘You’ve made me the happiest man in the world.’

She hugged him, her eyes closing. ‘I love you too, David. I couldn’t live without you.’

‘Grow old with me, Laura, and I promise I’ll always make you happy.’

‘You’ve got a deal,’ she said gently, ‘and you better stick to it.’

‘Forever,’ he said.

Laura kissed him then, not realizing that the honeymoon was over.

‘G’day, ma’am.’

‘Good morning,’ Laura answered the receptionist with a smile. They were staying at the Reef Resort Hotel in Palm’s Cove, about twenty miles from Cairns, Australia. The private resort was a quiet slice of Eden, a secluded paradise overlooking the Pacific. They were hidden within the century-old palm trees and lush bush of tropical northern Australia. Take a boat out in any direction and you would be mesmerized by the rainbow colors of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, nature’s most exquisite masterpiece of jagged coral and exotic marine life, an underground park that man both explored and preserved. Travel in any other direction and you would be wandering through green rain forests with cascading waterfalls, or the beginning of Australia’s famed outback region. It was like no other place in the world.

The receptionist’s voice was heavy with an Australian accent. ‘Your taxi should be here in a few minutes, ma’am. You and your husband enjoying your stay?’

‘Very much so.’

‘Lovely here, ain’t it?’ he said proudly. Like most locals, his skin had a bronze-to-red tone from the constant exposure to the sun.

‘Yes, it is.’

He began to tap his pencil on the desk, his eyes darting around the sun-drenched room. ‘Do you mind if I ask you a sort of personal question, ma’am?’