Chapter 18
JORDAN
The autopilot was doing Jordan's job for her, which was just as well, because she was useless today. The course was laid in, the conditions were calm, and the chartplotter showed them tracking west-northwest at a steady twelve knots.
She was sitting in her chair on the bridge, watching the sun start its long slow drop toward the western horizon, and thinking about Dani.
She'd been thinking about her since she woke up alone.
Dani had quietly extracted herself before dawn, the way she had the morning before, and gone down to the galley to start her day.
The professional part of Jordan's brain was still running its small, steady audit.
You broke the rules. You crossed a line.
You slept with a member of your crew. But it was also, she noticed, very far away, conducted in a small, polite voice in the back of a much larger room, and the rest of the room was full of an entirely different kind of noise.
She hadn't felt that physical connection in years and she hadn't realized how much she’d missed it.
The biggest problem wasn't the mind-blowing sex they'd had.
What bugged her was what she'd noticed afterwards.
That when she'd shifted in her sleep and found Dani warm against her side she'd felt something that wasn't lust or the slow simmer of post-sex contentment.
It was something larger, older. Something she hadn't allowed herself to feel since Sam, and possibly something she'd never fully felt with Sam either.
She'd loved Sam, but she'd also, she could admit now, loved her with her guard up.
Sam was complicated, closed. She didn't come easily to softness, and Jordan didn't press her for it.
They'd built a love that worked within the boundaries they were given.
In secret, behind closed doors. Sam had never let go the way Dani let go, and last night Jordan had realized how incredible it felt to be wanted like that.
The chartplotter beeped as they crossed a waypoint, and the autopilot adjusted course by half a degree.
Where do we go from here?
Tomorrow morning they'd be back in Key West. The crew would go ashore and she and Dani would have to figure out what they were.
She didn't know how to do this and she didn't know what Dani wanted.
She didn't even know what she wanted, except in the most embarrassing, simple sense that she wanted Dani in her bed again tonight.
The cabin door opened behind her.
"Hey," Dani said. "I got you a coffee." She crossed the bridge and set it on the shelf beside Jordan's chair.
"Thank you." Out of some sort of absurd reflex, Jordan lifted her hand and rested it on the curve of her behind.
A slow, flirty smile broke across Dani's face as she put a hand on Jordan's shoulder. "Captain." She laughed and bit her lip as Jordan tightened her fingers on her, just slightly. "Behave."
"I'm sorry." Jordan dropped her hand with a sheepish grin. "That was really, really inappropriate."
"Yeah." Dani arched a brow. "But I like it when you're inappropriate." She paused, glancing at the door, then back at Jordan. She lowered her voice. "I wouldn't mind being inappropriate with you again later."
Heat rushed through Jordan and she nodded slowly while she held Dani's gaze. They stayed like that for a beat—neither of them moving, neither of them looking away. Flashbacks of last night hit Jordan and she closed her eyes for a beat to clear her head.
"That said…" Dani tugged her collar down two inches. "You might want to aim a little lower next time. It's kind of hard to cover up."
"Jesus." Jordan brought a hand to her mouth. "Did I do that?" The bruise was dark against the skin of Dani’s throat. She vaguely remembered doing it but she'd had no idea she'd been quite that thorough.
"Mm-hm. Lindsay saw it."
"Lindsay?" Jordan froze. That's it then. By tomorrow morning the entire crew will know.
"Earlier. In the galley," Dani said. "I didn't tell her anything, but she has eyes, and she knows me like no one else on the crew." She gave Jordan a reassuring smile. "It's fine. She won't tell anyone, she promised."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Yes. Lindsay's good with secrets."
Jordan reminded herself that Lindsay was indeed good at keeping secrets. She was currently keeping the biggest secret in the entertainment industry.
"Anyway." Dani straightened, fingers trailing down Jordan's arm before her hand came away. "I have a deck to prep for dinner, so I'll let you get back to whatever important captainly things you do here."
"Captainly things are very important indeed," Jordan said. "They involve charts and weather and not thinking about my Hospitality Lead."
"Mm-hm." Dani gave her a slow once-over. The woman was a relentless tease. "How's that going for you?"
"Badly."
"Good." She bent down to Jordan's ear. "I'll see you later, Captain," she murmured. Then she straightened and walked out.