Chapter Twenty-Five Hunter
Chapter Twenty-Five
Hunter
Kissing had often felt like something to get what I wanted. A marker that had to be hit before moving on to the main event.
But with Lucky?
I knew that I could spend all night kissing her and it would be enough.
Because it would be different with her. I instinctively understood that.
That there was more between us and it wouldn’t feel like it had before. That I could so easily sink into a pool of sweet desire with her and never want to find my way back out.
A hot spike of longing pierced my gut, pinning me in place. My chest burned with an emotion I didn’t quite recognize. I became acutely aware of her. The way her silky hair caressed my arms. The smattering of freckles on the bridge of her nose. How her breathing sounded faster and shorter. That light tropical scent of hers.
Only one sense left—I needed to taste her.
My lips ached to touch hers. I had to know what it would feel like. My skin prickled with a need for her that made it painful to stay on my side of the bed.
“Lucky,” I said softly, hoping she would hear what I couldn’t say.
I leaned forward and heard the way her breath caught, saw her eyes widen. I went slowly, giving her the chance to stop me.
Which she did. “We should call it a night,” she said in a whisper that made my stomach clench.
Okay. Message received. I did my best not to look disappointed. “Good night.”
It was hard to let her go but I did and scooted to the edge of her bunk. To my shock she reached out and put her hand on my arm, sending a bolt of crackling pleasure through me. My pulse thudded at the contact. Had she changed her mind?
“Stay,” she said and it made that emotion from my chest head straight into my heart.
I must have misheard her. “What?”
“Don’t go.”
There was no more oxygen in this room.
“If you want,” she added, sounding embarrassed.
I wanted. I wanted so badly that I was nearly shaking from it. Desire curled and twisted low in my gut.
It couldn’t happen. I knew that. I stood up.
I saw on her face that she thought I had rejected her. Didn’t she know that I would give her anything she asked for? Would do anything for her?
I turned off the light and then locked the door.
She gasped when she registered that I wasn’t going anywhere. I lifted the covers and slid into bed next to her. It took every single ounce of willpower that I possessed not to reach for her. I had to take things slowly. I shouldn’t even be doing this at all. I should remember my plans and what I had promised to do.
But being this close to Lucky blocked all that out.
We faced one another. Her breathing still hadn’t settled and neither had mine. I wasn’t touching her, wasn’t kissing her, wasn’t doing anything that I wanted to do, but somehow this felt intimate to me. She was so sweet and warm and it was killing me to stay put.
“Good night, Lucky.”
“Good night, Hunter.”
I had no idea how I was going to survive this.
When I woke up the next morning, it was to discover that she was watching me. I wondered if she liked what she saw.
Then I realized my hand was on her waist. That had happened unintentionally.
Unintentionally in the sense that I hadn’t agreed to it, but it was completely intentional on my body’s part.
That I had sought out a connection with her while we were sleeping. “Why do you always wake up so early?” I grumbled.
Her smile was pure sunshine and it chased away my grumpy mood.
“Maybe because it’s a day full of possibilities,” she said.
Then she leaned toward me, as if she intended to kiss me. Like it was something we had already done a thousand times.
At the last possible moment, she suddenly seemed to realize what she was doing and ended up smacking her forehead into my nose.
“Ow!” I took my hand from her waist and rubbed my nose. Like it already wasn’t bad enough that I couldn’t be with her—now I was getting assaulted.
“Are you okay?” Her voice wobbled, as if worried that she had permanently damaged me.
I wished I could kiss her frown away. I settled for teasing her. “I’m fine. I just didn’t know you were this clumsy in the morning.”
If I stayed in this bunk any longer, I worried that I was going to do something I’d regret. She had the prettiest, pinkest lips and it felt like a crime that I didn’t get to kiss them. I went into the bathroom and wondered if there was enough cold water on this ship to calm my raging heartbeat.
I looked at myself in the mirror. I felt like a coward. I should just talk to her.
If she said she wasn’t interested, that was fine. I was a big boy. I could handle it.
But if she said she wanted something more ...
All my thoughts about taking things slow went away and I came back into the cabin. She was still lying in bed and the only thing I wanted to do was climb back in there with her. She looked so uncertain and worried and I wanted to make things better.
Thomas’s voice came through on the walkie-talkie, calling my name.
He had the worst timing. I grabbed it and responded. He said he needed me on the aft deck. I said that I’d be there soon, watching her the whole time.
“Lucky, I—”
“You should go,” she said, pulling the blanket up to her chest. “It might be important.”
I doubted it but I heard what she wasn’t saying. She needed some space. She wanted to think about what had almost happened last night.
She was concerned about breaking Captain Carl’s rule.
I got ready and left with her still in her bunk. I had some thinking to do, too. Mostly about how everything might change once she knew who I really was.
Would she be understanding? Or would she freak out?
I knew I should tell her everything.
But there was a part of me that held back, not wanting to lose her.
The mindless physical labor didn’t help my situation. If I’d been doing something that engaged my brain, maybe I would have been able to keep thoughts of her at bay.
That wasn’t happening now.
While I scrubbed the teak deck, I took a picture of it and sent it to her.
She responded so quickly that it made me smile.
What is this?
I texted back:
I’m sending you unsolicited deck pics. Signed, Your Favorite Buoy
I could imagine her laughing, the way her whole face would light up and my heart would swell that I was the one responsible for it.
There was a twinge in my chest and I rubbed it. I realized that I could very easily spend the rest of my life making Lucky happy.
The bachelorette party from hell finally left and screwed us on the tip. Everybody wanted to go out and celebrate that they had gone but the captain put a stop to that.
He told us to meet him in the main salon. When I arrived, Lucky was already there. And I grinned at her like I was coming home from war.
I told myself that someone was going to notice, but I didn’t care.
Especially not when she lit up the way that she did.
Thomas was seated next to her and I told the bosun to move. He was in my spot.
She smiled at me and then briefly laid her head against my shoulder. Like a sort of hug. And it made me want to melt all over this expensive couch.
Which would’ve been a shame, because she would have probably been the one stuck scraping me out of the fabric.
I was so whipped.
The captain came into the room and sat down in an armchair. “Our next charter has been canceled.”
Lucky looked upset and I knew why. We were scheduled to pick up three accountants and their wives. She’d said after the demons masquerading as a bridal party that the universe owed us a nice, boring charter. And the group had planned stops in Italy, somewhere that she was desperate to go.
The captain added, “But we have arranged a couple of last-minute charters. We will pick up the first one tomorrow in Nice at ten o’clock in the morning, and the guest should be with us for a week. So if you made any plans for tonight, cancel them.”
The crew groaned. We were supposed to have had two days free to do as we liked. The captain didn’t seem to like the response and glared at everyone before leaving.
Kai threw up both of his hands. “Is he serious? We don’t get to go out?”
The exterior crew got into a heated discussion about how angry they were.
This worked for me. There was only one person I wanted to spend time with. I leaned toward Lucky and my lips might have accidentally brushed against the shell of her ear. I took great satisfaction in the way that she shivered.
“Movie and popcorn?” I asked.
“Yes, please.” Her voice was rough with longing.
I imagined her begging me with those words while writhing underneath me and it briefly took away my ability to stand.
“I’ll meet you in bed,” I said. I didn’t wait to see her reaction, and I used the two and a half minutes that it took the popcorn to cook to calm myself down.
Lucky had suffered so much in her past. I couldn’t be one more person who let her down. I had to respect what she wanted.
Problem was, I had a pretty good idea of what she wanted but she wasn’t letting herself go down that path.
I didn’t want her to get fired. I didn’t want me to get fired.
That was what I needed to remember.
She didn’t help things by being so unbelievably sexy in her pajamas. I’d never found flannel appealing before but it did things to me now. I handed her the popcorn and she started the movie while I concentrated on keeping my hands to myself.
When the movie ended I asked her the only thing that I cared about. “Am I going to stay here?”
Last night might have been a one-off.
Or given the time it had accidentally happened, a two-off.
There was a long pause and then she said, “You don’t have to. No worries either way.”
I suspected that she was worrying both ways plus a secret third way. I searched her face, trying to figure out what it was that she needed in this moment.
So I gave her honesty. “I know I don’t have to. I ... I’d like to.”
“Then yes, I want you to stay.”
Despite the fact that we were nowhere near a church, I was fairly certain I’d just heard a choir start to sing the “Hallelujah” chorus.
“Every night?” I clarified. I needed to know where the line was.
“If you want.”
Not that again. She couldn’t say that to me or else I might slip up and tell her just how much I wanted.
“I’ll be right back.” I went into the bathroom to give myself some breathing room and get ready for bed.
This was enough. Whatever she had to give me was enough.
And I’d be thankful that I got to be close to her.