Chapter Forty-One Lucky
Chapter Forty-One
Lucky
Georgia convinced me to break into the “dress stash.” Guests often deliberately left some of their expensive things behind. One woman had told us, “How can I convince my husband to buy me more dresses if I bring them with me?” We kept them in a closet and broke them out when we were going someplace fancy.
Like tonight. We had decided to go to one of the casinos where they had filmed that James Bond movie. While Emilie and Georgia grabbed dresses quickly (with Emilie shooting me dirty looks the entire time), it took me a bit longer. I finally found one that fit me but it was very short. It would have been short on an average-size woman but on me? It was practically a mini. If I bent the wrong way, the whole world would see my religion.
Hunter didn’t seem to mind, though. He couldn’t keep his eyes off my legs.
“Are you trying to kill me?” he asked in a strangled voice.
Suddenly I couldn’t breathe and my lungs were no longer functioning. “You have to stop,” I told him.
“I can’t,” he whispered back. “I love your legs. Have I ever told you how much I adore those little skorts you wear? How much I imagine kissing every single inch ... or how badly I want you to wrap them around me.” His words heated me up and I was glad we were surrounded by people because I wanted to attack him.
It made me question again how we were going to make it through the next few months when it was all I could do now to keep my hands off him.
“Are you going to play any of the games tonight? Blackjack? Roulette?” I asked while fanning my face, trying to distract us both.
“How could I not when I’ve got luck on my side? Although you do know what they say—lucky in love, unlucky in cards.”
I hushed him and glanced around, glad that no one else was listening.
Georgia leaned over and said to me, “What have I been doing with my life?”
“Chasing boys and the approval of others,” I told her, watching Hunter turn to his other side and engage Kai in a conversation. “Why?”
She nodded, seemingly in agreement with me. “Do you know what’s odd?”
“Numbers not divisible by two?”
Since she had started drinking before we’d left the ship, she missed my joke completely, while Hunter laughed on the other side of me.
“I think I like Pieter. This guy from Slovakia had been texting me and I find the amount of letters in his last name very charming, but I want to be with Pieter. I blame you and all your happiness. You’ve rubbed off on me and I hate it.”
“I’m ... sorry?” I wasn’t sure what she wanted here.
“My entire dating history has been like Halloween. Men pretending to be someone they’re not and they want my candy and then they move on to the next person. Why can’t they just be honest? Nobody ever says, ‘Hi, would you mind it terribly if I waste the next six months of your life with my lack of emotional intelligence and fear of commitment?’”
I didn’t know how to respond to her. It was so unlike Georgia to be introspective and admit to her dating issues and fears.
Fears that I still had, although I was trying to put them aside.
“Then you tell me to give Pieter a chance and he’s just like you said—a nice guy—and I have no idea what to do with that!” she said, slamming her hands down onto the table.
“You date him and see where it goes. Although I never thought I’d see you in a real relationship. I thought hell would have to freeze over first.”
“And it’s possible because we have global warming,” she said solemnly and I tried hard not to laugh. “I do worry about sea goggles.”
I glanced at Hunter. It was something I still worried about. We were in a casino/hotel full of very beautiful women. Would he take a look around and remember that there was life beyond the boat? More than just me?
Not wanting my mind to go down that dark path, I said to Georgia, “I think you and Pieter are a good thing. You deserve to be treated well.”
“As do you,” she said before taking another gulp of her wine. “Speaking of, how far have things gone exactly? It’s pretty obvious that something has changed between you two for the better.”
I knew it! I knew it was obvious. I wondered who else had come to the same conclusion. I glanced around the table but no one was paying any attention to our conversation. “We’ve smooched a bit. A lot, actually.”
“And you’re in love.”
I didn’t confirm it, but I didn’t deny it, either, which pretty much was confirmation, given the way she started gloating. “Ha. Called that one the first day.”
Panic set in, and somehow, Hunter seemed to sense it. He was deep in conversation with Kai but he reached under the table and put his hand on my knee, squeezing it, making me feel better.
“Are you going to freak out?” Georgia asked, worried.
“I’m okay.” I put my hand on top of his and he turned it over so that we were holding hands. He always exuded so much comfort and warmth. Was I sweating? I was worried that I was sweating.
“Yeah, no, you totally look like you’re okay,” she said and I knew she was teasing me. “A toast!”
That got everyone at the table to stop talking and that anxiety of mine started up again. I was afraid she was about to tell everyone about me and Hunter.
Instead she said, “Here’s to alcohol! Helping people make regrettable, life-altering mistakes for thousands of years!”
Everyone else cheered and clinked their glasses together. Hunter made eyes at me over his glass and I leaned in.
I knew I shouldn’t ask the question, but it was like I couldn’t help myself. “What are you thinking about?”
He set his glass down. “All the ways I’d like to take that dress off you.”
A spike of desire struck deep in my gut. “That’s not fair,” I whispered.
“Not trying to be. Here.” He handed me a basket full of bread. “I asked the waitress to bring extra bread for you because you wanting bread is usually a safe bet.”
I hadn’t even noticed the waitress distributing everyone’s dinner. I was ravenous, but not for food.
Food was the only thing I could have, though.
I pretty much attacked the steak I’d ordered. Thankfully, it was one of the best filets mignons I’d ever had. And Andre cooked this sort of thing regularly. I was kind of glad the chef hadn’t come out with us tonight and had opted to go to bed early. I felt a little like I was cheating on him with this dinner.
“Is it good?” Hunter asked. He had some kind of seafood platter.
“It’s like crack made out of beef,” I told him, offering him a bite. And I watched every moment of him taking it from my fork, the way his mouth closed around it, how he slid the meat from the tongs and ... why did I suddenly feel woozy?
He leaned in close. “You have to stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Saying things that make me want to kiss you.”
My temperature spiked and I wished, more than anything, that we were alone.
He picked up one of his oysters and offered it to me. “Do you want to try it? I’ve heard they can be quite the aquadesiac.”
“I’ve never really been into oysters.” I ignored his pun and also decided that I wasn’t going to tell him that it looked like someone had dripped snot onto a shell. And if it really was some kind of aphrodisiac, I definitely needed to steer clear.
He said, “We’ve got that charter tomorrow, so think of it as the clam before the storm.”
“Oysters aren’t clams.”
“Yes, but I don’t have a pun for oysters.”
“You two are like an old married couple!” Georgia declared. She was pretty drunk, and from the looks of things, Emilie was well on her way to joining her.
I was worried that my friend was drawing too much attention to Hunter and me, but then I was saved by Pieter. He came over to her and said, “I think you want to come to the club and dance with me.”
“You’ve been misinformed,” she said with a smile but then left with him anyway.
I was acutely aware of Emilie staring at me and tried very hard not to make eye contact. We still ran the risk of her going to her uncle and telling him that she suspected Hunter and I were together. I didn’t want to give her any proof.
With Georgia and Pieter leaving, it broke our little party up. Kai stood up and said, “If you’ll all excuse me, I believe I just spotted my ride home.” He went over to a tall, stunning blonde and began chatting her up.
Following his lead, Thomas said, “That bird right there, the one with the red hair? She looks like a bad decision, doesn’t she? I’m off to see if she’d like to have breakfast with me.”
It was shocking that those kinds of lines apparently worked for the exterior crew. Following the lead of his friends, Francois went off to talk to some unsuspecting woman and I wondered whether I had a moral obligation as a fellow woman to warn her.
Emilie stared at us for a bit longer and then stood up dramatically, making her way over to the bar. A handsome man immediately sat down next to her and I let out a sigh. “She’s going to make some unlucky guy very uncomfortable tonight.”
Hunter chuckled next to me while I realized that the rest of the crew had abandoned us and we were now alone.
The waitress returned with the check, handing it to Hunter. “I guess it’s my treat,” he said.
“Yes, well, when people find out your parents own a yacht, they’ll expect you to cover dinner.”
He smiled, pulling out his card, and the waitress immediately returned to run it for him. She came back quickly with the receipt. He signed it and then pulled my chair closer. “Do you want to get out of here?”
I did, which was going to become an issue. But I still said, “Please.”
In an apparent hurry to be alone with me back on the ship, he called for a ride instead of walking.
“You don’t want to gamble?” I asked. We were in a casino in Monte Carlo. It seemed like we should.
“Everything we’ve been doing has been a calculated risk,” he said. “I don’t need to push my luck at the tables.”
I thought about his statement as we made our way back to the Mio Tesoro . We were putting ourselves at risk, but it was like we couldn’t stay away from each other. I loved him so much and all I wanted to do was be as close to him as I possibly could.
A sentiment he shared, as he kissed me on my neck the entire way back.
By the time we got to our cabin, I was so fired up that I was ready to burn this entire ship down. My blood pulsated, blocking out other sounds.
He locked the door. “You told me once that you have to anticipate the needs of the guests. And the crew.”
It was easy to see where he was going with this. “I did say that.”
“You haven’t been anticipating my needs.”
“I haven’t?” I said innocently.
He fixed me with that hungry gaze of his. “No. You’ve been very remiss in your duties.”
“And what is it you need?”
A lazy, wicked smile lit up his features. “A kiss.”
“I live to be of service,” I said, stepping forward. He met me halfway, crashing into me. His lips were hot and insistent on mine, and I was immediately plunged into that hazy world of pleasure where nothing mattered except his kiss.
And I didn’t know how we were going to keep things PG if he kept kissing me like the world would end if he didn’t. He completely overloaded my entire system and it was so difficult to think.
I did finally manage to break away from him, and it was like I was tearing off a piece of myself.
“I love you,” he breathed, making my decision to pull back feel like a not particularly smart one.
“And I love you. But we are playing with fire here.” We needed to be more careful.
He leaned his forehead against mine, his chest moving up and down quickly. “I’m not just playing with it. I’m like one of those stuntmen in a flame-retardant suit, running around on fire.”
I knew exactly what he meant. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know,” he said ruefully. “Maybe we should call it a night before I ravish you.”
Yes, please. “Good idea,” I breathed out. “The going-to-sleep part. Not the, you know, other one.”
He gave me a knowing grin. He kissed me briefly and then went over to the closet, taking off his shirt. I reached for the zipper on my dress and realized that I couldn’t quite get to it.
“Need help?”
I had to gulp down the sensations that overwhelmed me as I turned my back to him. He stepped closer to me and I tried hard not to think about what he was doing. He grasped the zipper and tugged it slightly down.
Then he leaned forward and kissed the skin at the base of my neck and I had to put my hands onto the wall to keep me upright. I was trembling, torn between wanting him to continue and scared of what would happen if he did.
He pulled the zipper down oh so slowly, and with every patch of skin that was exposed, he pressed a warm kiss to that spot. It got harder and harder to stand as my knees pretty much stopped working entirely.
Something he seemed to realize as he put his free hand flat against my stomach, holding me in place as he continued his onslaught of unzipping and then kissing.
“This isn’t avoiding the fire,” I whispered.
“I know,” he said in a low tone that made everything inside me burn even brighter. “You are so unbelievably sexy.”
His words made my bones liquefy. He released his hand and I had to lean against the door as he crouched to continue his trail of fiery kisses. When he got to the small of my back, something smacked hard into the wall outside our cabin. I heard someone call out in pain.
Without thinking, I unlocked the door and came out into the hallway. Emilie had apparently tripped on her way down the stairs and crashed into the wall.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
She took in our appearance—him shirtless, my dress gaping in the back, practically sliding off my shoulders, and narrowed her gaze. I didn’t know what she thought about Hunter and our fake-dating-but-now-real-dating thing we had going on, but if she had doubted it at all, we had just eliminated that doubt entirely. She went into her own cabin and slammed the door shut.
I turned to Hunter and asked, “Do you think she’ll tell her uncle?”
His face was grim. “Let’s hope not.”