Chapter Forty-Three Hunter
Chapter Forty-Three
Hunter
Last night, after I had witnessed one of the tech bros asking Georgia to come and sit on his lap so that he could guess her weight, I’d met up with Francois and Thomas and we decided that none of the female crewmembers should be left alone with our current “guests.” I wanted to call my parents and tell them to be more selective in the charters they accepted and explain to them how terrible these people were.
Lucky begged me not to, because she mistakenly believed my parents would think that she personally wasn’t doing a good job. I tried to make her see that that wouldn’t happen, but she didn’t believe me.
The other guests had gone fishing and Lucky told me that while the succubus and her demon dog were on the sundeck, we needed to clean the primary cabin.
She seemed frustrated, so while we stripped the sheets and comforter from the bed in the primary cabin, I asked, “How are you doing today?”
“I’ve got ninety-nine problems and these horrible people are all of them.” She grabbed the clean, ironed linens and directed me on how to put them on correctly. “If there was an iceberg ahead, I don’t think I’d be too upset.”
I laughed while she showed me how to fold the corners correctly. She was so sexy when she bossed me around. I said, “I’m kind of surprised we don’t have to clean up any Barbies.”
“She is really young, isn’t she? I hoped they didn’t cross any state lines getting here.”
I shook my head. “Some people say age is just a number.”
“And in his case a high one. That closely correlates with death,” she shot back.
“Maybe she’s an old soul and he’s a kid at heart and so together they’re ... still forty years apart.”
She grinned at me. “I’m sure their love will last for many, many days.” Then she tossed me a pillowcase.
I picked up a pillow and read the tag. “One hundred percent cotton, nontoxic, organic.” I glanced up at her. “What are other pillows made out of?”
“Asbestos, toxins, and inorganic materials, obviously.”
I loved how she and I could play around and have fun together, just enjoying each other’s company, while still being able to have the serious conversations if we needed to.
Which Lucky was about to do. “Hunter, about last night, I’m sorry for unloading my frustration with the guests on you.”
I paused what I was doing because I was confused. “When did you do that?”
“I was angry with you for intervening. I kind of snapped at you. I know your heart was in the right place.”
“Lucky, you didn’t do anything wrong. You’re allowed to be mad if you’re mad.”
She looked startled. A moment later she said, “If I was ever mad or frustrated, my ex would get angry at me, and even if he was at fault, I always had to be the one who apologized.”
I was going to make a list of all the butts I had to kick when we got off this ship. I went over to her, taking both of her hands in mine. “That’s not how relationships are supposed to work. It’s my job to be there for you when you need me. To support you. And I hope you’d do the same for me.”
“Of course I would.”
“I’ll be strong for you and you’ll be strong for me. We’ll fill in each other’s gaps.”
“Okay.” She smiled at me. “I don’t know if I can trust in people who work through their problems. That doesn’t feel like a real thing.”
“I promise it is,” I said, giving her a quick kiss and then helped get the comforter back onto the bed and also tucked in the corners.
We finished the bed and took a step back to survey our handiwork. “Perfectly made. Do you feel a sense of pride when you look at it?” she asked.
“When I look at it, this is what I think.” I put my hands around her rib cage and tossed her through the air so that she landed on the bed with a surprised laugh and a thud.
“Hunter! We’re going to have to remake this.”
“Then let’s mess it up a little first,” I said with a wicked grin.
“Are you serious right now?”
“Not the kind of question to fill a guy with confidence.”
She propped herself up on her elbows. “How do you want your no? Fast or slow?”
“For the record, I like my yeses loud and drawn out.”
“Yes,” she said quietly.
“Not as loud as I want, but I’ll take it.” I crawled onto the bed and stopped at her ankles. I did what I’d told her I wanted—I started to kiss her there and then leisurely made my way up her right leg. She was already making those little breathy sounds of excitement and she made me so ravenous for her. I needed one more kiss and then another and I kept going.
When I reached her thigh, her legs quivered and she grabbed my head and pulled me up to her mouth, no longer able to wait. She was so passionate, so desperate, that only one part of me was currently thinking and it wasn’t my brain.
I devoured her, kissing her so thoroughly and deeply that I forgot where we were. I tugged at the bottom of her shirt so that I could get to her velvety-soft skin. I needed to touch her everywhere. I loved that I was the only person allowed to touch her like this. That I was the only one who got to see her this way.
Now she was the one tugging at my shirt, and pleasure skated along my skin as she brushed her fingertips over my ribs, up to my chest, back down to my stomach. Liquid fire torched through me, my muscles rippling everywhere she touched. I loved when she touched me. I craved it. I was a total addict. She made everything hazy and hot.
I moved my lips urgently over hers, and then she sucked my tongue into her mouth and all of my other senses shut off completely. I ground myself against her and she moved with me until we were both sweaty and desperate.
She suddenly stopped and it was like the sun had turned off.
“Did you hear that?” she asked.
My lust-addled brain wanted us to stop talking. “The only thing I can hear is my own heartbeat and those sounds you make when you especially enjoy what I’m doing.”
She moved away from me and I didn’t want that. She cocked her head to listen and it felt like an invitation to nip at her neck. “All alone,” I told her. She was being paranoid.
“Probably not for long,” she said reluctantly, letting out a little sigh I understood all too well. “We have to remake this.”
I stood up. It was so hard to love her this much and have to keep my distance. “Good thing I’m an expert at it now.”
“Okay, Mr. Expert, you fix this while I go start in the bathroom.”
She disappeared to go clean and I figured it was probably a good thing to give us a little bit of space. Because the only thing I wanted to do was toss her back on this bed and finish what we’d started.
I straightened out the bed and glanced at some of the red roses in a vase next to the bed. I wanted to do something nice for Lucky. And making the guests happy made her happy.
So I deflowered a bunch of the roses, spreading their petals all over the bed. When I was finished it kind of looked like someone had massacred a flower shop.
Thomas called me on the radio and I hurried out to help him get one of the Jet Skis back on the ship. I was disappointed because I had wanted to see Lucky’s face when she saw what I had done.
I ran back to the primary cabin and she was still in the bathroom. It had to have been a big mess.
“Lucky! Come and see what I did for Myron and his not-able-to-legally-drink-yet girlfriend!”
She came into the cabin, and instead of looking pleased, she looked horrified.
“No, no, no,” she muttered as she came over.
Why was she upset? “It’s romantic.”
“It stains unless you freeze the petals first,” she said. She tried to pick up some of the petals from the bright white comforter but it was too late. It was stained. It looked like someone had been bludgeoned and then bled to death.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” I said, trying to pick up the petals. I had wanted to help her and instead I was only making her life harder.
“I have a replacement in the laundry room. We have to get this out of here,” she said. I helped her grab it, and the bedding beneath it was fine.
We went out into the hallway and nearly crashed into Captain Carl.
The captain’s gaze landed on the blanket. “What’s that?” he asked.
“Oh, the duvet from the primary cabin got a little stained.” Her voice was high and tight. She was scared.
The captain tugged at the blanket and he saw how extensive the stains were.
“Who is responsible for this?”
I opened my mouth to tell him I was to blame but she jumped in front of me.
“It was me,” she said. “I did it.”