Chapter 16 #2
She shrugged a casual shoulder and leaned against the doorjamb, very obviously trying to see into the room. “Whatever. I was
up all night fucking too.”
Emmy leaned in front of her to block her view. On close inspection, Piper had little puffed half-moons under her eyes, but
that was about it. She certainly didn’t look as haggard as Emmy felt. Perhaps it was due to the sunbeams of happiness shooting
out of her.
“Well, sure. But it was your wedding night.”
“Yes, and it was your... what night?” Piper leaned over and tried to peer in again.
Emmy stepped partially into the hall and pulled the door farther closed behind her. “It was my none-of-your-business night.
What can I help you with? What’s with all the fish emojis?”
Piper bounced up on her toes and squealed as if she’d forgotten the previous topic. She clapped her hands together. “Put on
your swimsuit and grab your man. Ben’s dad got us a boat for breakfast!”
Emmy blinked at her. “He— What? He bought you guys a boat ?”
“What? No ,” Piper said, like it wasn’t in the realm of possibility her new father-in-law might actually give them a yacht as a wedding
gift. “As part of payback for the double-booking, Steve got the hotel to comp us a cruise. They usually use it for tours,
but we get the whole thing to ourselves for the day. It’s not as big as Gary and Cary’s boat, but still good.”
Emmy’s eyes popped wide in excitement. “Seriously? That’s awesome.”
“Yep! We’ve got a hundred-foot catamaran stocked with mimosas and brunch buffet docked and waiting, so saddle up!” She clapped
her hands again and hooked her arm in an enthusiastic let’s go motion.
Emmy’s heart stilled when the word catamaran fully sank in. “Oh. Um, we can’t actually.”
Piper’s face folded into a befuddled frown. “What? Why not?”
Emmy glanced over her shoulder and noted she heard the shower running. She lowered her voice anyway because she knew he’d
try to stop her from shooting down the invitation if he heard her. “Gabe gets seasick. He can’t go on a boat.”
Piper’s frown deepened. “But he was on the boat at my party.”
“Yes, and he was puking the whole time. Don’t you remember?”
“I in fact do not remember,” she said, and booped Emmy on the nose. “Which is a sign you threw one hell of a bash.” Piper sighed, but it came
out dreamy and content. “Well, we’ll miss you, but seems like you’re having plenty of fun on land anyway.” She winked, and
Emmy was thankful rejecting her invitation didn’t prompt a tantrum.
“Have fun, Pipes. Tell your husband hi from me.”
Piper squealed a delighted sound and scrunched her face. “ Husband. I love him.”
“I know you do. Marriage looks good on you.”
“Thank you. Tell the first mate hi from me. And don’t forget to hydrate and eat today. Gotta keep your strength up,” she said
with a suggestive bounce of her brows and walked backward with a bow.
“ Bye, Piper ,” Emmy called, and stepped back into her room.
Inside, she heard the shower still running. She noted the bathroom door left open with an intentional gap.
An invitation.
Her heart pumped hard, pushing heat into her face as she slipped inside. The glass stall had fogged over in the corner, but
she could see Gabe’s shape moving in the steam. Puffs of mist spilled over the top of the door and filled the tiled room with
the sweet coconut smell of the hotel’s soap.
Emmy dashed to the sink to quickly brush her teeth and saw Gabe had had the same idea from his toothbrush and toothpaste already
sitting there. When she finished, she slipped off her robe and padded to the shower.
He’d been expecting her, obviously. A billow of steam poured into the room when she opened the door, and he held out a hand
to help her in.
The large glass box could easily and comfortably accommodate two people, but he immediately eliminated the space between them
and pulled her tightly against him.
“Hi,” she said, already breathless.
“Hi.”
He turned her under the waterfall spilling from overhead. As the stream washed over her, he followed it with his hands, smoothing
her hair and down her shoulders to her chest, pausing the journey to circle his thumbs over her nipples. She arched into him,
greedy for more. He obliged and wrapped his arms around her to pull her into a kiss. A kiss so slow and long and deep she
literally gasped for air when he stopped.
“What did she want?” he asked.
“Who?” Emmy asked in a daze. Her mind was as foggy as the coconut-scented steam swirling around them.
Gabe quietly laughed. “Your sister.”
“Oh. It was nothing.” She rose on her toes to kiss him again. Her wet thigh slipped between his and she pushed her fingers into his hair. Her chest slid against his where he’d already soaped himself.
He gently pried her off and gazed down at her. Water clung to his long lashes and dripped off the curled ends of his hair.
She’d seen him soaking wet fully clothed in the rain last night, but soaking wet naked was a whole different story. Her knees
threatened to give out. “I don’t think all that pounding and texting was nothing.”
It took her a moment to realize he was talking about Piper and not what the two of them had spent last night and the past
several weeks doing with each other. Her inability to think straight was largely due to his erection having returned full
force and hotly pressing into her belly.
The need to be close to him, to drink him in and seal her body to his again, outweighed everything else in that moment, so
she told him the truth to pacify his curiosity.
“Ben’s dad got the hotel to comp a yacht for a brunch cruise for everyone, but I told her no thanks.” She leaned in to kiss
him again, but he pulled back.
“What? Why would you do that?”
“Because you get seasick.”
“Well, yes, I do. But that shouldn’t stop you from having fun. You should go, Emmy.”
“And leave you here alone all day? No way.” She shoved her way in this time and got a full two seconds of his luscious mouth
before he pulled back again.
“Emmy.”
“Gabe.”
He sighed, sounding truly dismayed. “I’ll be fine. I’ll go fishing again or something. I can call Henry. Don’t let me get
in your way.”
This time, she sighed. She gripped his shoulders and spun them around so his back faced the interior shower wall.
She pushed him up against it and pinned him there.
“I don’t think you get it, Olson,” she said in a low voice.
A smile twitched her mouth at the pleasantly startled look on his face.
“What happens in Mexico stays in Mexico, and we have twenty-four more hours in Mexico. I am not wasting any of them on a boat without you.” She kissed him, hard, and then bit his bottom lip.
“Got it?” she said with his lip still between her teeth.
He smiled as much as he could with his lip pinched. A daring spark flashed in his eyes. “Got it.”
“Good.” She released him and slid down his wet body, savoring the dips and grooves of his muscles under her sparking fingers
and kissing a trail all the way to the flat indent of his navel.
He sucked in a sharp, hissing breath and tilted his head back against the tile. “ Twenty-four hours ,” Emmy thought she heard him mutter as she settled on her knees in front of him.
They never left the room that day. They only paused to order room service and briefly doze in each other’s arms. Every second
that he wasn’t on top of her, beneath her, behind her, holding her up against the slick shower wall, felt like a waste of
precious time. This man had lit Emmy on fire, and knowing they were going to douse the flame when they left had her desperate
to keep it burning while they were together. She felt the same desperation in Gabe’s touch, the hunger in his kisses, the
way he promptly peeled off any stitch of her clothing as soon as she put it on.
Late on Sunday night in the dim glow of the baseball game Gabe had somehow found on TV, Emmy, exhausted in the best way possible,
traced her fingers along his bare chest. She lay nestled under his left arm; the length of her body pressed up against his
with nothing other than the sheet tangled around them. Sleep beckoned her with an eager hand, but she wasn’t ready to surrender,
not if it meant losing time with him. Gabe gently breathed with a comfortable ease Emmy felt syrupy and warm in her own veins.
She was paying more attention to memorizing the contours of his chest, the hypnotic pattern of it rising and falling, than
the game. She didn’t even know who was playing or what country they were from.
She dipped her finger into the U-bend of his collarbone and then traced it across to the other side. The soft ridges of his scar bumped along under her fingertip. She lightly shuddered. “Were you scared?” she quietly asked, and traced her finger back over it.
His breath hitched for a second, and Emmy worried she’d crossed a line. They’d gotten very well acquainted with each other’s
bodies, but it might have been the most intimate thing she’d ever asked him. When Gabe shifted his weight to move, she wanted
to take it back, but he turned toward her and settled with his head on the pillow inches from hers. His eyes shone even in
the dim light, and she saw honesty bared back at her.
He nodded. “Yeah,” he said in a soft voice, almost a whisper. “I was terrified.”
Emmy reached out and pressed her palm to his cheek, wanting to take away the fear even if it was distant and faded. “What
happened?”
His brow furrowed and the ghost of something dark flashed over his face. “I don’t really remember the accident, but I know
I caused it. I was driving home from practice one day. It had been a bad day. I was pissed off at my coach for something that
in retrospect was completely irrelevant. Someone cut me off on the freeway, and it was the last straw. I sped around them
intending to cut them off as payback but didn’t see the slow car in the next lane.” He closed his eyes and shook his head.
“I swerved into the median and flipped three times.”