🛥️😏 #2
As much as I loathe this girl, as much as she drives me absolutely insane this should never have happened under my watch.
This was not the plan.
"I can't stayu ... stand you," she mutters, her slurred voice dropping an octave. She presses her index finger hard into my chest. "And your friends. And your stupid party." With every word, she jabs her finger deeper against my ribs.
I don't pull away. I can't. I am trapped by the sheer sight of her, hating how much she affects me.
Despite the toxins running through her veins, her eyes hold a frantic, mesmerizing glow, masked by a profound sadness.
The moonlight catches the stray strands of her blonde hair, making them shimmer against the dark sky.
Get a grip
I snap mentally, shaking the dangerous thoughts from my head.
I tap my phone screen. "We're docking in a few minutes," I say, my voice tight as I dial emergency services. "And then, you're going straight to the hospital."
"No!" she shrieks, the drug-induced haze fracturing into pure panic. "No, no, no!"
She spins around, stumbling blindly, trying to flee from me. But I step sideways, completely blocking the only narrow gangway leading back to the bow. I watch her, genuine concern overriding my anger as she frantically throws her upper body over the ship's railing.
My heart leaps into my throat. I drop the phone and grab her waist, pulling her back into the safety of the deck. In this altered state, I can't risk her tumbling over into the water.
"Sophia," I mutter, trying to lower my voice to calm the wild animal she has become. I spin her to face me. "It's for your own good. Just breathe."
But the sheer terror radiating off her catches me completely off guard. For the first time, I am completely out of my depth with her. Her pulse is hammering frantically beneath my fingers. Her skin is burning hot, yet her entire frame is shivering violently.
"No... please... no hospital," she whimpers and to my surprise heavy tears break free, tracking a glistening path down her flushed cheek.
"Okay," I say finally, shoving my phone back into my pocket.
"Jesus Okay...But you're coming with me to my place."
"Haha... I knew it. Maria was right about you," she suddenly laughs again, her mood swinging violently back to a manic high.
She loops her arms tightly around my neck, tilting her head up to look at me.
"What if I don't want to go with you?" she asks, her voice dropping into a breathless, teasing purr.
A sudden wave of heat rushes through my veins.
Every nerve in my body seems to violently awaken at her touch, and I hate myself for it.
For a second too long, I lose myself in her eyes, watching a tear slide down her cheek, catching on her eyelashes before disappearing near the corner of her lips.
Her full lips are curved into a fragile, mocking grin.
"You need to be looked at by a doctor," I say, finally snapping out of the trance.
My voice is deeper, raspy, strained by the effort it takes for me to keep my hands from sliding down her back.
And firmly but gently unwrap her arms from my neck, stepping back to create distance.
"But no hospital," I add quickly, noticing the phantom flash of terror return to her eyes at the mere mention of it.
I can't help but wonder what kind of dark history she has with hospitals to be this terrified.
"You know what this is all your fault" she suddenly yells, her anger flaring out of nowhere.
"I know " I run a hand through my hair, completely stressed. I have never experienced this many whiplash-inducing emotional shifts from a single person in my life. Drugs or no drugs, she is completely unraveling right in front of me.
"Don't you see this damn dress?" she asks, looking completely stunned by my rejection, her hands sliding down the curves of her own body. "Do you have any idea how tight this is?" she continues, taking a slow, erratic step toward me. Her eyes drop, locking completely onto my lips.
"I noticed," I reply shortly, my jaw aching from how hard I am clenching my teeth.
I lift my arm, checking my wristwatch for the time, praying for this psychological torture to finally end. Sophia follows my movement like a predator tracking prey. She lunges forward, grabbing my wrist tightly, her head tilting as she stares down at the watch face.
"It's four o'clock," she murmurs. She twists my hand, forcing my wrist at an awkward angle. "No... two o'clock," she guesses next, narrowing her eyes and squinting hard, as if forcing her blurred vision will make the numbers make sense. "It's three o'clock."
"My heart is dancing," she whispers suddenly, her voice dropping to a fragile, terrifyingly quiet register.
"That feeling is normal," I try to reassure her, though my own voice sounds tight and forced.
She presses her palm flat against her chest, right over her heart, her breathing shallow and rapid. "I... you... what happened?"
"That doesn't matter right now, Sophia," I say, my tone shifting into something strictly serious. I reach out, gently brushing a stray blonde strand of hair behind her ear, my fingers lingering for a fraction of a second against her burning skin. "Everything is going to be fine," I promise her.
Internally, I am counting down the exact minutes until we dock. Just sit down over there, I want to yell at her. And stop driving me completely insane. I keep that last part to myself, obviously.
"I'm cold," she says, her voice breaking as she wraps her arms tightly around herself.
The movement shifts her posture, and for a split second, my eyes lock onto her tightly pressed breasts, emphasized by the suffocatingly narrow cut of her dress.
Fuck.
What am I doing?
She is, damn it, the wrong woman to lose my temper with.
I wrench my gaze away, berating myself for even looking at her like that right now. Quickly turning around, I rip open a storage chest filled with cushions and blankets, grabbing the thickest blanket I can find.