Page 88 of Why Cruise

I blinked rapidly and dug my phone out of my pocket. That felt like a bigger statement than it was, and I couldn’t quite process that yet.

I read the message and then held it up for him.

Mackenzie:

Cuddlezzzzz now.

“That’s a lot of z’s.”

“She might be drunk.”

I read the message again like new information would be revealed. I tapped my thumb on the edge of my phone. Scrolled up and then scrolled back down.

“Shit.” I said, realizing what had just happened.

“What?”

“I uh, think I was waiting for you to tell me what to do, but you were waiting for me to tell you what I was going to do.”

He tried and failed to not smirk. “That’s about right.”

“I’m going to go check on her.”

“You should.”

He took a big breath and sighed loudly. Then his fingers were skating over my skin. I froze. He adjusted my boxers back to the proper place, zipped and buttoned my pants and did up my belt. Fuck. That might have been the most intimate thing I had ever experienced. He put his hands on the rail to each side of me and put more space between us.

“Do you want me to walk you back to your room?”

Duh, yes.“No, I’ll be fine.”

“That’s not what I asked.” He cocked his head. “I asked what you wanted. Not if you’d be fine.”

I looked down at the dark screen of my phone. I cleared my throat. “I do want you to walk me back to my room, but I think I need a little time to myself.”

“That’s valid. Now, will you be fine?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I’ll be fine.”

“Great. And just so I don’t feel like I’m a creep because I’m stalking you two all over the ship…”

“You’re stalking us? That’s a bad look for a CEO.”

“Look, I don’t have a phone, okay? Daisy took it away from me so I could ‘relax’. I can’t send you a text.”

“Justice, the ship has a phone system. You can call any room you want. And there’s Todd the Butler.”

He rubbed his face and tried not to smile. “There’s this casino and auction thing tomorrow. Aria is all over my ass about it. It’s for one of her charities. Will you go with me?”

“Is this a date?”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“No, it’s not a fucking date. You’ll know when it’s a fucking date when I send flowers and messenger over a new outfit that I picked out for you, not Todd the Butler, and I send a car and I take you to some place so obscenely expensive and impressive that you wet the panties I just bought for you. Then you’ll know it’s a fucking date, okay?”

I tried very hard and failed at not laughing.

“For fuck’s sake. Casino night. Yes or No?”

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