Page 1 of Curves and Waves

Chapter 1: Zoe

Iwas going to kill Jake. Slowly. Painfully. Possibly by throwing him overboard.

"Surprise!" My idiot twin brother grinned, gesturing to the tall figure beside him. "Look who I invited!"

Caleb. Of course it was Caleb. Because apparently, my plan for a relaxing cruise away from real life wasn't torturous enough without my long-time crush tagging along.

"Hey, Zoe." Caleb's deep voice sent an unwelcome shiver down my spine. "Hope you don't mind me crashing your vacation."

Mind? Why would I mind? It's not like I'd spent the last decade pretending I wasn't madly in love with my brother's best friend. It's not like I'd purposely booked this cruise to get away from the constant temptation of his stupidly perfect face.

I forced a smile. "No problem at all. The more the merrier, right?"

Jake whooped, oblivious to my internal screaming. "This is going be awesome! I'm hitting the buffet. You two get settled in."

And with that, he was gone, leaving me alone with six feet of pure temptation.

Caleb scratched the back of his neck, a nervous habit I found infuriatingly endearing. "So, uh, which way to the cabins?"

"Follow me." I turned quickly, not trusting myself to maintain eye contact for too long. As we wove through the crowd of excited passengers, I tried to focus on anything but the warmth radiating from Caleb's body behind me.

"Your hair's different," he commented. "It looks nice."

I nearly tripped over my own feet. Was he flirting? No, definitely not. This was Caleb. He was probably just being polite.

"Thanks," I managed, fumbling with my key card as we reached my cabin. "This is me. You and Jake are probably next door."

"Actually." Caleb cleared his throat. "Jake said he booked us a suite to share. Said it'd be more fun."

The key card slipped from my fingers. Caleb bent to retrieve it, and I absolutely did not notice how his t-shirt rode up, revealing a sliver of tanned skin.

"Here you go." He handed it back, our fingers brushing. The contact sent a jolt through me that had nothing to do with static electricity.

"Thanks," I mumbled, shoving the card into the reader with more force than necessary. "Well, I guess this is our suite.” The room was surprisingly large, and I was thankful that there were two separate compartments for sleeping areas, and it looked like it had its own entrance that I hadn’t noticed before. I would not be able to handle seeing him sleep across from me each night.

I wonder if he sleeps naked.

I let out a long, shaky breath. Ten days. I had to survive ten days in close quarters with Caleb. Ten days of pretending I didn't want to run my hands through his messy hair, or trace the line of his jaw, or—

No. Stop it, Zoe.

I flopped face-first onto the bed, groaning into the pillow.

A knock at my door made me jump. "Zo?" Caleb's voice called. "We're heading to the deck for the sail-away party. You coming?"

I briefly considered faking seasickness. Or death. Instead, I plastered on a smile and opened the door.

"Wouldn't miss it," I lied, stepping into the hallway.

As Caleb's arm brushed against mine, I silently added another item to my to-do list: Buy a life jacket. Because at this rate, I was definitely going overboard.

Chapter 2: Zoe

The new cruise liner, Infinity Voyager, had gone all out on its sail away party. I trailed behind Caleb, trying not to stare at the tattoos peeking out from under his shirt sleeves. When did he get those? The last time I'd seen him shirtless was... well, best not to think about that now.

We joined the queue for drinks, and I immediately regretted my choice of flats. Even in heels, I barely reached Caleb's shoulder. Now, the top of my head was level with his chest, giving me an unfortunate view of his perfectly defined pectorals through his thin t-shirt.

"What's your poison, shortcake?" Caleb's voice rumbled above me.

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