Page 66 of Falling Overboard

The bosun leaned in and turned up the volume so that we could hear what they were saying. The bridal party was hooting and hollering at Hunter.

Georgia was passing by and came to a stop, staring at the monitor with us. “What is the Sisterhood of the Traveling Implants doing now?”

I didn’t even shush her—I was just worried for Hunter. It was like he’d just wandered into a pool filled with starving piranhas. They were going to strip him to the bone in less than five minutes.

“Come here and give me a lap dance, you sexy thing!” Sasha shrieked at him, waving her hands high above her head.

“Take your shirt off!” someone else shouted.

“And your pants!”

They were all so drunk.

Hunter tried to beg off, saying he had some work to do, but they weren’t listening.

Sasha then peeled off her expensive couture dress and threw it at his head. He reflexively caught it.

Time to save the day. I spun around on my heel and headed for the deck. Those women were seriously objectifying him.

As was I, but I only objectified him in my brain. I didn’t announce it to him out loud.

It was called manners.

By the time I reached the deck, the women were fighting over who was going to dance with Hunter first and he was standing there, his eyes glazed over, his expression a bit frightened.

“There you are!” I said to him. “The captain asked me to escort you to the bridge. Ladies, is there anything else I can get for you?”

“A new stripper,” somebody muttered. They all looked mutinous.

Just a few more hours and they would be gone. I had to remember that. “I’ll be back to check on you,” I said.

I would tell Georgia to limit the amount of caffeine she was putting in their espresso martinis.

And maybe I’d grind up some sleeping pills to add to their martinis so that they would just go to bed.

I let out a sigh. I knew things were bad if I was even jokingly considering spiking the guests’ drinks.

Just a few more hours to go,I repeated to myself.

We would survive this.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Lucky

“Does the captain really need to see me?” Hunter asked when we entered the main salon.

“No. It looked like you were in danger.”

He shook his head. “You don’t have to keep rescuing me. I can take care of myself.”

“I don’t doubt that for a second,” I said. “But it’s better to keep you out of the way than to make you stay in a situation where you have to somehow extract yourself while also not offending the guests. Besides, it’s fun playing the white knight for once.”

He smiled at me, then handed me the bride’s dress. “Sasha wanted this to be put in the washing machine. She spilled something on it. Then she asked me to bring it back to her cabin when it’s done.”

Hmph. I bet she did. “This isn’t machine washable.”

“I’m guessing anything’s machine washable if you don’t care about it enough.”

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