Page 75 of Falling Overboard

Thomas was seated next to her and I told the bosun to move. He was in my spot.

She smiled at me and then briefly laid her head against my shoulder. Like a sort of hug. And it made me want to melt all over this expensive couch.

Which would’ve been a shame, because she would have probably been the one stuck scraping me out of the fabric.

I was so whipped.

The captain came into the room and sat down in an armchair. “Our next charter has been canceled.”

Lucky looked upset and I knew why. We were scheduled to pick up three accountants and their wives. She’d said after the demons masquerading as a bridal party that the universe owed us a nice, boring charter. And the group had planned stops in Italy, somewhere that she was desperate to go.

The captain added, “But we have arranged a couple of last-minute charters. We will pick up the first one tomorrow in Nice at ten o’clock in the morning, and the guest should be with us for a week. So if you made any plans for tonight, cancel them.”

The crew groaned. We were supposed to have had two days free to do as we liked. The captain didn’t seem to like the response and glared at everyone before leaving.

Kai threw up both of his hands. “Is he serious? We don’t get to go out?”

The exterior crew got into a heated discussion about how angry they were.

This worked for me. There was only one person I wanted to spend time with. I leaned toward Lucky and my lips might have accidentally brushed against the shell of her ear. I took great satisfaction in the way that she shivered.

“Movie and popcorn?” I asked.

“Yes, please.” Her voice was rough with longing.

I imagined her begging me with those words while writhing underneath me and it briefly took away my ability to stand.

“I’ll meet you in bed,” I said. I didn’t wait to see her reaction, and I used the two and a half minutes that it took the popcorn to cook to calm myself down.

Lucky had suffered so much in her past. I couldn’t be one more person who let her down. I had to respect what she wanted.

Problem was, I had a pretty good idea of what she wanted but she wasn’t letting herself go down that path.

I didn’t want her to get fired. I didn’t want me to get fired.

That was what I needed to remember.

She didn’t help things by being so unbelievably sexy in her pajamas. I’d never found flannel appealing before but it did things to me now. I handed her the popcorn and she started the movie while I concentrated on keeping my hands to myself.

When the movie ended I asked her the only thing that I cared about. “Am I going to stay here?”

Last night might have been a one-off.

Or given the time it had accidentally happened, a two-off.

There was a long pause and then she said, “You don’t have to. No worries either way.”

I suspected that she was worrying both ways plus a secret third way. I searched her face, trying to figure out what it was that she needed in this moment.

So I gave her honesty. “I know I don’t have to. I ... I’d like to.”

“Then yes, I want you to stay.”

Despite the fact that we were nowhere near a church, I was fairly certain I’d just heard a choir start to sing the “Hallelujah” chorus.

“Every night?” I clarified. I needed to know where the line was.

“If you want.”

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