Page 54 of Love Overboard
“Sorry.” Jon tugged the towel over her face and took the rubbing down a few notches.
She sighed as the gentle pressure relaxed her. The tension drained from her body, and she sank into a hypnotic state as Jon’s fingers pushed the worries from her mind.
“Lacey?”
The voice called from far away.
“Lacey?”
She jolted awake as Jon’s face poked under the towel. It draped over both of them, providing a private, fuzzy refuge. He stopped an inch from her nose, close enough his breath grazed her skin. Lacey’s fatigue vanished. The outside of her body froze, but the inside was hopping on one foot, squealing like a toddler in a bouncy castle.
Jon’s gaze wandered from her eyes to her nose to her lips. “If I kiss you, will you start dating someone else again?”
Lacey gulped. Her mouth refused to form the word. All she could manage was a slight shake of the head. He leaned forward, closing the distance between them. Tilting his chin to the left, he looked in her eyes once more as if checking for permission.
She nodded.
His mouth lowered and drew near. Lacey’s lids drooped shut as she waited for that first, searing contact her body still remembered so well.
An ear-piercing scream jerked her back to reality.
CHAPTER 24
JON YANKED THE TOWEL FROMtheir heads, threw it on the end of the bed, and scrambled to his feet. He held out his hand for Lacey and pulled her up. She ran for the door. Jon followed. They entered the chaotic gymnasium to find a group of passengers circling a hysterical woman.
“Get it off! Get it off!” she shrieked. Her jerky hand waved at the cot, where a spindly-legged spider skittered.
“Aw, is that all?” A heavy-lidded man clinched a blanket under his chin. “I thought you found a corpse.” He crossed the gym and plopped on his own cot.
Others wandered away, but a few stayed with the woman.
Jon approached, flicked the spider off the bed, and squashed it with his shoe.
“What kind of cruise line is this?” Of course it was Amante asking. “We paid for luxury accommodations, and you put us in this dump.”
Lacey cringed. “I deeply apologize, sir. There were no other lodgings available. The bad weather still hasn’t cleared, but the moment it does, the ship will send a boat with a certified driver for us. We hope it won’t be more than a few hours.”
“That’s what you said hours ago.” He lowered his head and waved a fist in the air. Words poured from his mouth like dirty water from a sanitation hose. If he were on television, the censor’s finger would tire of pressing the bleep button.
Lacey flinched but kept her expression neutral. Jon bit back the lecture the man deserved. That wouldn’t help the situation. Instead, he slid in front of Lacey. He couldn’t stop the raging tirade, but he could shield her from the brunt of the man’s fury.
The apoplectic customer swung his arms with all the grace of a dancing inflatable figure outside a grand opening. People around him scattered, and Jon weighed his options. What if this escalated? Luca Amante had served three prison sentences. He couldn’t be trusted to stay levelheaded.
Passengers stood at a distance, phones out, recording the blazing fit. Amante’s verbal attack continued with no end in sight. Did this guy swallow a four-letter dictionary? Jon spread his legs into a wider stance, and his right hand clenched into a fist, preparing for battle.
“Stop it this instant!” a voice demanded.
Jon’s gaze swung. Lacey peeped over his shoulder.
The crowd parted to reveal Emily, her curls pointing every which way. She marched to the unruly passenger and stood toe-to-toe with him. “Just because you’re unhappy doesn’t mean the rest of us have to listen to obscenities.”
“Who are you to stop me?” Amante punctuated his question with a few more curses.
She slapped his arm. “I’m someone who was sleeping peacefully until your potty language woke me. Calm down and go to bed. Your mother would be ashamed of you.”
The irate man’s mouth hung open as Emily about-faced and walked away. Other bystanders nodded and returned to their cots, leaving Jon and Lacey alone with the contrary passenger.
“She … she hit me.” He pointed at the spot. “That’s assault.”
