Page 23 of Ship Happens
“Here’s the cot you wanted, sir,” he says as he hands it to me with a smile. He cranes his neck to look up at me. “You don’t plan to sleep on it, do you? You’re so tall!”
“I’m not that tall.” I place the cot against the wall, then turn back to the man. “You’re just a bit short, pal.”
The man laughs like I’ve just told the joke of the year. “You’re right about that.”
My eyebrows pull together as he wanders off. It’s odd enough that he’s this chatty, as most of the staff don’t mingle with the Sinners, but it’s incredibly strange that he would laugh that hard at what I said about him. Almost as if he were trying to get me to like him.
With a shake of my head, I begin setting up the cot as I commit his face to memory. Maybe he’s another agent. Whoever he was, he wasn’t wrong to worry about how I’ll fit on this cot. Was it made for a child? When I lie on it, I feel like Alice in goddamn Wonderland after she outgrew the house.
The bathroom door slides open, and Frankie emerges from a thick cloud of steam. I forget all about my awkward sleeping arrangement as I watch her step toward the sink to begin her routine. A routine which turns out to be very in depth, explaining the lack of wrinkles on her face.
She swipes, smooths, wipes, and rinses for the next fifteen minutes, and not once does she realize I’m watching her. If she’struly a fed, she’s not a very good one. Aren’t they supposed to have a killer sixth sense? I’m openly fucking staring at this point.
I begin to wonder if perhaps she’s just pretending she doesn’t notice me, but then she leans forward and I’m sure. No one would clean nose gold while someone was watching. Yet...she’s still so adorable as she takes a cotton swab and swipes inside her nostril. Tipping her head upward, she holds her mouth in a downward position to get a better look. That’s when the laugh springs out of me.
Frankie jumps a solid foot in the air, then pretends to busy herself with whatever she’s strewn all over the sink. With a huff, she shoves bottles and tinctures into a small leather bag. “I don’t know what’s so funny. I didn’t laugh when I came out of the bathroom and was greeted by fucking Gulliver trying to lie on the townsperson’s bed.”
I pull my knees to my chest so that nothing hangs off the cot. Touché.
“Just take the bed, Maverick. It makes more sense.” She pushes the leather bag to the side of the sink, then steps closer to the cot. “Is it comfortable, at least?”
“When I was in high school, I spent the night in a field after a party. I was too drunk to care when I fell asleep, but I woke up with a cow patty as a pillow. Rocky earth served as my mattress. My back and ribs ached for a week. Despite all of that, I can confidently say I’d take that over the cot. So you take the bed.”
Frankie slicks her dark hair into a ponytail, then motions for me to get up. “I’m not putting you through that. If you don’t want to share the bed, I’ll sleep on the cot.”
“I was never opposed to sharing a bed. I just figured?—”
“That I’d be more comfortable if we didn’t?” She smiles and shakes her head. “I’m older than you, but I’m not a pearl-clutching Goody-two-shoes who subscribes to the ways of thepast. My morals aren’t at risk just because I’m forced to share sleeping quarters with an attractive man.”
“What if I’m worried aboutmyvirtue?” I smirk up at her. “After all, I’m not the only attractive party in this scenario.”
“Oh, so you’re cocky? Consider my loins officially girded. Get in the bed, Maverick.” Frankie strolls closer to the bed, then sits on the edge and pulls the blanket over her. “To fully protect your precious penis from my vagina, I’ll even sleep on top of the comforter. Wouldn’t want you to slip inside me while I’m sleeping.”
The mental image is more than I can stand. If I weren’t so damaged, I’d have gotten one hell of a boner from thoughts of fucking her as she sleeps. My brain takes the fantasy further, imagining how she’d look up at me when she wakes up so full of me.
“Are you coming or not?”
I fucking wish.
Not wanting to look too eager, I sit up and offer an exasperated—but very fake—sigh. She thinks she’s pulling teeth to get me in bed with her, but I want nothing more than to get a little closer. Her chosen profession is acting as more of an aphrodisiac than a deterrent. The aspect of danger makes any situation more exciting, and none more so than sex.
And nothing would be more dangerous than letting the long arm of the law reach out and grab me by the dick.
I ease beneath the comforter on the empty side of the bed, and my body immediately thanks me. The luxury mattress far surpasses the thick swath of canvas that supported me minutes ago.
Frankie shuffles around under her thin blanket on top of the comforter until she’s facing me. She lies on her side with her hands tucked under her head. “See? Isn’t that better?”
“Yes. Much.”
“You forgot to turn off the light, though.” She opens her mouth with a wide yawn, which she quickly covers with her hand. “I can’t sleep if there’s any light. Once I’m out, you can do whatever and I won’t budge, but falling asleep is the hard part for me.”
Just last week, I made fun of Ezra for getting the remote for Kindra when it was closer to her, yet I stand and go for the light switch mere feet from her side of the bed without so much as an argument. Maybe our ancestors weren’t so wrong about witches being a threat, because I certainly feel like I’m being put under a spell right now.
On my way back to my side of the mattress, my pinky toe collides with one of the bed’s metal legs. Pain sears up my shin, and I’m not convinced the toe is still attached. The tiny digit hurts to the point of numbness.
I clamp my teeth together as water fills my eyes. The woman in the bed probably already thinks so little of me, what with me being so much younger than her. And the fact that I’m a serial killer. If I start crying about a stubbed toe, she’ll think I’m a fucking child.
My mouth opens in a silent scream as I grip my ankle and lean against the foot of the bed. As long as my voice doesn’t betray me, she’ll never know I’m fighting for my life over here. Not with the total darkness in this room.
