Page 18 of Date and Switch

“Bryce.” I tried to growl his name to show I meant business about him staying away from my lady parts. However, as I said his name, I remembered that my arms were short and my ass round—it had been quite a workout trying to slather on that ointment before Bryce stepped in with the assist.

“I won’t push, Sera. But you need to apply and reapply over and again if you want to feel better.”

It embarrassed me to admit I needed him. Similarly knowing his fingers would be intimately caressing me again—even if it was the least sexual way possible had my core twisting. My crush on Bryce was developing into feelings and I needed to pump the brakes.

“I guess.” I huffed, pushing a pillow under my hips, and burying my face in my crossed arms. “Just…make it quick.”

The nightgown he’d purchased was pure heaven. I’d never felt anything so soft. I’d been about to thank him for it when he lifted it up, exposing my naked ass to the cool air of our cabin.

“It looks a lot better than it did last night.”

He ran his fingertips lightly around the tops of my thighs, shooting a lightning bolt of a different kind of sensation through my body. It definitely did not hurt like it had the night before. In fact, if anything it was hypersensitive to his touch. I had to bite my lips to keep a sigh of pleasure from escaping.

“The swelling came down significantly. It looks like other than the blisters closest to your…well, these ones.” His fingers homed in on sensitive spot just where my thighs met my bits, “they’re still pretty bad off. But these,” he flexed his hand encompassing the expanse of the apple of my ass cheek, “are drying up quite nicely. No wonder you were able to sit up with just the slightest look of discomfort.”

I felt the sticky moisture of the ointment seeping into my skin, providing a hint of relief almost as soon as it came in contact with my swollen flesh. Having my body exist in this strange place of pain and pleasure was doing funny things to the area in question. I throbbed. I wanted to open my legs in invitation and ask Bryce to direct his focus to my clit. I needed relief. Four weeks in a cabin with a total stranger left little “alone time” to reacquaint myself with a boyfriend of the electric variety. Throw in a delicious looking man, who sometimes kissed me like he wanted to fuck me, and every synapse in my body begged for his attention.

“All right, angel. Take this.” He handed me another round of pain killers, “and be sure to bring the Gatorade with you upstairs. I’m going to rinse off the sweat real fast and then we’ll go.”

The dolphins seemed to follow the ship. There were dozens of them jumping and chattering. We quickly discovered the top floor was the worst place to see tiny mammals, given the height of the ship and we made our way down to the casino level on the third floor to watch them from buffet’s outdoor seating area.

“How come the guy on stage is pointing at you and beckoning you towards the stage?” Bryce pointed behind me at the dreadlocked man singing a broken down version of Alicia Key’s Fallin’.

“Oh! That’s my friend Omar!”

“You’re friends with the lounge act?” He smiled, but it was his sarcastic smile.

“Sera, don’t play like you don’t see me pointing at you!” Omar’s voice boomed through the area thanks to his microphone and a silent patio. “I know you know this song.”

“Apparently locking oneself in conference rooms for days on end, I’ve missed a whole host of opportunities to get to know you, Ms. Miller.”

He pointed toward the stage, gently shoving my shoulder, laughing as Omar continued to bait me from the piano.

“This whole time I’ve been rooming with a little celebrity, and I didn’t even know it!”

It took a hot minute to make my way to the stage. While I wasn’t writhing in agony, the blue haired deck walkers moved faster than me. I made my way to the stage, Omar started playing the kind of Oscar sendoff music you’d hear when they tried to push celebrities off the stage or while everyone waited for the to approach the stage.

“You are so dead.” I whispered to him as I took a seat on the bench he occupied.

“Please. This ship needs your talent, gorgeous. Our entertainment lead is over there wiping off the bar. I want him to hear your pipes.”

He seamlessly morphed into the intro for a Norah Jones song. The song made me smile an ironic smile as I began singing the lyrics about not knowing why I didn’t come. Given the thoughts that had danced through my head just this morning and how desperate I was for some release it seemed ironically apt.

“Girl you’re fire.” Omar mumbled to me as he did something fancy with the interlude. “I’m going to hit a harmony on this next one just so you aren’t caught off guard.”

I nodded at him and began the second verse, catching Bryce’s gaze from where he sat. I almost dropped the verse watching him watch me. I couldn’t quite make out what he felt or thought based on his posture or his facial expression. He certainly wasn’t upset or angry. Not that he would have been. He looked weirdly serene. Every so often his eyes would close, and he’d lean his head back as if arching his neck allowed more of the music to flow around him. He’d been so buttoned up since we arrived on the ship. I’d yet to experience him completely in a moment as much as he was sitting in the audience listening to us fuck around on the piano.

“I think the audience might want you to stick around for another song, Sera.” Omar knocked his shoulder against mine as he floated the music into a generic jazzy ditty. “What do you think?”

“What audience?” I whispered, laughing.

Omar’s lips tipped into a smirk. Song after song he trapped me up on that stage until finally after a full five song set, he released me back to a Bryce who stood in clapping ovation.

“That was really beautiful, Sera. Now I definitely won’t stop calling you angel, as you’ve earned the moniker in spades.”

Like that didn’t thrill me all the way to my toes.

“Can I ask you a question?”

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