Page 75 of Total Ship Show

“He what?”

“He took me to save baby turtles yesterday. A surprise trip and it turned my world upside down and now I don’t know what I’m doing anymore.”

I take a huge gulp of my new drink. “There it is. That’s everything. I fell for your brother this week because he was kind and generous and respectful and sexy and—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Aiden snickers. “We don’t need those details. Look, Adrienne, you seem like a great girl and I’m sorry we kind of unmasked you here. It’s not my intention to make you look like a fool, nor will we say a word to Aris. This is between you and him, but a word of caution if I may?”

I don’t see why I need to hear a word of caution but, “Sure.”

“Be careful with Aris. He’s been down this road before. He’s hired prostitutes and call girls. I can’t remember the last time we’ve seen him in an actual relationship, and you seem like the kind of girl who could really get her heart broken by someone like him.”

“Yeah.” Adam nods. “We love our brother, but there’s a reason he’s still single. We’ve never seen him actually commit.”

Those words make me want to puke.

“Thank you, gentlemen.” I nod to both of them. “I’m sorry this all happened. I hope I wasn’t a detriment to either of you or your wives or your family. You all seem like wonderful people. Thanks for the uh, advice.”

“Sure.”

“I should umm.” I hitch my thumb behind me. “I should get back. I need to get ready for…tonight.”

“Yeah. It was nice to meet you.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you later, I guess.”

I turn and leave the bar, gulping the rest of my drink and leaving my glass on a tray by the door, the McElfry brothers’ words swirling through my brain. This is the very last thing I expected to have to deal with, but here I am, wondering how much of what they said is true and how much is them once again wanting to make Aris out to be a complete fool.

And I feel like a fool.

This is all my fault.

If I hadn’t asked Aris to be my fake boyfriend first, none of this would’ve happened.

Don’t cry.

Do not cry.

This is not the time to cry.

Maybe his brothers were just being assholes and it’s not as bad as it seems. The question is, do I say something to Aris or just not mention it? And what if his brothers say something to him before I do? Ugh. I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. What can I possibly do to figure out who is right in this situation?

“Hey Babe. Did you find everything you were looking for?” Aris is spritzing his cologne on his bare chest as I open the door to our stateroom. His boxer briefs hug his sculpted ass, his V seemingly more enhanced at the moment.

Does he contour or what?

How does he look so damn good?

“Uh, yeah. I did.” I hold up the bag of souvenirs I purchased and then set them down next to my suitcase, pulling out the hoodie.

“Since you just sprayed that on, can you rub this all over your chest?”

Aris laughs. “For what?”

I tilt my head and give him my best ‘duh’ expression.

“Oh, uh, okay. Throw it here.”

I toss the hoodie to him, and he holds it up against his chest and then stalks toward me. He wraps his arms around me and leans down to connect his sweet lips to mine.

---