Page 70 of Total Ship Show

“I said I have feelings for you.”

She’s disconcerted for a few seconds but then slowly, a coy smile spreads across her lips.

“You do?”

Thank God, she’s smiling.

“Yeah. I do. And look, I really tried not to. I promise I tried. I know you feel like things wouldn’t work between us, but I can’t help it, Ade. I like you. I more than like you. You’re the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about before I drift off to sleep. I wish this trip would never end because I don’t want to walk away from you when we get off this ship.”

“I don’t either,” she murmurs, a hint of sadness to her voice. “I have feelings for you too, Aris.”

I sit up a little taller, my hands smoothing up and down her legs underneath her robe. “Okay.” I nod. “Okay, that’s good.”

Phew. I feel much better.

“How is this good, Aris?” she asks with trepidation. “How did we let this happen? It’s going to be so much harder now when we go back to our real lives. You live so far away.”

I shake my head, not wanting to hear her say no. “It doesn’t have to be that way. It doesn’t have to be hard, but even if it is, it can still be worth it, Ade. I can take time off. I can fly to L.A., or you could travel to Seattle in between jobs. I’d pay for it if that were an issue.”

She shakes her head adamantly. “No, Aris. I won’t allow you to do that.”

“Adrienne.” I pull her closer to me, my hands on her waist. “Listen to me. I’m in a good position at the hospital. I can make a lot of things happen. I can find work just about anywhere. I can take time off. I can take a sabbatical. We could travel. We could spend more time together. We could…you know, see where this could go.”

Just say yes.

She gives me a helpless glance. “Can we just enjoy each other for the rest of this trip and then see what happens?”

“Wait, so you’re not saying no?”

She smiles sweetly and shakes her head. “Aris, what you did for me today…it meant more than you could ever know. I’ve done nothing but think about what my life might be like if I were to change things up and go down a whole new path. So, no, I’m not saying no.”

I bow my head, grateful that she’s into giving us a chance. “Okay. I’m okay with that.”

She leans her head back on the hammock and inhales a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “It’s a beautiful view, don’t you think?”

“It’s a stunning view.”

Her eyes meet mine and her lips part when she sees I’m not looking at the sky or the sunset or the water below us.

I’m staring straight at her.

“Aris.”

I slide my hands up her robe again, pulling her closer to me. “Shhhh. I just want to take in the view while I can.” I lift her left leg until her heel is resting in one of the netted holes of the hammock seat as if it were a stirrup in a medical office. The moment she knows what I’m doing, she allows me to move her other leg in the same way until her legs are wide open and I’m sitting right between them. Reaching up to her waist, I gently untie her robe pushing the material away from her until I set my eyes on her beautiful naked body.

Her gasp when I trail a finger up the inside of her thigh makes my dick hard and my need for her immediate.

“So beautiful, Adrienne.”

“Aris,” she breathes.

I peer up at her from between her legs. “Say yes, Ade. Tell me it’s okay.”

With a hunger in her eyes, she responds, “Yes, please.”

That’s all it takes for me to dive in, my tongue gliding between her folds up and around her clit as her body melts into the hammock and her head falls back.

“Oh, God,” she moans with a hiss of an inhale.

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