Page 61 of Love on Deck

“For someone who’s dead set on our inevitable doom, you seem pretty confident that Kev and Amelia will last forever.”

“Of course they will.” I watched Kevin dance circles around my laughing sister. “They’ve been together for years, anyway.”

They seemed to notice us watching them. “Come dance!” Kevin shouted.

I stood, running my hands down my dress.

“Now you’re willing to dance?” Jack scoffed playfully. “Have you always run from clever, handsome men who are super into you?”

My heart hammered. “No, I only run from the ugly ones.”

I started walking away but Jack laughed, taking me around the waist to pull me into his arms. “Ugly, huh? That explains why you can’t stand the thought of being my girlfriend.”

“Yep, sorry to be blunt.” His arms went tighter, pulling me close, looking down in my eyes with a challenge. I swallowed, pasting a smile on my face. “I just think you’re hideous. I can’t imagine having to look at you longer than necessary.”

“This must be really painful for you, then,” he murmured, his face just inches from mine.

“Agonizing.”

“Then close your eyes.”

What? That sounded like a bad idea. Also, it sounded like a really, really good one.

“You can trust me.”

Could I, though? Wasn’t that the reason for my hesitation? I started to pull back.

“Lauren,” he said, his tone making me freeze. “Just give me a chance. You can’t predict everything, you know. Sometimes you just have to give it a shot and see how the chips fall.”

Was he right? Was I the one standing in the way of what could possibly be a great relationship? It was true that he wasn’t as awful as I’d initially believed. In the days we’d fake-dated on the ship, he hadn’t so much as looked at another woman. Maybe our first impressions of each other were wrong—or maybe the past two years had given each of us a little time to grow.

The truth was I liked Jack... a lot. My entire body buzzed in his arms. I ran from him every time he grew serious because I was scared to believe he could be sincere—which I wasn’t hiding very well. It wasn’t a big secret.

But here he was, just asking me to try.

I could do that, right? Just for a few days, at least, to see what happened. Worst case scenario, we would get off the ship in Miami and end things there. I wouldn’t fall irrevocably in love with him that soon, anyway.

Probably.

But the way I felt now in his arms... maybe I was being reckless, but I wasn’t quite ready to give that up yet, either.

“Okay.”

He grew still. “What?”

“Okay. We can watch the chips fall and cross our fingers they don’t land in a fire pit.”

“Not the enthusiasm I was hoping for, but it’ll do.” He grinned, his fingers splaying widely on my back. Sunlight shone in his green eyes, highlighting his perfect smile.

I sucked in a breath through my teeth. Fire tore over my skin, half burn, half Jack. “Gentler, please.”

He immediately loosened his hold. “Sorry. I forgot about the sunburn.” He dropped his hand to my lower back and slid the other one around my neck. “Better?”

“Mmhmm.”

A grin split his face. “Lost the ability to speak?”

“No, just enjoying this.” While I have it.

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