Page 30 of Falling Overboard

“No more lists!” I said and she laughed.

“You know, it would be very easy for you to hook up with Hunter,” she said as she deflated another balloon. “With you two sharing a cabin and all. No one would know.”

She pointed up at the camera that was facing the sundeck. There were cameras all over the ship, and the viewing screens were in the bridge and the crew mess. It was a way for the crew to keep tabs on the guests and their needs when we took breaks.

It also meant that the captain could see us most of the time. The only private places without cameras were the guest and crew cabins.

“I would know,” I told her.

“Why do the new owners have a rule about not having a root and then put a man and a woman in a cabin together? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Having a root? It must have been Australian for hooking up. Most of Georgia’s slang words were about sex. “Probably because they think we can control ourselves.” I was perilously close to that statement not being true but Georgia did not need the encouragement.

Emilie came back onto the deck at that moment with a spray bottle and washcloths and had apparently caught the tail end of our conversation. “I’ll trade rooms with you, Lucky.”

It didn’t require much imagination to figure out how that would end up. “I think we’ll keep things the way they are now.”

She looked very disappointed.

I said, “Emilie, why don’t you go ahead and head down for the night. I’ll see you at six tomorrow morning.” She immediately set down her cleaning supplies and hurried downstairs.

A few seconds later François ran past us, saying something into his walkie-talkie, looking frantic.

“What was that about?” Georgia asked and I shrugged. No idea.

When Thomas emerged from the main salon, she went over and blocked his path. “What’s happening?”

“Some of the stabilizers stopped functioning. The engineers are working on it. It will be fine. I’m sure they’ll get it fixed quickly.”

Would they really get fixed soon or was he trying to reassure us? The seas weren’t too choppy and the skies were clear, but I did notice that the boat was rocking a bit more than normal. I’d been so busy chatting with Georgia about Hunter that I hadn’t realized it.

“Are you going to be okay?” she asked and I nodded.

I lifted my wrists. “I’ve got my bands on.” I always wore them.

“You should go take your meds before it gets worse.”

She was right. It was fairly late and I knew I should go to bed, given that I’d also have to be up at six o’clock. I had wanted to use this time apart from Hunter to regain my composure, to remember myself and my position and what I was doing all of this for.

“You’ve got this?” I asked.

“I do. Go to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The rocking on the boat became stronger as I headed down to my cabin. I again debated over whether I should knock but decided that Hunter and I were going to have to figure out a way to coexist in our space and not treat it like we were guests in our own cabin. He might not even be in there. With the stabilizers malfunctioning they might have needed him in the engine room to help.

I went inside and shut the cabin door behind me. I let out a sigh of relief when I realized the room was empty. I reached for the bathroom door but it swung open on its own.

There stood Hunter, a towel slung low on his hips, just out of the shower.

I could only gape as my heart exploded against my rib cage. My mouth went utterly dry.

Water dripped from his wet hair, his chest and arms still damp with drops creating tiny streams on his skin.

If someone had asked me if he could have somehow become even sexier, I would have said no. Such a thing didn’t seem possible.

But just-out-of-the-shower Hunter was proving me completely wrong.

There were so many things I wanted to do at once—I wanted to run my fingers across his wet skin, lick those drops away, drag my lips across his muscles.

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