Page 72 of Falling Overboard

He was right. That would cheer me up.

“Get ready for bed and meet me in your bunk when you’re done,” he said. I hurried and changed, knowing that he was off to make some popcorn.

I was already in bed when he returned. Sure enough, he’d microwaved some popcorn. He climbed in beside me and offered me the bag first.

It was a sweet gesture. I took a handful and started the movie.

And everything was going just fine until the retired general entered the dining hall where all his former troops were waiting for him as a surprise. The expression on the actor’s face ... I knew exactly how it would look, but it still managed to make me tear up every time.

Well, almost every time. This time it had the effect of making me sob.

“Hey,” Hunter said, sounding worried.

I was crying too hard to respond. It was like everything that had happened that evening, along with all the other stuff I’d been internally wrestling with, the longing, the pining, the desperate wanting while knowing nothing could ever happen, came pouring out of me.

And I absolutely did not want to cry in front of this man, but it was like I couldn’t help myself. I had to get it all out.

Without saying another word Hunter hugged me to him, holding me. He seemed to understand that it was exactly what I needed.

By the time the characters were singing the last song of the movie, I finally managed to calm down. Hunter reached over and shut my laptop.

“I’m sorry I keep crying in your arms,” I said against his shoulder.

“That’s what they’re here for,” he said, and flexed them against me. It made me laugh-cry at the same time.

“It’s better than a panic attack, right?” I tried to match his light tone.

But then he switched things up on me and got all serious. “However you need to process what you’re feeling, you should do it.” He paused and added, “And I’ll be here to help you in any way that I can.”

That last line made me feel worse. Like he saw himself as needing to support me because I was such a mess. “Crying like that makes me feel really weak.”

His words were making me feel weak, too. In more ways than one.

He reached up with his hand and turned my face so that I was looking into his bright blue eyes. “Lucky Salerno, I don’t think you’re weak. You are one of the strongest people I’ve ever met.”

Our gazes locked and I saw the moment when his eyes lowered to my lips, and felt his arms tighten around me. My heart fluttered with excitement, my stomach squeezed with anticipation, my nerve endings sparking with joy.

This wasn’t my imagination.

Hunter wanted to kiss me.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Hunter

Kissing had often felt like something to get what I wanted. A marker that had to be hit before moving on to the main event.

But with Lucky?

I knew that I could spend all night kissing her and it would be enough.

Because it would be different with her. I instinctively understood that.

That there was more between us and it wouldn’t feel like it had before. That I could so easily sink into a pool of sweet desire with her and never want to find my way back out.

A hot spike of longing pierced my gut, pinning me in place. My chest burned with an emotion I didn’t quite recognize. I became acutely aware of her. The way her silky hair caressed my arms. The smattering of freckles on the bridge of her nose. How her breathing sounded faster and shorter. That light tropical scent of hers.

Only one sense left—I needed to taste her.

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