Page 16 of Castaway Heat
Shiloh chuckled. “Bossy.”
“If you’d rather stay in that tiny stateroom with Eirin, I guess I’ll have to accept that,” Ronin said, one eyebrow arching. “I assume you have two twins?”
“Thetiniesttwins you’ve ever seen. I feared I’d roll over and right on out of bed.”
Ronin stretched his arms wide, faking a yawn. “I didn’t have that problem in this big king-sized bed.”
Shiloh rose to his knees, trying to stop his lips from curling into a smile.“Asshole.”
“Hey, I offered to let you share it with me. I can’t help it if you’re being stubborn.” Ronin took one of Shiloh’s hands and laced their fingers together. “The offer stands, but I won’t force you here if you don’t want to spend the rest of the cruise with me. I’d just feel better knowing you were near if bad weather finds us.”
“Okay,” Shiloh murmured, grinning. “But only because of the big bed, not because of you. I can’t have you in here taking up all this room alone.”
Ronin smiled before dragging Shiloh back into his arms. “We’ll go in a minute. I want to hold you a little longer before we get up.” He pressed his lips to Shiloh’s forehead. “I’ve been waiting a long time to have you in my arms.”
Shiloh melted against Ronin, feeling like he’d waited a long time to be there, too… just without knowing what he was missing. He felt at peace in a way he’d never known—even with the worry of bad weather.
He sensed nothing could go wrong when his alpha was around.
3
Ronin awoke in the middle of the night, the heavy sway of the boat making it hard to get his bearings. It was nothing but black outside the floor to ceiling windows that rose two stories, but a flash of lightning illuminated the sky, and he saw the massive waves around them. Panic clutched him as water slammed against those windows.
If it had simply been him, he might not have felt fear. But he wasn’t alone. He glanced down at Shiloh soundlessly sleeping in his arms and struggled to breathe. Carefully slipping out of bed, he struggled to his feet. The boat whipped to one side and then the other, sending him to his knees. He clawed his way up, gripping the bed for support.
“Shiloh,” he said, shaking his omega as gently as his panic would allow. “Wake up, baby.”
Shiloh groaned before his eyes opened. He met Ronin’s stare for a second before the ship swayed heavily to the other side. “Oh, shit.”
“Yeah,” Ronin said, groping on the floor for their clothes. They’d slid with the swaying of the ship. He had to crawl across to capture them. After tossing Shiloh’s over, he dragged hisbriefs on as well as he could with the movement of the ship. “Get dressed. We need to be prepared to move.”
The ship pitched again, sending Shiloh rolling and almost out of the bed.
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Shiloh said, grasping for his clothes.
They dressed as quickly as they could. Before they finished, the ship wide alarm system went off, the red lights flashing and siren blaring.
“I was supposed to go to another deck with Eirin and Sage, but it’s far from here. What should I do?”
“Come with me,” Ronin replied, taking his omega’s hand.
He led them out and into the hall. Fairly positive he was the only one in the suites, that was confirmed when no one else lingered in the hallway. The boat pitched again, feeling almost as if they’d been tossed sideways. Both of them were tossed against the wall before the ship righted itself again.
A steward appeared. “Are you okay, Mr. Drake?”
“I am,” Ronin said. “What’s going on?”
“Go to your emergency checkpoint,” the man said, panic in his eyes. “They’ll give you more information there.”
Ronin grabbed the man’s arm.“What’sgoing on?”
The steward shook his head. “The tropical depression turned into a cyclone and fast. We couldn’t move far enough out of its way. The swells have pushed us too deep into the archipelago.”
Ronin frowned as the ship swayed, sending them to the other side of the hall. “What does that mean for us?”
“We’re too close to land for a ship this size. We might hit the sea bed it could tear open the hull. We’ll likely evacuate the ship and hope the lifeboats can make it to dry land. Get to your checkpoint so you can get on one.”
Ronin dragged Shiloh against him. “Right.” He urged them toward the stairs, which were packed with other guests fleeingto their own checkpoints. He waited a moment for a space to appear for them, clutching Shiloh tight. Before he could push into the mass, the ship pitched heavily. He pushed them back into the hallways and wrapped his body around Shiloh as they fell against the wall, cushioning his omega as best he could.
