Page 42 of Eat Your Heart Out

22

Ali

Last night, I’d passed out. And it was deep, warm sleep. I wasn’t sure when I’d ever relaxed that much. His muscular chest was sexy, of course, but also comforting beside me. I sighed but then realized we were rocking down and up pretty steeply. My eyes widened as I gazed out the window and saw the huge wave and our deep motion.

He kissed my cheek, and my body instantly curled toward him as an offering of myself. Then our lips met, and I lost myself until we rocked down like we were on a roller coaster.

I tugged the sheet that was falling off me, my only real barrier. “Are you sure we’re going to be okay?”

His lips sent heat through me, and he lowered his head to kiss my nipples. “If the waves scare you, look away.”

Damn, he was amazing in bed.

I was tempted to forget the storm. I tried, but then we started ascending. I shook my head. “Not looking doesn’t help if we’re going under.”

He stopped and met my gaze. “The ship was designed for rough weather, and we’re almost clear.”

I pointed out the obvious. “I see no blue skies in sight.”

He stood and tugged on his pants. “I’ll see if they need help.”

My heart thundered. I would be alone. I hugged my legs to my chest.

When he finished putting on a shirt, he waved for me to come. “Don’t you want to go and talk to the captain?”

A huge inhale calmed me down as I stood and grabbed my underwear. “Okay.”

He waited for me to clean up, and we walked the narrow hallways. He pressed his hand on my back to keep me upright as we climbed despite the ship’s rocking. I glanced around and noted that all the boxes were sealed tight and no furniture was loose.

As we made it to the top deck and the captain’s headquarters, I noticed every corner of the room held state-of-the-art equipment with screens and dials that I didn’t understand.

Gerard led me right to Captain Rodolpho. “How’s the storm?”

Rodolpho stopped directing Gordon, the cocaptain. “An hour more, sir.”

I hugged my waist.

“Anything we can do to help?” Gerard asked.

Rodolpho nodded.

I cringed. If we were heading to the engine room or fixing a sail that wasn’t tied down, I wasn’t sure how much help I would be. I would try, though.

“You can file the report with national weather service. We have all the data, but no one’s had time to write out a report,” Rodolpho said.

I took a breath. Writing. I could handle that.

Gerard saluted him. “Consider it done. Keep inputting into the spreadsheet, and we’ll take it from there.”

The captain nodded.

Gerard hugged my waist. “Let’s go.”

We stayed inside and headed through the small corridors.

Once I was sure we were away from the command center, I said, “I can handle one more hour.”

He guided me down to our floor but observed me clutching the walls. “Watching you rock is kind of cute.”