Page 116 of Nowhere to Hide

The sky was achingly blue, and the whales were performing for an early cruise. The currents made for a difficult ride into port. I needed to refuel and pick up some fresh food from the markets.

I docked and the seagulls screeched their welcome home song looking for a free handout. I went down to the bedroom that had become ours over the last few days. She was already up, and the sound of the shower invited me to go in and check on her.

But after the long night, she might need the hot water to soothe her aches.

A few minutes later she came out in her oversized towel. Her eyes were a little bruised from lack of sleep, but the pinch of pain had faded.

“Did we dock?”

“Sure did.”

“Dammit, I wanted to watch us come into port.”

I dropped a kiss on her minty frowning mouth. “Plenty of ports to see.”

“Fine.”

“If you get dressed you might be able to see a few whales though.”

“What?” She gripped my arm and hurried over to the skinny clothing cupboard. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“We’ll be here for a while. You have plenty of time to see Maine and the coast.”

She rolled her eyes, hurrying into a sundress with a bra that stole a few braincells out of my head. It was see through and one of those half cup things that made everything spill to the top.

How the hell was I supposed to concentrate with those on display?

She twirled around with her hair in one of those artfully messy clip things. She’d taken the time to put a little makeupon but didn’t bother to cover up the freckles that had come out across the bridge of her nose from so many days in the sun.

She was sun-kissed and achingly beautiful in ways I didn’t deserve.

Instead of my usual ratty shorts and T-shirt, I took care to dig out some of my nicer clothes. We were just above Maine with Nova Scotia bordering the bay.

If she was up to it, we could walk around and grab some lunch.

She’d already climbed the stairs by the time I was brushing my teeth. She was getting better by the day. I found her on the middle deck, her fingers worrying at the skirt of her dress.

“You good?”

She looked over her shoulder. “Yes.”

I scooped her up as I climbed out of the boat and hopped onto the deck. She gripped my shoulders, her dark eyes warm with the awareness that always seemed to be around us lately.

I couldn’t keep my mouth off her, but we had yet to actually have sex.

I was afraid to hurt her and there was a part of me that wanted to stay in this pins and needles state where we got each other worked up and used the tension to tease each other into insanity.

When I put her down on the dock, she slipped her arm around my back and tipped her face up to me. “When you look at me like that, I want to get back on that boat and sail away.”

“Good. That’s where I want to be anyway.”

She grinned and eased away. “But now I should at least get lobster first.”

I laughed. “I think we can make that happen.” I took her hand as we slowly walked along the port.

Fishing trawlers butted up against pleasure crafts and the bitchy seagulls were feasting on tourist castoffs. I drew her out ofthe heavy foot traffic. No one knew where we were, but I couldn’t help wanting to keep her close.

She dragged me into the shopping areas of Port St. John. We had lobster rolls for lunch, and I had an armful of bags before she was done with the massive open market. Considering most of them were the sundresses she was addicted to and the bikinis that made my dick happy, I was happy to indulge her.