Below Deck

It’s not like I want Declan to come out here and tell me it was the best kiss he’d ever had or anything stupid like that, but a freaking “hello” would be nice after what occurred between us last night.

“Copy that,” Declan’s voice suddenly crackles over Ben’s radio, making my heart beat faster when I hear it. “Busy with the captain right now. Zoe’s finished with lunch clean-up, so I’ll send her down with Eddie to help you guys.”

I try to hide my disappointment when Declan, yet again, gives an excuse to Ben about why he can’t come up here to the sun deck, but it’s impossible. Sighing loudly, I flop my head back against my chair and pull my sunglasses down from the top of my head to cover my eyes. I get that he’s busy and he’s working, but it’s become glaringly obvious that he’s doing whatever he can to not come up here, where he knows I’ve been since I woke up this morning, and Ben proves my theory right.

“Busy with the captain my ass,” Ben mutters from the other side of Brooke’s chair as he clips the radio to his belt and then looks down at her with his hands on his hips. “What the hell did your girl do to my boy last night that he won’t come anywhere near her? Did she bite him? I thought he liked it rough, but maybe not.”

Brooke leans over and smacks Ben’s thigh with a familiarity and ease that shocks me as the two of them stare at each other and then start laughing.

“For your information, your boy took advantage of my girl last night and then left her high and dry,” Brooke informs him, making me instantly regret telling her what happened when we were both in bed last night, under the covers and with the lights turned off, the darkness in the room giving me the courage to blurt it all out to her.

“Jesus, really, Brooke? And hello? I’m sitting right here. Stop talking about me,” I complain, narrowing my eyes at her even though she can’t see them through my dark sunglasses.

“Well, it’s true. You kept me up all night with your tossing and turning. I almost threw a pillow at your head and told you to go into the bathroom and give yourself a little five-digit relief since Declan couldn’t finish what he started.”

Forget the hot sun above us; my embarrassment makes my face flush a thousand times worse when Ben chuckles under his breath.

“Don’t worry, I’ll have a talk with him.”

“You will do no such thing!” I quickly tell Ben. “It was a mistake and it never should have happened. I couldn’t care less where Declan is or what he’s doing. I’m on vacation and I’m relaxing and I don’t care about Declan. See? This is me, perfectly relaxed.”

I’m rambling. I know I’m rambling as I point to myself and try to prove how relaxed I am and how much I don’t care about stupid Declan McGillis and his stupid kiss, and how I tossed and turned all night because I couldn’t stop rubbing my thighs together replaying that damn kiss over and over until I almost had an orgasm just thinking about it.

If he wants to avoid me, fine. No big deal. Whatever.

“Hello! We’ve been waiting here for like, ever! Is someone going to set up the slide for us or do we have to do it ourselves?” Allyson shouts to Ben from the other side of the sun deck.

He grumbles under his breath, gives Brooke a quick wink and then turns the biggest fake smile I’ve ever seen in Allyson’s direction as he walks away from us and starts kissing her ass with apologies and an explanation that he’s just waiting for some of the crew to come help him.

“I’m going to kill you,” I mutter to Brooke when Ben is far enough away.

She just laughs as she grabs a bottle of suntan lotion from her beach bag on the deck chair next to her, sits up in her chair and starts lathering her body.

“You’re forgetting I saw the dreamy, lust-filled daze in your eyes when you got back to the room last night. You can pretend not to care in front of Ben all you want, but that shit won’t work on me,” she explains, tossing me the bottle of Hawaiian Tropic coconut-scented lotion when she’s finished with it. “He can’t avoid you forever. This ship is big, but not that big. You just rest your pretty head this afternoon and let Momma Brooke come up with a plan for later.”

I can’t help but laugh at my friend as she relaxes back into her chair. I take my time rubbing the lotion into my skin so I don’t burn. I glance over at my father who is fast asleep under his umbrella with a book resting open on his chest, ignoring my disappointment when Eddie and Zoe join Ben on the deck to help him inflate the giant slide that will hang off the edge of the boat. Part of me wants to wake my father up so he can listen to the abuse Allyson and Arianna give the crew because they aren’t working fast enough to their liking, but I decide to let him be. It’s not like it would matter anyway. He would just smile nervously at them and agree with whatever they said.

Tuning out the grating sounds of the two women’s voices, I lay back down and work on relaxing until I need to apologize to Ben, Eddie, and Zoe when the morons go down the slide once, bitch about how boring it is and then want to do something else.

Hoping Brooke was just joking about coming up with a plan, I close my eyes and let the soothing sounds of the water lapping against the boat lull me into oblivion.

I try to tell myself that what happened last night was no big deal and it’s no skin off my back if I don’t see Declan again for the rest of this trip, but as I drift off to sleep, I can’t stop replaying every moment of that damn kiss and what it did to my body, and I know I’m lying to myself.