Below Deck

I silently watch her give the man behind me a smile and a wink and I want to ask her what the hell is going on, but again—done wasting my time, don’t give a shit, and all that nonsense.

“I’m a little busy here. And I need to talk to my dad,” I remind Brooke, even though I’ve put off talking to him all afternoon.

The idea that I’d much rather ruin my father’s life than spend even one second with Declan McGillis should have me questioning my sanity, but I’m already well aware of how stupid and insane I’ve let this man I just met make me.

“Your dad went to go lie down and take a nap while the blonde bimbos are face down on the couches in the main salon, sleeping off their day-drinking hangovers. You’ve got nothing but time,” Brooke reminds me, grabbing the cards out of my hands and collecting the rest that are strewn all over the cushions between us.

When I finally emerged from my room, going over how I would explain everything to my dad to make it as easy as possible on him, worrying how no matter what I said, he wouldn’t take it very well, I found Brooke apologizing to Zoe and telling her the two women were officially cut off from any more alcohol the rest of the day. I have no idea what happened while I was gone, and I didn’t want to know. The pissed-off look on Zoe’s face, the annoyance on Brooke’s while we watched Jessica scoop up broken glass from the deck, and Allyson and Arianna standing off to the side pointing and laughing at her gave me enough to fill in the blanks about what I’d missed.

I was more than a little shocked when my father actually stepped forward and told them both in a stern voice, I’ve never heard him use with them before, that it was time for them to go inside and sleep off the alcohol. When he continued to stand there glaring at them angrily, they smartly decided to keep their mouths shut and do what he said. I didn’t even realize I’d been standing there quietly with my mouth wide open until the three of them disappeared inside and Brooke made a comment about hell freezing over and my dad finally finding his balls again.

Instead of immediately going in search for him to get what I needed to say over with, Brooke suggested a game of cards so I could give him some time to cool off after having to deal with the two embarrassing women and give myself time to get my thoughts in order.

Declan suddenly enters my line of vision, moving to stand next to me on the couch and holdng his hand out for me to take.

“Please? I promise I’ll only keep you off the boat for a little bit, and we’ll be back before they wake up,” Declan says softly.

“Are you planning on jumping over the railing while we’re moving? I could give you a push if you’d like,” I reply sarcastically, unable to stop myself from answering him, even though I vowed to ignore him for the rest of the trip.

I make the mistake of finally tipping my head up to look at him, and I grit my teeth when he smiles down at me. It’s bad enough I want to punch his dimples right off his cheeks, now he has to torture me by wearing a tight, light blue, long-sleeved swim shirt that hugs every damn muscle in his chest and arms. His matching blue and white, Hawaiian-print board-shorts-style swim trunks hang low on his hips and I really hate the guy for giving me all these conflicting feelings of hatred and lust.

“Um, considering we stopped about thirty minutes ago and dropped anchor, I don’t think I’d suffer serious harm if I jumped overboard. Even if you pushed me.”

Glancing away from his stupid smiling face long enough to look beyond him, I realize he’s telling the truth when I don’t see the blur of the ocean as we move through it. Everything is still and calm and I feel like an idiot that I was so distracted by thoughts of my dad and Declan that I didn’t even notice we’d come to a stop.

“Captain saw some bad weather up ahead and decided to wait it out in calmer waters and hope it’ll move around us by sundown,” Declan explains, still holding his hand out for me to take.

I don’t want to go anywhere with him. I can see it written all over his face that he wants to apologize for what he said to me earlier, but I don’t give a shit what he has to say. He means nothing to me. He was going to be a quick vacation fling and that’s it. If he wants to think I’m a spoiled princess and treat me like dirt because of it, I don’t care. Crossing my arms in front of me, I refuse to accept the hand he continues to offer and the olive branch he’s trying to extend.

“You’ll have to excuse my friend, she’s a little stubborn. I think we might need a little more to sweeten the pot before she gives in,” Brooke tells him with another damn wink that makes me want to shove her overboard.

“I thought we could go out on one of the jet skis and check out the coral reef a few miles from here,” he replies.

“A ride on a jet ski is not going to erase your asshole behavior that I did nothing to warrant,” I fire back through clenched teeth, my irritation and words making it glaringly obvious that I do care what he thinks of me and my feelings were hurt, even if I want to deny it.

“I’ll let you drive.”

Goddammit.

Of course, he has to entice me with one of the things I requested for this trip when we were filling out the questionnaire about our likes and dislikes so the crew could make sure we enjoyed our time on the ship. Sure, it wasn’t much, and it was nothing nearly as extravagant as some of the things Allyson and Arianna requested, like a stupid twelve-course meal that didn’t include any food that was red or green, and a masseuse to be brought out to us in the middle of the ocean every damn day so they didn’t miss their hot stone massages or fall behind in their waxing, but aside from swimming with dolphins, it was the only other thing I could think of that I’d never done and wanted to try.