“What will you do?” I whisper.
He smirks sexily. “I’m sure I will think of something.”
I smile as I stand, and we kiss for a moment as he rewraps the towel around my chest and holds me in his strong arms. His pager goes off.
“Fuck’s sake,” he whispers under his breath. After reading the message, he rolls his eyes. “I got to go to work for a bit. I will walk you back to the room first.”
We walk hand in hand until we get to the door and we turn and face each other.
“I shouldn’t be long.”
I feel like I am being walked home by my cute first date and I have that butterfly feeling in my stomach. I lean in and gently kiss him. I run my fingers through his two-day growth and my hand lingers on his jaw. “See you soon,” I whisper.
He kisses me again and then again and he smiles as he scrunches his face up. “Screw work. Let’s go inside.”
I laugh. “Go.”
With a sigh and a roll of his eyes, he pecks me quickly and is striding up the hall and out of sight.
I stand on the chair in the bathroom as I try to catch a glimpse of myself in the smaller than small vanity mirror. I turn and look at my behind in the tight black dress. After Mac left this afternoon, I paid Ang a visit and borrowed one of her dresses. I don’t know if I’m delusional, if I have cabin fever, or whether I am just going plain batshit crazy, but I feel like tonight is a little different to my other nights on the ship.
I’m nervous. I’m excited. I’m petrified.
I have never lived like this, thrown caution to the wind and not thought about tomorrow. But this afternoon was so, so nice in his arms, and I think Ang is right—I have spent my entire life saving myself for nice guys and honorable men and they have all treated me like dirt. They lied to me, cheated on me, not to mention robbed me of my self-respect. I’m done with it.
I’m done with being the victim. I’m taking back control of my life right now.
Mac’s bad—a criminal, even—but he has saved my life and offered me protection when I desperately needed it. In two weeks I will be gone and nobody will be able to find me, not even him. So I’m going to take the solace of his warm arms and the feeling of safety he gives me for the short time while I can.
God knows I am going to be on my own for a long time after this in fucking Puerto Rico.
I glance at the clock on the wall. Where is he? He has been gone for a few hours and he said he wouldn’t be long. I put the chair back and straighten the bed linen and fold and put away our clothes that have come back from the laundry this afternoon. I go back into the bathroom and check how I look again. Bloody hell, maybe he won’t even be coming to dinner?
I take a seat on the bed and stare around at my surroundings. Dead silence. No television, no radio. How does he stay sane in this environment for so long on his own? No wonder he’s always horny.
A knock sounds at the door. Why is he knocking? I open the door to see Ang standing in front of me. “I came to get you for dinner.”
My face drops. “Where’s Mac?”
“Apparently something is going on. I don’t know. The boys aren’t back yet, either. Chelsea said she saw them and they said to go without them.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Hopefully everything is alright,” she mutters as we walk down the hall.
“What do you mean?”
“Stuff happens on this ship.”
“Like what?” I frown.
“Well…you know what kind of ship this is and some seedy characters fly in and out. I know a helicopter came in this afternoon. I hope the exchange went well.”
“Oh,” I mutter, distracted. God. “Has anything ever happened before?”
“A guy got killed once. He tried to rip off the dealer and they shot him dead.”
My eyes widen in horror. “Fuck,” I whisper. “Who was that?”
She shrugs. “Some idiot who worked on here. I didn’t really know him. Apparently he was shifty.”
“Who shot him, I mean?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. One of them.”
“Mac? Was it Mac?” Is he really capable of this kind of stuff?
“Who knows? They don’t tell me much. I hear most things through Chelsea.”
“What did they do?”
“They threw his body overboard.”
“Holy shit. I can’t believe this.”
“It’s true.”
Ang’s eyes glance down at me and she smiles broadly. “You scrub up well.”
I look down at myself and smile. “Thanks for loaning it to me. I would love to say I will pay you back, but I have nothing to loan you.”
She grabs my hand in hers. “Your friendship is a gift and you have loaned me that.”