Page 81 of Love Overboard
“How about Firefly?”
I turn, curious, one hand still gripping the strap of my bag. “Firefly?”
“It suits you better,” he says, that magnetic smile softening. “You light up the room. Can’t help but follow the glow.”
My face flushes when he hits me with a sexy, mischievous grin. That tilt of his lips does something to my belly that feels like an invitation and a warning all at once.
And then he’s back to work and I’m on my way to the bridge.
I have no idea I’ve just met the man who will destroy me by the time the season ends.
“Wait, why aren’t you in your swim trunks?” Gisella asked with a pout, snapping me back to the present.
“Ah, I’ve done my bit. You lot are fed, my work here’s done,” Finn said, nodding to the food. “But I’m knackered. I’m off to bed.”
“You what, mate?!” Bernard asked, aghast.
“Noooo,” Gisella whined.
There was a chorus of shared sentiment from the rest of the crew, protests muffled by mouths full of Finn’s delicious food. I stayed silent, though disappointment sank like an anchor in my gut. I’d barely talked to him all night, and I was sad he wasn’t joining us.
Which is stupid, I reminded myself with an internal groan. I didn’t know why I wanted him to stay. Did I really want to torture myself with watching Gisella hang all over him in the hot tub? Because that was the truth of it — he would be here withher, not me.
I hated that I still had to actively fight so hard against the natural instincts I had with him. I wanted to spend time with him, talk to him, laugh with him — as if nothing had ever happened, as if we were still the same people we were two years ago. It was like my brain was planted firmly in the reality of today, but my heart still lived in the past. And my body wasn’t any help. That traitorous bitch was either absolutely clueless or willfully ignorant.
“Come now, bru, don’t be a chop,” Eli said, picking up the cocktail Bernard had made for Finn that had since sat untouched on the teak rim of the hot tub. He tried handing it to our chef. “You’re off the clock and there’s a hot tub full of half-naked people begging you to join them. What could be better than that?”
“Sleep, mate. The real luxury in life,” Finn quipped back with a grin, clapping Eli’s wet shoulder and giving it a squeeze.
“Boo,” Cameron jeered playfully. Palmer was the only one keeping quiet about it all, a fellow head of department showing respect, I guessed. It made my own silence feel more reasonable.
“Stay,” Gisella pleaded, catching Finn’s wrist with her bottom lip protruding. “It’ll be fun.”
“I have no doubt it will be, darlin’. You enjoy. I’ll see you in the morning.” He bent down to peck her on the lips, and I dragged my gaze away with acid burning my throat like he was still mine and I was watching him cheat in live time.
“You can’t bethattired,” Gisella tried, still holding onto him when he went to walk away. “And besides, you can sleep in a little in the morning!”
“I’ll need to prep for the next charter.”
“We’ll help!” she said. “Venga, porfa, mi amorrr.”
When batting her lashes didn’t work, she pouted more. Then, she gasped, gaping at him like she’d just realized something very obvious that the rest of us had missed.
“Wait a second… this isn’t because of your sillytattoo, is it?”
“Tattoo?!” Bernard and Leah echoed, jaws popping open.
“Cheffy, let’s see it, then!” Cameron added, devouring the last bite of his panini before he spun his finger in the air.
“Finn doesn’t have any tattoos.”
Regret sliced through me as soon as those words left my mouth, because everyone grew silent, and all eyes swiveled to me.
Fuck.
Gisella narrowed her gaze. “Well, seeing as how I’m the only one on this boat who has seen Finn naked recently, I think I’d know better than you, wouldn’t I?”
I wanted to shrivel up and cease to exist.
