Page 35 of Weathering The Storm

Seth lifts a shoulder. “There’s always the engine room.”

A terrible idea. It’s boiling hot down there.

But goddamn, would Seth look sexy as hell. Tan skin glowing with sweat, his body slick and bare against mine.

It’s loud.

That’s what earmuffs are for. Maybe we wouldn’t be able to hear each other, but no one else would either. We could let go. Completely.

It’s…

I want it.Fuck,I want him.

“Get on deck, Rittenburg,” I say, flustered.

Seth’s smile lines deepen. He hops up, checking out the windows before he brushes a kiss to my cheek. “See you at 2300 hours, Captain.”

I have no idea what possessed me to meet Seth down here. Whatever it is, I know it lives in my pants. Far, far away from my brain, which has not been getting nearly enough blood flow this last week.

The engine room is deep within theSuoja’s stern. Beneath the bridge, beneath the cabins and crew mess, past a cherry-red, industrial strength door.

Even before I loosen the dogs to break the watertight seal, the drone of the engine is penetrating. Loud enough to overpower the sound of my own self-reproach.

I grab a pair of earmuffs off the wall hooks and slip them on.

A narrow ladder leads straight down. The esophagus to the rumbling, claustrophobic gut of the ship. Sweltering heat envelops me as soon as I close the hatch. My skin thaws, sweat forming under my clothes like the instant condensation of a hot drink poured over ice.

Without the harsh light of the LED strips along the cramped aisles, it would be pitch-black. Instead, all I see when I look down is the engine—the same color as the door—blaring at the center of the room. Digesting fuel and spitting out fumes to keep the vessel chugging forward.

I’m so used to working on boats, and this boat in particular, I rarely think about the dangers down here. Maneuvering around the engine room is second nature. No more dangerous than working on deck or navigating a nasty storm.

But now, with Seth standing at the middle of it, I see hazards everywhere I look. The propellor shaft and the rapidly spinning belts that could rip a man in by one scrap of loose clothing. The scorching exhaust manifolds that could burn straight through to the dermis with a split second of contact. A maze of hoses and painted steel pipes and fluid drips all ready to trip him.

Logically, I know he’s almost as accustomed to being down here as I am. Either one of us could replace a water pump blindfolded.

But he looks sovulnerablewalking toward me. Tangled strands of wavy brown hair escaping the band of his earmuffs at all angles and sticking to the sweat on his forehead. Shirt rumpled and spattered with grease stains. Sweatpants coming untucked from his rubber boots.

He’s probably exhausted. What if he changed his mind about this, but he felt like he had to follow through?

What if he gets hurt because of me?

For a moment, when he leans in to kiss me, the doubts fall away and the noise is sucked out of the room. The hot, fume-tinged,ugly mechanics surrounding us all disappear, and I remember why I needed this.

His hands come up to cup the cushioned shells around my ears, and he smiles against my lips when he feels me instinctually lean into his touch.

One of those hands slips down, sliding beneath my sweater and wool undershirt to splay across needy, overheated skin.

I catch his wrist, well-aware talking is a waste of breath down here, earmuffs or not. So I shake my head. I can’t put him at risk.

Seth pulls back, grabbing my shoulders and rubbing in firm, repetitive circles.

Relax,he mouths, exaggerating the way his chin drops onthe first syllable and the way his tongue rolls off the back of his teeth on the second.It’s okay.

I shake my head again. It’s not okay. Absolutely not. This is not a situation any responsible captain would partake in.

I point up in the direction I descended from, signaling that we need to head back up.

I think he mouths my name, next, but it’s hard to tell through the sexy, crooked smile on his face. And whatever he’s trying to tell me after that, I don’t see, because I turn right back around.