Page 7 of Cruising for Christmas
Did she snore? If she had known she was sharing a room with a stranger, she would have recorded herself sleeping. No one had ever told her she snored, but maybe they were being polite.
Did she talk in her sleep? She would have heard it on a recording if she’d had a chance. Why had she never thought to find out? Isn’t that what people do?
Oh God. Did shefartin her sleep? She would die. Just die if Ian told her she farted in her sleep. Again, a recording could have warned her. She made a mental note to record herself sleeping when she got back home, if Ian didn’t dish out all the dirty details before the end of this cruise.
The door to the bathroom clicked open and her eyes met Ian’s. He gave her a nod before stepping over to his suitcase to put his items back into it.
“All yours,” he said.
“Thanks.”
She pulled out her pouch of toiletries and then stared down at her pajamas. In all the chaos of the day’s events, she completely forgot she had packed pajamas with the intention of sharing a room with Shay, not with her attractive older brother. The shorts and tank top sleeper set would not do. Her ass would hang out of the shorts, and the risk of boob spillage from the tank top was too great. She didn’t need Ian getting the wrong idea, nor did she want her body on display. He already made it clear he despised her curves.
She whimpered and fell back on her butt in front of her open suitcase.
“You okay over there?” he asked.
Norah had forgotten he was in the room with her. She sighed. “Yeah. Just peachy.”
She grabbed her T-shirt she had worn on the flight to Florida, giving it a discreet sniff to make sure it didn’t stink. Then she grabbed a pair of jogging shorts—not that she had any intention of exercising on the ship, but she always over-packed with every possible scenario for activities. And right now, she was thanking her lucky stars she had grabbed them at the last minute. They were at least four inches longer than her sleep shorts, so they would work.
She stepped into the tiny bathroom and set her items on the closed toilet seat lid. A shower was off to the left, and the tiny sink with only two inches of counter top around it wouldn’t make it easy to do much of anything in the bathroom. The toilet took up the remaining space. The bathroom reminded her of a slightly larger porta potty with hardly any room to do much of anything aside from its intended purpose.
Which posed a problem for her.
With very little room to move, she shimmied her clothes off and discarded them on the floor before pulling her shorts on. Her foot immediately tangled in the liner of her workout shorts, causing her to fall backward. And since the bathroom doors were nothing more than a flimsy piece of plastic that she apparently hadn’t locked or latched, she fell onto her back on full display for everyone to see.
Okay. Not everyone. But for Ian to see.
The wind whooshed out of her lungs. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish as she tried to draw in air.
Ian rushed over to her and squatted at her side. “Are you okay?”
Still stunned, she only nodded in response. As soon as she could take a breath, Ian took her hand and helped haul her to her feet. It was then she realized her shorts were around her ankles and she stood in front of him in only her sports bra and panties. She squeaked and did her best to cover herself, thankful she had gone for comfortable undergarments rather than sexy ones that would have revealed more.
Ian’s eyes widened, just now noticing her lack of clothing, and spun around to face the other direction.
“Sorry,” he said.
She laughed nervously. “My fault.”
Norah reached down and pulled her shorts up before stepping back into the bathroom, closing the door, and quickly pulling the T-shirt over her head. She leaned her head against the wall and let out a long breath.
Good work, Norah. Way to show him your body when he clearly wants nothing to do with it.
She mentally slapped herself. Of course he wanted nothing to do with it. They werestrangers.
She stood up and straightened out her shirt before turning toward the mirror. She took a deep breath and finished up in the bathroom before stepping back out into the room. Ian was sitting on the balcony.
After depositing her things back into her bag, she tentatively stepped outside. The last thing she wanted to do was get into the bed and fall asleep before he even came inside. Norah wanted to offer to sleep on the floor even though there was very little space to do that. The bed took up the primary space, and what was left was a small table in the corner, and a few strips of carpet on each side of the bed.
Ian glanced at her before looking back out over the dark sea. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
She took that as an invitation to sit in the chair beside his. Motion by the ship had her blinking her eyes to see if she was imagining it. “Are those… fish?”
He nodded. “Flying fish. They come out at night. It’s my favorite part of these cruises. I always get a balcony room just for this reason.”
“It’s a little slice of heaven,” she murmured.
