by Andrews, Amy
Kelsey’s mind strayed to the kiss even though she knew it hadn’t been about the wallet. “Yes. He was.”
“See.” Andy reached into his pocket and pulled out a twenty Euro note. “I told you he wouldn’t miss it.”
Kelsey stared at the note dumfounded for a moment, a hot cloud of what-the-fuck mushrooming in her chest. Her face flushed as her blood pressure rose. “You’re fucking kidding me.” She snatched the money out of his hand.
“Hey,” Andy protested.
“Are you out of your mind? I took his wallet to him personally,” she hissed. “He’s going to think I stole it.”
“Alright, alright, don’t get your panties in a tangle.”
Her blood pressure spiked. “God, you can be such a jerk. You pull this shit again, I’m reporting you.” She thunked her undrunk beer down on the bar and stalked away.
Kelsey, who too often cursed the ridiculous enormity of cruise ships, was exceedingly thankful for the size of the ship tonight. She needed the time to cool down.
Did Ari know the money was missing? Had he noticed? And if so had he reported it? Christ, she could lose her job over this! After seven years of hard graft and being away from home she could lose it all over someone else’s greed.
Sure, visiting a passenger’s cabin, kissing a passenger was also forbidden but Kelsey wasn’t really worried about the possibility of that coming out. Stealing from said passenger, though? That was a one-way ticket to the unemployment queue.
Fuck you very much, Andy!
Her pulse beat like a drum in sync with her step as she entered deck seven, the twenty in her hand hot and sweaty. And heavy. Like she was about to hand a guy she barely knew, who could shoot her career in the foot, a loaded gun.
Christ – what must he think of her?
She’d caught a glimpse of him tonight across the dining room as he’d been seated. He’d been hot as fuck in a suit and their eyes had locked and, for an awful second, Kelsey had realised the enormity of what she’d done. Of the line she’d crossed when she’d gone to his cabin and how vulnerable she’d made herself to consequences. She’d never felt as exposed as she had right there in the middle of that massive, elegant, two level dining room.
And she’d been duped by a guy she’d loved who’d stolen all her inheritance money.
But then he’d glanced quickly away as if nothing had happened between them and, even as that felt kind of sickening, his pretence was far less of a risk to her job than his attention.
Thankfully, the passageway was deserted but the spectacular first night show in the Adelphi Theatre would be finished soon and the passageway would be full of people retiring to their cabins. Putting on a spurt of speed, she hurried to his door, her brain grappling with the looming conversation.
She’d been so ticked at Andy, she hadn’t given any thought to what she’d say when he opened the door. If he opened the door. There were plenty of entertainment options on a ship this size which he could easily be out enjoying. A good looking man like Ari would no doubt find easy companionship at any of the ship’s venues.
That thought made Kelsey unaccountably twitchy so her brain skipped to another possibility. What if he was asleep? And she was waking him to tell him what exactly? That her dickhead bartender partner had thought it’d be funny to steal from Ari?
Yeah...not that. Definitely not that.
Maybe she’d found it tonight around the back of the bar and thought it might be his? That could work.
Okay, so she’d knock lightly and if he didn’t answer she’d hightail it out of here and try again tomorrow. Via a phone call. It was too risky coming to his cabin – again.
Kelsey knocked. It was quiet but would definitely be audible from inside the cabin. Hell, he could probably hear her heart knocking against her ribs from inside the cabin!
Just when she thought he wasn’t going to answer, the door opened abruptly and the line she was rehearsing died on her lips at the sight of his naked chest. Did the man just strip off and walk around in his towel the second he got into his room?
He eyes widened a little as his gaze settled on her and his stance got a little stiff. It reminded her of that brief, impersonal eye lock he’d spared her in the dining room. “Oh. Hi.” His lips were kinda stiff too, drawing attention to his mouth and the dark shadow of his whiskers.
Crap...not exactly pleased to see her. “Hi,” she said and swallowed against the rapid thickening in her throat.
She heard voices from further down the passageway and quickly scanned over her shoulder to find a group of six elderly passengers all laughing and chatting, obviously on the way to their cabins. Shit. They couldn’t see her face and they weren’t paying her any heed but she had zero desire to be recognised.
“Could I come in for a moment, please?”
If possible he stiffened some more and the knuckles wrapped around the door handle blanched white. Jesus, did he really think she wanted to be in his room with him barely dressed after what had happened in there earlier?
“Please,” she said because she was not going to have the money conversation with Ari standing in the passageway in her uniform.
Reluctantly Ari fell back to make way for her and Kelsey stepped inside, brushing past him, noting the low glow from the bedside lamp was the only light in the cabin. Drawing to a halt at the foot of the bed, the door clicked shut and she turned to face him. His eyes met hers before they travelled down her body, heat building in his gaze as it took in her formal uniform of red button up blouse and dark grey pencil skirt.
The air zinged suddenly as heat morphed to a raw kind of hunger. His body may have been putting out keep out signals but his eyes were telling a different story. Her gaze zeroed in on the knot of that towel and she blinked as a surge of lust flooded her pelvis.
Oh no. Down girl - down! She was not here for this. It would not be sensible or practical and she was nothing if not sensible and practical.
Kelsey briefly shut her eyes to block the temptation of him. Get your shit together, woman! Opening her eyes, she held up the twenty euro in her hand. “I found this –”
She stopped and cleared her throat. Her voice had gone all helium on her again which sounded guilty as fuck. She did not take the money and she would be damned if a wobbly voice said otherwise.
“In the bar tonight. It was on the floor out the back near where I’d looked through your wallet when I was trying to find who it belonged to.”
Kelsey fought against the urge to swallow - another sign of guilt – despite her throat being dry as day old croutons. “It must have fallen out and I didn’t realise.”
He didn’t say anything for the longest time, just looked at her, a frown creasing his brow as his gaze flicked from the money then back to her, his gaze probing. Assessing.
“Thank you.” He stepped closer until he was able to reach for the note which he took out of her hand. “I thought I’d had more money in my wallet but...” He shrugged. “A migraine can often make me fuzzy about facts.”
So he had noticed. Was that why he’d been so stiff and unwelcoming just now? Why he hadn’t acknowledged her at dinner tonight? Had he suspected her of taking it? And if so, why hadn’t he reported it or made a complaint?
“I appreciate you returning it.”
“Of course,” she said, dismissing the gesture as a no-brainer with a quick shake of her head.
He stepped around her, the warm bulk of his bicep brushing hers. An army of goose bumps marched up her arm, across her chest and puckered her nipples. She caught a whiff of maple syrup again as he crossed to the bedside table, picked up his wallet and replaced the note.
Kelsey watched the shift and play of muscles beneath the burnished barrier of his skin, the clench of his ass beneath the towel. He turned and Kelsey quickly skittered her gaze to the left although she was pretty damn sure he’d caught her perving.
“I –” She swallowed, her mouth far from dry now thanks to an excess of saliva, as she met his gaze. “
Better go.”
Two ink black eyes drifted over her mouth, down her throat, to the open V of her blouse and the way it strained a little across her chest before returning to her face. The husky rattle of Kelsey’s breathing seemed loud in the deafening silence of the cabin. Outside more and more people were walking past but inside it was eerily quiet - like a cocoon in the middle of a beehive.
“Did you want to wait for a bit until the number of passengers returning to their cabins lessens?”
The offer was a little stiff even if it did seem genuine enough and it made perfect sense to wait. But still, she was too conscious of him as a man. It felt too...intimate.
“I think I’ve already interrupted your evening enough,” she said, waving her hand at his towel, her cheeks heating as she tried not to remember how aroused he’d been beneath that towel earlier.
“It’s fine,” he assured. “They shouldn’t be too long and I can shower when you’ve gone. I’ll just –” He indicated the wardrobe as he headed back her way. “Put something else on.”
Kelsey nodded. Him not being in a towel would help.
He gestured to the chair at the small round corner coffee table. “Take a seat. I’ll be right back.”
Crossing to the chair, Kelsey sat as Ari disappeared into the bathroom and what sounded like a herd of people passed by outside. He was back in under a minute in track pants and a t-shirt.
“I’m having a whiskey,” he said as he left the bathroom. “Will you join me?”
Kelsey didn’t think adding drinking with a passenger in his cabin to her list of transgressions was particularly wise and whiskey wasn’t her favourite tipple but they had to do something. “Yes, thank you.”
He crossed to the open shelving above the in-built draws and poured a shot of whiskey into two glasses. He handed one to her then sat on the end of the bed. “To the Hellenic Spirit, may she go well,” he said raising his glass.
Kelsey raised hers. “To the Hellenic Spirit.”
Despite the urge to slam the whole thing back, Kelsey sipped at the drink. So did Ari. “You’re headache is gone now?” she asked politely, fixing her gaze on his face and not the soft fall of his shirt against broad shoulders.
“Yes. I slept for a few hours before dinner and it was gone when I woke.”
“You looked good at dinner,” she agreed and then her cheeks flushed as the full import of what she’d said dawned. “I mean... you looked...” She groped around for a word that didn’t involve the words sexy, hot or fuckable. “Recovered.”
He gave her a small smile like he knew exactly what she’d meant but her slip of the tongue was amusing. “Thank you.”
“And how was your first evening meal on your first ever cruise?”
They passed ten minutes on inane chatter about the dining room and his trip to the casino like they hadn’t kissed in this very room a handful of hours ago. In fact between trying not to think about that and her ears straining for noises in the passageway, she barely took in a word he said.
The second it fell quiet outside, Kelsey stood, placing her half drunk shot of whiskey down. “I think it’s all clear now.”
Manoeuvring around the table, she headed for the door, aware that Ari had also stood and was following close behind. Heat radiated from his body and her heart fluttered as it surrounded her, her legs went to rubber. She reached for the door knob the same time he did and their fingers connected.
A spark flared at his touch and it took all her willpower not to turn around and find out where that spark might lead because she’d already broken enough rules for one day.
She pulled at the door knob. It didn’t budge. “Wait,” he said, his hold tightening around her hand. More voices came to her. They were further down but they’d no doubt see her if she tried to leave now.
Her heart beating like wings in her chest, she stood straining her ears, praying for whoever it was to move on quickly as Ari’s heat warmed an intoxicated in equal measure.
There was probably a foot between them but he might as well have been jammed against her. She could smell maple syrup and hear the unsteady timbre of his breathing.
Or maybe that was hers.
“I really am very sorry about the kiss,” he said, his voice low and husky, as the voices outside drew closer.
Kelsey shut her eyes. God...that kiss. It had been crazy. Sweet and simple. Innocent almost. But it had lit her up. Just like she was lit up now.
She could only imagine how a not innocent kiss could be between them. How a full on open mouthed, head-rocking, lip-crushing kiss could be.
She wished she didn’t want to know. But she did.
She really did.
CHAPTER THREE
Before she could stop herself she turned and her pulse lurched at his nearness. Her legs shook and her hands shook and the sound of her heartbeat was so loud in her ears it drowned out the voices passing by in the corridor beyond the door.
Kelsey couldn’t lift her eyes to him. Admitting her desire was bad enough - she couldn’t be any bolder. Her gaze fixed on the uneven movement of his chest, the bob of his Adam’s apple in his throat.
She should turn around. She should open the door. She should leave. The voices were hardly discernible now. But everything inside her burned to feel his mouth on hers again.
No matter how many rules she was breaking.
To pull him closer, not turn away. To throw caution to the wind like so many other staff members did and break a rule for once. Indulge herself a little in this private cocoon where nobody need know.
In seven years of employment, she’d never crossed this line. But maybe just this once, she could? In a year she’d be out of here, living in a small town with an increasingly dependent mother where there’d be zero opportunities to kiss a hot Greek dude.
Was it wrong to want just one wild moment to look back on and remember she’d had a little excitement in her life?
“Kelsey.”
It was a raw sound, a rumble delivered on a ragged exhalation. It could have meant go or stay or just...please but whatever it meant she’d felt it everywhere. Oozing like warm honey, caressing like cool silk, pulling like the tide.
The rough draw of his breath met the shallow husk of hers. Her knees wobbled. Her heart banged loud behind her ribs as she gathered the courage to meet his eyes. The hot spear of his gaze settled on her mouth and she was lost.
And hell...it was just a kiss.
She raised a trembling hand and slid it onto his shoulder.
Heat tingled in her fingers and danced up her arm as his muscles bunched beneath her palm. Then he took a step toward her, his body aligning with hers, pressing her into the door. He lifted his gaze, pierced her with a dark, unfathomable expression.
“This is madness,” he muttered.
“Yes,” she replied, but then he was lowering his head and Kelsey was powerless to do anything but meet him halfway.
This kiss was much more than the pressing together of two sets of lips. It was heat and electricity and fireworks. It was hard and deep. Wet and open. It was twisting tongues and clashing teeth. It was deep, rumbly groans and urgent nonsensical mutterings. It was a sudden storm, forking lightning and dumping rain.
Wreaking havoc.
There was no sense of control or propriety. No possible way to keep it in check. It was a wild frothing beast of a thing and Kelsey was a slave to it and his mouth.
Nobody had ever kissed her like this.
So...needy. Greedy, desperate kisses. Suffocating her with their urgency. Drawing from her as if she was oxygen and he was flame. Kisses that stole her breath but made her feel more fucking alive than she’d ever been.
Her pulse thrummed and blood flowed thick and fast, her ears ringing to the rhythm of her arousal. She was hot and wet and ready, her whole body humming. It was utterly insane.
She’d never wanted a man so absolutely, so damn fast. Hell, they hadn’t even officially been introduced and she never did something like this w
ith a guy who hadn’t introduced himself first.
Apart from earlier - but that kiss was not this kiss.
And she didn’t need a crystal ball to know this wasn’t just a kiss. That she couldn’t stop at just a kiss. That she wanted more of him - all of him - and if she was crossing a line with Ari George then she was going to do so in spectacular fashion.
He broke off, easing back slightly, their breathing hot and heavy. “Are you sure?” he said, his gaze probing.
Kelsey liked that Ari also knew where this was heading. That this was more than just one kiss. She nodded - she’d never been surer in her life. It might be unwise, but there it was. She’d never indulged in anything so utterly reckless. She’d played by the rules and been a model employee but just this once, she was going to indulge in something for her - before she settled into a small town life.
“Are you?” she asked.
That he wanted her was obvious. She could feel the evidence of his arousal hard against her belly. But she swore she could see a hazy swirl of conflict in his eyes, like he wanted her but maybe he didn’t want to want her.
If she’d been in her right mind she might have paid it more heed. Alas, she was not.
“Yes,” he muttered and kissed her again, his body pressing hard and urgent against hers, the back of her head bumping the back of the door.
Kelsey’s arms wrapped around his neck as she lost herself to his mouth, lost herself to the thrill and hum of her body, aware vaguely that her legs were moving and so were his but not really registering their progress until he stopped abruptly at the barrier of the bed.
He broke off and they stared at each other for a beat or two. The bed was right there behind him and she wanted him on it, she wanted to be on him on it. Placing her palm in the centre of his chest she gave him a gentle shove, satisfied in a primal kind of way when he landed half reclined, his eyes dark, his mouth wet.
“Shirt,” she said, her voice an even huskier vibrato than normal.
He didn’t say a word, just stripped his shirt off and tossed it aside.
“Those.” Her greedy gaze strayed to the large bulge straining against the front of his track pants as she pointed at them.
