Out of Frame

by Megan Erickson

  “Yeah, he does, and he’s thrilled for me that I can come clean soon. He doesn’t know about the audition I have.”

  I shook my head, the hot lick of fury beginning to rise. “I can’t imagine he’d want this for you. I can’t imagine he’d want you to hide who you are. And I refuse to believe you wouldn’t find roles just because you came out as bisexual. This is two thousand and fucking fifteen!”

  My whole body was quivering at the unfairness of the situation. J. R. cupped my face, his expression tender as he brushed my jaw with his thumbs. “You’re hot when you’re fired up.”

  And just like that, I wasn’t angry anymore. I was turned on.

  “Part of me thinks this is the wrong decision, but that’s my rational side. My heart says fuck it.” He took a deep breath. “But we barely know each other, and it’s asking a lot for you to hide from the cameras with me for the rest of the this trip. It’d be basically you and me against the Man.”

  I grinned. “You asking me to bet on you rather than the house?”

  He leaned forward, his hand beside my elbow on the railing. “I guess I am.”

  I jutted my chin forward and lifted my eyebrows. “I ever tell you I’m lucky?”

  “I think you might have mentioned it.”

  I leaned forward, so our lips were an inch apart. “Well, I’m betting on you.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Jay

  He kissed me.

  Slow at first. A tease. His hot breath slid over my lips as he nibbled at the corner of my mouth. Our noses bumped, our stubbled chins rasped together.

  I pressed a palm to his back and drew us closer, aligning our bodies. His head tilted back to accommodate our height difference, our mouths still fused.

  His scruff tickled my face His hands gripped my waist. I smashed our hips together, needing to get closer, oh-so-much closer. The memory of the frenzied kiss in the cabin flashed through my mind, when Quinn had responded like a dream, wrapping his long legs around my hips.

  I pulled back just enough to see his blown pupils. He licked his swollen lips and his gaze darted over my shoulders. I looked back, but we were alone on this section of the deck except for the couple that was still making out. By the sounds of their moans, they weren’t paying us any attention.

  While the cameras had been busy with Adriana, I’d slipped past them. I couldn’t remember where the live-feed cameras were on this part of the deck. Shit.

  Quinn’s tongue lapped at my jaw, and I closed my eyes with a groan. I wanted this guy alone. And now, or I thought I might go out of my mind. “Quinn.”

  “Mmm,” he hummed against my skin as his lips coasted down my neck.

  I bit my lip to get myself in check. “We can’t be here, doing this.”

  He wasn’t getting the urgency as his fingers traced my collarbone through my shirt. “Where are we going to go?”

  I grabbed his hand and his gaze finally met mine. “Is your luck contagious? Any of that gonna rub off on me?”

  He squeezed my hand. “I guess we’ll have to see.”

  I took a deep breath and rolled my neck from side to side. To get back to the deck, we had to make our way past the party, hopefully without being seen. I wasn’t quite sure how that was going to happen, but we’d figure it out. “All right, this could get rough, but follow me, okay?”

  His eyes widened. “Oooh, an adventure.”

  I shook my head. “Fuck, you’re cute.”

  “Don’t call me cute,” he grumbled as I ducked my head and led him from the deck. I dropped his hand once we got in sight of more people. I glanced over my shoulder. “Just in case of the cameras.”

  He nodded, a sad smile on his lips. My heart ached, hoping he wasn’t thinking of that asshole ex-boyfriend of his. I so wished this could be different. For both of us.

  I focused on getting back to my cabin. I wasn’t as worried about the live-feed cameras, because it was too dark for most of them. But if the camera crew found me, they came with lights. And that would be bad. To get to our cabins, I had to cross the top deck, then head down the flight of stairs to the lower deck, then into the ship.

  “If the cameras catch us, can’t they just . . . edit it out?” Quinn asked.

  I shook my head. “It’s not that simple. I wish it was. I signed the contract, and I have to behave or they could sue me.”

  Quinn fell silent after that, and when I glanced back at him, his expression was pained. I led him up to the top deck where the DJ played dance music to a packed crowd. Most of them were well on their way to being drunk, so I melted into the crowd with Quinn. I pulled him to my body and swayed my hips, singing to the pop song the DJ was mixing with a popular R&B song. Quinn’s eyes were bright, his mouth stretched into a huge grin as he sang with me.

  Bodies were all around us, so there wasn’t a part of me that wasn’t touching someone else’s skin. But yet ironically, nothing was more private, it seemed, like a crowd full of people. Everyone else focused on their own bodies, the music. This was just us, so close we were one body moving to the music. So close that his breath was mine. His heartbeat pounding against my chest.

  His rhythm was rough and his voice was off-key but I didn’t care, not when I had this moment with him in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean under a clear, star-filled sky. I wanted to take a snapshot of this moment because no matter what happened in the future, I had this night with Quinn. No one could take that away from me.

  I hugged him closer to me, wanting to melt into him. “You’re something else, Lucky,” I said into his ear.

  He slipped his hands under my shirt and dug his fingers into my skin. As the song’s chorus rocketed through the crowd, he threw his head back and boomed the words to the pale moon above us. His pale throat beckoned me to touch, lick, kiss, and I took the risk. Dipping once to press my lips right under his jaw.

  Then I grabbed his hand and began to move through the crowd.

  I still danced, hoping to look as casual as possible. A couple of people said my name, but no one seemed to notice Quinn was with me.

  When we finally reached the edge of the crowd, I could nearly taste freedom as I saw the stairs that would take me down to the bottom deck.

  Until I saw the familiar lights of the camera crew as they made their way up the stairs.

  “Shit! Abort, abort!” I whirled around and shoved Quinn back in the direction we’d just walked from. There was a break along the side of the dance floor, and we sprinted down the deck. Quinn was fast, almost as fast as me, as he pumped his arms and darted a glance over his shoulder at the crew who’d yet to spot us.

  We reached a railing that overlooked the lower deck. I knew there was a door down there that would take us into the ship, but there were no stairs on this side. We were trapped. I laced my fingers on top of my head. “Fuck.”

  Quinn looked back over his shoulder at the crowd. “It’s okay, you just head toward the cameras alone and I’ll disappear into the dance party crowd. It’ll be fine.”

  I didn’t want to do that. I wanted Quinn with me. Plus, as the cameras drew closer, I knew we were losing every chance we had to blend into the crowd without them catching us here alone.

  About twelve feet below the railing was a pool. The water sparkled, reflecting the stars in the sky. I glanced at Quinn, who was watching me with a raised eyebrow.

  I was done compromising. I wanted to spend time with Quinn tonight and fuck everything that was stopping me. I stepped onto the lower rung of the white metal railing and swung my legs over, so I sat on the top rung, my legs on the outside. I reached back to Quinn and beckoned with my fingers. “Come on, Lucky. Jump with me.”

  ***

  Quinn

  Jump with me.

  I stared at his hand. The big solid hand that had held my face as we kissed, that had eaten crab legs with me, that had just moments ago
been clasped in mine.

  The hand I wanted to feel all over my skin. And down my pants.

  In that moment I knew I was with Jay, not J. R. His lips were parted, his expression hopeful. He’d dropped the reality TV show facade for me and bared all the insecurities that plagued me daily. Will I be rejected? Will I be scorned? Will I be loved?

  He gestured behind him, his face closing slightly like he was bracing for me to turn him down. “You can go back to the dance floor alone. No worries. No hard feelings.” Then that look again, the one that told me he knew he was taking a risk. “Or you can come with me now and see what else tonight holds.”

  This could end in two days when we left this ship, but for these two days, I could follow my heart and forget about my fears and my worries.

  So I grabbed his hands, perched myself on the edge of the railing with him, and looked at the water below our feet.

  “Is this safe?” I asked.

  He grinned at me, his face lit from the light reflecting in the pool below. “I don’t know. But I’m curious to find out, huh?”

  I nodded and swallowed, that familiar knot of anxiety in my gut, the feeling that always made me not take that step. Not jump.

  Dammit, I wanted to jump. And I wanted to jump with Jay.

  “On the count of three,” he whispered.

  I shifted my legs and shook out my arms.

  “One.” He squeezed my hand. “Don’t let go, Lucky.”

  My heart pounded in my ears. “I won’t.”

  “Two.”

  I closed my eyes. Then I opened them. I wasn’t going to miss this.

  “Three!”

  We launched ourselves off the railing, but there was no time to focus on the queasy feeling in my stomach, the scream that lodged itself in my mouth, Jay’s death grip on my hand. Because in mere seconds, our feet smacked the water, and then we were plunged underwater. Our hands came apart on impact, and I flailed wildly amid the bubbles. Instinct hit me, and I kicked my way to the surface. After flipping my hair out of my eyes, I looked around for Jay. But I was the only head above water. I splashed around. “Jay? Jay?” I whispered. There was no one on this deck. No lifeguards, nothing, and we’d be in deep shit if they caught us in this pool. “Jay?!”

  I saw movement underwater about five feet away. I took a heaving breath and dove down. I couldn’t see well but I waved my arms and connected with something fleshy. I kicked and grunted and pulled and struggled with another body in tow. We breached the surface with a splash and a yelp.

  Jay was swimming inefficiently, so I hauled him onto his back and swam to the side of the pool. Once he was gripping it, he sucked in gasping breaths. Water dripped from his spiked eyelashes.

  “Jay.” I panted. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”

  He shook his head as water dripped off his chin and full lips. “No, I can’t swim.”

  “What? You can’t swim?” I punched his shoulder with a wet smack. “What the fuck were you thinking by asking me to jump?”

  He swallowed and moved hand over hand on the edge of the pool, drawing closer to me until our faces were inches apart. “Quinn.”

  “What?” I pouted. “I’m mad at you. You could have drowned!”

  He smiled, a slow smile, and it was one I hadn’t seen before. This was Jay’s smile. “I trusted you. And you were there.”

  There was reverence to his tone, and a little awe. Warmth crept up my spine and I wanted to bottle this feeling when Jay looked at me like this. “I didn’t do anything anyone else wouldn’t have done. I wasn’t going to let you drown.”

  He huffed a laugh. “You trust easily. I don’t.”

  “You know, you could have just told me that you trusted me; we didn’t have to demonstrate it by jumping into a pool.”

  He thought I was hilarious if his low laugh was any indication. “You really are cute when you’re pissed.”

  I looked up at the railing we’d jumped from. The light of the cameras swept back and forth through the night air, probably searching for Jay. I reached out and ran my thumb over his full lower lip. “I told you not to call me cute.”

  I didn’t feel the water dripping off my nose or the cold night air on my wet hair. All I felt was the heat of Jay’s body against mine, the taste of his tongue in my mouth. He kissed me like he couldn’t get enough, like I was the last drink of water on earth and he wanted that cool, crisp liquid before he perished.

  Voices came from above us. Jay whispered, “Hold your breath,” as he plunged us underwater. We kissed again, clinging to each other as I kept us from sinking. Jay let me. He trusted me, and when the shadows along the railing on the upper deck moved away, I pulled us back up to the surface.

  “You ready?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Quinn

  Jay knew some back way to his cabin, so we ran through the halls soaking wet. He shoved me into a wall, and I got him back by tripping him so he slammed into someone’s cabin door, resulting in a shouted curse.

  We picked up the speed and eventually tumbled into his cabin, dripping water all over the floor. He locked the door behind us, and with an unspoken command, we both immediately stripped out of our drenched clothes. Jay handed me a towel to dry off my skin, which was now even more pale from the cold, and pebbled with goose bumps.

  I wrapped my towel around my waist and turned around slowly to see that Jay had done the same. He stood a couple inches taller than me, and with probably thirty pounds more muscle. His abs were cut, and the dark grooves of his V muscle trailed down beneath the towel.

  He stood with his arms at his sides, watching me study him.

  A rush of insecurity about my looks came back, but Jay shut them down in an instant when he stepped closer and trailed his fingers over my shoulder. “I like the freckles.”

  “I hated them for a long time.”

  “Why?”

  His fingers continued their exploration down over my chest, and I sucked in a breath as the pad of his thumb rasped over a nipple. “I’m sorry, what was the question?”

  He smiled. “Why did you hate your freckles?”

  “Uh, because they made me different.”

  He leaned down and his pink tongue traced my skin along the top of my shoulder. I sucked in a breath.

  He placed a hand on my hip. “Breathe, Quinn.”

  I let out my breath and laughed. He smiled as he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine.

  We were alone. Just us. And we didn’t have much time, but we had tonight. We had this moment where we could explore this chemistry and this lust and see if there was anything else to it once we burned it out.

  I wrapped my arms around his shoulders as we deepened the kiss. The towel was course, rubbing against my hard cock with equal parts pleasure and delicious pain. He was hard, too, poking me through the cotton of his own towel.

  My mind raced as I thought about what would come next. Would he want to fuck me? Would he want me to fuck him? Did he have condoms and lube and . . . ?

  “Hey, Lucky, come back to me.” He held my face in his hands, and I realized I’d squeezed my eyes shut. I opened them. “Hey,” he said again. “You got lost for a minute there. Quit thinking, just feel, okay? No pressure. If we just stood here and kissed all night, I’d be happy.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Does that line work on women? Because I’m not buying it.”

  He threw back his head and laughed, then shoved me backward so I fell on the lower bunk bed with a bounce. With a knee to the bed, he loomed over me. “Smartass.”

  His lips were the most kissable lips I’d ever seen, ever felt, ever touched. And when his eyebrows lifted and said lips quirked, I realized I had said that out loud.

  Oh.

  He shook his head and ran his hands up my si
de. I shimmied as he hit a ticklish spot over my ribs. The knowledge clearly pleased him because he grinned. “Ticklish?”

  “Why else do you think I’m gritting my teeth right now?”

  His fingers danced over the spot, and I squirmed. Then his head dropped, and I wasn’t so ticklish anymore; now I was turned on as fuck because his lips were there, and his tongue. My skin tingled and rippled under his attention. I sighed, raising my arms over my head. I could have laid there forever while he mapped every inch of my torso.

  Finally he raised his head, and although clouded with lust, a bit of uncertainty crept over his features. “So, I’ve only, uh, been with a guy once before.”

  I nodded. “Okay.”

  He stayed silent.

  “Oh, is this where I share?”

  He huffed out a laugh. “Uh, I guess? You don’t have to, I mean—”

  “It’s fine. So, uh, that boyfriend in college I told you about? The closeted one?”

  He nodded.

  “He was my first boyfriend. My first everything. I was dumb and shy and desperate to not graduate from college a virgin. So I’m not a virgin anymore, and he’s still straight. Apparently.”

  Jay lifted his hand and a finger slowly caressed the furrow between my brow. I relaxed my scowl under his gentle touch. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”

  “It wasn’t . . . plenty of people have been through shit relationships. He wasn’t mean to me, or abused me, he . . .”

  “Didn’t care about how you wanted to be cared for,” Jay said softly.

  Oh God, he got it, and just like that, I thought I might cry then and there. Which would totally kill the mood. So I blinked and bit the inside of my cheek. “Yeah, exactly that.”

  Jay nodded. “I get it.”

  I grabbed his face and drew it down to mine, so I could taste those lips again. They were salty from my skin, and so hot and pliant against mine. He was still turned on, judging by the hardness pressing against me. Mine was still there, ready and raring to go.

  He reached out and with a quick twist of his fingers, the pressure around my waist eased. It took me a minute to realize he’d unknotted my towel. Cool air hit my groin as he swiped the offending fabric away.