by Marie Carnay
She shook her head. “It’s a spur of the moment thing.”
He shrugged. “As long as you’re cool in your underwear, we’re all good.”
She grinned. “Never been better.”
He waved her on and put the mike back to his lips. “All right! We’re set. Ladies and gentlemen, get ready.”
Daphne grabbed a t-shirt from one of the staff at the back of the stage. She shed her shirt and slipped the flimsy white material over her head and grinned at the woman. “Any last minute advice?”
The employee looked her up and down. “You really want to win or just have a good time?”
“Win. Of course.” She was doing this right.
The woman leaned close. “Shed the bra. The guys go ape-shit for bare tits.”
Daphne winked. No problem. She was going to wrench Tony out of the past and win this competition.
The water turned on and she spun around. Here goes nothing.
* * *
TONY
Aw, hell no. Tony clenched his hands into fists and pushed through the crowd.
Daphne stood toward the end of the stage, white t-shirt on, her bare nipples already tenting the fabric. What was she thinking?
He couldn’t stand there while all these Neanderthals ogled her body. That body was his and Damon’s. No one else’s.
The thought stopped him still. Shit. When had he gotten so possessive? Women never did that to him. He could screw them and leave them and forget their name before their ass disappeared down the hall.
But Daphne? She’d worked her way past his defenses. Broken down his walls. Shit, she’d gotten him to talk about his family. He never talked about his family.
The announcer piped up and the crowd screamed. Tony’s blood boiled. He had to get her off of that stage.
It wasn’t rational or smart, but he didn’t care. Daphne was his. She could fight him, tell him it was over in a few days, but he’d find a way. He was winning her over.
The jet of water hit the first girl and she screamed. Her shirt soaked see-through and the crowd went wild. Any other time, Tony would be checking her out. He’d seen thousands of tits. High, perky tight ones. Spilling over the banks big ones. Fake ones that could be their own flotation devices.
But none of them mattered. A man next to him whooped. “Yeah! Shake those titties, baby! Shake ’em for me!”
Tony ground his teeth together and pushed past him. Two more girls were soaked and the crowd had whipped up into a frenzy of screams and whistles.
This had to stop. He made it to the stage. “Daphne!” His voice cut through the din.
She waved.
“Get down!”
She shook her head.
The woman next to her shrieked as the water hit her.
“Get down, now!”
She stuck her tongue out at him. That’s it. He vaulted onto the stage in a single leap. Security rushed forward, but one look at him and they stopped still.
No messing with the boss.
He wrapped his arm around her waist and dragged her toward the edge.
“Tony! Let me go!” She beat on his chest, but his arm didn’t budge.
“You’re not doing this.”
“Yes I am!”
“No.” He hauled her off the stage and dragged her through the crowd, all while she kicked and pushed and hit him.
They tumbled into an alcove around the corner and he caged her against the wall.
“Why did you do that?” Anger flashed in her green eyes and before he could answer, he kissed her.
Hard. Rough. His lips mashed against hers, he nipped her with his teeth, and she shuddered.
“No one gets to ogle your naked body. No one but Damon and me.”
Her pupils dilated.
“No one, Daphne. No one else can have you. You’re ours.”
She grabbed his face and dragged his face back to hers. Hot and needy, she kissed him like his mouth was her oxygen. Her breasts rubbed against his chest, nipples hard and desperate.
He sucked her lower lip into his mouth and she groaned. “I don’t want you flaunting this body. Not out there. Not in front of those assholes.” Tony ran his hand down her back and squeezed her ass.
She pressed against his hand.
He moved up, under her shirt, to stroke her bare breast. Pebbled nipples…so nice. He tugged her shirt up and she hissed as he wrapped his lips around a juicy nub. Mmm.
“Tony.” She whispered his name.
He slid his hand down her belly and underneath her panties as he pulled back to look at her. Flushed cheeks. Hooded eyes. Lust.
His fingers slid between her folds and he smiled. “You’re so wet for me.”
A moan escaped her lips as her head fell back onto the wall. Stroke, stroke, pinch. He knew just what she liked. What she needed.
Her cream soaked his fingers and his dick throbbed inside his pants. It wasn’t close to enough. He nuzzled her ear. “I need to fuck you. Right now.”
She nodded in her haze. “Do it.”
“I’ll pull out. I don’t have a condom.”
He spun her around until her face mashed into the wall. He tugged her panties to the side.
With a wrench of his zipper, his cock sprang free. Hard. Thick. Ready to plunder.
She spread her legs as much as she could and he grabbed his shaft. With one hand on the wall, he lined himself up and thrust.
“Ahhhh!”
He was balls deep in one second. Her silken walls closing around him. Milking him. Christ. He wrapped one arm around her waist while he pressed against the wall with the other. He’d never last.
Again and again he thrust. Quick and sharp. She cried out as an orgasm hit her and Tony couldn’t hold on. He pulled back as his release erupted. He coated her ass in his cum, marking her as his own.
He couldn’t let her go. Not now. Not ever.
Chapter 13
DAPHNE
Could she find a way to have it all? Daphne plopped onto the couch in her suite with her laptop and a cup of coffee and the comfiest pair of pajamas she’d brought on the cruise.
Two more days. That’s all the time she had left to enjoy their company, get to know them…decide what to do. She turned her laptop on and exhaled.
She’d come on this cruise to help her co-worker get over a break-up and she’d ended up falling head over heels for two of the most amazing men. Daphne knew it was crazy. Two guys? But not just that… two guys at the same time? But they weren’t like any the other men she’d dated.
Tony and Damon had none of the jealousy and competition she’d assumed was beneath it all. Instead, it was double the attention. Double the pleasure. When Tony dragged her off the stage the day before, it was more than lust.
Were they falling for her as much as she’d fallen for them? Her clients did some outrageous things. Parties with a million strippers. Affairs with people half their age. Secret babies. Double lives.
She had covered all of them up. Snapped her fingers, said a good line, and the media left them alone. It’s what a good public relations firm did. They made all the bad publicity disappear.
Sure, people still talked. Paparazzi stalked their compounds hoping for a racy shot. But with a good tag line and the right photo-op, even the worst offenders stayed above water.
Daphne glanced out at the morning sun glinting off the ocean.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
If she could come up with a story…some way to explain the whole relationship that would satisfy nosy co-workers and stodgy Mr. Hopkins, it might work. She wasn’t doing anything illegal.
She could have her job and her chance at partnership and this new whatever-it-was. Relationship? Affair?
Dare she think it—love?
People accepted all sorts of unconventional relationships these days. She just needed the right way to spin it.
She shook her head and turned her attention to her computer. After opening her email, she scanned through the messages.
One from Rachel caught her eye.
Hey Daphne,
Sorry I bailed on you for the cruise. I should have told you I might cancel instead of springing it on you like that.
I hope you’re having the best time without me and loosening up. I can’t wait to hear all about it.
Rachel
Daphne smiled. She’d started off the cruise hating Rachel and what she’d done to her. Now she wanted to wrap her in a hug and thank her.
She typed back a quick message.
Hey Rachel!
No hard feelings. Having the best time. I know it sounds crazy, but… I met someone! You’re really missing out.
See you soon,
Daphne
She hit send before she could talk herself out of it. It might not be the whole truth, but she’d sent it out into the world. One person off that ship knew she’d met someone. Okay. So she didn’t know it was two sexier-than-a-cover-model and amazing-in-bed men, but it was a start.
Daphne set her laptop on the couch and picked up her coffee. She carried it over to the window and stared out at the waves. The Stardust was an island cut off from the rest of the world. A place where the ordinary rules didn’t apply. When she stepped off the boat, would she still want them?
Deep down she knew the answer. But would it be enough to survive real life?
Her email dinged and she bent down to read it.
Enjoy the rest of the trip! You’ve only got two days left.
Rachel
Daphne frowned. That was exactly what she was afraid of.
* * *
DAMON
Damon stared out at the deck in the morning light. A handful of people had taken up spots around the pool, a few brave souls were in the warm water, swimming off their hangovers.
On any other trip, he’d be sprawled out in bed, his arm flung out over some woman who’s name he couldn’t remember. Tony would be passed out from too much bourbon and not enough sleep.
They’d be five days into a non-stop party.
Not this time.
This time they’d met the woman who could change everything. She wasn’t a one-week fling. Daphne was so much more. Beautiful and funny. Gracious and kind.
He couldn’t go back to his life the way it was before.
Tony padded up in bare feet, two steaming mugs of coffee in his hand. He held one out to Damon.
“Thanks.”
Tony nodded and took a sip. “Is it weird that I miss her already?”
“No.” Damon hadn’t wanted to be the first to admit it, but even an hour away from Daphne was too long.
They’d begrudgingly agreed to give Daphne some time to herself in her own suite. She needed some personal space and they needed to talk.
Tony raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”
“There’s only two days left.”
“Don’t remind me.”
Damon walked over to the couch and sat on the edge. “We need to talk about after.”
“You mean what we’re doing next? Cause I’d already penciled in three hours with Daphne in the nearest bed.”
Damon didn’t laugh. “After the cruise. What are we doing?”
Tony stood looking out at the ship they’d built their fortunes on and drank his coffee. At last, he exhaled. “We fight for her.”
The statement caught Damon off-guard. Before the cruise started, it had been the usual. He’d floated the idea of settling down and Tony had said no. Standard procedure. To hear him say he wanted more…Damon sank down onto the couch. “What are you saying?”
Tony answered without taking his eyes off the view. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? I’m in love with her.”
Damon closed his eyes. Tony. In love with a woman.
“Are you?”
“Since the minute she walked into our office.” He opened his eyes as Tony turned around.
“You were right the other night in Midnight Cove. It is time to get off this ship and let someone else run it for a change. I’m ready.”
“Because of Daphne?”
Tony nodded. “She’s not like the others. I look at her and I can’t stand the thought of seeing her with someone else. I can’t walk away from her. She’s ours.”
Damon felt the same way. “Do you think she’ll go for it?”
“No. Not at first. How could she? With that job and that asshole of a boss. When she told me about how he treated her…” Tony gripped the mug so hard his knuckles turned white.
“We could get a place in LA.”
Tony shook his head. “That wouldn’t last more than a week. All it would take was one comment from a co-worker or her boss and Daphne would get cold feet.”
Damon frowned. “Then what?”
“We could interfere.”
“With her job?”
Tony shrugged. “It might make her decision easier. If they fired her…or told her she would never make partner…”
“I can’t believe you.” Damon stood up in a rush. “I want her out of that job and in our arms just as much as you do. But getting her fired? Manipulating her like that?” He ran a hand through his hair. “If she ever found out, she would never forgive us.”
“Then we make it so she never does.”
“No. No way.”
Tony cared less about status and position and what people thought of him than anyone Damon had ever known. It’s one of the reasons they stayed so close. He never cared about bullshit. The man just let it roll off.
But to torpedo her career? The way Daphne talked about PR, it was everything to her. They couldn’t ruin that just for a chance to wake up in her bed every day.
He paced in front of the window, trying to come up with another way. “There’s got to be something else we can do.”
Tony’s expression soured. “Either she leaves that job or she leaves us. There’s no way around it. The sooner you accept it, the easier it’ll be to come up with a plan.”
“There’s no plan that will work. We just have to trust her to pick us on her own.”
Tony downed the rest of his coffee in a single gulp. “Then I’d get ready to take the next cruise when it leaves town because we’ll be walking off this ship alone.”
Damon opened his mouth to argue when the phone rang.
Tony put it on speaker.
“Jenkins here. There’s been a development in the bootlegging matter.”
Tony spoke up. “Go ahead.”
“You should come to security. We’ve caught the thief.”
“On our way.” Tony clicked the phone off. “We’re not done talking about this.”
Damon couldn’t agree more, but they had an emergency to handle. “Let’s get this over with.”
Tony nodded and headed down the hall to change.
Whatever Jenkins found, they could deal with it quickly and get back to the important things—Daphne and how to keep her.
* * *
TONY
Jenkins stood inside the security office with his hands clasped behind his back. He’d been one of the best new hires they’d had in years. All thanks to Trent and his recommendation.
If the man didn’t already have everything he could ask for thanks to Ian’s shipping business, Tony would send him a thank you. Something amber-colored and 100 proof.
“What can you tell us?” Tony walked in and stood beside Damon.
In their rush to get to security, Tony hadn’t had time to switch gears. Catching the person responsible mattered, but he couldn’t get his head out of the future.
Admitting to Damon he was in love with Daphne…he’d never thought it possible. Falling in love wasn’t in his DNA. Look at his parents. They’d married for money, had their token child, ignored him and each other. Not the shining example of success.
He’d planned his life all out. Cruise ship owner, total womanizer, single and unencumbered. That was his future.
Until Daphne.
Jenkins motioned to the bank of video screens and Tony tried to focus.
&n
bsp; “We caught him this morning moving two cases with a freight lift.”
The video started and a man pushing two cases of bourbon on a hand truck appeared in the hall. The wheel bumped over something, the cases jostled, and the thief’s hood slipped off. No fucking way.
“George?” Damon ducked to get a closer look. “He’s one of our best bartenders. Why on earth…”
“Are you sure this is the guy?”
Jenkins nodded. “Positive. He’s the thief.”
Tony ran his hand through his hair. George had been with them for years. “Have you found him?”
“He’s in the other room. We’ve secured him in case you’d like to talk to him.”
Damn straight he did. No employee could steal from them and get away with it. “Lead the way.”
The head of security ushered them into a makeshift interrogation room set up with folding chairs and a table. George sat in one, hands cuffed behind his back, staring at the floor.
“Good morning, George.” Tony took a seat and Damon did the same. The head of security stood by the door.
The thief nodded.
“Why’d you do it?”
George frowned and kicked at the chair leg.
Great. The last thing they needed was some tough guy act. Tony could break the man in two with his bare hands. “Come on, George, You’ve been caught on camera. As soon as we’re back in the States the police will take over.”
George’s head snapped up. “But we’re in international waters.”
Tony shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. We fly the American flag. We’re an American ship. Our laws apply no matter where we are.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“That’s the law.” Tony glanced over at Damon. “Grand theft in California’s what, three years?” He turned to George. “It’s a felony, George. You’re looking at serious jail time. And if the Feds decide to prosecute, you could be in prison for a very long time.”
The bartender’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down and he shifted his gaze from Tony to Damon.
“Tony’s right.” Damon sat forward in his chair. “Now, if you want us to say some nice things to the police for you, they might knock it down to a misdemeanor.”
