by Tawna Fenske
Alex stepped into the room and pulled the door shut behind him. He turned back around, and Juli saw his eyes drop to her cleavage and stay there for a few beats. She resisted the urge to cover up with the sheet. Let him look if he wanted to, at least he wasn’t staring in horror like they all had over the IQ announcement.
Ogling seemed like a plus at this point.
“I was sleeping on the flybridge, but the rain is coming in sideways now,” Alex said. “And I tried to sleep in the salon, but Cody is making homemade fettuccine and has the pasta draped over everything so it can dry out.”
“Fettuccine?” she asked hopefully. “Whole wheat or semolina?”
“Focus, Juli. I need a place to sleep. And you’ve got the biggest room with the built-in bench that could be doing more than holding your clothes right now.”
“And Uncle Frank. He’s kind of comfy there.”
“Right. Uncle Frank would be equally comfortable on the nightstand.”
Juli looked at Alex for a moment, trying not to think about how well his T-shirt fit, or how nice it would be to have some companionship. She was still reeling with embarrassment from her dinnertime confession. She felt silly and lonely and very, very vulnerable.
Not the best time to have an attractive, half-dressed man in her room. Especially not a half-dressed man she’d come close to sleeping with twice now.
“I didn’t hear a ‘please’ in there anywhere, but you look so pathetic, you can stay,” Juli said, swinging herself out of bed to clear her things off the bench. “Isn’t Jake at the helm? Why don’t you sleep in his bed?”
“Would you sleep in Jake’s bed?”
“Good point.”
“And Cody snores. Besides, I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to apologize, actually.”
“Apologize?”
“For getting so angry about the fact that you didn’t tell us about your—um—”
“Freak-of-nature status?”
“Right.”
“Apology accepted. Blanket?” She held it out to him, willing her hand not to shake.
“Thank you,” he said, and took the blanket. His arm brushed the edge of her breast as he moved past, and Juli shivered.
“Tight quarters.”
“No kidding.”
Juli picked up Uncle Frank’s urn and set it carefully on the nightstand. Alex reached out to touch it.
“That really is the ugliest urn I’ve ever seen.”
She smacked his hand away. “It’s what Uncle Frank wanted. Be respectful.”
“Can I look at it?”
“No. Make your bed.”
Alex shrugged and began settling himself on the bench, making a cozy little nest just a few feet from her bed. He was almost too tall, and his broad shoulders barely fit in the space. Somehow, he managed to wedge himself in there with a pillow propped beneath his head.
Juli bit her lip. It seemed silly that he should sleep there when she had this perfectly spacious queen-sized bed all to herself. The sheets were soft. There was plenty of room.
But he’d already made it clear that high-seas sex wasn’t in the cards for them. How wise would it be to lure him into her bed at this point?
Some World’s Smartest Woman you are.
She felt annoyed with herself all over again.
He did look excellent in a T-shirt though. Beautiful pecs, and shoulders so broad she thought about clawing—
“Something wrong?” Alex asked. He was watching her as he readjusted his pillow.
Juli shrugged. “I was just hoping maybe you could tell me more about your pirate mission. About who you are and what you’re all doing out here.”
“No. Anything else?”
She watched him for a moment longer, her guilt mounting as he kicked viciously at the blanket and tried to twist his legs into the small space.
“Are you sure you’re comfortable there?” she asked. “Because if you want—”
“I could sleep with you?”
Juli sucked in a breath.
Then choked on her own spit. Classy.
When she finally stopped coughing, Alex was grinning at her.
“Believe me, I’d like nothing more than to climb into bed with you, but it’s a terrible idea,” he said. “Isn’t that the romance cliché? Boy meets girl, some mix-up requires them to share a room, they end up in bed together, and—”
“You can stop there,” Juli said, feeling her face grow warm. “And I’ve never read a romance novel where the hero and heroine fake marriage three minutes after meeting, then almost sleep together, then the heroine has an allergic reaction and stows away on the hero’s ship, then she finds out he’s a pirate, then—”
“You forgot the part about the heroine being a famous genius,” Alex said with a smirk. “I like that part.”
Juli gritted her teeth, feeling her ears grow warm. “I don’t.”
He watched her in silence for a moment, his expression going from smug to thoughtful. “You really hate talking about this?”
She crossed one arm over her chest and touched her ear with the fingertips of the other hand. “What tipped you off?”
He smiled, and Juli realized it wasn’t just her ears flaming anymore. Every part of her body felt warm all of a sudden. She tried to tell herself it was anger or embarrassment, but she knew it wasn’t just that. Alex was standing so close, and her fingertips recalled every detail of what his chest felt like beneath them.
“Sorry,” he said, sounding like he meant it. “I’ll drop it, okay? I didn’t realize the genius thing was such a touchy subject.”
“It’s fine,” she said. She hugged her arms around herself, softening in spite of her annoyance. “It’s just—I’m tired of always being different, you know?”
“No,” he said. “I really don’t. That’s your whole charm. You’re different as hell—in a good way.”
Juli bit her lip and tried to think of a response that didn’t make her sound more pathetic.
She couldn’t come up with anything.
“Anyway,” he continued, “back to the romance cliché. Just so you know, I’m not diving in to save you if you do happen to fall overboard, so don’t get any ideas.”
“This is so not a romance cliché,” Juli said, stomping away and flopping back on the bed. She jerked at the covers, tugging them loose from the foot of the bed as she pulled them up to her chin. Dammit, the lamp. She sat back up, struggling to find the switch and then flicking the light off and dropping back onto the bed. She gave her pillow a few violent jabs, trying to get comfortable.
Alex was silent for less than ten seconds. “What is that you’re wearing?”
Juli turned and looked at him in the darkness. “I thought you were going to sleep.”
“I was. But then you started jiggling around under there and I woke up.”
“You’re rude. Even for a pirate.”
“Is it silk?”
“No. It is not silk. It’s probably nylon or polyester or something.”
“Very slippery. Fits well. Victoria’s Secret?”
“Are we going to sleep now?”
“Good night.”
Juli sighed and lay back against her pillow. The sound of Alex breathing a few feet away was soothing. The feel of the water sloshing beneath the boat had even become comforting—not terror-inducing like it had been before.
So what was the problem? She sure as hell wasn’t feeling very relaxed. Every nerve ending she owned was sizzling under the surface of her skin.
Juli turned over on her side and stared at the eggplant again.
“Can’t sleep?” Alex asked.
Juli glanced at the travel clock on her bedside table. “It’s been two minutes.”
“Because I can’t sleep. And I was thinking.”
“This should be good.”
“What are the odds that we’d just happen to meet up in a bar, the night before you just happen to end up on my boat, which we don’t discover until it just happens to be too l
ate to take you back?”
“Are we still on the romance cliché? Because I really don’t think this is fate.”
“I’m not talking about fate. I’m talking about the fact that the circumstances of our meeting, coupled with your presence on this boat, coupled with the fact that you seem to have a very bizarre existence—all of that makes me a little suspicious.”
Juli turned back onto her other side to face him in the dark. His features were stark in the glow of her digital travel alarm clock, and she could see his chest rising and falling beneath the thin cover.
“You’ve been in my room for five minutes, and so far, you’ve accused me of stalking you, called me bizarre, ogled my sleepwear, and suggested that I’m attempting to lure you into my bed for illicit purposes,” she said. “This is fun. We should have sleepovers more often.”
“I’m just saying, I think there’s something going on. You were terrified of the water two days ago. Now you want to stay?”
“Yeah, well, you told me you were a cartographer. Then I find out you’re a pirate. What is it you’re after, anyway?”
Alex was quiet for a minute. “This bench really isn’t very comfortable.”
“Get over here, you jerk. There’s plenty of room.”
“Your seduction skills need work,” Alex said, but he got up and moved around to the other side of the bed.
The instant he crawled under the covers with her, Juli felt her skin electrify. No part of her body touched any part of his, but she was aware of just how close he was. How solid and warm and touchable. Just a few inches and her fingers could brush the side of his chest—
Juli grimaced and drew her leg away from him, putting a little distance between them. She focused on breathing in and out, keeping her hands safely at her sides—
Alex flopped his leg over the top of hers, pinning her knee beneath the underside of his so he could drag her leg back to his side of the bed. He sighed in the darkness.
“Your skin feels soft.”
“Yours feels hairy.”
“You’re warm too.”
“Your feet are cold,” she said. “You need socks or something.”
“Now that we’ve established that—”
Alex leveraged himself up on one elbow so his face was inches from hers. “I know you don’t trust me and I don’t trust you and we said this was a bad idea right now. But on the big list of bad ideas I’ve had lately, this one seems pretty good.”
Before Juli could protest, Alex had found her lips in the dark. And then, protesting was the furthest thing from her mind. Alex slid a hand beneath her head, pulling her closer, twining his fingers in her hair. Juli responded with a whimper she hoped didn’t sound too pathetic, sliding her nails down his neck, over his shoulder, gasping against his mouth.
His lips were warm and soft and so good at what they were doing. Juli’s head swam, her torso liquefied, and her other leg somehow wrapped itself around his hip to pull him to her. He kissed her harder, making her arch her back so she could press against all that male hardness.
She remembered what he’d said the other night about his favorite spot to be kissed. Anytime a woman does anything with her mouth anywhere near my neck, I lose it completely. Did she want him to lose it?
Yes. Yes she did.
She began to kiss her way across his jawline, savoring the scratch of stubble against her lips. She slid down, wriggling against him. Her nightgown bunched up around her hips up as she kissed her way down his chin and then lower until she found the spot along his throat—
“Oh, God.”
Juli smiled into his skin and kept kissing him, loving the feel of his pulse throbbing against her lips. His breath was ragged and the way he moved against her told her she was achieving the desired effect. She circled her tongue in the hollow beneath his jaw and heard him gasp.
“I can’t believe I told you this,” Alex murmured as Juli dragged her teeth lightly over the sensitive flesh of his throat.
“You would have been safer just telling me you’re a pirate,” she breathed against his neck, trailing her fingers along his hairline. “Now you’re at my mercy.”
She kissed him again, exploring the tendons, his Adam’s apple, all that heated flesh against her lips. He was salty and warm and the best thing she’d ever tasted in her life.
She could feel his arousal pressed hard against her thigh, and Juli felt herself go dizzy with the thought that she was responsible. She slid her legs apart, letting him slip between them so only her nightgown and his shorts separated them. She ran her tongue up to that tender spot behind his ear, then back down along his throat, savoring him.
“You’re killing me,” he whispered.
He pulled away then, angling himself up on his arms. He hovered there above her, the planes and angles of his chest glowing sharp in the dim light of the clock radio on her nightstand.
“I really don’t have anything,” he breathed. “Condoms, I mean. It’s not like I planned for this. For you to be here on this boat or for—well, this is probably not a good idea.”
“Right,” Juli agreed, squirming beneath him just to feel his body hard against hers. “So we should stop.”
“Probably.”
Neither of them moved. The ocean rocked beneath them and they both breathed in and out and stared into each other’s eyes.
“Or not,” Alex said and lowered his lips to her throat. He began to kiss his way down her body, his mouth traveling along her sternum. He tugged the spaghetti strap of her nightgown down over her shoulder and kissed the newly bared skin before moving south. His tongue found her nipple and began making warm, lazy circles as his other hand cupped her left breast. The pad of his thumb skimmed her nipple with such aching softness Juli thought she might sob from pleasure.
Then he moved lower, kissing his way down the center of her body. He found the hem of her nightie and slid it up and over her ribs, his tongue dipping into her navel before Juli could register the fact that she was so exposed. His hands gripped her hips, pinning her to the bed.
“I thought we were stopping,” she gasped.
He raised his head and grinned in the darkness. “You are. I’m not.”
“But—”
“Shut up.” He lowered his head again, his mouth moving down over her belly, off to the side where he nipped at her hipbone. Juli gasped and clenched the sheets in her fingers. He kept moving down, leaving no question about his intended destination.
She still cried out when he found it.
“Oh my God.”
Her hips started to rise off the bed, but he pinned her in place as he drove her crazy with his lips and tongue and teeth and fingers and what felt like an entire army of other skilled parts converging on that single spot with the sole purpose of bringing her the most intense pleasure she’d ever felt in her life.
She cried out, then bit her knuckle to keep quiet, her brain barely registering pain as wave after wave of sensation washed over her. Alex stroked her hip with one hand, using the other to caress and tease and probe as he drove her mindless with his mouth.
Juli felt the explosion building inside her, felt the scream building in her throat, and she pulled the pillow over her face and bit down hard to keep from waking the rest of the crew. Alex pressed his palm against her abdomen and Juli screamed into the pillow again and again, arching her back and twisting her fingers in his hair.
She wasn’t sure how long she lay there like that, just breathing into the pillow as her mind whirled and her body pulsed with pleasure. Her breath was still coming fast when she felt the bed move as Alex slid back into place beside her. He lifted the pillow off her face.
“You okay under there?”
She nodded, still too breathless to speak.
“Good,” he said, and he pulled her against him spoon-fashion. “I was hoping not to kill anyone on this mission.”
Juli swallowed, finding her voice at last. “If someone’s gotta die, that’s the way to go.”
Alex laughed and snuggled against her, wrapping his whole body around hers in a protective cocoon. Juli took a deep breath and felt herself slipping into oblivion.
“I couldn’t agree more,” he murmured into her hair.
Chapter 9
Day three, and I’m still on this boat, Juli thought, staring out over the ocean from the flybridge the next morning as she sipped her ginger tea. How the hell did this happen?
Okay, she knew how it had happened. It didn’t make the situation any more believable, but at least she was aware of how she’d ended up here. Her uncle’s ashes were still in the urn below deck, and according to the navigational chart she’d seen the night before, she was further away from Uncle Frank’s spot than she’d been before she boarded.
And then there was Alex. Last night had been amazing. More than amazing, it was mind-blowingly spectacular.
But what did she know about him besides the fact that he was ridiculously skilled with his hands and mouth and… well, pretty much everything else? Who was Alex, really? What would possess a seemingly sane man to embark on a high-seas pirate mission?
“Hey, Juli, have you seen my spatula?”
She looked up to see Cody, trailed by Jake and Phyllis, emerging at the top of the stairs.
Before she could answer, Jake rolled his eyes. “Just because she’s the World’s Smartest Woman doesn’t mean she knows where your damn spatula is, Cody.”
Juli gritted her teeth and took a breath. “See, this is why I didn’t tell you guys,” she said, hoping she sounded mad and not wounded. “I just wanted you to treat me like a normal person.”
Jake snorted. “Normal. Right.”
Juli swallowed the lump in her throat and got ready to fire off an angry retort. But before she could say a word, Phyllis stooped down to pick up the spatula from under a deck chair. Standing up, she swung it at Jake, smacking him hard on the shoulder.
“Ouch! What was that for?”
“You. Stop picking on Juli. That’s not nice.”
“Ouch, stop it! I was only kidding. She knows I was kidding. Right, Juli?”
“Right,” Juli said, leaning away from them as Phyllis drew her arm back again.
“So tell her you’re sorry,” Phyllis insisted.
