Full Steam Ahead

by Valerie Chase

  Then again, part of me thinks, maybe that’s a good thing. What’s going to happen with Jace and me after this trip? I might not even return to Baxter for spring semester. In the quiet spaces I had today, I realized I might have to drop out of school after all. It’s so close to graduation that even the idea hurts, but I just won’t have the money, not once I make this latest payment. It isn’t a pleasant decision, but at least I finally feel like I can handle it. Thanks in large part to Jace.

  My life is going to suck once I get back to New Orleans, but I’ll survive somehow. I’ll move home, take a second job, and keep making payments until … Until when? My stomach lurches, because I’m not naïve enough to think that he will ever stop blackmailing me. But at some point the statute of limitations will kick in, and I can finish school and get my life back on track.

  Thinking about it makes me nauseous, but I focus on picturing Jack in the Pulpit Abstraction No. 5 in my head until my stomach settles. I should probably let things drop with Jace but … I can’t. I don’t want to. I’ve finally felt alive again these past few days, and it’s largely because of him. So until I step off this boat for good, I decide, I’m not going to waste another moment. I’m going to live for right now.

  I make my way across the deck and tap Jace on the shoulder. “Can I talk to you?”

  He barely spares me a glance. “Kind of busy.”

  Okay, I deserve that. “Please?”

  Jace stands there stiffly a moment more, then shrugs. Ignoring the invisible daggers the other girls shoot my way, I lead him around the pool so we can talk by ourselves.

  “What is it, Georgia?” he says curtly.

  I think I already know the answer, but I take a deep breath and ask anyway. “Did you make a bet with your friends that you’d get me to sleep with you?”

  His mouth parts. And there it is, the honest surprise that I had expected. “What?” He shakes his head. “No. I didn’t. Why?”

  “There’s a rumor that you did. Yasmin told me.”

  He absorbs my words before he casts his gaze over the circle of his fraternity brothers playing poker. “If there is a bet, which there very well might be, because some of the guys bet on everything … I’m not a part of it. That much, I swear.”

  I can’t help but smile. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask you about it sooner. I was just thrown. I didn’t want to think that you could do that.”

  “I thought you’d realized you didn’t want to hang out with trailer trash.”

  I’m a little startled by such a mean self-characterization, but then I see the rueful tilt to his lips. Suddenly I realize that that’s why he all but raced out of our room when we got back from the ruin trip—because he was afraid of what I thought about his past. I realize that Jace is just as reluctant to share his life—his private, real life—with anyone as I am. It must have been a really big deal for him to confide in me today.

  The idea that I can hurt him as much as he could hurt me scares me, but I straighten my shoulders. If he needs to know how I feel about all the stuff he told me, then I’ll tell him.

  “I think you’re really strong for going through what you did,” I start out. “I think your family is … wounded, sure, but brave. Really brave. Your mom and sister sound close, and you sound like you love them both. That’s really nice, you know?” God, ‘nice’ is such a lame word to use. I duck my head. “Anyway, I don’t think less of you, or them, because of where you started. And I’m sorry I doubted you. Sometimes I’m kind of an idiot.”

  Aware that I’ve started to babble, I cut myself off and hold my breath, waiting for a response. After a moment of silence, I dare a glance up. Jace is studying me quietly, and I can’t read his expression. Maybe he won’t forgive me. Maybe he’ll say it’s best if we stayed friends, that he can’t be with someone who turns on him at the first sign of trouble.

  Waiting gets more agonizing with every second, and I struggle to hold back tears.

  “Jace, say something,” I whisper.

  After another moment, Jace finally leans towards me. Heat from his body radiates off of him as he bends his head to brush his lips over my ear.

  “Can I take your panties off with my teeth now?”

  Chapter 17

  Georgia

  Before our cabin door swings shut, Jace is already tugging my cover-up dress over my head. His fingers pull at the tied strings of my bikini behind my back. The strings are damp, but they give after a split second, and Jace wastes no time undoing the tie around my neck before tossing my bikini top aside. For a moment, his gaze roams over me, taking in every inch.

  “You’re so beautiful,” he murmurs.

  Everything inside of me turns molten. I reach for him, needing his hands on me, and then they are, his warm palms cupping my breasts. My skin may have been damp only a second ago but now, like the rest of me, it’s burning up at his touch.

  Jace gently presses me against the closed door as he lowers his head to take a nipple into his mouth. My eyes shut as his tongue explores me, and I can’t help but moan. With pleasure shooting through me, my head drops back, and if Jace weren’t holding me upright I’d have toppled to the carpet. I stretch myself against him, feeling how hard he is, and am rewarded by a low groan from his throat.

  Hands on my hips, Jace leads me to his twin bed, kissing me with every step, until he lays me down on the neatly made quilt. Jace pulls his lips away from mine, his tongue tracing a wet line from my neck to my collarbone, then down toward my belly button. He finally stops at my hip, and I glance down to see him bite at the string of my bikini bottom.

  Oh sweet lord of the south, he really is taking it off with his teeth. Wetness surges between my legs.

  Jace quickly works the tie free, then does the same with the tie at my other hip. When he raises his head I’m naked before him in the soft glow of the nightlight across our tiny cabin.

  Jace licks his lips, then glances to the side. “Do you think we’re scandalizing our towel seal?”

  For a moment I can’t put meaning to his words, but then my eyes find the towel creature perched on the dresser. I laugh. “God, I hope so,” I say, and reach for him.

  He grins, and moves himself up to kiss me.

  I push down his swim trunks, wanting him inside me now, but once his trunks have followed my bikini to the floor Jace doesn’t get down to business like I expect. Instead he grabs my hands and tugs me up until I sit facing him. Then he pulls me onto his lap, my legs on either side of his narrow hips.

  We’re pressed together, but not joined, as Jace runs his hands up each side of my torso, his eyes drinking me in as though I am every bit his oasis as he is mine. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and arch against him, rub against him; while Jace caresses my waist, my breasts, my back until I’m nearly whimpering with need. His lips find mine, and we devour each other in the soft light.

  Finally I can’t wait anymore, and bring my lips to Jace’s ear. My voice is so husky I barely recognize it as I hear myself telling him exactly what he’d better do to me, and now. I can feel Jace’s grin against my neck, the throaty chuckle in his chest. But he doesn’t wait any longer, thank God. He reaches for the nightstand drawer, extracts a condom from its wrapper, and quickly rolls it on. Then he lifts my hips, and once I’m high enough I position myself. He’s at my entrance, and slowly, sweetly, I sink down.

  Jace groans deep in his throat, and I sigh in bliss as I feel him invading me. Our gazes are locked, and he gives me a look so hungry and possessive that I nearly come right there. Barely hanging on, I seat myself to the hilt, then start rocking back and forth. We move together, slowly at first, then faster, our breathing growing ragged and our bodies slick with sweat. He feels so good beneath my hands, and inside me, and then Jace finds an angle that … oh, yes.

  I come apart in his arms, my nails digging into his shoulders. Tenderly, he pushes me back onto the bed and braces his weight on his elbows while he moves faster, ever faster, within me.

  “Georgia
,” he moans into my neck, and then Jace is with me, hitting that sweet crest with a wordless, ragged shout as I coast on waves of pleasure.

  In the aftermath, Jace leans up on his elbows. I make a wordless sound of protest, because I’d liked his weight pressing me into the bed. Jace cups the side of my face with one hand, threads his fingers into my damp hair, and kisses me gently. I wonder if he’ll want to sleep on the other bed, since two of us on a twin might get cramped. But when he finishes the leisurely kiss, he rolls over onto his back, taking me with him to curl up at his side, one muscled arm holding me around the waist.

  The fingers of his other hand stay tangled in my hair, and I smile against his bare pectorals. I’m exhausted, but filled with energy at the same time. I tell myself that I won’t be the girl who makes her guy cuddle with her all night; after a little while, I’ll be cool and slip to the other bed to give him room to stretch out.

  Feeling for once completely at peace, I close my eyes, just for a moment.

  ~ ~ ~

  I wake with my cheek smushed up against Jace’s chest. We’re facing each other on our sides, and his arm is draped over me. I can hear his heart beat, strong and slow. Memories of last night come back to me, and for a second I tense. What will people say? What does Jace think, after all the things we did? The first time, and the second in what the clock told me was the very early hours of the morning, when Jace woke me with kisses in the dark and long, languorous touches.

  My toes curl deliciously just thinking about it, and I decide I don’t care what other people will think. Here, I feel safe. Happy. And I’m not going to let anyone take that away from me.

  Jace moves a little, enough that I know he’s awake. I glance up to find him blinking sleepily down at me. “Feeling okay?” he asks with a yawn.

  Okay isn’t the right word at all. More like sated. Ravished. Cared for.

  And, I realize, hungry.

  “I’m starving,” I say. My voice is throaty, low, and makes Jace smile.

  “Me too.” His eyes are so green, and he tilts my head back in his arms to give me a deep kiss, morning breath be damned. I don’t want it to end, but then my stomach rumbles embarrassingly, and Jace breaks off with a laugh that I can feel all through my body. “Oh, you meant food.”

  I open my mouth to say that with his sexy naked body lying next to me, food can wait, but before I can get a word out we hear four knocks on the door, sharp and loud. Jace and I freeze. I’m not ready for the real world to intrude on our oasis just yet.

  “Did you put the Do Not Disturb sign up last night?” Jace asks. I shake my head, and he grimaces. “Neither did I.”

  I’m closer to the door, so I ease out of bed, wrap the flat sheet around me—with all our exertions last night, it has come completely untucked—and half-trip the two steps to the door. I grab the Do Not Disturb sign from the inside handle, and brace myself to ask the maid to come back later.

  But when I open the door, it’s not housekeeping.

  “You ready for coffee?” Yasmin says, then notices that I’m wrapped in the sheet. Her eyes go wide.

  “I’ll catch up with you later,” I say, unable to keep the silly grin off my face. Yasmin’s expression turns downright horrified.

  “Georgia, you didn’t …”

  I know what she’s thinking. She’s thinking that I let Jace play me, that he’s only with me to win a bet. But sometimes you have to go with what you know is right, no matter what everyone else thinks.

  My sheepish grin stretches even wider as I slip the Do Not Disturb sign onto the outside knob of the door. “I totally did. And if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go do it again.”

  She only looks more worried, and I step forward and hug her.

  “Yas, thanks for looking out for me, but it really is okay,” I say, and draw back. She studies me, and whatever she sees in my face must reassure her, because she shakes her head ruefully and then raises a brow.

  “Just okay?” she teases, but there’s still fire in her dark eyes. “Tell him that if he hurts you, I’ll castrate him with a butter knife.”

  I laugh and make a shooing motion.

  “You better fill me in later,” she says, then heads down the corridor. After about ten steps, she turns to look back. Uh oh, I recognize that smirk. “USE PROTECTION,” she all but yells, just to give me shit. A middle-aged lady down the hall throws us a dirty look, and my cheeks feel sunburned. I give Yasmin a glare, but I can’t hold it for more than a second before my grin retakes my face. The middle-aged lady is glancing disapprovingly at me, but I only shrug—after all, the poor thing doesn’t have Jace lying naked in her bed, so of course she’s unhappy, right?

  Ducking back inside, I shut the door and lean against it. The sheet is tangled around my feet, but for a moment I don’t try to navigate in it. I just look at Jace.

  He’s gorgeous. I’ve always thought so, even when I believed the rumors that he was nothing but a big flirt to steer away from. But now, with him stretched out on the bed, his hair mussed and his eyes hooded from sleep and sex, he makes my heart stop. I can’t believe how different I feel now compared to the start of the trip. It’s like I was one of the walking zombies from my books, empty and unfeeling, and now … now I feel alive again.

  Propped on one elbow, Jace studies me. A hint of a smile lingers on his lips, but as I watch it fades.

  “You going to meet her in the dining room?” His voice is utterly neutral, and he’s searching my gaze, maybe wondering whether I’m regretting last night, whether I’m going to run away now and pretend not to know him abovedecks.

  I carefully extricate my feet from the sheet tangled around my legs and step back over to the bed. I sink down next to him, let the sheet fall away, and give him a long, lingering kiss that leaves us both breathless. When I pull away, I can tell without even looking down the length of Jace’s body that he’s nearly ready for another round.

  “Let’s order room service so we don’t have to leave,” I say.

  Jace’s mouth breaks into a smile as wide as the sea. He rolls over to the phone on the table between our beds, dials for room service, and orders us a spread of croissants, egg sandwiches, and mimosas. My stomach rumbles just hearing the words roll off of Jace’s tongue. Remembering some of the things that tongue did last night, I blush.

  “They said it would take fifteen minutes,” he says when he sets the phone back in its cradle.

  “Perfect. Just long enough for a shower.” I tilt my head toward the bathroom. “Race you there?”

  “What do I get if I win?” He’s joking, but I lean over him and whisper into his ear what he’d win in lurid, sudsy detail. Underneath my hands, his body tenses with anticipation. To top it off, I tell him what I’ll win if I make it there first.

  Jace is barely breathing when I sit back up. Our gazes meet, and then we both scramble off the bed.

  I beat him to the shower, but in the end, we both win.

  Chapter 18

  Jace

  Georgia.

  Since the night before last, my every hour has been filled with her. Every minute, every second. And I’m loving it. I feel as though I’m swimming in her, but I can’t get enough.

  We spent most of yesterday in bed. There were a few whispers and smirks when we finally emerged from our cabin to face our friends at dinner, but the gossip ran its course quickly and everyone except for Samantha seemed happy for us. It helps that Pete and Chloe had a big argument in the dining room, and Chloe stormed away after calling him an asshole. Compared to fiancé fights, Georgia and I are old news.

  Today the cruise ship is docked at the company’s private island, a resort that’s fully stocked with water activities like kayaking, jet skiing, and parasailing—for an added price, of course. Hunter and Kelsey and some of the others have ponied up for it, and a couple hours ago they piled onto the shuttle that runs back and forth to the water sports area a half mile down the island.

  The beach, thankfully, is free. A dozen of us h
ave claimed a sandy spread, and after a dip in the ocean, we grab cheap beer in plastic cups from the grass-hut bar. Glass isn’t allowed on the beach, a precaution to prevent broken shards from injuring anyone.

  Most of the girls—and guys, for that matter—stretch out in the hot sun to work on their tans. Georgia, however, claims a spot in the shade since she doesn’t want to burn. I place my beach towel next to hers without thinking. We haven’t talked yet about being official, but we’ve barely parted over the last day and a half. Besides, I want to send a message to the other guys here. I’ve seen a few of them eying her, and while I don’t blame them for admiring the view, Georgia is with me now, from her pink painted toes to her sweet mouth that can say the most deliciously dirty things. I grin again just thinking about it.

  Speaking of the view …

  Georgia is lying on her stomach, legs bent at the knee and feet circling idly in the air as she reads an ebook. She looks so adorable, and sexy, that it’s all I can do not to grab her and start making out in front of everyone.

  “What are you reading?” I ask.

  “Just a magazine,” she says in what I’ve realized is her automatic tone. Then she winces, and glances up at me shyly. “Actually, it’s a zombie novel.”

  “A zombie book? Are you telling me that Lady Cantwell reads about—” I’m about to tease her about flesh eating monsters when she shushes me, her eyes widening with worry. I cut myself off, and bend my head down near hers. “Is that supposed to be a secret?”

  “Except for Yasmin, yeah. I know, it’s stupid, I just don’t want anyone …”

  I cover her hand with mine and drop a kiss on her deliciously bare shoulder. “It’s okay. Your secret is safe with me.”

  And I’m rewarded with the most beautiful smile, part shy and embarrassed, part trusting, all mine. I don’t know why she thinks she has to hide what she reads—most guys would think that she’s pretty awesome for liking zombies—but if she wants to keep it quiet, I’ll respect that.