“Then what’s bothering you?” I asked.
“I’m just tired,” she said. “It’s why I didn’t come to the breakfast this morning. I was just tired.”
She wasn’t being truthful, but I didn’t want to press the subject. If she wanted to open up to me, she would. I couldn’t make her, and there was nothing I could do to coax it out of her. This wasn’t like how we were back in high school. It had been ten years and a hell of a lot of heartbreak since we had last seen one another. I couldn’t expect her to suddenly open up to me about whatever it was that was bothering her.
The only thing I could do was take her at her word when she said it wasn’t about us.
Once Tommy and Ana were done sucking face, the four of us played a decent game of pool. It didn’t shock me when the girls decided to turn in early. It lined up with Chanel’s story of being tired. But the moment they left the pool hall, Tommy turned to me with that disapproving look in his eyes.
“The two of you are fucking,” he said.
“No, we’re not,” I said.
“Then you want to fuck her,” he said.
“Of course, I want to fuck her. Have you seen her?” I asked.
“Dude, that’s shitty territory. You’re supposed to be getting yours with whoever you want instead of dwelling on the past. That wasn’t the point of this trip. Clean slate and clear head, remember?”
“Tommy. You’re literally gravitating to Ana as much as you can. They come together. They always have. I can’t help it if you want to go sit with them and Chanel’s there. They’re best friends.”
“I saw that look. You were worried about her. You’re falling for her again, aren’t you?” he asked.
“I’m not fucking her, and I’m not falling for her. Not my fault you wanna bang her best friend’s brains out, and Chanel happens to always be with her. This is on you. Qui
t trying to pawn this off on me,” I said.
Tommy and I made our way back to our room as he continued to throw questions at me. He was trying to trip me up in my lie but I wasn’t going to let him. I wasn’t going to tell him we were fucking. I was going to respect the fact that Chanel didn’t want me telling anyone, but it was getting harder to deny him when he asked me if I had feelings for her. Because I did. In a way, I always had. I had missed her on all those missions. It was our memories from high school that kept me going during some of the darkest days of my SEAL career. Moments when I thought I wasn’t going to make it home. Moments when I thought I was going to die alone in whatever barren wasteland they had sent us to.
It was her face that always got me through. It was her smile that always gave me hope.
I couldn’t let shit like that slide. She meant a hell of a lot to me then, and she meant it now. Lying about it hurt, but if it got me more of her, then I was willing to make the sacrifice. I finally got Tommy to shut up about it and go to bed, but as I closed my eyes, my mind began to wander.
Why had she been so weird at the pool hall? Was something wrong? Had someone said something to her?
Had someone found out?
Maybe that was what happened. Maybe someone had found out about us, and she was trying to create distance. But she’d made me a promise that if it had something to do with us, then she would talk to me, and I had to trust her on that.
Even though I didn’t know what was wrong, I had to trust her. I didn’t have any other choice if I wanted to sleep that night.
So, I closed my eyes and imagined her body against mine. I imagined her skin underneath my fingers and her juices on my thighs. I imagined plowing into her, hanging her over the edge of the balcony for the ocean to catch as she came around my cock. I dreamed of her in my arms as we panted together, our sweat dripping down our bodies as I pinned her against the balcony window. I could hear her lips muttering my praises, telling me how much she loved my cock and moaning out how she was about to come.
I allowed myself to be swept under by her waves as the ghost of her scent blanketed my body all night.
CHAPTER 13
CHANEL
I woke up the next morning to another day at sea. The ship had cast off from our first dock and was headed for the horizon again. I rolled over and saw that Ana was already awake and headed to the bathroom to get ready for breakfast.
“Don’t forget the auction is this afternoon at lunch and then the date will be tonight,” Ana called to me from the bathroom.
I groaned and shuffled in beside her to brush my teeth. “I’d almost forgotten about that damn thing,” I said.
Ana laughed. “Not a chance sister, you’re doing this.”
“I know, I know. Hey, you know Tommy signed Rhett up too,” I told her.