Broken

“Yes, I know. So I’m going to head straight back to my room now. You won’t need to worry about me.” I fake a yawn. “I’m so very tired. I just need to sleep now.”

She gives me a disapproving look, I know that she can see right through me but what can she do? Unless she can full prove that I’ve had sex with Tia, there’s nothing that she can do. With her hands on her hips and her eyebrows raised, she gives me a sharp nod. “Fine, you get out of here. I will see you soon.”

I stifle a chuckle and I shove my hands into my pockets as I leave. I move slowly so as not to raise suspicion, but I’m sure we both know where I’m headed. I won’t be able to have a drink with Tia at the bar like I originally planned, but that doesn’t mater. We can go back, to her room will probably be the safest thing, and things can progress from there. Of course it will lead to sex, there’s no way it can’t with me., but we’ll talk too… probably.

“See ya.”

I kick the door open, relishing the sound as it infiltrates my ears. It’s too quite in the office, I’m sure every room on this whole damn boat has been sound proofed. I don’t like the quiet, I don’t do well with it. Noise suits me much better. My whole life has been noisy, and that’s the way I love it.

Maybe that’s why I love music. It’s noisy, but in a really pleasant way.

I quickly spot Tia sitting at the bar. She has a glass of wine in her hand and a bored expression on her face. A drag queen has taken my place up on the stage, and while everyone else seems to be loving the jokes, Tia looks anxious and bored. She’s waiting for me to take her away.

“Psst,” I hiss quietly to her from the corner of the room. “Tia.” She doesn’t hear me at first, which means I need to say that a little bit louder. “Tia, over here.”

She spins quickly and sees me. Once her eyes fall on mine her whole face lights up. As her expression brightens she looks even more beautiful than before. She makes my pulse race and my body trembles.

“Come here,” I repeat, using my finger to draw her towards me. She furrows her eyebrows in confusion. “Come on, you have to come.”

She glances around as if she’s in the middle of a spy movie or something before she slowly moves towards me. I grab hold of her hand and drag her out of the ballroom with a giggle bursting out of my chest.

“What is going on?” Tia asks me in shock. “Why are you dragging me away from my drink?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to. I just cannot be seen with you in there.”

Tia stops dead where she is in the middle of the hallway and throws her hands onto her hips. She looks fiery and determined which I love. This woman is awesome, there’s just something about her.

“What do you mean?” she demands. “What the hell is wrong with me?”

“No, no, no, it’s nothing like that.” I step closer to her and wrap my arms around her waist. “I just had a lecture from my boss about being anywhere near guests. It’s super frowned upon, so I just don’t want us to get into any trouble.”

“Oh.” She nods as if she understands but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t. “I see. So, what now?”

“We could…” I need to word this carefully so she doesn’t think I’m a dick. “We could go to your room? Maybe have a drink there?”

“We can’t go to yours?” she teases. When she acts coy I can tell that I have her. She’s playing with me, which is an awesome sign.

“No, the staff rooms are off limit… and also shit,” I laugh awkwardly, hating myself for making my shitty excuses. I just didn’t want to get caught with Tia if I could help it, I didn’t want our time together ruined. “I don’t think it’s good enough for someone like you.”

“Someone like me?” She cocks her head and pouts out her lip towards me. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Oh crap, have I put my foot in it? I need to use some of my award winning charm to make this work. “Someone beautiful, like a princess. Someone who deserves it all.”

She nods and takes my hand, taking control of the situation and proving that my charm won out again. Then she pulls me down the hallway and towards the stairs. My heart races as we get closer to her room, I’m excited. This isn’t just a sex thing I’m feeling inside. It’s something more, and that’s actually pretty awesome…

Chapter Five - Tia

What am I doing? Am I really going through with this?”

Sure, I told myself to throw caution to the wind before I stepped onto this cruise, but now that’s actually happening I’m not so sure. It feels good, I’m really excited about it, but I’m just not a one night stand sort of girl. I mean, I barely know this guy. What I know about him I do like, but that doesn’t mean… that’s not a sign that I should just go for it, is it?

Then again, it’s been a long time. Maybe this is exactly what I should be doing. I barely know anymore.

My fingers tremble as I find the keys to my room and I push them into the lock. With a little kick to get it moving faster I pushed the door open to reveal the room inside. I left the curtains open by mistake when I left for the night but now I’m glad because we can enjoy the massive expanse of the ocean in front of us.

“Wow, your room is incredible!” Stephen gasps with shock. He drops my hand and spins around as he walks through the room. “You have so much room here. I’m so glad that we came here instead of my room. You would have been disappointed.”

I smile to myself and close the door behind me with a click. This is fine, if I didn’t do this right now I would always kick myself for passing up on this opportunity. I need to get over what happened to me in the past, once and for all. Sleeping with this random hot guy is just another step on my journey.