Chapter 6

Mark

I wake up with my beautiful girl wrapped around me, happier than I’ve ever been. We only dozed off a couple of hours ago, after exploring each other all night long. I’m not only planning what we’ll do today but the future, after this cruise is over and we go home to Seattle. She’s definitely moving in with me. I’m in love with her, and I can’t picture a life without her in it, now that she’s mine.

Suddenly my phone starts blowing up. Hating to wake her, I ease my arm out from under her head to silence it. Half a dozen messages from the guys greet me, saying they’re pounding on my door.

Damn it. Today is the presentation and we agreed to a final meeting beforehand. I look over to see Daisy smiling sleepily at me.

“Sorry, baby, the guys and I have to finalize our presentation.”

“We’ll meet up later?” she asks.

“As soon as I can get away,” I kiss her, lingering as I show her how much I’m going to miss her. I pull away and dress, making sure I only briefly glance at Daisy before I change my mind, presentation be damned. Turning the knob quietly, I leave the room and glance toward my own, hoping Ray and Silas have gone to the meeting room by now.

No such luck. As soon as I’m slipping out of Daisy’s door, they turn to catch me, barefoot and shirtless.

Silas pales, looking like he’s seen a ghost. Ray sucks in a breath. “No way,” he hisses. “You actually won the bet?”

“Impossible,” Silas says. They share a horrified glance.

“He actually slept with her.” Ray looks like he might double over.

My forehead crinkles and my anger spikes. What the hell is wrong with these guys and what are they talking about?

Then I go cold all over, remembering their stupid wager. In a fit of dented pride, I accepted. Of course, I promptly forgot all about the childish bet, but they clearly didn’t.

“Shut up,” I warn them.

They don’t. Silas keeps repeating that there’s no way I won the bet, no way I slept with Daisy. For whatever reason, he looks like he’s going to puke. Ray smiles and shrugs.

“Looks like he won fair and square and bagged the ice princess. We should probably just—”

Silas cuts him off with a tight grip on his arm as the door clicks behind me. I whip around to see Daisy holding my shoes and t-shirt. My heart sinks at the look on her face. There are tears in her big brown eyes and it’s like a knife to the chest.

“Daisy,” I say. How do I explain this? I have to try. She can’t be this hurt. Not because of me.

She shakes her head. “I heard everything. There’s nothing you can say.”

Ray and Silas scuttle away like rats, muttering to themselves. She gives their retreating backs a filthy look before turning it on me. Her pretty features twist with disgust before she tosses my things at me and takes a step into her room, out of my reach.

“Daisy, wait, please,” I reach toward her, panicked at what I’ve done, begging for her to listen to me. But more tears stream down her cheeks as she slams the door in my face.

I’m so furious I see red. Not just at my so-called friends, but at myself. Ray chooses that moment to poke his head out around the corner.

“Are you coming to the meeting?”

Is he joking right now? I storm down the hall to where he and Silas are waiting, and they have the gall to look as upset as I feel.

“Let’s just forget about all this,” Silas says. “Concentrate on what’s important right now. The presentation.”

I shake my head. Nothing’s important except Daisy. Pointing my finger at each of them, I tell them where they can go.

“We’re done. Make yourselves scarce for the rest of this trip, because if I see either one of you any time soon, I guarantee you’ll regret it.”

Back in my room, I sink onto the bed, the look on Daisy’s face haunting me, my heart like a stone.