Chapter Ten

Denton

The spray from the cold water hitting my skin as I stepped into the shower stole my breath and eradicated my brain-fog at a violent rate. My lungs seized as I shivered at the eruption of goosebumps when icy rivers of water ran down my body. Curses flew out as I forced myself to stay under the pelting iciness for another twenty seconds before switching it over to hot.

When I got my breath back, I reached for the shower gel, my thoughts sharp enough for the conversation from the previous day to start a replay. I'd taken my courage with both hands and gotten royally shafted first by the bartender's interruption and, if that wasn't bad enough, by Ollie gate crashing my conversation with Victor.

My thoughts got hooked on the drunken comments Ollie had made. Had Victor wanted to date me all this time? Was Ollie telling the truth in his drunken state? Wasn't it true that drunk people often spoke the truth?

Victor's behavior was hard to analyze. His insistence that Ollie was drunk didn't suggest it was an outright denial, did it? That question had replayed more than a hundred times overnight. Was what was going on with me mutual? Had Victor been hiding his feelings because I'd dated Nese for so long?

A sinking feeling came at the truth of the possibility. Fuck… shit…

I had erected a barrier and shut out the possibility of more. It was exactly what I had done. A shudder ran through me that had nothing to do with a cold shower. I'd felt a… visceral attraction to Victor despite his bruised state when we met. Had that formed my need to step away, use Nese…

My head dropped, water soaking the back of my neck as my head hung between my shoulders and I braced my hands on the wet tiles.

I used Nese.

A bitter taste coated my mouth. The lack of promises wasn't for her, but for me. Realizing that I'd been a total asshole was a real low point.

I blew out a breath, heaving a sigh. Fucking asshole!

Had this really been about protecting me, or was it Victor? And where did that leave me? He now knew I was bisexual, but would that make him open to more with me? The next thought made me wince. Would he also think I was an asshole to Nese?

Everything so far had conspired to prevent me from having an open conversation about… well, everything.

Was this karma?

I'd felt Victor's gaze on me the day before and I'd never felt more alive. Had Victor calling the guy—I couldn't even remember his name—Mr. Polished, been through jealousy? I admitted I wasn't averse to the idea of Victor feeling a little possessive over me.

I really was an asshole…

I blew out a breath, going back to scrubbing at my body to rid myself of the smell of stale liquor and vomit.

After Ollie's ill-timed confession, then wanting to be ill, we'd left the pool area in an all-fired hurry and got him back to our room before he'd chucked up. He then spent several more hours getting friendly with the porcelain throne. Whatever my idea was of having a memorable first night lying next to Victor after seeing the bed—even if we had done no more than sleep—Ollie's retching and the stench of alcohol induced vomiting ruined our first night in the cabin.

As I saw it, karma had a big meaty hand in this.

My other reward for being a good Samaritan was that I'd barely slept for more than three hours, much the same as Victor as we'd helped Ollie, wet noodle that he was, back and forth to the bathroom. His limbs were all loose and not going in any direction he wanted them to.

When he'd finally stopped puking his ring up at five am and fallen into a deep sleep, he'd ended up sandwiched between us. His skin leaked liquor, making it smell like a distillery, and if that wasn't bad enough, the vomit breath in my face made my stomach churn. It was impossible to forget he was there on the bed and all of that was what drove me into the shower.

Yet another sigh filled the steamy shower as I worked some shower gel into a lather to wash my legs, breathing deep to replace the smell that lingered in my nostrils.

As I finished washing the stench of Ollie off, a loud knock froze me in place as I envisioned Ollie needing to puke once more and ruin the smell in the bathroom.

Before I could groan in complaint, I heard Victor.

"Denny, could you hurry? I need to pee," he called out.

My cock, which was in my hand, reacted to the illicit thought of letting him come in and use the bathroom while I was showering. Years of sharing a locker room with colleagues had removed a lot of my inhibitions about being naked around others. I hesitated one more second, thinking over what the possible outcomes were.

In for a cent in for a dollar!

"You can use the toilet… I'll look the other way." I would. But shutting my eyes was going to have to happen to resist temptation.

"Argh… erm… yeah… maybe not…"

"Get in here. We are both men, it's not like you piss gold and I need to be jealous."

There was a choked laugh and I watched the door open at a snail's pace through the steamy glass.

When Victor's head peered around the door, I swallowed a chuckle. I couldn't see his expression through the wet glass, but I'd swear he looked like a deer in the headlights from the way he hovered.

I made a show of facing away. Then I shut my eyes for good measure, resisting the temptation to peek.

"Peeing gold, good one," he joked, just loud enough for me to hear over the water.

When my cock thickened under my palm at the sounds of sneakers coming closer on the tiled floor, I dropped it faster than a hot coal, blushing. Could he see my hand? See my cock?

Argh fuck!

To keep my body angled away, I twisted my hips and waved my hands around in exaggerated moves, washing off the soap remaining on my skin until I heard him peeing.

I flushed at how my cock thickened like a damn dirty perv.

So fucking wrong, man!

It wasn't at him peeing. It wasn't… I was positive that it was his cock was right there for me to look at, and I wanted to look, desperately.

Don't you dare peek…

My eyelids scrunched tighter together as I kept my word.

How long I stood there was anyone"s guess, but my eyes fired open and the air left my lungs, making my body sag in relief, when he called, "cheers," and the door clicked shut.

My gaze dipped to my unrepentant cock that stood proud from my groin, begging for attention. I scowled. "You're getting fuck all off me!"

Talking to my cock? Yeah, I'd certainly reached an all-time low!

~/~/~/~

The karma king didn't seem finished with me as I barely had time to groan at spotting Mr. Polished approach and launch himself into the pool right into my path. I didn't have time to shield my face as his body created a surge of water that smacked straight into me. It ran down my body as I pushed my feet to the bottom of the pool, allowing me to get the chlorine water out of my eyes. My peaceful swim was over.

Mr. Polished surfaced next to me, still looking pretty polished if I discounted the odd looking wet eyelashes.

"Hey," he said, grinning in a way that reminded me of a piranha ready to feed. "I've been looking for you, to finish what we started before we got interrupted yesterday." There was a sulky edge to his voice that set off alarm bells.

"We got interrupted?" I questioned, feeling a little out of my depth. I made out my feet were treading water and back peddled towards the shallower area of the pool, which was where I'd left the rest of the gang. We'd come to chill and sunbathe after lunch, only I'd been restless after Victor had asked me to rub sun lotion on his back.

If he was attempting to torture me with all that silky, pale skin, it was working. Cooling off had been the order of the day, though now I wasn't so sure.

From my position, I couldn't see if anyone was watching me. After my shower this morning, I'd once more gotten no chance to speak with Victor as Leeson had shown up. His first concern was finding Ollie. Leeson hadn't come alone. Beckett, Garrett's childhood friend who no longer lived in Sweet Haven, who I'd barely got to exchange pleasantries with, swept a dazed-looking Ollie out of our room without ceremony.

I'd got the impression that Beckett was pissed, but why, when he didn't know Ollie, was something that wasn't my concern. Leeson, on the other hand, seemed highly amused by the situation and had laughed his ass off after Ollie left without saying a word. It was then Leeson explained the second reason he'd come. A reminder that after breakfast we had a dress rehearsal for the wedding.

The morning, despite breakfast being a quiet affair, had been long and emotional. It was a complicated thing to get married at sea, requiring considerable paperwork. My belief the captain could marry the happy couple got blown out of the water. This was not the case and at great expense, Garrett had organized for a celebrant to come on the cruise, especially for Leeson so he could have his wedding at sea like he wanted.

When we got to the rehearsal part, the two men had brought most of us to tears at the depth of emotion expressed by both of them when they'd said their vows to each other. We'd run through everyone's role twice before Garrett and Leeson were happy. By then, it was lunchtime. We'd stayed as a group and eaten, then went to check out the different pools, all ten of them, before finally picking the quietest.

It appeared we weren't the only ones to scope out the ship… or was it Mr. Polished scoping out me? I'd been nothing more than polite the day before, making casual conversation. It seemed Mr. Polished had other ideas on that. Was I going to have to spend time avoiding the guy?

Karma…

He flashed me a high wattage smile revealing teeth that were far too perfect, making me think they had to be veneers. If he was a game hunter, I would have suggested I was what he was intending to capture. As flattered as I was, I didn't want to be captured by anyone other than Victor.

"Yes. It's easy to tell how attracted you were to me, so I've been searching the ship for you. I'm a go-getter. I always go after what I want."

Huh?

How attracted I was to him? Searching the ship! Stalker sprang to mind when he fluttered spiky lashes, which were now drying in the sun and resembled a clump of dead spider legs and were in no way attractive, like I suspected he believed. Creepy was what they looked like, all hundred stuck around the guys eyes.

Fuck, this did not bode well. The man clearly had an abundance of self-confidence. "You seem like a great guy, but I was just being friendly, is all," I explained, hoping to let him down gently.

His smile got brighter, if that was possible, and sent tendrils of unease through me when he never hesitated. He just kept getting closer as I backed up, feeling like… prey. Those in the pool paid us no attention.

I glanced over my shoulder, sending a ‘someone please help me' look at those at the side of the pool. I wasn't too proud to beg at this stage. Leeson's brows rose from under his sunglasses, but I didn't have time to suss out what it meant when I finally hit the tiled wall. The air left my chest at the sudden stop.

Water splashed around me, and the guy giggled as he reached to stroke a proprietary hand down my chest, heading south, "Now I've got you," he purred, "let's see what you have to offer.

Oh fuck!

As a possessive hand—the only way I could describe how it felt with its firmness—landed on my shoulder, I jerk guiltily somehow already aware of who the pale hand belonged to. I sucked in a breath and tilted my head back to look up and met Victor's upside down expression. Damnation. Was he scowling? Had I fucked up again?

"Babe, can you get me another drink? I'm parched." Even upside down, I didn't miss the light of indignation as he shifted his attention to Mr. Polished and I got that he wasn't asking a question. I had been given my instructions.

I swallowed a chuckle at the thrill of seeing Victor's ‘back the fuck away, he's mine' look.

"Of course, honey pie," I replied, a flirty grin appearing, though I'm sure Victor never noticed as he didn't take his gaze off Mr. Polished.

Carefully removing the hand attempting to slip into my swim shorts, I didn't know whether to smile or not as the guy clearly didn't know how to read a crowd.

"Sorry. This is Vic, my boyfriend," I explained, reaching up to caress the back of Victor's hand, playing along. "He needs a drink, and that's my cue to take care of my man."

I side stepped, loving that Victor never let go of my shoulder. I decided not to listen to the voice in the back of my head that said this wasn't real.

"It was nice seeing you again, and I hope you find someone to have fun with," I stressed the latter, hoping he got the point that it wasn't going to be me, then quickly hefted my ass out of the pool.

Victor's hand slipped into mine, warm and dry, his fingers curling around mine and giving my body an energy drink kind of buzz when his gaze lingered on me. His expression wasn't one I was familiar with, but it gave me hope, right or wrong, I wanted him to look at me like he was again and again and again…

We sauntered towards the sun lounger he'd been asleep on without a backward glance. I didn't release his hand as he sat, but moved forward until we were face to face. I mouthed, "thank you." Then more loudly, I asked, "What would you like, honey pie?"

His mouth quirked up at the edges, a sign of amusement, which I took as a good omen until he said, "I think I'll have a daiquiri. It's time to live a little."

Mouth open and catching flies for about five seconds, I stared at him in confusion after his declaration in the small hours of the morning that he was going to avoid drinking, after seeing what had happened to Ollie.

"You want alcohol?" I asked in disbelief when I found my voice. My belly was full of nervous knots at what he could be planning.