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“Your job?”
“I can’t change your past any more than you could change mine,” he says. “What’s happened has happened. I can’t protect you from it. The best I can do is promise to protect you from now on.” He looks me in the eye. “Heidi, I would never do anything like that to you. I want you to know that.”
I tremble, his words a warm, soothing comfort. “Thank you,” I whisper.
His hand on my side draws me even closer. “And I will never let Seth do anything like that to you again,” he says.
My breath hitches. My chin dips, but he quickly catches it and nudges my face right back up. I dive deep into his eyes, swaying with the waves, basking in my favorite song, and I never want to leave.
“If I kiss you, will it hurt your nose?” I ask.
Drew chuckles. “I’ll bear it,” he says.
I kiss him, soft and slow, and he wraps his arms around me in a firm, protective embrace. I rest my head on his shoulder. He kisses my head. He smells my hair. He gives small, tender shows of affection that radiate down to my knees.
I listen to the swift pounding of his heart and I know he’s telling me the truth. I trust him when he says he’ll protect me. I believe him when he says that he’ll even defy my brother to do it.
“You look so beautiful tonight,” he whispers in my ear.
I laugh as I swallow the tears in my eyes. “Thank you.” I raise my head. “And you look rather dashing yourself.”
“I do?”
“Yeah, you clean up nicely.”
“I don’t usually like to, but...” he smirks, “it was definitely worth it tonight.”
Drew tilts his head at me again. I close my eyes, a girl about to be kissed. His lips caress mine with a simple, soft spark as we continue our dance, lost in our own little world. I submit to the deep feeling taking over me; a feeling destined to leave me breathless and wanting more.
He touches my shoulder, his fingers slowly inching beneath the strap of my gown. He pushes it to the side and bends down to kiss my left shoulder above my new tattoo. His breath feels warm and heavy on my skin. I tingle all over, wanting more of it. I long to feel his lips on every part of me again.
I want him to be my first.
I want to give myself to him.
I want to give him everything.
Tonight.
I take his hand and entwine our fingers together as I take a simple step toward the small stairs through the galley. “Show me the inside,” I say with a curious smile. “I want to see more.”
CHAPTER 37
HEIDI
I gather my skirt as I step down the narrow stairs. Drew leads the way with the champagne bottle in his other hand and one eye on me, watching to make sure I don’t trip. We come to a short hallway within the boat, barely wide enough to fit the two of us side-by-side. There are three doorways; one on our left, another to the right, and a third at the very end.
Drew pauses by the first door on the left. “Through this door,” he says as he slides it open, “we have our VIP stateroom.”
I poke my head inside. A large bed. A mounted TV. “Fancy,” I say.
“When I was younger, my sister and I used to have to share this one on family trips,” he says, reminiscing.
“Oh, well. Now it feels cramped.”
“It was, especially when she used to sneak her boyfriends on board after our parents went to sleep.” He chuckles. “I usually ended up on the deck with a sleeping bag, watching the stars.”
I picture it with a smile. “That sounds like fun, actually.”
