Page 4 of Crossing the Line

I thought about this morning. She’d raced out of my room like her ass was on fire. She must have been just as freaked out as I was.

“Damn it,” Ford muttered, and I realized that I’d been tuned out of the conversation for at least the past ten minutes. My mind was back at the resort, with Kelsie and all of my regrets.

“What’s wrong?” Ryan asked.

Ford had his phone in his hand again. “No signal out here.”

“Who have you been texting this whole time, anyway?” Jake asked.

Ford locked his phone and set it facedown again. “No one.”

His voice had jumped up an octave, and I exchanged a confused look with Ryan. Ford seemed to be on edge, his body practically radiating tension as he ran a hand through his blonde hair and let out a sigh.

“You sure about that?” I asked, curiosity compelling me to be nosy. “Because you look all kinds of pissed off about losing that cell phone signal.”

Ford reached into the cooler for another beer, silently offering me one since I’d also finished my first one. I shook my head. After getting drunk enough to potentially fuck up things with Kelsie last night, I wasn’t keen on overdoing it again today.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Ford muttered as he opened his second beer.

“I know that dejected tone,” Jake said. “You’ve got a woman problem.”

“What would you know about that?” Ryan asked with a smirk. “I’ve never known you to be with a woman more than one night.”

“And there’s a reason for that. I don’t need the headache.”

“Hey, none of that,” I cut in, even though a part of me understood Jake’s efforts to avoid serious relationships. They were always messy. “We don’t want to give Ryan cold feet. Leanne will kill us.”

“So, what do you think? Are you looking forward to settling down?” Ford asked Ryan.

Before he could answer, Jake scoffed. “Why would anyone look forward to that? The man is giving up his freedom!”

It occurred to me that Jake was on his third beer, and it seemed his mouth was out of control.

Ryan sighed. “Take it easy, J. I’m getting married in four days, and I don’t want to listen to your bullshit leading up to it.”

Things were suddenly tense as Ryan glared at his brother, and for a moment, I thought it was about to escalate. I wasn’t in the mood to break up a fight today, especially on a boat. The space was tight, and I was sure someone would end up going overboard.

Then, Jake laughed. “Calm down, big brother. I know you’re looking forward to being tied down. Not sure why you’d want to spend your life answering to a nagging woman or give up having sex with anyone else forever, but that’s your prerogative. As for me, I’m hoping to get as much ass as possible this week.”

“More power to you,” Ryan said, looking much more at ease. The moment of anger had passed. “Just stay away from my fiancé.”

“Don’t worry about that. Once you fuck a woman, she’s repulsive to me. Couldn’t go there even if I wanted to. You haven’t screwed any of the bridesmaids, have you? They’re all hot.”

Now, it was my turn to glare at him. “Maybe you should stay away from the wedding party. It might complicate things if you mess around with any of them.”

My words made it seem like a suggestion, but my tone was hard, and my jaw ached from clenching my teeth. I couldn’t see Jake’s eyes behind his dark sunglasses, but I could feel his assessing gaze on me.

“You seem testy today, Damien. Maybe you should put some energy toward getting laid this week.”

I’d already done that, and the thought of it once again conjured a flash of a memory. Kelsie on top of me, bouncing up and down with her hands on her own tits and her long blonde hair wild around her shoulders. She was gorgeous in that moment, confident.

Fuck. It was tough to remember why what we did was such a bad idea. It felt too good.

I pulled out my own phone, confirming that what Ford said was true. There was no signal out here.

I bit back a curse as I put the phone away again, telling myself that I just wanted to check up on Kelsie after the awkwardness of this morning. I definitely didn’t want to see if she’d be open to spending another night wrapped around each other.

That would be stupid. I needed to keep distance between us, just enough that things would stay normal.