Page 34 of The Sailor

Zach began to get hard just thinking about what she might suggest.

“The wet spot under my ass is getting annoying. Maybe we can get out of bed and get cleaned up?”

He let out a snort of laughter. “You weren’t the one sleeping on it all night, woman,” Zach told her. “I think my ass is all pruney, like your fingers get when you take an extra-long bath or swim for a long period of time.”

Marit giggled. Zach could feel the movement in his body, which turned him on all over again. But this wasn’t a time for sex. He really did want to get to know her better outside the bedroom. Spend the day with her.

“If I might be so bold as to offer a suggestion for what we can do later?” he said, after Marit had gotten control of herself.

“Yeah?”

“It’s supposed to be nice today. I didn’t get to give you the grand tour of Lobster Cove. We have this awesome swing over the water that—”

“Yes!”

“You don’t even know what I was going to say,” he said with a chuckle.

“You said swing and water. I’m in. I’m easy, Zach, you should know that by now.”

Instead of laughing at the joke she was trying to make, he frowned. “Don’t say that about yourself. You aren’t.”

“I can’t believe you’re saying that after last night. We’ve known each other for what . . . a week?”

“Would you have slept with Jonah?”

“What? No! I work with him.”

“What about Linc or Knox?”

“Stop it, Zach. They’re your brothers.”

“Or the guy who works at the coffee shop? Maybe one of the other lobstermen you’ve met?”

Marit glared up at him.

“You aren’t easy. You and I got together because we both felt an amazing connection. You feel it just as much as I do, otherwise you wouldn’t have agreed to come to my apartment or sleep with me.”

“Fine. That’s true.”

“You aren’t easy, Marit,” Zach said, his voice gentling. “I have a feeling you’re going to be anything but easy when it comes to winning your trust. To getting you to open up and see that you’re worthy of love, deserving of it.

“One more time, then I swear I’m done—those brothers of yours did a number on your self-confidence, sweetheart. I wish they could see how amazing you are and how you’ve landed on your feet. They didn’t deserve you, and I’m going to do everything in my power to be the kind of man you can rely on. Trust. Lean on when you’ve had a shit day. I want to be the first person you call both when you catch a fifty-pound lobster, and when life goes to shit. I want to be your safe place, your everything. Just as you’ll be the same for me.”

“Zach,” she whispered, obviously feeling overwhelmed. Tears swam in her eyes, but they didn’t fall.

“No crying,” he ordered gently. “This is a happy moment. We’re naked in my bed, there’s a condom stuck to my ass, we need to do laundry because we made a hell of a mess of my sheets . . . which I can’t wait to do again, by the way. I’ll let you have the bathroom first while I get breakfast prepped. Take your time. The hot water heater in this house rocks.”

“I don’t take long to shower and change. Remember?”

“That’s right. Okay. Are we good?”

“We’re good.”

“You aren’t mad at me for bringing up your asshole brothers?”

She smiled up at him. “No.”

“Would you tell me if you were?”