Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
My heart ached.
I should have prayed for mercy from those memories, but instead, I found myself wishing they’d never fade.
“Gi, that’s enough,” Finn said, but she was still giggling, and everyone else was so drunk they laughed and egged her on. She tugged and lifted until we all caught sight of the tattoo she’d spoken of, and my heart stopped.
It was small, just a spattering of black ink on his left rib cage just below his chest.
Below his heart.
“What is it?!” Eli asked, standing to get a better look before Finn ripped away and tugged his shirt back down.
“A firefly,” I whispered.
Finn’s eyes snapped to mine.
It must have only been a split second, but time snagged like a fishing line on a tree for me, yanking my entire existence to a halt. My pulse thundered in my ears, and though I knew I should look away and play it off for the crew and the cameras watching, I couldn’t.
I just stared at him, and he stared right back.
“All these tattoos,” he murmurs, tracing the small lines of ink on my arm with his fingers first before he begins to kiss each one.
I bite my lip and squirm under his touch, hooking a leg over his hip and pulling him closer.
“Tell me what they mean.”
“Which one?”
“All of ’em.”
“That might take a while.”
“We have forever.”
I laugh, stealing a kiss when he reaches the tattoo at my collarbone before he’s rolling on top of me and admiring the ones on my abdomen.
He points to the little lion on my hip bone.
“Leo,” I answer. “My sign.”
Finn smirks, trailing that finger until it touches the little cowboy hat inked on my inner thigh.
“For a book series I love.”
His finger glides slowly over my cotton panties, making me whimper. He smirks as if he’s innocent before his touch stalls at the little star beneath my bikini line.
“A reminder that we’re star dust.”
He continues his perusing, asking about every tattoo until I’m driven so mad from his touch that I’m pulling him on top of me and begging for relief.
After, with my head on his chest, I ask him, “Do you have any tattoos?”
“Not one.”
“Think you ever will?”
“Nah, probably not. Can’t think of a thing I’d ink onto my skin forever. It’d have to be something important to me — something I never want to lose.”
I tried to swallow but couldn’t as the memory replayed on a loop.
He had a tattoo.
A firefly.
Emotion strangled me like a fist wrapped tight around my throat.
Was it for me?
“Nah, that’s tame, bru,” Eli said, shrugging it off. “Check this out!”
He stood and ripped his pants down before any of us had a chance to look away, showing us his pale ass and a shitty, faded tattoo of a rubber duck that looked more demented than cute.
“Christ Almighty, Eli! No one wants to see yer arse, ya weapon!” Cameron yelled, shielding his eyes. Everyone else was laughing.
I was still staring at Finn.
Finally, he cleared his throat, breaking our gaze and offering a flat-lipped smile to the group. “Goodnight.”
“Awww, we were just having a laugh, Cheffy,” Palmer called after him. “We love you!”
Finn threw his hand up in a wave, but didn’t turn around. He disappeared inside the glass doors, and I watched until he was no longer in view.
“He’ll be fine,” Gisella promised. “Now, who’s up for a game of Truth or Dare?”
I blinked like I was coming out of a trance, and when my eyes met Bernard’s, he was watching me with a quirked brow.
He’d been in the galley when Finn used my nickname during this last charter.
And he was watching me now like he knew every secret I was trying to hide.
Gisella’s game of Truth or Dare started off tame.
Eli had to take a tequila shot off Bernard’s abs (which Bernard ate up like the cheeky bastard he was). Leah admitted she’d faked an orgasm with a guy on a past boat (to which Cameron loudly declared that it would never happen with him, earning laughter and a playful shove from her). Palmer was dared to run a lap naked around the deck (which had Daria, the poor camera operator still with us, flushing a furious shade of red when he ran past her with his dick swinging).
On the outside, I thought I was holding it together quite nicely. I laughed along with everyone else, hooted and hollered when appropriate, and sipped on my cocktail.
But inside, my mind was still trapped in that split-second of time when Finn’s eyes locked on mine, when I saw that tiny mark inked just beneath his heart.
I needed to go to bed.
That thought was loud and clear, shoving its way through the rest of the noise until I had no choice but to address it. The last thing I needed was to drink any more, or to let my brain wander any further into dangerous territory.