“You’ve seen us together once, and all of sudden you’re playing matchmaker. Is she always like this?” I look over at Tripp for answers.
“A hopeless romantic…oh yes. But she’s a great judge of character; I mean she loves me, doesn’t she?”
“That’s not helping her case,” I chuckle back at him.
“Okay, you two. Shut up and take this serious, this is about your future.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. I’ll keep an open mind, how’s that?”
“Fair enough.”
I’m glad she lets it go, I wasn’t sure she was going to. But at least for now she has. We chat for the next hour before they decide to join the others on the back deck. Right after they walk out, I shoot a message over the walkie-talkie to Eric and Rob, letting them know to make sure the hot tub is ready for the guests. We are sailing for the entire day, so it’s our job to make sure everyone is comfortable. It’s tough when we don’t stop halfway, because there’s no time for the water toys or anything fun.
It’s difficult not being able to sit back and relax with everyone, but I have to remember this is also a charter. Even though they are friends, and didn’t pay even half of what others paid, they are still paying guests and deserve the same experience as the others have on the boat.
As I look over the screens in front of me, my mind drifts back to the conversation with Kendall. I know I’m attracted to Maci. Shit, I have been since she dropped her panties in front of me on the dock. But she’s like forbidden territory for me. I gravitate to her when we are in a room together and my dick stirs at the sight of her. The want is there, there’s no denying that, but what I do about it is a completely different story. Just thinking about her has my blood flowing hot through my veins. Do I push the boundaries and see where it goes? Hmm…
My thoughts are interrupted with a message from Marie on my hip.
“Captain?”
“Yeah?” I reply after unclipping the walkie-talkie.
“Your presence is requested at dinner tonight and later for Bingo. In fact, we’ve all been summoned to come play that. How do you feel about this?”
“I think that can be arranged. I’ll talk to our chief engineer to make sure he’s available to watch over things tonight when we tie off in Nassau.”
“I’ll make sure the staff is aware.”
“Remind the crew they are also still working so as much as I want them to have fun, they still need to be there for our guests. Whatever they want, they get.”
“Got it.”
I don’t want them fucking off. Watching and paying attention to what the guests need should be our main priority, if someone’s glass needs a refill, then we better be on it. Now the only hiccup in tonight’s festivities…I have to be around Maci all night.
Chapter Six
Maci
I managed to serve him dinner without dropping his plate. That should count for something, right? Tonight, is the first night I’ve helped Marie. Usually I’m doing bed turndowns with Brittany, while Ann helps her. Brittany is still down below, but this time Ann is with her. They were told to quickly get it done because we’d be playing Bingo tonight with our guests. I’ve never played a day in my life, so this should be interesting.
We are carrying up desserts now, each one has a mini Andes mint cheesecake, with the perfect amount of chocolate and creme de menthe drizzled on the plate. It smells delicious, thank goodness Marco thought of us too when he made extra. I can’t wait to try them.
Everyone is dressed up except for Ben, who’s sporting his jumpsuit, and George who seems to be definitely wearing Carter’s pilot uniform. We were given a heads-up on them both, though it cracks me up. These two have a great sense of humor but when it comes to these outfits, they are serious. Kendall has on a beautiful, long, coral sundress with all different colored flowers covering it, and her man is sporting a pair of gray dress pants with a light yellow button-up dress shirt on. With the top two buttons undone, it gives off the right amount of sexy while screaming confidence. They are a beautiful couple.
I’m trying to concentrate on what everyone else is wearing instead of the guy who has caused me to have highly inappropriate dreams, and they’re mostly about us screwing on the counter in front of the windows he looks out of daily. Out of the corner of my eye I keep catching him watching me.
“Does anyone want a refill?” I hold up a bottle of a white and red wine in each of my hands.
“Sweetheart, I’ll take whatever you’re serving,” George spills out his savviness.
“George, are you the flirt at the complex you live at?” I smile fully at him while pouring him another glass of red wine. He’s adorable.
“Maybe.” He winks at me as I set his glass back down on the table.
“It seems the sauce is flowing tonight, isn’t it, Bertha?” I catch her watching her friend.
“No complaints here. You’ve been downing your glass faster than me tonight, you trying to get tanked, Muriel?”
“Nah, they just got the good stuff on this boat.” She holds up her glass of white wine.
“Maybe you’ll get lucky tonight.” Bertha returns her gesture, holding up her own glass in her direction.
These two are a hoot. I have to hold back my laughs, they bust on each other all the time but are the best of friends. I can only hope I still have a great friendship with a couple of my girlfriends at their age.
I see Captain Nichols chuckling before he speaks to the group of guests, “All right, the ladies are going to clear the table then if everyone wants to join us inside, we have a good game of Bingo ready for us.”
“You callin’ the numbers out, Captain Hot Stuff?” Muriel asks.
The captain of the boat and the captain who flies planes look at each other, smiling before Carter speaks.
“That would be a yes. Are you two going to control yourselves tonight?”
“There’s no guarantees, Captain!” Muriel’s lips turn up as she answers.
“Good luck with this one, she’s lit tonight.” Bertha hooked her thumb in her friend’s direction.
* * *
Looking around the room, everyone is seated but Carter. He’s standing in front of us all with a microphone in hand, in his own uniform, which matches George’s. There is a round gold drum, full of white balls with numbers on them, set on a small table next to him, along with a wooden rack, for which I’m assuming is for the balls that he’ll pull out. We are all given a Bingo sheet with a dauber, as I’m quickly corrected by the two experts, who are sitting amongst the ladies of the boat. I made the mistake of calling them a marker, they said yes, they are a marker, but the proper name is dauber. I will be sure not to make that mistake again.
Here we go…
“Normally, I only have my Bingo Babes playing but tonight, it’s nice to see some guys playing too.” Muriel and Bertha blush a little, but they also look a little annoyed that there are guys at the table. It’s clearly a game they are protective over.
“Don’t take it easy on them, Captain,” Muriel says.
“Okay, I won’t,” he chuckles. “Are you all ready for tonight? Any line, any way wins. Whether it’s horizontally, vertically, or diagonally; any way will get you a prize.” He winks over at Kendall and she rolls her eyes while smiling. They seem to have a playful relationship.
I glance up to see my own captain looking at me. I’d swear there is lust in his eyes. And my stomach immediately flips with a flutter of butterflies. I lick my lips as my mouth goes dry staring back at him, his own eyes drop as my tongue darts out, and then I notice his Adam’s apple move as he swallows. I’m not sure what is happening here but my lace panties are being affected too.
“Here we go…Royal Salute,” Carter calls out, bringing me out of my naughty thoughts of stripping Captain McDreamboat out of his dark shirt.
“What?” Ann asks out loud, giggling.
Kendall immediately starts laughing, “That was my first reaction too. You want to
explain, ladies?”
“Rookies,” Muriel says.
“I’ll do the honors tonight,” Bertha responds. “Listen up now, we go fast with our numbers, we don’t have time to repeat ourselves.”
I look over at her and Muriel; they both have six sheets in front of them, while we all have just one. We clearly are ‘rookies.’ They are serious players. Both George and Ben have three spread out in front of them too; they must know what they are doing but not as much as their friends.
It’s hard to concentrate when I’m directly across the table from a set of blue eyes and they seem to be staring at me a lot tonight. I can’t help but to smile; he causes me to do this often.
“Okay, after he calls the numbers, I’ll explain what they mean. But only once, so listen up,” Bertha says. “So, Royal Salute is twenty-one. For the 21-gun salute.”
Makes sense. This is going to be harder than I first thought. I was thinking he’d actually call a number, there’s definitely some thinking involved with this game.
Lost in my thoughts, I forget to mark the number. I see a hand reach forward. “Let me get that for you. You forgot to dab that.”
“Thanks. I was thinking that this isn’t just the normal game of BINGO.”
Chuckling at her expression, “Nope. Tripp warned me they don’t mess around with this game. It’s played once a week in the complex where they live, and he has to call the numbers this way.”
In turn, we both smile.
“Naughty at forty.”
“It’s where life begins,” we are told.
I scan my card, nope not on mine, but I see it on the one across from me and it’s not marked. So, I decide to repay the favor.
“There ya go.”
“Thanks, I didn’t see it.”
I want to tell him, “I know because your eyes are locked on me tonight,” but with the rest of the employees sitting right next to us, I decide against it. But honestly, they probably wouldn’t notice, they seem to be talking and laughing amongst themselves. It’s allowing us to have little flirty moments without being busted.
“Bang the drum.”
“There’s nothing to this one, it just rhymes with seventy-one,” Bertha says while dabbing all her papers.
“I’d say that could have been taken another way,” Eric laughs.
“Oh, we have a bad boy on the ship,” Muriel lets out.
The group all joins in on the laughter.
“Dancing Queen,”
“Young and sweet, only seventeen; it’s in ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” song.” She rolls her eyes, annoyed that we don’t know it. I love that song so I feel like I should have caught that one. Damn, this is hard.
“Dirty Gertie,”
“This number has two meanings, first it rhymes with thirty, but it was also a line in a song back during WWII; the soldiers all liked it.”
“Was she worth it?”
“Every penny,” both ladies chimed out together. “It’s fifty-six, the cost of a marriage license.”
I got it; it was actually a cute way of putting it and I love the way they answered him.
“One score,” he says over the microphone in a flirty tone while looking over at his girl.
“It means getting plenty at twenty.” Damn, Bertha really knows her stuff.
“Does it mean in your twenties?” Scott questions while knuckling Rob.
“Another naughty one,” Muriel yells out.
“Get the sauce away from her. Muriel, I don’t think you’ve drank a bottle of wine by yourself in a long time.” Bertha picks at her, though you can tell it’s all in good fun.
“Oh, you hush up. You, yourself have downed a bottle tonight.”
“Yes, but I’m a trained professional,” Bertha says, as they clink their glasses together.
Leaning in toward me, I see his eyes undressing me. “Did you understand that, or do you need me to explain it in a little more detail or in a different way?”
He’s flirting hard with me tonight. So, I let my own answer come out without holding back, “I completely understand, so I’ll ask you, are you getting plenty, Captain?”
“Not in a while, so I could use some. Are you offering?” he says in a whispering tone.
“Man alive.”
Thank god for Carter’s voice.
“This one just rhymes with five, so don’t get excited.”
“I’m alive, do you want to check for a heartbeat?” His foot brushes mine under the table. I don’t move mine; I like it.
I glance up and our eyes lock. Good God, he is certainly alive and it’s hard to believe he noticed me out of all the beautiful ladies on this boat. Brittany was practically dropping to her knees in front of him and he wasn’t giving her the time of day. Why me?... I wonder.
“Top of the shop.”
“Ninety, it’s the highest number in Bingo.”
He dabs my page while I’m looking down at it and before I have a chance to. “Got it.” His index finger taps against my pinky finger as I move my hand forward to do the same.
“I see that. You’ve marked my page a couple of times tonight.”
“I figured marking the paper was a safe bet.”
“Do you always do things the safe way, Captain?”
“Most of the time but then every once in a while, things come along that make you change your ways.”
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
“Are there things here now to make you do that?” I whisper back.
“There are.”
My stomach has the fluttering feeling again, not once but twice. I quickly look down to see I won…I won!
“BINGO,” I yell out.
“Show off. Let me see your sheet.” Bertha looks over. “It’s good, Captain. We have a winner.” She smiles at Tripp. “What does she win?”
“I was one off,” Brittany says, followed by both Ann and Marie.
“She’ll have to talk to her own captain about that.”
Looking over in his direction, he raises his eyebrows at me, and the butterflies start flapping their wings faster than before.
“Let me think about this for a little bit. I’ll get back to ya.”
“Make it something good, Captain, she beat the professionals,” Derek says, as he puts his arm around Muriel’s shoulders.
“You know it,” she replies all proud of herself. It is adorable.
The rest of the evening is spent cleaning up everything, while suddenly having some sexual frustration I thought only guys felt. It is new to me; I now have sympathy for them.
I’m about to walk down the stairs after washing the last of the dishes. It’s three in the morning and my feet are killing me.
“Good night, beautiful. See you in the morning,” Marco says in his Italian accent while smiling.
“You can’t possibly be talking to me?” I’m startled when I hear the man’s voice that has had me walking around wondering when I’ll see him again.
“Not at all, Cap,” Marco smiles. “I didn’t see you there.”
“I heard voices, so I wandered down before I head to bed myself. Good night,” Captain says dismissing him, leaving us alone.
“Can I get you anything before I head to bed?” I question. I stare at him as he stands there in only his shorts. He is shirtless and I can’t pull my eyes off him.
“Maybe.” His body is directly in front of me now as he steps one foot closer until we are perfectly in-line with each other.
“A drink, perhaps?” I lick my lips again. I can’t help myself; my mouth is instantly dry. It is the only thing that turns that way because my panties are the complete opposite.
Another step toward me and my chest is pressed against his. A pool of wetness settles between my legs.
“I am unexpectedly dry. How about you? Are you dry?”
He did not just ask me that, did he?
Shaking my head is all I can do; no words form on my tongue. I bite my bottom lip while my eyes are glued on his. H
e drops his own to my mouth though; closing my eyes I wait for it…the kiss.
His breath is on me, I feel it; he’s closer than before. His mouth is next to my ear as he starts to speak to me.
“It’s not a secret I want you, Sweet Pea. I’m showing a lot of restraint when it comes to you…you should be off-limits for me. But I’m drawn to you,” he says, letting out a long breath. It’s hot, and I’m crumbling at his feet.
“Why me?” I have to ask.
“Why not? You’re stunning. You intrigue me.”
“I feel the same, but you can have anyone.”
His hands are gripping each side of the counter behind me. And I’m about to do the same to hold myself upright. My knees are getting weak from the way he’s making me feel.
“Maybe, maybe not. But they aren’t you. So, tell me, can I have you?”
I nod my head slightly; without thinking my hands grip his forearms. I need help steading my body from the heat that is pouring off each of us. My mind is swimming with a ton of dirty thoughts about what could happen from here. He could lift me up, placing me on the counter. I’d open my legs to him, giving him direct access to my lady bits. He could grind his hardness into me, showing me exactly the effects I’m having on him. He’d kiss the hell out of me, devouring my mouth with his tongue.
My dream is interrupted by his tongue as it swipes against the skin on my neck. Goose bumps immediately prickle and I am a goner. My fingers dig even more into his arm, which doesn’t help what I am feeling because with no shirt on, I am touching bare skin.
I can feel his eyes on me even though my own are closed. He whispers close to my ear.
“What are you feeling, Sweet Pea?”
“I want you to kiss me.” I need to just put it out there. I want it more than I’ve wanted anything or anyone before. I slide my hands up to the back of his biceps. He flexes under my touch.
He is moving toward my lips when we hear a creak from a step, and he pulls back. SERIOUSLY!
Sexy Seaman Page 8