The Halo Series Boxed Set

by Kimberly Knight

  At first, I thought the concept was strange, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. They needed to fill every seat, and this way Nicole could meet more men—unless they stuck us at a table with women.

  When we walked up to the hostess stand, Easton and Avery let us go first. We gave the lady our cruise ID cards so she would know what table we were assigned to. The room was beautiful. Aqua carpeting was throughout with red swirls for contrast. An aqua glass divider divided the hostess stand and the main dining area, and strange aqua art with women dancing in circles hung on the walls.

  As we followed the hostess, I looked up at the ceiling that sparkled with LED lights. Each tile above them had been placed randomly to make it look like we were dining under the stars, and the windows cast a fiery hue. White tablecloths hung on the tables that were graced with white place settings, only to be offset by a beautiful tiny bouquet of orange blossoms. It was beautiful.

  I took my seat, glancing up at Nicole, only to follow her eyes as she watched Easton and Avery walk with the hostess. Easton’s eyes met mine, and I smiled as they stopped at our table.

  “This is your table, too?” Nicole asked, giving a hopeful smile.

  The hostess answered for them. “Yes, these gentlemen have been assigned this table as well. Enjoy.”

  “What a coincidence,” Nicole said as Avery sat next to her and Easton next to me.

  “Sure is,” Easton replied, giving me another smile.

  A waiter came and took our drink orders as we looked over the simple menu. Each dinner would include a soup or salad, entrée, and a dessert. I eyed the desserts first. They had crème brûlée on the menu, and I knew that I would be getting that, no matter how full I was from dinner. I would get it every night after if it was on the menu. It was my all-time favorite and I rarely got it.

  Nicole laughed at all of Avery’s antics as she made googly eyes at him, and she always found a way to touch his arm. I felt as though we were on a double date.

  “So Brooke,” Easton said, attempting to bring the conversation back to the table and not just between the two lovebirds, “what do you do back in Boston?”

  When Nicole and I discussed that this was a singles cruise, I told her that I was going to have a fake name and a fake career. I’d already told Easton my real name by mistake, and since Nicole was so smitten with Avery, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get away with a fake career. But I was going to fuck with him just a little anyway.

  “I’m a doctor.”

  Nicole almost choked on her water, giving me a what-the-hell look.

  “Really? What do you practice?”

  “Gynecology.”

  Easton and Avery both choked on their water as I tried to suppress my laugh. Nicole was still giving me a look and I shrugged, not able to hold my laughter any longer. “I’m just fuckin’ with you. I’m a paralegal.”

  Easton laughed after he quit choking a little. “Add sense of humor to my wish list.”

  This girl.

  This girl was going to be the end of me. Who the fuck goes on a singles cruise when they aren’t single? Well, I actually suspected a lot of people did so they could cheat on their spouse, but not Brooke. I could tell she was genuine and sincere.

  I hadn’t been this attracted to someone since—never. Part of me wanted to walk away and go find another chick, but her smile was addicting. Fuck, her eyes were addicting. Her laughter, her lips, her sailor’s mouth, and now her jokes.

  And fucking Avery wasn’t helping matters by being all clingy to the first girl he saw. Fuck, I was being all clingy with the first girl I saw. What was wrong with me? This would have been so much easier if Avery had left Brooke’s best friend alone. Let me walk away and hopefully forget about the little brunette whose legs I wanted to bury my face between forever.

  But no … Avery and Nicole were going to fuck tonight and would probably fuck the whole seven nights, and I was stuck with this addicting woman who didn’t want me to touch her. Normally, I wouldn’t care if a chick had a boyfriend. I would seduce her, charm her, flirt with her … anything to get into her pants, but I didn’t want to piss Brooke off. I—I wanted to get to know her.

  I was trying to play it cool, but I knew she knew that the woman I wanted her to find for me was her. None of the other women compared to her.

  After dinner, we walked Brooke and Nicole to their cabin and then left to freshen up for the mixer. Being with Brooke for the last several hours was fucking with my head. I wanted to kiss her soft lips, run my hands through her long, dark brown hair, and just do what came naturally.

  “You need to snap out of it, man. If you don’t get your shit together, and Nicole has to leave to hang out with Brooke so she won’t be alone, I’m going to kick your ass,” Avery said, ironing one of his dress shirts.

  “I know.”

  “You’re supposed to be my wingman. Stop with the silent bullshit.”

  “I’m trying,” I said, slamming the drawer a little too hard with frustration.

  “What the fuck is the problem?”

  “I like Brooke, okay?”

  “Yeah? So what’s the problem?”

  “She has a boyfriend.”

  “When has that stopped you before?” He laughed.

  He fucking laughed.

  In all the years that we’d been friends, we’d had arguments, but never gotten physical with each other. But now that he was laughing at me and basically calling me a pussy, I wanted to punch him in the face.

  “I know, but she’s not one of the whores from the bar. She’s—different.”

  “Nicole is different, too. I think we got lucky.”

  “Yeah …” I muttered, slamming the bathroom door so I could take a shower.

  Lucky.

  The girls didn’t know when they would be ready, and since we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, none of us had cell service to text each other. Avery and I had both forgotten to look at their room number when we walked them to their door after dinner, so we couldn’t call their room either. In the end, we decided we would just go to the mixer and wait for them.

  The mixer was in the champagne bar on deck six near the casino. Avery and I walked into the art deco bar that was designed like something out of a book I’d read in high school. I had an inkling to call everyone “old sport” and watch women in flapper dresses dance around to the jazz music that was playing through the speakers.

  “They’re not here yet,” Avery said as we settled at the bar.

  “I noticed.” As soon as Avery and I entered, I’d scanned the area for those piercing emerald eyes that I was already addicted to. I ordered a beer instead of a hard drink. I wanted to stay kind of sober. Usually, I didn’t give a fuck. I would get drunk, take a girl anywhere I could get a blow job from her, and call it a night. I knew tonight wasn’t one of those nights, and I actually wanted to stay sober so I could remember everything Brooke said.

  After Dana and I split, my father told me that when I met the one who I was supposed to be with forever, she would devour my every thought. She would make me smile just by her walking into a room, and also make my dick hard at the same time.

  I’d never experienced that with Dana because we were kids when we met and I didn’t know about true love. I was just glad to be getting some when all my other friends were jacking off nightly, thinking about the girls at school.

  “Before they get here, tell me what your plan is?” I asked Avery.

  “Nicole wants to—”

  Before Avery could finish, two brunettes walked up to us. “Hello, boys. I’m Kristen, and this is my friend Stacy.”

  “I’m Easton, and this is Avery.”

  We shook hands awkwardly like this was some sort of business meeting. Kristen and Stacy both had curly brown hair and green eyes. Stacy’s hair was shoulder length while Kristen’s came to the middle of her back. Their hair and eye color matched Brooke’s, but their eyes weren’t speaking to me like Brooke’s did. I didn’t want to be
rude, but I wasn’t interested. Neither Kristen nor Stacy was my brunette.

  “Usually the guys are supposed to approach the women, but Stacy and I made a pact that this time we would take the initiative and approach the ones we were interested in.”

  “Does that mean this isn’t your first singles cruise?” Avery asked.

  “No, we’ve been on a few with no luck, but they are so much fun that we just continue doing them,” Stacy said.

  I could tell that Stacy was interested in Avery, and Kristen was interested in me, but we needed them to leave us alone so Nicole wouldn’t get mad at Avery. I knew that women tend to jump to conclusions when a guy is talking to another female.

  Before I could come up with an excuse to walk away, my eyes fell on the door. Brooke walked in wearing a green dress that matched her eyes, and I smiled as my dick begun to get hard. Her milky legs extended from the knee-high dress and were met with silver heels.

  Usually, I didn’t notice what a woman was wearing. Hell, I couldn’t remember what color dress the girl who I got head from at the bar two nights ago was wearing. But Brooke … This epitome of her would be burned into my memory until the day I died. She was simply breathtaking.

  I stopped Avery mid-sentence of what he was saying to the broads and motioned with my head towards the door. Brooke’s eyes met mine, and I smiled again. She smiled back, wrapping it around my heart, and gestured to us so Nicole could spot us.

  “Fuck,” Avery said under his breath.

  Brooke and Nicole made the short distance to us, but before we could introduce them to Kristen and Stacy, Nicole wrapped her arms around Avery’s neck and kissed him. Avery returned the kiss. I could see their tongues swirling around each other, and I wanted to punch him. He was making me fucking jealous that Brooke didn’t do the same to me.

  “Hi,” I finally said to Brooke.

  “Her?” she questioned. I knew exactly what she was asking. She was still playing our game, trying to find a chick for me.

  “No,” I replied, shaking my head.

  “Her?” Brooke asked about the other brunette. I didn’t ask which one she was asking about because it didn’t matter.

  “No.” I laughed and smiled at her. “Never.”

  “I see …”

  Do you? Do you see? Do you realize how much I want to grab your face and kiss you until you can’t breathe?

  “Damn,” one of the brunettes said and then they both walked off.

  “You look beautiful,” I said to Brooke, looking from her perfect feet all the way up until our eyes met again.

  “Thank you,” she said, a hint of pink spreading across her cheeks.

  “You always blush when I give you a compliment.”

  “I’m not used to them.”

  “Your boyfriend doesn’t compliment you?”

  She thought for a moment. “No, he doesn’t,” she said, shaking her head.

  I wanted to ask her why she was even with the guy. He sounded like an idiot, and every time we talked about him, she seemed sad and unhappy. There was a reason why she agreed to go on an eight day singles cruise without the loser, and I hoped to enjoy every minute of it.

  “That’s a shame,” I said, slightly shaking my head side to side in disapproval.

  “Shit, I need to go back to my room real quick,” Brooke said, looking over at the two lovebirds still sucking face and laughing. “Before these two go there and I can’t get back in for a few hours.”

  “You want me to go with you?” I asked, hoping she would say yes.

  “That’s okay, I’ll be fast.”

  “Why do you need to go back to our room?” Nicole asked.

  “I forgot to take a pain pill,” Brooke responded.

  “Let me come with you,” I said, wondering why she needed to take a pain pill. She seemed fine and mentioned no injury before.

  “Okay,” she finally agreed.

  “I need to talk to Easton real quick,” Avery said before Brooke and I could walk away.

  We stepped a few feet down the bar from the girls. “I’m going to wait ten minutes and then take Nicole back to her room, so make this fast and then hang with Brooke for at least an hour, okay?”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. I would do anything if it meant more time with Brooke.

  I was getting tired from the long day of traveling from the East Coast, but I didn’t want this night to end.

  I was becoming extremely sick and tired of my shoulder hurting. It had been over two months since I’d injured it. I’d never been one to pop pain pills, but the pain was so immensely intense that I needed the slight relief from it—any relief I could get for that matter. The medication I was taking only made the pain bearable, and I still felt the aching, dull pain in my shoulder blade. It felt like it just needed to be adjusted or cracked somehow.

  I tried stretching it over and over and over, but that wasn’t helping. I was hoping that the massage therapist would be able to rub the knot out or give it more than three hours of relief like the medication did. I just wanted the pain to go away.

  Stupid bowling!

  “You know you didn’t need to walk me to my room. I was coming right back,” I said to Easton as we maneuvered through people.

  I was actually happy that he insisted on coming. Jared would have just let me wander off like he did one time when we went to New York City for the weekend. Jared only wanted to sleep in the hotel room, but I wanted to go sightseeing. I begged and begged him to come. Finally, I got fed up and left, walking around Times Square by myself for a few hours. He never called my cell, didn’t text—nothing. When I got back to the hotel room, he had the nerve to ask where I’d been. I was beyond livid.

  We took the stairs down to my cabin instead of the elevator. People were making out as they waited instead of just taking the stairs. This was definitely a singles cruise. “I wanted to.” Easton smiled and my stomach clenched as I looked at his dimples.

  “Well, thank you. It’s sweet of you.”

  “Let me guess, your boyfriend would have let you come back alone?” he asked.

  I paused for a beat before answering. “Yeah,” I sighed. “He would have figured nothing would happen to me since we’re on a ship and there’s no place to go.”

  “No place to go but overboard and in the middle of the Pacific with sharks,” he joked.

  I laughed. “Part of me wishes he were here so I could throw him over.”

  “Trouble in paradise?” Easton asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “No … yes … I don’t know. It’s a long story that consists of four years of the good and the bad.”

  “Like any relationship.” He nodded.

  “True. When was your last relationship?” I asked, slipping my ID badge that doubled as our room key into the door.

  Laughing slightly, he asked, “Are we talking serious relationship?”

  I eyed him curiously. “Um … yeah?”

  “Then about seven years ago.”

  “You haven’t dated in seven years?”

  We both stepped into my room, and I went into the bathroom to grab my medication, returning to the mini fridge to grab a bottle of water to swallow it down. Easton was looking around the room, so I tried to grab some of my clothes before he turned back around. Nicole and I both had bras and panties scattered throughout, and the clothes we’d worn that day were still on the floor. We were in a rush to get ready for the mixer after dinner, plus I hadn’t realized I’d have a man in my room—at least not one whose opinion of me I cared about.

  “To clarify, I’ve dated. Just not in serious relationships.”

  “So, you’re like a player,” I asked, then swallowed the pill.

  Of course, Brooke. You’re on a singles cruise. Don’t worry about it, you have a boyfriend anyway.

  He laughed softly. “You’ll need to define ‘player’.”

  “Someone who sleeps around.” I shrugged, returning the water to the fridge.

  “Define ‘sleeping around’.” He l
aughed again.

  “Um …” I held open the door, “you know, someone who goes around fucking a bunch of different chicks.”

  “Then no, I wouldn’t consider myself a player.” He shut the door behind him, and we started walking toward the elevators. The stairs were good to go down, but not up. Especially while talking.

  “But you’ve slept with chicks in the last seven years, right?”

  Why was I so curious about him? This was more than just casual talking. It was like I wanted to know everything about him. Get to know him and his dark secrets. But why? After seven nights, I’d never see him again.

  “Of course I have, but I don’t sleep around. Usually they just suck my dick.”

  I felt my face blush at his bluntness. I was starting to wonder if he wanted me to suck his dick. It didn’t make any sense in my mind that he was hanging around a girl with a boyfriend when he had a whole ship full of single women. If he wanted somebody to suck his dick, he would have a better chance going elsewhere.

  “You don’t say?” I laughed. “Why do you stop at them giving you head?” The questions were just pouring out of me.

  “In high school, the chicks were more likely to give you head than sleep with you. Now, they would rather sleep with you than suck your dick, so I like it better.”

  “I suppose that’s good logic.” I laughed. “What happened to end your relationship seven years ago?”

  I noticed as we exited the elevator that we weren’t going in the direction of the mixer. I didn’t mind at all. I figured Nicole and Avery were probably scoping out our floor, waiting for us to leave so they could use our cabin. While we were getting ready, Nicole had made sure to shave—everywhere, and basically told me that I needed to find something else to do until at least midnight if I didn’t want to walk in on them.

  Easton paused for a moment before replying, and I wondered if I had crossed a line talking about his past. “So do you want the long and real version, or what I normally tell chicks who ask me?”