The Halo Series Boxed Set

by Kimberly Knight

  Just as our kiss intensified, we were bumped hard into the railing. I broke our kiss, looking at the couple stumbling as they tried to walk. They didn’t even bother to say they were sorry for running into us.

  “Are you okay?” Avery asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “We should get back to our friends,” he said with a tight smile. Avery looked as bummed as I felt about the assholes breaking up our kiss.

  “Yeah.”

  He reached down and grabbed my hand again. I smiled because even though we’d lost our moment, what was happening between us wasn’t going to stop at one kiss. Maybe we would just talk, get to know each other. But if I was right, his lips were made for me and I wasn’t going to let some drunk assholes ruin my moment.

  “Wait.” Avery halted us just before we rounded the corner to the pool. “I want to do that again. Tonight,” he said, looking at my mouth.

  I smiled. “Me, too.”

  “Good.” He smiled back.

  Still holding my hand, Avery led us back to Brooke and Easton.

  “I have no idea what I’m going to wear,” I said, looking in the tiny closet in mine and Brooke’s room.

  “It’s just dinner,” Brooke said, looking at her clothes. “The boys won’t even be at our table.”

  “Yeah, but Avery will still see me when they come to walk us to dinner.”

  “We just left him. He knows what you look like.” She laughed.

  “I know. I just want to look good, you know?”

  “If Avery didn’t like you, he wouldn’t be giving you the time of day. I don’t think it will matter what you wear.”

  “You’re probably right.” I paused, pulling a cute purple sundress from a hanger. “So…we kissed.”

  “You did?” Brooke’s eyes were wide.

  “Yes, and he makes me feel all…dreamy. Like I’m a teenager again.”

  “Well, you’ll have to tell me all about it tonight, but we need to go now. Your teenage heartthrob is waiting.” She chuckled.

  I pulled on my dress, gave myself one final look in the mirror, and we left to meet my very own Zack Morris.

  Brooke was right. Avery didn’t care what I wore to dinner. We ended up having the same table number assignment and the whole time through dinner, he looked at my eyes and my mouth, not at my clothes. He looked at me.

  I couldn’t believe how comfortable I was around him. Everything felt natural—like we’d known each other for years and not just hours. I could talk to him all night. I didn’t know if Avery only wanted to kiss me again, but I had to be ready for the next step. We both didn’t come here just to meet someone; we came here to physically meet someone. I just hadn’t expected it would be on the first night.

  After dinner, Brooke and I went back to our room so that we could shower and get ready for the mixer.

  “Do you think I’ll be a slut if I sleep with Avery tonight?” I asked Brooke, straightening my freshly washed and dried hair.

  I’d never slept around. Sure I had sex with guys that weren’t my boyfriends, but it wasn’t with strangers. I just met Avery, but there was something about him that made me not care.

  “I…I can’t judge you, Nic. I’m not in that position.”

  “Would you do it if you were single?”

  Brooke thought for a moment. “I’m not sure, but if it feels right, do it. Just be careful.”

  “I hate how guys can fuck a different chick every night and people don’t care. But if a woman spreads her legs like that, she’s a slut.”

  “I know, but I’m your best friend. I won’t judge you.”

  “Thanks,” I said with a small smile. “I’ve never had this instant connection with someone before.”

  “Then maybe he’s what you’re looking for?”

  “Yeah. Maybe.”

  To be honest, I’d planned to come on this cruise and sleep with women—plural, hoping that maybe one was the one. I didn’t expect it to be with the first girl I saw. There was something about Nicole; she was more than my next fuck. Don’t get me wrong; every time we touched it made my dick stiffen, and when we kissed I was at full mast, ready to take her right then and there, but nothing felt like this. Her lips were perfect, and from the time those assholes bumped into us, I’d been thinking of nothing but kissing her again. I wanted to kiss her for hours. Maybe it was good that we were interrupted because I was confident I wouldn’t have stopped until one of us had passed out from lack of air.

  Nicole had a rockin’ body and I’d hoped that I would be able to see it one day, but during dinner all I could focus on was her cute, soft, perfect mouth as I’d envisioned kissing it again. Actually, I’d envisioned it kissing every inch of me, especially my dick.

  I wasn’t like Easton. Well, the old Easton before the cruise. If I were, I’d have fucked Nicole already. He had no intention of knowing anything about the women he slept with, but I did. I wanted to know everything about Nicole, especially why her eyes twinkled when she talked about being a nurse. If things led to us ending up in bed together, I was okay with that, but I hoped it was more than just a fuck on her end too.

  I looked over at Easton as I ironed my dress shirt; he was acting weird. When he was with Brooke, he seemed to be into her. Maybe her boyfriend was playing a factor in this situation, but that had never stopped him before. He liked the challenge when a girl had a boyfriend, but this…this was different. He was quiet and I could picture the hamster in his head turning as he sat there thinking.

  “You need to snap out of it, man. If you don’t get your shit together and Nicole leaves to hang out with Brooke so she won’t be alone, I’m going to kick your ass.” This was the second time today that I had to get Easton to quit thinking so much. It wasn’t like him and honestly, it was scaring me.

  “I know,” he said, sighing.

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

  “I’m trying,” he 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.”

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

  “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…” he muttered, slamming the bathroom door behind him.

  He was acting really weird like he was off his game or something. I didn’t know what was up with him, but I didn’t have time to worry about him. I was too busy thinking about Nicole and how I needed to get her alone again so I could stare at her lips.

  While Easton showered, I made sure I looked good for Nicole by spraying my neck with my favorite cologne, ironing my shirt, and making sure my hair was gelled just right. When we were ready, we went up to the Champagne Room where the mixer was being held. It felt like we’d time traveled back to the roaring 20’s. We walked into the art deco bar where I could envision women in flapper dresses dance around to the jazz music that was playing through the speakers.

  We arrived before the girls and I was happy they didn’t beat us there because I wanted to watch Nicole walk in the door. I wanted to watch her reaction when our eyes met again. I wanted to see her smile when she saw me because I knew I’d be smiling like a love sick fool.

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

  “I noticed,” Easton replied. “Before they get here, tell me what your plan is?”

  “Nicole wants to—”

  Before I 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. I looked past them towards the doors, waiting for Nicole to enter. I didn’t want to miss that moment.

  “Usually the guys are supposed to approach the women, but S
tacy and I made a pact that this go around we’d take the initiative and approach the ones we were interested in.”

  “Does that mean this isn’t your first singles cruise?” I asked. I wanted to be rude and brush them off, but that wasn’t me.

  I needed to look towards my future and my future had just walked in…

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

  My eyes watched Nicole as she entered and walked towards us. “Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. Either I was about to get the cold shoulder or a cat fight was about to go down. The way Nicole looked back and forth between me and these two girls, had me holding my breath and I was ready to step between the girls mid-swing.

  However, Nicole did something unexpected. Before I could utter a hello, she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me. It wasn’t like the kiss we’d shared on the side deck. This kiss was hard, like Nicole was staking her claim, and I returned the kiss as if my life depended on it. For all I knew, it did.

  Our bodies were flush, our tongues mixing together, and once again I didn’t want to stop. I thought I heard one of the girls huff at their loss and leave, but I honestly couldn’t even open my eyes to look.

  Nicole smiled against my lips, confirming what I’d heard. I was too busy tasting heaven with my eyes closed and imaging Nicole’s naked body under her dress to even care. The only thing that got me to pull away was Easton talking about going back to Brooke’s room with her. I needed to confirm the plan for the evening.

  I was already hard again, and if Nicole kept wiggling her front on my front, my dick was going to burst out of my pants. At this rate we’d get kicked off the ship once we made it to Mexico because I assumed fucking in the middle of a bar wasn’t in the rule book.

  “I need to talk to Easton real quick,” I said, stepping back from Nicole’s warm body and mouth. Easton and I 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,” Easton agreed, not putting up a fight. There was plenty he and Brooke could do for an hour on the ship. Swim, take in a comedy show, go to the casino—I didn’t care as long as he gave me my hour.

  I watched the two leave the bar, then turned back to Nicole. “So, staking your claim?” I asked, giving her a smirk.

  She laughed, blushing a little as she looked away. “I guess…yeah, I guess I am.”

  I gently grabbed her face, turning it to look up at me, and kissed her again. There was something about being wanted that turned me on. Knowing that Nicole didn’t want me with anyone else made me want to return the claim. If Nicole was staking her claim on me, then I would as well. Every guy in this bar would know that she was mine, even if we met less than ten hours ago.

  “We have to wait ten minutes,” I said against Nicole’s lips.

  “For what?” she asked, not removing her lips from mine either.

  For a split second, I regretted opening my mouth. What if she didn’t want to be alone with me? What if she came to the mixer just to have a drink and get to know me? “To…uh…never mind.”

  “Tell me,” she said, finally removing our connecting lips.

  I hadn’t been in this situation in a very long time. What I was feeling for Nicole was like experiencing lust for the first time—like I was in high school again and didn’t know how to act around a girl except trying to get her in bed.

  “I was thinking that we could,” I paused, swallowing. “Um, that we could go back to your room and…”

  “Fuck?” she asked with a smile.

  I choked on my sip of beer. “Well, I was going to say talk, but…”

  “Great, you probably think I’m a slut or something,” she said, frowning.

  Was she a slut? I worried that she just wanted to fuck me, but I’d hoped that she wanted more. I wanted more.

  “Do you—”

  “I’m sorry. Honestly, I don’t go around screwing every guy I meet. I just…”

  “Feel different?” I asked, holding my breath and waiting for her to tell me what I wanted to hear.

  “Yeah,” she sighed. “I feel different around you.”

  “Me, too. Let’s just put our cards out there and see what happens these next seven days.”

  “Okay.” She smiled.

  “I’ll go first. I told Easton to take Brooke somewhere for an hour. I want to talk to you with no one around. I want to get to know you and not have to worry about other guys hitting on you.”

  “No one has hit on me. You on the other hand…” She smirked and bit her lip.

  That fucking lip biting again!

  “I wasn’t interested in those two broads. I’m interested in you.” I wanted to throw her over my shoulder and take her to the nearest corner where no one could see us.

  “Good. I’m interested in you, too. But what if I wanted to do more than talk?” She blushed and once again I was turned on by her bluntness.

  “Trust me, I want to do more than talk too.”

  Holy shit what was wrong with me?

  I was being very forward with Avery and that wasn’t my style. The only other time I was this forward was with Mike at the bowling alley and that was because I needed a rebound guy. I was over what’s-his-name-who-had-a-girlfriend-the-whole-time-I-was-seeing-him. There was something about Avery that made me want to climb him like a stripper pole, and not just topless dancer style. I wanted to be butt ass naked.

  After all, I’d shaved everywhere for this night while I was getting ready.

  “What if we don’t have time to talk after?” I asked.

  “We have seven more days left at sea. I think we can find time to talk. But we better hurry or we’ll give our best friends a show.” He smiled.

  Man, his smile flipped my stomach upside down like I was a princess moving to Bel Air.

  I grabbed Avery’s hand and led him towards my room. The bar in the lounge area was packed as people danced to the blaring music, and we had to elbow our way through a crowd just to make it to the elevators. Seriously, didn’t these people know where we were going? A couple holding hands, going to the elevators that led to the rooms… It was like we were a walking sign flashing we were gonna do it. People should be clapping and parting like the Red Sea because this was what everyone came to do on the cruise.

  After waiting at the elevator and pushing the button twenty-million times, it finally dinged and opened. People took their time to get out—at least it felt like they did. I was itching to get behind closed doors and it seemed like everything was taking forever. We stepped in and so did other people causing the small space to feel even more cramped.

  Finally, we made it to my floor, still hand in hand. I pulled the key card from my bra and slipped it in the door. If Brooke and Easton were still in the room, I was going to lose my shit. I was trying to play it cool so Avery didn’t think I was a slut. Maybe he didn’t think that, but I knew I was giving off that vibe. My vagina was wet as the fucking ocean we were sailing on, and if I didn’t get release soon, I was going to take matters into my own hands.

  I needed to calm down.

  I took a deep breath and opened the door to my empty room.

  “Thank the Lord,” Avery said, kicking the door closed behind him.

  I turned, watching him start to unbutton his dress shirt, and I immediately started to kick off my heels. He shrugged off his shirt and threw it on the floor.

  “Yeah, we aren’t going to start off talking,” he said, walking towards me.

  I bit my lip out of habit and waited for him to press his hard, muscular body against mine. I wanted to run my hands along his smooth, broad shoulders, down to his chest, to his six pack—correction, eight pack. I’d never seen an eight pack before. I’d heard about it, but I thought it was a myth. Most guys I knew only cared about their arms and chest. They were happy with a four pack.
<
br />   My eyes opened wide and my hand reach out to touch him before I could remember that I wanted to start at his shoulders.

  “Yeah…I don’t think we’ll be talking either,” I said, looking up at him through my eyelashes. It was hard to remove my eyes from his stomach, but I tried not to stare at the washboard in front of me.

  “We have plenty of time, trust me. Right now, I’m going to take you hard and fast. It’s been a long time for me and I probably can’t hold out anyway, so I’m going to be up front and just tell you that this won’t last long. But I promise I’ll make you come a few times first. Then tonight, after Brooke goes to sleep, we’re going to meet up so we can make the next time last longer. I’ll kick Easton out of my room if I have to. But most importantly, this needs to be fast because I don’t want your best friend to be jealous that you get to fuck this.” He smirked, motioning to his body, and we started laughing. “Really, I don’t want them to walk in on us.”

  Brooke would totally be jealous because Jared was a skinny fucker, opposite of Avery and Easton. Avery was right, we didn’t have time to explore each other’s bodies and we obviously just needed the release. I was cool with that. My heart had been broken too many times for me to hope that Avery would want to cuddle with me after we’d had sex. I couldn’t get my hopes up. I needed to live in the moment and time was ticking for that hour to be up and Brooke and Easton to walk through the door.

  “Well, stop talking and let’s do this,” I said, unzipping my dress and stepping out of it.

  Avery swallowed hard, staring at me. I unhooked my bra, watching him lick his lips, then paused, waiting for his eyes to return to mine. Avery finally looked up and I motioned for him to hurry. He quickly started to unbutton his pants, pulling them down with his boxers, and I tossed my bra on the floor followed by my panties.

  Any other day I’d be self-conscious about my body. I went to the gym a few nights a week and I was in good shape, but I didn’t know Avery. Maybe that’s why I was comfortable around him. Maybe this cruise was only meant to help me loosen up. Usually alcohol had that effect on me, but I wasn’t drunk. I wanted this. I wanted this with Avery.