Finn shook his head, his voice dropping lower. “You want me to say it was my fault? Fine. It was my fault.”
My eyes narrowed. “You don’t mean that.”
“No, I don’t,” he admitted, a smirk curling at the corner of his lips. “But as much as I used to love watching you throw a fit just so I could spank it out of you, I’m knackered. So, for sleep’s sake, you win.”
My cheeks flamed as I shoved his shoulder with a scoff. He barely budged, but his eyes flashed, that smirk climbing higher.
His breath was heavy. So was mine.
And for a split second, the air between us shifted into something else entirely.
Something familiar.
Something tempting.
Something I couldn’t —wouldn’t— let happen again.
Not now that I knew better.
“I’m not trying to win. I happen to know that’s impossible when it comes to you,” I said, and when his eyes flicked to my lips as I said it, I had to use every ounce of willpower I had not to let my next breath shudder out of me.
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
“You think you know me so well.”
“I know all I need to. I know how much of a coward you are when you’re wrong about something. And trust me, this time? I won’t wait around for a real apology I know will never come.”
I turned then, and the second I stepped out of that heated space between us, it was like a rubber band snapped, time catching up in a dizzying rush.
“And I hope you enjoyed those spankings, by the way,” I threw over my shoulder when I reached the door to my cabin. “Because you’ll never touch me again.”
I longed to feel powerful vindication with those words as I slammed the door behind me.
But they devastated me, instead.
I was ready for bed — teeth brushed, face washed, hair wrapped around a silky, heatless curling rod — when Gisella dragged Finn into our room.
I heard her giggle and his low voice whispering something from where I was still in the bathroom. It almost sounded like he was protesting, but I suspected that was more my idiotic, unfounded hope than fact.
I groaned, letting my head fall back and closing my eyes.
What god did I piss off to have this as my punishment?
“It’s fine,” I heard Gisella say on another giggle, and then nausea bloomed in my throat at the sound of a kiss. “Ember is cool. She’s not going to care.”
I heard Finn’s voice again, but couldn’t make out what he was saying — just the low rumble of his baritone as I held onto the sink and tried not to hurl. I was so exhausted. All I wanted was to crawl into bed and pass out. But I knew with Finn in that room, there was no possible way I’d sleep.
With a sigh, I flicked off the bathroom light and opened the door just in time to find Gisella crawling up into her top bunk.
Finn was already there waiting for her.
“Hey, Em! We’re just going to have a cuddle. We won’t be loud, I promise.” Gisella smiled that stupid, adorable, innocent smile and I still wanted to throat punch her.
“Yeah, no worries,” I said. “I’m actually going to go have a glass of water on deck, get some fresh air.”
Do not look at Finn. Do not look at Finn.