“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 lastthing I needed was to drink any more, or to let my brain wander any further into dangerous territory.
Besides, it was late, we were all wasted, and this game of Truth or Dare had the potential to get ugly if we didn’t call it soon.
I started to push up from the water, ready to call it a night, when Bernard’s voice cut through the chatter. “Cameron, truth or dare?”