“Please,” Grey scoffed, shaking her head. “Like you really planned for the boys to spend the night channeling the Exorcist.”
“They really did, didn’t they?” Kim chuckled. She poured some milk into her coffee and sighed as she lifted the mug to her lips. “God, that sucked.”
“Yeah it did,” Lauren muttered under her breath, her cheeks flushing a little as her mind flashed back to what she had been doing when puke-a-palooza had begun. She looked up to findGrey watching her, and she cleared her throat softly as she reached out to stroke the side of her left index finger up and down Grey’s leg.
“Tell me about it,” Grey whispered in agreement.
“Well,” Kim said, flashing a curious look at Grey and Lauren, “since all of my boys are sleeping, I am going to go shower in peace.”
Once they were alone, Grey hooked a finger under Lauren's chin and gently guided her face upwards. “I really do want to touch you,” she whispered, smiling as she leaned down to claim Lauren's mouth in a slow, sweet, kiss that thrummed with the promise of more. She smiled as she pulled away just far enough to nuzzle Lauren's cheek, her next words falling in seductive waves over Lauren's lips. “I want to see all of you, touch all of you...”
Lauren groaned.
“And I really, really want you to finish what you started last night,” Grey continued in a husky whisper. “But, unfortunately, if we’re really going to wait until we are ‘alone alone’, we have another four and a half days to wait until that can happen.”
“Oh god.”
Grey chuckled and pressed one last lingering kiss to Lauren's lips. “Tell me about it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
AFTER RECEIVING MOORING instructions from the Bitter End harbormaster, Grey clipped the radio back into place and turned around in her seat to look for Lauren, who had spent the majority of the morning camped out on the starboard dive platform with Reid while Kim and Will attended to the older boys, whose stomachs did not appreciate the gentle pitch and roll of the boat as they sailed. Grey had watched off and on during the trip as Lauren taught Reid how to cast a fishing line that was rigged with only a light casting weight, nothing heavy enough to get caught in their wake and pull the rod out of his hands, and he was now casting and reeling-in his line like a pro.
Though she hated to break up his fun, Grey needed Lauren’s help to get them hooked up to their assigned mooring ball in the harbor, and she sighed as she slid out of her chair. “Lauren!”
Lauren looked up to where Grey was standing on the bridge, and shielded her eyes from the sun with left hand even as she fisted her right around one of the straps that ran along the back of the lifejacket Reid was wearing so that she had a good hold on him. “Yeah?”
“Harbormaster just gave me our mooring assignment. I’m going to need your help.”
“Got it,” Lauren hollered back as she turned to Reid, who was still casting and reeling-in his line with a wide smile on his face. “Hey, buddy. I gotta go help Grey, so we’re going to have to stop fishing for a little bit. Do you want to go up to the bridge with Grey, or do you want to go inside and try to find your mom?”
Reid frowned thoughtfully as he spun the handle on his reel, his eyes glued to the water as he looked for his bright yellow casting weight. “Can I go up with Grey?” he finally asked once the weight was snug against the tip top of the pole.
“Of course you can.” Lauren smiled and took the pole out of his hand. She looked up at Grey, who was still watching them from the bridge, and pointed first at Reid and then at her, the unspoken message clearly received when Grey nodded and waved him up. “I’ll put this away someplace safe,” she told Reid, “and you head on up to Grey.”
Lauren followed Reid up onto the deck and waited until he was working his way up the stairs before she started toward the forward storage compartments for the boat pole she would need to capture the buoy attached to the mooring ball. She set the pole down on the trampoline and hurried to ready the port and starboard bow lines that she would use to tie off with. She worked quickly and efficiently, her every movement so fluid and natural that, to anyone who did not know better, she looked like she had done this particular task every day for years. She glanced up at the bridge when she finished readying the lines, and her stomach fluttered at the appreciative tilt of Grey’s lips. It was patently unfair that she should be so affected by just a look, and she sighed as she turned away.
Head in the game, Murph, she lectured herself as she crouched on the end walkway that cut between the trampolines at the bow of the boat. She sat back on her heels and let her gaze slide over the bustling harbor as Grey motored toward their assigned buoy.A resort ran along the eastern half of the beach, the red tile roofs of its buildings standing out against the lush green foliage of the island, and she counted twenty pyramid-shaped roofs poking through the treetops higher up in the hills. There was a short dock that jutted out from the western edge of the resort that had space for a handful of boats, but mooring balls seemed to be the preferred anchoring choice.
The feeling of the boat’s engines reversing, slowing theVeritasto a crawl before Grey eased the throttle forward again, drew Lauren’s attention back to her task, and she licked her lips as she surveyed the water in front of her. She picked up the boat pole as she edged closer to the edge of the trampoline, searching for the pick-up buoy. She spotted it a few feet away, and waved her left hand over her shoulder in a small ‘go-go’ motion as she adjusted her grip on the boat pole. When the buoy was just below the bow, she held up a fist to tell Grey to stop as she snagged the buoy and hauled it onto the trampoline. She quickly slipped the port-side bow line through the pivot and tied it off to its cleat before doing the same with the starboard line, and she turned around to give Grey a thumbs up when she was done.
The sight of Reid jumping up and down and cheering her efforts made her laugh, but her laughter died in her throat when her eyes landed on Grey. Butterflies once again took flight in her stomach at the small smile Grey was giving her, and she sucked in a deep breath as she held her gaze.
Grey was vaguely aware of the bouncing bundle of energy beside her as she stared at Lauren, but the majority of her focus was directed toward the woman below. The air between them sparked with electricity, warm and alluring, and Grey knew that she was being sucked into a rip current of emotions that were bound to overwhelm her in the end. And, as she watched the wind tug at the loose curls that had fallen from Lauren’s ponytail, she was surprised to realize that she was perfectly okay with that.
“Nicely done, Ms. Murphy,” Grey called out, her smile widening at the way Lauren ducked her head in either thanks or embarrassment at the praise.
“Yay!” Reid yelled, his little arms thrown victoriously in the air. He grinned as he looked up at Grey and added, “Can I go fish more now?”
Grey ruffled his hair and nodded. “‘Course you can, buddy.”
Reid bounded down the stairs to the back deck, and Grey hurried after him, a soft smile tugging at her lips when her eyes again locked onto Lauren’s as she wound her way down the stairs. They were drawn to one another like magnets, and Grey felt a thrill shoot through her at the feeling of Lauren’s hand reaching back to tickle her thigh as she joined her on the deck.
Though her eyes were trained on Reid, who was already down on the dive platform with the fishing pole she had stashed near the stairs earlier, Lauren was still achingly aware of Grey’s presence as the brunette sidled in behind her. She had caught Grey watching her several times while they sailed up the coast of Virgin Gorda, and while she had enjoyed spending time with Reid, she had wished that she could be up at the helm with Grey instead. But, now that they were finally close enough to touch, she was glad that circumstances had kept them apart. The urge to touch Grey was so strong that it took all of her willpower to try resist it, and she knew that, if she were given the opportunity to actually put her hands on Grey’s body that she would not want to stop.
Grey was fighting a similar impulse, but she rolled her eyes as she gave in to it, reaching out to wrap a light hand around Lauren’s hip. Reid was distracted with his casting and, even if somebody were to come out onto deck from the salon, her body was shielding the touch. She gave Lauren’s side a quick squeeze and smiled at the way Lauren leaned back into her. “Hi.”
“Hello.” Lauren glanced over her left shoulder at Grey, and smiled at the way Grey’s thumb dipped beneath the hem of her t-shirt to rub soft strokes against her side. “Can I help you with something?”
