“Roll over.” His voice was rougher than normal. “I’m nothing if not thorough.”
I did as he said and pressed my forehead into the fiberglass deck. “I…”
“Hush.” He straddled my hips and put his weight into rubbing my back. The pressure, his hands, his strong thighs surroundingmy hips, it was all so erotic to my deprived body. “There’s no one out here to judge you or get you in trouble, Callie.”
I almost whimpered when his weight disappeared but then I felt his hands on my calves. His hands slowly moved up the back of my legs, massaging me into a boneless mess as he went. I couldn’t even make sense of what he’d said about trouble. I just knew his hands were getting higher and higher.
“You were especially ticklish right here.” Ben trailed his finger along the bottom curve of my right cheek and a second later I felt his lips there. “All done, Cupcake. You’re good for another two hours.”
I turned my forehead to look at him. I couldn’t understand why he’d stopped touching me. “Ben?”
He adjusted himself in his shorts and winked at me. “Enjoy yourself. I’m going to go help the kids.”
I watched him leave and then let my head thump down. With each step he took away I understood more and more why it was good that he’d stopped but it didn’t take the ache away. My body was crying out for a release.
“Think with your brain, Callie. For the love of god, keep your bottoms on.” I rolled over and stared up at the sun for a few beats in an effort to fry the dangerous wants out of my head. I couldn’t touch Ben. I couldn’t touch any of them and I needed to remember that. “Dammit.”
It took forever for the ache between my thighs to ease up. I finally cooked long enough in the sun to fall asleep again and the next time I woke up the sun was setting and we were docked back at the marina beside Ben’s. Someone had covered me with a beach towel at some point so my skin was pleasantly warm instead of painful.
The silence was worrying so I sat up and looked around. I felt like a newborn deer as I stood up and went looking for everyone. “Ollie?”
“Back here, Cupcake.” Luke stood up from where everyone was sitting, sharing dinner. “We were just about to wake you up. Come, have some dinner.”
“It’s so good, Miss Cupcake!” Noah flashed me a bright smile and then stuck his tongue out at his dad.
“Hey. It’s Miss Morgan.” Cole shook his head and then stuckhistongue out at Noah. “Punk.”
I felt like I was in an altered reality as I sat down and found a thick sandwich in front of me. My stomach growled so I grabbed the sandwich and took a bite. I was halfway through the sandwich before I felt more alive and like myself. I chugged down a bottle of water and then looked around at everyone, just to find them all watching me.
“Miss Morgan ate that sandwich like that food eating guy we saw at the fair!” Noah reached past Oliver to high-five me. “That guy would lose to you! That’s so cool!”
Ben pretended to choke when he let out a bark of laughter but it was too late. He wiped his mouth and grinned. “Sorry. He’s talking about the winner of a food eating competition we watched… Johnny James, the Demolisher. He finished an ungodly amount of hot dogs in under a minute.”
I gaped at Noah. “And you think I’d beat him?!”
He giggled and nodded. “You’d crush him, Miss Morgan!”
Cole ruffled his son’s hair and grunted. “I have a lot to teach you about women, kid.”
“You slept forsolong, Miss Morgan. We thought you were dead earlier.” Emma grinned brightly at me and then pointed at her dad. “Daddy almost slipped off the boat cause he was trying to check you out so fast.”
Luke groaned. “I was trying to checkonher.”
Oliver wiped his mouth and then took his time refolding his paper towel while speaking matter-of-factly. “If I understand the meaning of that phrase, I believe you were doing both.”
The guys all erupted in laughter, which thankfully made Oliver smile and duck his head. He was already so much more comfortable around the little group we’d formed on the boat. It warmed my heart in a way I’d never felt before. That should’ve scared the hell out of me and maybe it would when I wasn’t so wiped from the sun but right then, I just felt so grateful to see Oliver participating and enjoying himself.
“I guess I was more tired than I realized.” I cleared my throat and reached up to rub my eyes. “You cute little munchkins are my favorites and I wouldn’t change a thing about my job but y’all can be exhausting in a group setting.”
Noah pushed a bag of chips towards me. “We’re your favorites? That’s awesome!”
I shoved another bite of sandwich in my mouth and smiled around my chipmunk cheeks. I couldn’t think about the potential consequences of admitting to the four of them that they were my favorites so I just chewed and pretended it didn’t happen.
21
Callie
“They’re dead to the world.” Ben grinned after buckling Beth in and closing his truck door. “That’s one of the nicest benefits of boat days. After a day on the water the kids are always out for the night.”
