“I’m thirty-three years old. I don’t need you to tell me how to approach a woman,” Damian gritted out. Kyle and Troy laughed. “What?”
“Man, you’ve been out of the game so long you wouldn’t know what to say, even if she held up a sign saying ‘Unattached and Available.’” Kyle paused thoughtfully. “Actually, you never really dated at all, since you and Joyce sort of hooked up in college.”
He skewered Kyle with a look.
“You know I’m right. Yeah, you dated a few women back then—and I use the term dated loosely—but you and Joyce always circled back to each other.”
Rather than responding and risk knocking Kyle out, he took another swig of his beer.
“Lay off Damian, Kyle. Give the brother a chance. We’ve only been on the boat for forty-five minutes, and we haven’t even left the dock yet.”
“Yeah. Lay off. I’m perfectly capable of deciding whether I want a woman or not.” Though he mostly subscribed to the “or not” category. He had gone out a few times since his wife’s death, but never progressed past a couple of dates and a few chaste kisses.
Kyle gave him a sidelong glance. “You sure? Because I can’t have you embarrassing me and ruining my reputation with some lame pickup lines.”
Damian shook his head and laughed, giving in to Kyle’s wack sense of humor. “Man, I don’t know how we’ve been friends all these years.”
“Hell, you need somebody to keep you straight. Leaving you to your own devices, we might find you living as a monk with no sense of humor.” They all laughed.
“Whatever.”
Out of his periphery, he noticed a woman staring his way. She was standing in a group with two older couples, a younger couple and two other men. Their eyes locked, and he felt a kick in the gut. An embarrassed expression crossed her face, and she turned away. He willed her to look his way again, wanting to know if he’d imagined the spark of awareness. When she finally glanced back, he felt it again. A slow grin made its way over his face, and he saluted her with his bottle.
“Earth to Damian.” Troy waved his hand in front of Damian’s face.
Damian jerked back. “What?”
“Are you listening? What are you looking at?”
“Nothing,” he murmured. He idly sipped his drink while scanning the woman from head to toe. She had flawless mocha skin and a strikingly beautiful face. The strapless gray dress she wore clung subtly to her lush curves and gave way to long, toned legs and stirred a desire he had never experienced, or at least hadn’t experienced in a long time. He frowned, not liking the direction of his thoughts.
“Whoa. Hold up. I know you’re not staring at the woman in the gray dress,” Kyle said. “Didn’t you hear anything I just said?” He shook his head. “Nah, bro, don’t even go there. Nothing about her says ‘I just want a good time.’ She has permanent and keeper stamped all over her. She’s standing with old people, for goodness’ sake!”
Damian ignored Kyle and continued to observe the woman as she hugged the older couples and then weaved her way through the crowd. A few men tried to stop her, but she shook her head and kept walking. One man couldn’t seem to take no for an answer and reached out to grab her. He handed his bottle to Troy.
“I’ll be right back.” He moved with determined strides toward the woman.
As Damian approached, he heard the man say, “Hey, beautiful. How about you keep me company this week? I promise to show you a good time.”
Clearly he’d had too much to drink if his slurred voice was any indication.
“No, thanks.” She gasped sharply when the man grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to him.
“Aw, come on.”
A scowl settled on her beautiful face. “You have about one second to remove your arm or—”
“You heard the lady,” Damian interrupted. “I’m sure you don’t want your cruise to end before the boat leaves the dock.” The man spun around and opened his mouth to speak, but obviously thought better of it. Damian towered over the man by a good six inches and outweighed him by forty pounds of pure muscle.
The man dropped his arm, muttered something about stuck-up women and took off down the corridor.
Damian glanced at the woman who barely reached his shoulder in her heels. “Are you okay?”
“I... Yes. Thank you. Although I could have handled it.”
He chuckled in faint amusement. “I have no doubt about that. Would you like an escort to your room, or will you be all right?”
“I’ll be fine. Thanks again.”
“My pleasure. Perhaps I’ll see you again.”
“Perhaps.”
Damian followed the sway of her hips until she was out of sight, then made his way back over to where his friends waited.
“Please don’t tell me you made a move on that woman,” Kyle lit into Damian as soon as he returned.
“Give it a rest, Kyle. I saw a guy harassing her and just made sure she was okay. I didn’t even get her name.”
“What do you mean you didn’t get her name? Man, you’re more out of practice than I thought,” Troy said with a laugh.
Damian rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Troy. Like I said before, I don’t know why I still keep you guys around. I have plenty of time to find out her name...if I want to.”
Troy’s eyebrows shot up. “Sounds like you’re interested.”
He glanced over his shoulder in the direction she had gone, then faced his friends. “Maybe.” Up close, she was even more beautiful, and damn if he wasn’t attracted to her. As Kyle noted, everything about her shouted relationship, not fling. But he wasn’t looking for either, or was he? At any rate, things were starting to look up. Coming on this cruise might not have been such a bad idea after all, especially if he got a chance to spend a little time with his mystery lady. Yep, things were definitely looking up.
* * *
Karen felt the heat of her rescuer’s gaze on her back, but she refused to turn around. The man was positively scrumptious with a rich, deep voice that poured over her like warm melted chocolate. From a distance she hadn’t been able to discern the color of his eyes, but with him standing so near, she could see the green flecks in his light brown eyes—eyes that reflected friendliness and something else she couldn’t identify. He didn’t seem like the usual guy on the prowl. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Why did she even care? She didn’t.
Or at least, that was what she told herself.
Karen entered her cabin, locked the door, dropped down in the closest chair and kicked off her shoes. If she didn’t care, why was her heart beating faster? And why did the prospect of seeing him again send a shiver of excitement down her spine? She pushed off the chair and went to change into more comfortable clothing to get ready for the muster drill.
She searched for him at the drill and during dinner, and experienced a twinge of disappointment at not seeing him. Devin and Donovan had invited her to hang out with them for the evening listening to a couple of performances. She particularly enjoyed the performance by Eric Darius. The young saxophonist had a way of infusing jazz and funk that had everyone in the room on their feet dancing, including her. By the time she made it to her room that evening, Karen was beyond exhausted. Rather than take Friday off, she had worked the full day and then taken an overnight flight