AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 12
It wasn’t the rocking of the boat that had given me pause, but the odor and the fluids. It wasn’t like a crime scene, per se, but there was dampness and indicators of flesh and blood, which was unexpected since they trapped live lobster. “Why is there, um, blood?” I asked Cain as I stepped gingerly, already planning to toss my sneakers in the washer that night. Or the garbage.
“It’s from the bait. We skewer it.”
Cain was smiling at me, like he was proud of what he did. I imagined he should be. It seemed a career that worked well with his schedule and personality, and he had said the pay was decent. Being served a lobster dinner made people happy, no doubt about that. I liked lobster myself. But this was why I had probably deluded myself that lobster were trapped in a much more clinical way. Like Cain had teased me. A giant vacuum. Easier not to consider the rather briny reality of it.
I wasn’t sure why he wanted me here, exactly, but damn it, I was a girl, with all the feelings that girls had. I liked that he wanted to introduce me to people he worked with. It felt very boyfriend and girlfriend and I was honestly a little giddy about that. We had a thing. It wasn’t exactly a hookup anymore. It was a thing.
“Why do you skewer it?”
He looked at me like that was a dumb question. “Because.”
“Because why?”
The corner of his mouth turned up. “Because because.”
Now I was smiling along with him. I couldn’t help it. We were getting silly with each other. Because something was happening and we both knew it. “Because because why?”
“Because I said so.” And he reached out and picked me up around the waist and hauled me to him. “Come here.”
I involuntarily let out a yelp. I didn’t mean to but I hadn’t anticipated his move. I sucked in a breath and it had nothing to do with his work clothes and anything that might transfer from them to my own shirt and jeans. It was because when my body collided with his I got turned on. Always. “Why?” I asked, just to be a smart-ass.
Cain laughed. “You can ask me as many questions as you want, you know. I might not have the answers, but you can always ask me.”
I had been laughing, but now I sobered as I stared into Cain’s pale blue eyes. Why did that seem so monumental, so vital? Maybe because everyone else who had professed to care about me at some point or another was always irritated by me. Stop asking questions, Sophie. Zip it, Sophie. I don’t know the goddamn answer, Sophie Jane, Jesus.
“You’ll be sorry you said that,” I told him.
But he shook his head slowly. “I’m never sorry for anything I do.”
The bizarre thing was I believed him. He didn’t seem to have guilt over his drinking. Or anything else for that matter. There was probably someone who would say he took advantage of me. But they would be wrong.
“So you won’t be sorry when you do me later?” I murmured in a low voice, channeling my best Bella flirting advice.
Cain released my waist. “Not in the fucking slightest. Just the opposite. Now, stop talking dirty to me in front of my boss or I’m going to embarrass myself by getting a hard-on.”
“Stop, you are not.” But then I glanced down at his crotch without thinking and he sucked in a breath. There was something going on down there. Yikes. Or more like, yes. I did that.
But maybe it was time to change the subject. I had a lot of questions about lobstering and I figured that was a safe topic. “So how many traps are on the boat?” It looked like a lot. I was staring at them, calculating rows and height.
“Eight hundred is the max per boat. I’m not sure how many John has. Six hundred?” He called over to John. “How many trap tags you got?”
“Six hundred and thirty-eight,” I said. “Unless something is obscuring my view of various rows.”
“I think around six hundred and forty,” John said. “I don’t have the room for all eight hundred. Boat’s too small.”
I shot Cain a smug look.
“What?” he said, shrugging. “You were two short.”
I punched his arm.
His eyebrows shot up. “Oh, you’re going to pay for that later.”
I laughed again, because it was easy to laugh with him.
But he leaned over and kissed me, cutting off my laugh. Then he pulled back and studied me intently. “You’re brilliant, I admit it. And I find that fucking sexy.”
