AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Whenoneofthestews approached me this morning and asked if I’d like to take my “girlfriend’ on an excursion, I was taken aback.
Apparently, she could sense my shock. “I beg your pardon if I’m intruding. You two just seemed to be so in love last night, and I couldn’t help but think you might want some time apart from the rest of the group,” she explained.
I was damn near speechless. “In love”? Maybe she was too pure at heart to notice the difference between the afterglow of sex versus the big L word, but…
Love?
Despite my logical side wanting to dismiss her offer, I couldn’t help but be curious. “What’d you have in mind?”
This is how Stella and I ended up alone on this tender driven by one of the crew members, a tall American guy from Idaho named Trent, a picnic basket firmly between us on the seat.
“Where did you say we were going?” Stella asks as the tender starts to slow down as we approach a rocky outcrop.
“She said there was some grotto… I don’t know, I kinda just left all the planning to her,” I reply nervously.
We share a glance that I quickly look away from. It’s been damn near impossible for me to stop staring. Stella’s beauty is suddenly as prominent as the Mediterranean sun to me. I don’t know how I didn’t see it before. From her mop of brown curls piled on her head to her flushed freckled cheeks to her elegant collar bone to… well, everything else. If eyes could eat, mine would be overstuffed.
“Didn’t know you could be so shy, Flynn,” she remarks in a low voice.
I feel a zip of electricity up my back. “I’m not shy!”
“Really? Is that why you keep looking away from me? As if we didn’t…” Stella cocks her eyebrow upward. “Three times yesterday?”
Yes, it wasn’t just once before dinner. It was twice before dinner. And once after.
This doesn’t even include our encounter we had first thing this morning between the sheets, our eyes barely open.
Beyond her quirky exterior, Stella is a goddess in the bedroom. A sheer marvel. And I have a whole ‘nother week to enjoy her before…
Well, let’s not think about going home. Let’s just enjoy the present.
“I can’t help it. You make me nervous,” I mutter softly.
“Me? Your sworn enemy?”
I laugh. “Not my sworn enemy.”
“Sure, whatever you say, Flynn.” Stella reaches over the basket and kisses me lightly on the lips.
Doesn’t matter if her touch is passionate or gentle. It sends sparks through every inch of my body whenever she touches me. I sigh, “God, what am I going to do with you?”
“I have many ideas,” she smirks.
“Alright! We’re coming up on the grotto right up ahead!” the first mate announces, pointing up ahead at a bend in the blue water.
I’d been so caught up in Stella I didn’t even notice how the boat had slipped in between two cliff sides, leading us further and further into a maze of rocks.
Shortly after, just as promised, a grotto, the water so clear you can see the bottom. The sun is just enough out of the way that the light is indirect, cooling down the hot Med air immensely.
“Wow…” Stella says, looking over the edge of the boat.
The grotto is edged in on three sides, with a large floating dock anchored in the center, and a very small rocky plateau against the north wall.
The tender edges up to the dock. Trent leaps out and helps us onto the dock along with the picnic basket. “I’ll be back in two hours. If you need anything, I’ll leave a com with you.”
“Thanks, Trent,” I say with a curt nod.
The cheerful younger man leaps back into the tender and drives off. His departure feels as slow as molasses. I want Stella all to myself. The sooner, the better.
