“One of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen,” Griffin said in agreement. He pointed to the eight-story building just beyond the levee in the city’s Bywater neighborhood. “That was the first building I worked on after moving to New Orleans,” he said. “I thought about buying one of the condos, but I’m happy I passed. I rather like my house.”
“I love your house,” Indina said.
Griffin’s brows rose. “I’m surprised you’ve noticed it. You’re never there long enough to really take it all in.”
She stared at him. “I know,” she said softly.
“Yeah, I know too,” he said.
The awkwardness took center stage once again. They’d never established an official set of rules when it came to this coworkers with benefits relationship, but there were unwritten ones that had developed over the past eight months. Like no kissing. And no acknowledgment of anything other than a working relationship once they were beyond the walls of his bedroom.
That’s why it had shocked the hell out of Griffin when she’d asked him to join her on this cruise. It had given him a small shred of hope that he could maybe convince her to move beyond their weekly hookups and try to start up something more serious.
“So, what else should we do?” Indina asked. “We’ve already agreed that we can’t have sex the entire weekend.”
“Did we come to an agreement on that?”
“Yes.” Her throaty laugh pulled at his groin. “My body needs recovery time.” She stretched her legs out in front of her. “The only other thing we do together is work, and we are not doing that while we’re on this ship.” Her eyes narrowed. “You didn’t bring your laptop, did you?”
Griffin shook his head. “It’s been about three years since I had a bona fide vacation. I want to enjoy myself this weekend.”
“Good. We deserve it after all the work we put into that last project.”
Indina stood and stretched her arms over her head, then she folded them on the veranda’s railing and stared out at the levee.
“I probably should have Googled ‘What to do on a cruise’ before I agreed to take one,” she said.
“The only thing I know about cruises is what I’ve seen on the occasional episode of The Love Boat on Nick at Nite.”
She looked back over her shoulder. “You watch Nickelodeon?”
“Sometimes,” he admitted with a grin.
She turned, resting her elbows on the railing. Her robe gaped just a little, revealing the shadow between her thighs. Suddenly, the thought of going for another round in bed was the only thing he could think about. The appendage between his legs was more than ready for it.
“What did they do on The Love Boat? Other than love stuff?” Indina asked.
“Shuffleboard.”
That smile broke out across her face again. “Okay, then. I say we go play ourselves some shuffleboard.”
Indina slumped against the cue stick as she waited for Griffin to take his turn. Thankfully she still had cell service because she’d had to search the Web for the rules of shuffleboard when they arrived on the fourth deck and discovered that neither of them knew how to play. She was still confused as to exactly how—or more accurately why—someone would want to play this game, but she’d dragged Griffin out here so she felt obligated to play. If he wanted to live out his Love Boat dreams then she would continue with this stupid game.
Griffin shoved the disk into the number eight triangle. “Your turn,” he said.
Indina stifled her sigh behind a tight smile and returned to the base of the shuffleboard court. She sent the cue stick forward, but stopped moments before hitting the disk. She looked over at Griffin and said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t take much more of this. It’s boring as hell.”
He dropped his head back and let out an exasperated breath. “Thank God you finally said something. I was just thinking that I’d rather throw myself overboard than spend another five minutes doing this.”
Indina burst out laughing. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I thought you wanted to play.” Taking the cue stick from her hand, he set them both back into the racks hanging on the wall.
“What do you say we both make sure the other actually wants to do something before making assumptions?” Indina asked. “We’re only on this ship for three days. That’s a half hour of our time we will never get back.”
“Agreed,” Griffin said with a nod. “What about a tour of the ship? Does the thought of that make you want to bang your head against the wall?”
She tilted her head to the side. “I’d like that. As big as this ship is, there has to be something more entertaining than shuffleboard to keep us occupied.”
Griffin leaned forward and whispered into her ear in a silky, seductive voice. “When it comes to keeping occupied, I prefer my original suggestion.”
Desire flooded Indina’s bloodstream. She was starting to rethink his suggestion, as well. Would it really be a bad thing to spend the next three days naked in bed with this man? If it weren’t for the fact that her entire nosy ass family was on this ship, Indina would consider doing exactly that.
“I promise we’ll have plenty of time to make good on your suggestion,” she said.
She was struck by the intensity in his gaze as he dipped his head and looked her directly in the eyes. “I’m holding you to that,” Griffin said.
The sliding door nearest to them opened and her cousins, Elijah and Tobias, along with their wives, Monica and Sienna, walked out. Indina had already figured she would run into a Holmes or two around every corner this weekend. The ship was massive, but so was the Holmes clan.
“Well, hello there,” Monica said, her eyes crinkling at the corners. The emergency room doctor had won over their entire family when she moved to
