There would be Holmeses galore. That poor cruise ship had no idea what it was in store for.
“Indina!” Harrison’s voice startled her. “Are you coming on the cruise or not? Wait, let me rephrase that. Are you going to break your father’s heart or not?”
“Stop it with the guilt trip.”
“I’m just saying.”
“I’ve never been on a cruise before,” she pointed out. “What if I get seasick?”
“You can wear one of those patches behind your ear. And if that doesn’t work there’s medicine you can take,” Harrison said. “I’ll tell Eli to bring you some.”
Great. That’s what she got for having a cousin who was a doctor, and who also happened to be married to a doctor.
“You got any more excuses you need me to shoot down before I head to my office?” her brother asked.
“I really do hate you right now,” Indina said. She rubbed her temple as she came to terms with the fact that there was no way out of this. “Fine, I’ll come on the damn cruise.”
“I’d already marked you down as a yes,” Harrison replied. “I just called to make sure you knew that you were going.”
“Asshole,” she said.
“I love you too. By the way, I put you in the cabin with Lily and Jasmine.”
“Lily and Jasmine?” Indina sat up straight. “You do realize I’m forty-two years old, don’t you? Why would I want to room with a couple of teenagers?”
No, make that a teenager and a pre-teen. Her cousin Alex’s daughter, Jasmine, was only twelve.
“Because everyone else is paired up and the cabin rates are based on double occupancy,” he explained. “If I didn’t put you in the girls’ room you’d have to pay an upcharge because you’re a single.”
A single. As if it was some kind of diseased designation she wore on her chest.
“And just why would you think I would be alone?” Indina asked.
“Why wouldn’t I?” The incredulousness in his voice made her want to slap him through the phone. “When was the last time you brought anyone around?”
Indina ignored that question. It had been nearly two years since she’d been in a bring-him-over-to-meet-the-family kind of relationship. That didn’t mean her brother had to throw it in her face. Just for that, she would pluck his insensitive ass right between the eyebrows next time she saw him.
“I won’t have the cabin for myself,” Indina said. “I’m bringing someone.”
“Who?” Harrison asked.
“None of your business.”
“I need the name for the travel agent.”
“I’ll text you the name later. Now leave me alone. I need to get going.”
The shower stopped the minute she disconnected the call. Moments later, the bathroom door opened and Griffin Sims walked out, wiping his face with a plush cranberry-colored towel. There was another towel wrapped around his waist, hanging low on his hips. His chiseled dark brown chest glistened with specks of moisture. Indina tracked a water droplet that traveled down his torso to the smattering of curly hair that trailed from his belly button to below the towel.
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and damn near whimpered.
Griffin stopped short when he spotted her.
“You’re still here?”
“I’m sorry,” Indina said, rising from where she’d sat on the edge of his bed. “I got a phone call that I had to take just as I started getting dressed.”
“No need to apologize. It’s just that you’re usually gone by the time I get out of the shower.”
Her eyes roamed over his muscular back and shoulders as he walked over to the dresser. She didn’t know where he found the time to go to the gym, but she appreciated the way he took care of his body.
“Are you still nervous about today?” Griffin asked.
He turned to her, holding the pair of heather gray boxer briefs he’d retrieved from the dresser. He dropped the towel and Indina couldn’t hold back the whimper this time.
She had explored the heavy weight between his legs with her tongue just an hour ago, yet her mouth still watered at the sight of it. She just stood there and marveled at his beauty as he pulled the briefs up his well-toned legs.
“Indina,” Griffin called.
She blinked several times. “Wait. What?”
A knowing grin curled up the side of his mouth. “I asked if you were still nervous about today?”
“A little, but at least I’m no longer tense.”
“Happy I could help with that,” he said. His deep chuckle reverberated along her nerve endings, straight down to that spot between her legs he’d pleasured this morning.
Over the last eight months, she’d relied on Griffin for that particular kind of pleasurable help on a regular basis. They’d met a little over a year ago, when Indina decided to move away from residential interior design and concentrate on the more lucrative industrial sector. She began freelancing with the structural engineering firm where Griffin worked after one of the owners sought her out.
Griffin was the lead engineer on the very first project she worked on with Sykes-Wilcox. The physical attraction had been there from the moment she walked into a conference room and saw him braced over a set of blueprints, his shirtsleeves rolled up on his strong arms. Indina decided not to act on that attraction until several months later, after she learned through the office grapevine that Griffin was divorced and not necessarily looking for a relationship.
She knew all about that. Not the being divorced part, but being burnt out on relationships?
Hell yes, she knew about that.
But there were only so many Top Ten Self-Pleasuring Tips articles a girl could be expected to read. And she’d read them. All of them. She needed the real deal. The way Indina saw it she and Griffin were in the perfect position to provide each other with some much needed sexual relief.
She could still remember how her fingers had trembled as she’d typed the text, asking Griffin if
