Alex cursed the bolt of lust that shot straight through him. This woman needed help, not him drooling over her like a horny college kid. He wiggled his fingers. “Come on, Kendall. Or I’m going to have to track down one of your friends. Don’t think it’ll be easy since I don’t know their names or anything about them. It’ll probably require a ship-wide announcement for the friends of Kendall—What’s your last name, sweetheart?”
“Barnes.” She slapped her hands over her mouth. “Wait, no. I didn’t mean to say that.”
He injected a little authority into his tone. “Would the travel companions of Kendall Barnes please come to collect her?”
Her jaw dropped. “You wouldn’t dare.”
That told him everything he needed to know. Kendall would do anything to avoid causing a scene. He might be a bastard to use that against her, but it was for her own good right now. “I one hundred percent would dare.”
“Oh, you…” She fumbled around, shoving her things into the tote bag that looked big enough to cart several medium sized animals around in. “You jerk.”
She really was too precious. Alex took her bag and helped her to her feet. He watched her closely, which paid off when she took one step and tilted wildly. “Hold up.” He caught her around the waist and barely kept them from toppling over two lounge chairs as they made their way off the deck.
“You could, you know.”
He glanced down at her. “Could what?”
“Seduce me.” Kendall blinked at him, but he couldn’t tell if she was trying to be seductive or attempting not to pass out.
He swallowed past his suddenly dry throat. “I’ll keep that in mind.” Not right now, while she was drunk as a skunk, but maybe she didn’t see him as quite the mistake she’d acted like last night.
“It was supposed to be a nice cruise.” She leaned heavily on him, her head lolling against his shoulder. “Nice. Relaxing. Really nice.”
“A nice cruise. Got it.” He had to adjust his grip around her waist, and it was impossible not to notice how good she felt against him. His hand slid against her skin and he had to scramble to keep her on her feet. “Sweetheart, we’re taking a right turn.”
She immediately veered left, and he had to tug her in the opposite direction. “The other right.”
“Right, right, left, right, left.” She giggled. “Left my wife with twenty-one kids and thought it was right, right, left, right, left.”
This woman was just full of surprises. “Is that a marching cadence?”
“Yep. Grams had a gentleman friend who was a veteran when I was ten and he taught it to us.” She giggled. “Grams was far more amused than she should have been, but then Grams was really fond of dirty limericks, so I suppose she wasn’t one to throw stones at what was child appropriate.”
He picked apart that sentence as he guided them through the doors and toward the elevators. “Your Grams sounds like quite the character.”
“She was.” She released a long breath. “I miss her.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” She frowned. “Is that pizza?” Suddenly, Kendall wasn’t leaning on him quite so hard. “I could really go for about six slices right now.”
Alex fought down a laugh. “Let’s start with one and see how it goes.” He guided her to a table and eased her into a chair. “Sit here. I’ll get you pizza and some water.” He eyed her. The icy blast of air conditioning already had goosebumps rising in a wave across her skin. “You have one of those swimsuit things?”
“A swimsuit thing?” She blinked big green eyes at him. “I’m wearing one right now.” Kendall looked around. “Oh god, is there a dress code? I’ll take it off.” She fumbled for the straps.
“No!” He caught her hands. Holy shit, his heart was beating entirely too hard for this shit. Alex was no stranger to dealing with drunk people, but he usually didn’t worry overmuch if they made asses of themselves. His job wasn’t to preserve their dignity; it was to ensure they weren’t harmed while they were in the bar, and to get them home safely if at all possible. That was it.
But he knew without a shadow of doubt that Kendall would die of mortification if she did something like take off her top while drunk. In the few encounters they’d had to date, she came across as wound so tightly, she was one wrong move away from bursting her seams. He shouldn’t care. Hell, Alex’s entire morning had been wrapped up in worrying about the bar. He had a lot on his plate, and didn’t need to add this woman, too.
And yet…
“Cover-up.” That’s what it was called. “Where’s your cover-up?”
“Oh!” She brightened, giving him a sunny smile. “Right!” Kendall wiggled her hands out of his and pulled a floral piece of cloth from her giant bag. She stood, weaving a little, and wrapped it around her body. Between one blink and the next, it became a dress. Somehow. With another bright smile, she pointed at the counter. “Food!”