“That’s either sweet or super creepy.” She let him tug her to her feet and slid under his arm as if she had every right to be there. He wasn’t sure she was wrong, at least in this moment. It felt nice to have her tucked against him, even if the only reason she was there was because she was too fucking drunk to walk on her own.
Alex led her away from the table and looked around. “Which way?”
She rattled off her room number, completely oblivious that it was rule number one in personal safety—don’t just give that fucking information out. God, she was like a baby foal right now, all fumbling movements and blind trust. It made him want to wrap her up and tuck her away until the bristling woman with the prickly walls came back. She wouldn’t blithely give out personal information to a near-stranger.
By the time they got to Kendall’s room, he was half carrying her. He helped her unlock the door, but when he went to release her, she nearly fell on her face. Okay, this wasn’t going to work. He cast a look around, but the only person in the hall was some dude six doors doing who gave him a thumbs up like carting some semi-unconscious woman into a room was a good thing. Alex glared until the guy turned on his heel and fled. He waited another minute, but no one else showed up, let alone one of the people who’d been at her table having drinks the night before.
There was no help for it. He sighed. “Guess I’m on babysitting duty for a little while longer.”
Chapter 5
Kendall was pretty sure something had died in her mouth while she slept. Her tongue felt fuzzy, too. Maybe she had contracted one of those horrible diseases that they tried so hard to keep from spreading through a cruise ship? The thought had her opening her eyes and shooting up to a sitting position.
Or attempting to.
Her head pounded and why was the light so freaking bright? She threw her hands over her eyes. “Oh god, why?”
“Best guess? Vodka.”
The male voice next to her had her reacting before her brain caught up with the fact she recognized it. Kendall flew backward and would have tumbled off the edge of the mattress if a hand didn’t close on her wrist and haul her back to relative safety.
Though she hardly called being on her bed with I’ll-give-you-an-orgasm-with-all-your-clothes-on Alex… She didn’t even know his last name. God, she really had embraced this party cruise thing a little too hard and they were only twenty-four hours in.
She looked down at herself. Her bikini was still covering the essentials. A close look at him found him in a pair of shorts and a truly absurd Hawaiian print button-down. “What’s going on with your shirt?”
He looked at it and grimaced. “Pops’s style has changed more than a bit since he retired.”
Some of the fog on her brain shifted, and she remembered him mentioning his grandfather. “I thought he retired to Mexico, not Hawaii.”
“Don’t try to think of it from a logical point of view. I gave up years ago.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “Let’s try another one. Why are you in my cabin?” They hadn’t had sex. She knew they hadn’t had sex. Kendall flinched as another memory emerged; her telling him that he could seduce her. “Actually, hold that thought.” She all but sprinted into the little bathroom and shut the door.
One look in the mirror painted her as the mess she’d suspected she was. Her hair was tangled, her lips were chapped, and she had the worst breath in living memory. Kendall wasted no time brushing her teeth while she quickly cataloged her condition. No sunburn, thank goodness for the 100 SPF she’d coated herself with before laying out. Her headache had already faded a little, but the two Tylenol she popped the second she finished brushing her teeth would fix the rest of it.
The temptation to hide in the bathroom until Alex took a hint and left was strong—really strong—but she couldn’t repay his unexpected kindness by being a coward. No matter how much she wanted to. Kendall took a deep breath, allowed herself a full five seconds to regret the fact that she’d chosen a bikini instead of something that covered a bit more skin, and opened the door.
To find Alex standing a few inches away.
She bit down a shriek. “What are you doing?”
“You might not remember this, but you weren’t walking too well a few hours ago. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to bust down the door and save you. Again.” He searched her face, his blue eyes intense.
She must have had some residual alcohol swimming around in her system. It was the only excuse for her saying, “You are too gorgeous to be real.”