Tattooed Dots (The Halo Series Book 1) Read online

  When we arrived at the Aqua room, the hostess informed us that we were to sit at the same table for each meal. The girls hadn’t arrived yet, so we looked at the menus while we waited. I was about to ask Avery what he was planning on getting for breakfast when two women sat at the table.

  “We saw you both last night at the mixer, and we were going to approach you, but then two other chicks did, and then two more. And before we knew it, we’d lost our chance,” girl number one said. She had brown hair with a strip of purple, and was wearing way too much perfume. It made my sinuses hurt.

  “So we saw you sitting here and wanted to come over and ask if you two would like to join us for a swim after breakfast?” girl number two chimed in. She had blonde hair with a pink strip—like they planned their hair to be twins of some sort.

  “I’m sorry, but we’re waiting on two women who we have plans with,” I said.

  Girl number one reached over and slid her hand up my arm. “You know we have seven days right? I’m sure you can work us in—together.” She bit her lip and looked at her friend.

  If I hadn’t already met Brooke, I would have taken this chick up on her offer. But I didn’t want her. I wanted Brooke all to myself—not sharing her with Avery in a foursome.

  “Sorry ladies, but we aren’t interested,” I said bluntly.

  “You two don’t need to be such assholes. You’re on a singles cruise where all people do is hook-up. No one takes this thing seriously—especially guys!” girl number two snapped.

  “Well, I do and I’m already taken,” Avery snapped back.

  Girl number one turned and looked at me.

  “Yeah, I’m taken, too,” I said, holding up my hands.

  “Whatever,” girl number one huffed. They both stood up and walked away.

  “Dude, these girls are relentless,” Avery said to me.

  “I know, but we’re probably the only ones taking it seriously.” Bitches be crazy!

  “You are?”

  “I’m trying. I really like Brooke.”

  “See, I told you that there’s always a princess for every asshole.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” I said with a smile. He was on to something all right.

  The girls arrived not five minutes later, and I watched them walk to us. Nicole was smiling brightly at Avery, and Brooke smirked as my gaze moved from her eyes to her smooth legs that extended from her jean shorts.

  Brooke squeezed my shoulder, her warm hand brushing along my upper back in an affectionate gesture as she passed to sit next to me while Nicole and Avery kissed like they hadn’t seen each other in days. I was fucking jealous. I wanted to grab Brooke and taste her lips as our tongues rolled around together until we had to come up for air. I hadn’t wanted to kiss someone so much in all my life. I wasn’t used to this bullshit of not being able to kiss someone who I desperately yearned for.

  But there was something different about Brooke. While I wanted to fuck her—and let’s be honest, I did want to fuck her—I didn’t want to chance messing anything up with her. The feeling I got when I was around Brooke was all new to me. I felt as though I could talk to her about anything, and she would accept me for me and not just my good looks and physique.

  I knew that Avery and Nicole were going to see each other after the cruise, especially since Boston wasn’t far from New York, so I needed to play it cool—let Brooke know that I was a good guy, wait for her to dump that loser boyfriend when she returned home from the cruise, then swoop in and make her mine.

  Except patience wasn’t my strong suit, and I feared I would fuck everything up.

  The waiter came to take our order. After he’d left, I almost leaned over to Brooke to whisper in her ear that I loved having her touch me like she did whenever she sat down, but I didn’t. If I didn’t say anything, I hoped that she would continue doing it out of habit and I would continue to get the touch from her that I needed.

  I cleared my throat, giving Avery the evil eye as he looked up at me. “Do you two mind?”

  “Sorry,” Nicole said, blushing.

  Avery kicked me under the table, but I held firm on making them stop. If they didn’t, I was going to storm off before I could ruin my own plan.

  “Did you two have a nice night?” Nicole asked me. Not Brooke, but me.

  “I did. Did you?”

  “I did.” She smiled at Avery.

  “You two in love now or what?” I asked, eyeing Avery. Avery had always believed in love at first sight, and he was acting as though Nicole was the best thing since sliced bread. He couldn’t keep his hands off of her which was leading me to believe that she must be good in bed or something.

  Yeah, Nicole was hot, but she was blonde and I preferred brunettes. Avery was always the victim of the pussy. He let that control him. I didn’t have a problem having it control me since I loved pussy, but I hadn’t found one in a long time that I couldn’t let go of.

  “You might be better off moving your stuff to my room,” I said to Brooke when they didn’t answer me, but instead smiled at each other, then kissed.

  “Seriously.” She took a sip of her coffee, giving Nicole the evil eye over the rim. Even though we’d spent the night together talking and getting to know each other, the two lovebirds kissing were making everything uncomfortable. I hoped that Brooke was uncomfortable because she wanted to kiss me too.

  The next six days were going to be torture unless Brooke gave into temptation because I was planning on tempting her with my charm. She deserved better than that douche of a boyfriend who never gave her compliments, or helped her stand from sitting. She was breathtaking, charming, sweet, genuine and—perfect.

  “Okay, okay, we should stop,” Nicole said against Avery’s mouth.

  It was about fucking time.

  “Yeah, what’s the plan today? You two want to mini-golf, maybe go for a swim or catch a corny show?” Avery asked Nicole—still ignoring Brooke and me.

  “Whatever you want to do, babe,” Nicole replied, kissing him again.

  Fucking hell.

  “Seriously, if you two don’t knock this shit off, I’m tying you to the bed in our cabin and avoiding Prince Charming so he can’t rescue you,” Brooke said.

  That’s my girl!

  Avery and Nicole finally stopping sucking face and we ate breakfast discussing what we wanted to do on the ship since we were at sea until the morning. After breakfast, Avery and Nicole left to the girl’s room and left Brooke and me by ourselves.

  I didn’t complain.

  Brooke suggested we go to the excursion desk and when we got there we picked a trip to an excluded island that offered lunch, complimentary alcoholic beverages, snorkeling, swimming with a sea lion named Cassandra and monkey petting. As we booked the adventure, I silently prayed that Brooke was a bikini chick and not a one-piece chick.

  “Do you need to reserve anything for Mazatlán or Cabo?” the woman behind the desk asked.

  “Oh, I didn’t even think of the other stops,” Brooke said to me. “We need to do something in Mazatlán, too. For Cabo, I’m meeting up with my sister.”

  The night before, Brooke had mentioned that her sister, Bailee, was in Cabo for spring break. Usually, knowing that there were going to be a bunch of hot drunk chicks in bikinis running around, I’d be excited. It’d be like a car dealership for me, but I didn’t want to test drive any of those chicks. I wanted the one standing next to me, and not just for one night.

  “What do you have for Mazatlán?”

  She handed us a binder for Mazatlán and we flipped through it, trying to choose between shopping trips, taking a bus tour, or going to a resort to swim in the ocean (mind you, no matter how hot it was on the West Coast, the Pacific ocean was constantly freezing). There was only one event that I thought would appeal to all of us.

  “How about the zip-lining?” I asked Brooke.

  Her big green eyes went wide. “I’m scared of heights.”

  “You’ll be strapped in and those cables are sturdy,�
� I assured her.

  “I … I don’t know …”

  “I would never let anything happen to you.” I meant that.

  “You might need to get me liquored up first.” She laughed.

  God, I loved her laugh and smile. “We could do that.” I winked.

  “All right, let’s do it.”

  After we’d booked, I went with Brooke to the Internet Café on the ninth deck so she could email her sister and figure out what the plan for Cabo was.

  “You and Avery should come with Nicole and me to have lunch with my sister,” Brooke said mid-email.

  “I would like that. I’m sure Avery will too since he can’t keep his hands off Nicole for more than thirty-seconds.” Already meeting the fam. My plan was working.

  “I don’t know if I should be grossed out or jealous. I mean, I didn’t expect her to leave me the whole trip.”

  “I’m jealous.”

  “You know that I’ll be fine if you want to go find chicks to fuck, right? I could just go to the gy—”

  “I don’t want to do that.” She was not getting rid of me because I knew she didn’t want to be left alone and I didn’t want to leave her. “We can go to the gym together if you want.”

  “I would like to do that, but getting my workout clothes—might be a challenge.”

  “Challenge accepted,” I smirked. Avery was going to kick my ass, but that fucker deserved it.

  After Brooke finished her email and we waited a few minutes for her sister to respond—she didn’t—we made our way to Brooke’s room.

  “This is going to be so embarrassing.” She laughed.

  “Not as embarrassed as they’re gonna be.” I laughed back.

  We passed a few girls and guys who were drunk off their asses and it was barely noon. Most of the women were in bikinis and trying too hard to flirt with the men, but the guys were eating it up, enjoying the half-naked girls. Spring break plus a singles cruise where you didn’t need to drive anywhere equaled paradise.

  We maneuvered through all the people, finally making it down the stairs to Brooke’s room. As we walked past doors, we heard several people getting laid. Brooke used her key to open the door, not bothering to knock so we could catch them fucking and have a good laugh.

  But they weren’t fucking.

  Avery and Nicole were spooning in the middle of the two twin beds that were pushed together. Avery quietly snored in Nicole’s ear and Brooke looked over at me, trying to suppress a laugh, but we both couldn’t hold it in.

  “What the fuck?” Avery shouted, throwing a pillow at me.

  “You didn’t come on a cruise to sleep did you?” I asked, throwing the pillow back at him.

  “No, we came here to meet the one. And now that we have, we plan to fuck and sleep.” He pulled Nicole closer and she giggled, wiggling her backside into him.

  “Fuck no. This is my birthday present, Nicole!” Brooke said, her hands on her hips.

  “She’s right.” Nicole looked back at Avery, then to Brooke. “Fine, just give us a minute to get dressed.”

  “Fine.” Brooke turned on her heels and walked out the door. I followed behind. “I really want to get a massage for my shoulder. Want to walk with me to the spa to book it?”

  “Sure. What’s wrong with your shoulder? You’ve never said.”

  “I don’t know. I woke up about three months ago with it hurting. The doctor said that I probably pulled a muscle, but I haven’t been doing any strenuous exercises since and I think it’s getting worse.”

  “The medication doesn’t help?”

  “Nope. The muscle relaxers knock me out so that technically helps with me not being in pain, but only when I’m asleep.”

  “You should go back to the doctor. Something doesn’t sound right,” I said as we stepped off the elevator onto the eleventh deck.

  “I know,” she said with worry in her eyes.

  I hated to be in pain. When I played baseball, I always ended up pulling, spraining or breaking something during the seasons. I couldn’t imagine being in pain for three months straight.

  After Brooke had booked a massage for the day after we’d depart from Cabo, we went back to her room to find Avery and Nicole dressed and ready to socialize with us. We played mini-golf (I won), ate lunch in the Aqua Room and then watched a Dating Game live show with people from the cruise.

  Avery and Nicole were still hanging all over each other, making Brooke and me jealous—or at least me. It was only day two and I didn’t know if there was much more I could take before I’d devour the lips that I stared at all day.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked Brooke. She had been sitting beside me on the bus to the zip-lining excursion. As we neared, her right leg beside me bounced up and down.

  “Nothing,” she murmured.

  “Doesn’t look like nothing. Are you scared?”

  “Yeah, I’m kinda freaking out here,” she said, taking a deep breath.

  I smiled. She was so fucking cute and even cuter when she was freaking out. “Come here.” I pulled her shoulders so that she leaned against me.

  Her hair smelled like flowers as I nuzzled it and then kissed the back of her head. It felt good having her in my arms and I never wanted to let her go, but she was still trying to find women for me to hook up with on the cruise and only wanted to be friends.

  “What if the cable breaks?”

  “They won’t.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Well, I don’t know for sure, but the cables are made of steel and you’re strapped onto them with a harness.”

  “But I’ll be high in the air.”

  “Not that high.” I really didn’t know how high we would be because I’d never been zip-lining, but I was trying to convince Brooke that it would be fun.

  “Trees are high like buildings.”

  “Yeah, but just think about flying in the air, the wind in your hair or some shit. It’s going to be fun, not scary. I promise.”

  The bus pulled into the parking lot and after a safety speech from a tour guide who had a strong Hispanic accent, a group that consisted of the four of us and a few other people, followed behind him. Brooke watched each person go, but I could tell she was freaking out.

  “Do you want to go first?” I asked her.

  “Hurry the fuck up!” Nicole shouted from the bottom of the platform.

  Without saying a word, Brooke turned to climb down the ladder. Her eyes were the size of silver dollars, but I couldn’t let her pass up this opportunity. I knew she would regret it eventually. Over the last few days, we’d talked about how she always put people before her and how she doesn’t normally do stuff for herself. I placed my hands on both of her shoulders, spun her towards me and looked her in the eye.

  “From what you’ve told me these last few days, and from what I’ve seen, you’re the strongest woman I know. If you can raise a six-year-old when you’re only thirteen—which is scary as hell—you can’t let a little trip on strong cables hold you back. Now get out there, Superwoman, and fly.”

  An instructor waved for her to come to him. “Senorita, it’s your turn.”

  “Okay,” she said, turning and going to the instructor.

  I grabbed her wrist to stop her. Without any words, we stared into each other’s eyes as I clipped her straps together on her helmet. Breaking our eye contact, I slapped the top of her helmet and smacked her ass as she turned to walk toward the instructor. They hooked her harness to the cable and she turned to me.

  “Thank you,” she mouthed before sliding down the cables.

  My heart clenched in my chest, a foreign feeling for me. I didn’t know what it meant, but I loved it.

  The past four days and five nights had been some of the best ones of my life. Hanging with Easton was as good as hanging with Nicole—since she was still all over Avery. I was extremely comfortable with him; it was like we had been friends forever. I was surprised that he did everything with me and didn’t wander off to flirt or sleep w
ith an available woman.

  I’d bet neither one of us had expected to find a friendship like the one we’d found on the cruise. He made me forget about my worries with Jared, forget about my mother, my stressful job and also helped me to keep my mind off my shoulder pain.

  He’d offered to rub my shoulder a few times, but I turned him down. It wasn’t that I didn’t want him touching me—I did. I wanted him to caress my back, rubbing the knot I assumed was in my shoulder, and then slip his hands to the front to cup my breasts—among other things. I wanted his masculine hands all over me. But I turned down his offer because I was scared of how bad it would hurt when he rubbed my throbbing shoulder.

  I wasn’t one to complain about pain, even though my shoulder bothered me constantly. I didn’t want any of them to know how badly it hurt, but it was getting worse and it really made no sense at all. The only strenuous action I’d used my shoulder for was when I’d raised my hands in the air while dancing the last few nights, and if dancing was causing my shoulder to become worse, then something was seriously wrong and I needed to find a doctor who would actually touch me. I needed to go see Dr. Sam, stat!

  Our second night of the cruise, Nicole had pulled me aside and promised me the stars and the moon if I would switch rooms with Avery. She thought it was okay for me to share a room with a stranger since there were two beds, and I hadn’t had a chance to talk to her about the feelings I was fighting towards Easton. I knew the only reason I was fighting them was because I had Jared at home, probably surrounded by stacks of pizza boxes and a terrible stench from not showering for five days.

  “Brooke, I’ve never met anyone like Avery.”

  “Brooke, I think I’m in love.”

  “Brooke, please just let me have these days with Avery before we go back to Boston and he goes back to New York.”

  “Brooke, switch rooms and I will love you forever.”