Wanted (19 page)

Everything went very quiet when Ben threw in another black chip. I saw Charlie tense, Reid smiled, and then nudged Yuri in the arm. Ben and I were deadlocked with our eyes on one another.

“I call.”

The smile that widened Ben’s face could have started a riot. No one looked surprised when he threw down a very handsome straight. I put my cards down one by one. I was amazed my hands were steady enough to keep the cards from bending at the corners. I might have even seemed confident. I did my best to commit the different hand values to memory but was only somewhat sure I did it correctly. For all I really knew, I was completely off and truly making a fool out of myself.

Luckily, I somehow managed to put down five hearts—a full flush. I understood instantly that I had won by Polo’s seal clap and the way Charlie pushed out his chair with his fist out shouting, “Yah!”

Yuri gave Ben a slap on the back. “I can’t believe she beat you, boss.”

Ben looked skeptical. “Are you quite positive you’ve never played before?”

I smiled through my blush. “Yep.”

Reid reached across to gather up the cards. “Charlie Boy just knows how to pick ‘em.”

I quickly lost track of how many games were played, the number of plastic chips I lost, and how many times someone or other would get frustrated and knock over poor Polo. But as the night wore on, the amount of fun I had steadily grew, and before I realized it, I was laughing with ease and even joining in on the conversation.

“You really think that
The Stranger
was Welles’ best movie?”

I feigned offense. “Excuse me,” I could hear my voice raising a few notes but the laughter revealed me, “but that is exactly what I’m saying! You really don’t think
Citizen Kane
is the greatest film of all time, do you? Let alone his best work?”

Charlie took me by the shoulders and pulled me towards him playfully. “Careful, Yuri, I can’t hold her back much longer.”

He mumbled through the stick, “Like what? There ain’t exactly a drive-in ‘round here.”

I took him by the elbow and dragged him up a stairwell I recognized led to Deck B. “Ha, ha, very funny. Come on!”

He feigned annoyance but was all smiles as I tugged him along. “You’re outta control.”

I stopped momentarily and smiled back at him—I could barely see through the shroud that was my hair. “I know. Isn’t it fantastic?”

Other than bright flood lights at the ends of each deck station, there was very little light on the deck itself. And for those first few seconds until my eyes adjusted, I could barely see my own shadow. Charlie hadn’t been lying about it being one of the busier times of the day—there were more people in their life vests and safety helmets wandering about than I had seen so far. Several individuals were working with large wrenches on a piece of machinery that I couldn’t have named if my life depended on it; others were loading barrels into a crate, while some were stringing cable. It was really quite eerie the way they had that ability to ignore me.

Reading me, Charlie said, “It’s a good thing, trust me.”

“I do.” My eyes searched his, but I saw some sadness there I didn’t care for. It made my own heart twinge with hurt to think of him in pain, so I smiled and tried to change the subject.

“What is this called?” I gestured to the back of the ship. Without the Internet or a library, I was going to have to do research the old-fashioned way.

Charlie smiled and smacked himself in the head. “You ain’t never been boating, have you?”

“Only in books.”

His smile grew wider and he turned me around, wrapping his arms around my torso and resting his chin on top of my head. From an alternative perspective I thought we must have looked like a totem pole.

He reached his hand out and touched the side of the ship’s back. “This is the keel. The—”

I reached out and ran my fingertips over his, making him stumble incoherently. So it would seem that he was allowed to touch me but I wasn’t allowed to touch him? I would have to test this hypothesis further.

After a brief interval he cleared his throat. “The body of the ship is the hull. The keel is designed ‘round it.”

I leaned back and rested the weight of my head against him. I felt him swallow and his heartbeat increased. His breathing became shallow. “What about the port and bow and all of that good stuff?” I was testing the limits, putting his temperament and my good sense at risk. What if he didn’t want to take that chance with me? What if he didn’t want me?

“Ah, um, port is facin’ forward centerline; anything to your left is port. And then bow is just the ah…front of the ship.”

He closed his eyes and sighed so deeply I felt his stomach clench against me. As he exhaled I could smell the clove and musk of him. I suspected it might set me off, cause me to do something stupid. I buried my face in the soft stubble of his neck, nuzzling the warmth and solace there.

“Addie?” His fingers danced on mine, in my hair, the edge of my face.

“Yes?”

“W-would you be real mad at me if I tried to kiss you right now?”

I smiled and looked up at him, every one of my senses buzzing. “I would be madder if you didn’t.”

He wrapped one hand in my hair and the other around my hip to pull me close. And in one of those instances that last eternities and only immortals are aware of, our lips anchored on the shores of each other.

We separated only when the need for air became unbearable. Even then, I clutched onto him as though he were the center of the universe and rested my forehead against his for leverage—my entire world was spinning.

He sighed in my ear. “Oh, what ’ave you done to me?”

For the first time in my life I didn’t have the proper answer. This wasn’t something I could study for, a formula I could memorize, or a textbook I could refer to. Instead, all of my reason and facts were failing me, and the blossom of an emotional experience was taking hold. I laughed to myself, maybe I was in more trouble now than ever.

Charlie smiled against me. “What’s so funny?”

I pulled away, despite everything my body was telling me. It was good to know there was still a little self-control remaining after all.

“Here I was only coming out here hoping to see some constellations.”

I heard Charlie snicker. “I ain’t seen nothin’ but stars since you got here.”

My neck craned upwards at the glimmering specks of fire in the sky. I imagined that was how the tiniest pearls at the bottom of the sea would sparkle. Individually, each was only a singular star that glossed over the night sky—but when looked at together, they reminded us of how insignificant and small our planet really was. I tried to trace the outline of a familiar shape with my finger and recognize an image there, but Charlie was trailing his hand up and down my forearm, making it extremely difficult to concentrate.

“Is that one somethin’?” he asked without looking up.

I laughed a little and pushed his arm away. “It’s hard to tell. We don’t exactly have stars like this in New Jersey.”

He pulled me back instantly; I knew I wouldn’t have the strength to resist again. “Tell me ‘bout it. I hardly saw nothing like this before I came out here, either.”

His comment had me thinking again and before I had the sense to stop myself, I starting blurting out questions.

“Hey, Charlie?”

He had buried himself in the crook of my neck and seemed content to stay there. “Hmm?”

“How did you get here? How did you end up becoming a thief?”

I could tell it was the wrong thing to ask. He released me and his arms moved as far away as they could get while I still tried to cling to them.

“I’m sorry if—”

“That was a long while ’go. It don’t matter now.” The gruffness in his tone scared me. Not because it was violent, but because it sounded as though he was turning away from me.

Desperate and in a gesture of good will, I ran my fingers through his hair and messed it about his face. “Doesn’t a girl have the right to ask a question every now and then? Maybe I’ll be a journalist when I grow up.”

He leaned into me and smiled. “You are a serious pain, Addie Battes.”

I leaned forward just enough so that my lips touched his ear. I felt him quiver at the slow, deliberate movement, and it felt like his chest tightened. Just when the action became too much for us both, I shouted into his ear. “Takes one to know one!”

I snorted with laughter at his reaction. He began ringing out his ear with one of his fingers like he had just been swimming and tilted his head like a dog after a fireworks show.

“I’m real glad you think that was funny.” He feigned annoyance, but I could hear the smile in his voice, and after a second he pulled me back to him. We were two clumsy dancers, stumbling over each other and our laughter.

“What I think is funny is how I smell like something out of a cigar club. I feel like I’m in desperate need of a shower.”

He paused. “You ain’t going alone.”

“I can handle myself.”

Charlie gave me a Charlie smile and sighed. “While I bought some safety, I ‘bout trust a sailor on this ship as much as I trust myself.”

“I consider that an endorsement, Charlie Hays.”

“I don’t.” He frowned.

I laughed nervously and hoped he wouldn’t catch on to how embarrassed I was. “Well, you’re not coming in there with me.”

Correcting his posture, he stood straight and tall then held out his hand as if taking an oath. “I’ll be my usual gentlemanly self. I swear.”

I put my weight against my hip and considered his proposition. Of course, I still trusted him to be watchful and respectful at the same time, but could I trust myself? I was no longer taking the time to consider whether or not I was attracted to Charlie. The pull I felt toward him was an overwhelming urge that coursed throughout my whole being. And I was now afraid of what being alone with him might mean in terms of my ability to control myself. I had never been physically tempted before and I found it downright frightening.

But Charlie was looking out for me—he had since the moment ’we’d met, and I would see to it I didn’t do anything we would regret.

I took his hand. “I would expect nothing less.”

The silence ebbed into a steady stream of things left unsaid, things that remained to be said, and what was meant to come. After some time, he took my hand in his and curled his thumb around the index finger, pointing them out to the sea.

“See the foam at the end of the waves? Feel how warm the air just got? It’ll storm tomorrow for sure. Probably for days…”

Charlie lent me a faded gray t-shirt and some blue gym shorts, which, in truth, I was just as excited about as the shower itself. And while I had to roll up the shorts at the waist a few times just to get them to stay up, they were immensely comfortable. I adored the Charlie smell they had, and spent a few minutes before getting under the water trying to commit the scent to memory.

I spent a lot of time washing my hair and doing the little things like scratching the grit out from under my nails. Showering always gave me a lengthy excuse and a private realm in which to think, and I was in desperate need of some serious meditation.

I tried to picture what would happen when we got to Singapore. If the ship arrived on schedule, I would have to go to the embassy and talk to the police. But that was if Charlie kept his word this time. And as I wondered before—what if he didn’t? What if he didn’t let me go?

Yet even if Charlie wanted me on some kind of regular basis, I couldn’t just leave my family and disappear off the face of the earth. As much as I wanted it, the lack of responsibility in running away with Charlie was beyond me…even if he asked. I giggled at the memory of our kiss. He had held me so zealously; it had to be more than just the physical attraction between us.