All Hands Below by Lelani Black Read Free Book Online

define the other woman’s place in his life impressed her. Not that it changed what had gone on between them, or wasn’t going to happen between them.
    Knowing this, she smiled faintly. “Thanks, but no thanks,” she said, and walked away.
    Minutes later, Evangeline stepped into one of two glass elevators that traversed the ship’s multi-level designer mall, and froze when Liam followed her inside.
    “It’s not going away for either of us, is it?” He stabbed his finger on the button to close the doors before anyone else could enter.
    She glowered at him. “Pardon me if I don’t engage in this conversation, Liam. I—”
    When he dragged her up against him and fused his mouth to hers, all thoughts of resistance severed from her mind, razored off by the hot male lips charging across hers.
    A few glorious seconds later, remnants of brain function kicked to life. The nerve of him! Did Liam Rossi really think he could just barge in here and snack on an offering he’d rejected not once, but twice already?
    She wrenched her lips away, stomped on his foot with her sandal, and marched to the other side of the enclosure. “You, sir, are not allowed to touch this…” she waved a hand grandly down her body, “… ever again.”
    He rubbed his lips and gazed at her beneath those devilish lashes. “I realize I’ve got some ground to make up with you.”
    Ground to make up ? “Don’t bother, Liam. You burned that bridge the night you left me hanging. Besides, I’m after a lot more than what you can give me.”
    His gaze slitted. “Technically, I was the one left hanging, Evangeline. Now, admit it. You know and I know there are things I can give you. Things that you’d love receiving from no other man but me. Why dismiss me for what I can’t give?”
    “Gee, how about the most important reason: I’m not a seven-night stand kind of girl!”
    The elevator stopped. He jabbed a finger at the button that would take them back down five decks.
    “What are you doing? That was my floor—”
    “Be careful, Evangeline. I wouldn’t want to see you hurt. At least you know where I stand and what you could gain from a relationship with me.”
    “A cruise hook-up, but how about what I stand to lose?”
    “Like?” he prompted, as if unable to fathom why docking his tugboat in her canal would be such a problem.
    “Like the chance to meet someone who likes the same things I do outside the bedroom?”
    “A woman like you will always meet men. I can give you what you need now if we agree on boundaries.”
    “Screw your boundaries! And there was never a doubt that you could give me some things on this cruise. But what about after?”
    “Evangeline,” he said, his voice flush with exasperation. “Worry about after later . What makes you think you’ll find Mr. Right on this cruise, anyway?”
    “I don’t. Not really, but if I don’t try, then I won’t know.”
    He shook his head. “I would hate to see you hurt.”
    “Too late for that, Liam,” she told him softly. He flinched. “And since when was wanting a husband considered dangerous?”
    “According to sources, two have died on you—ah, shit. I can’t believe I said that. That was out of line. Evangeline—”
    “Let me tell you something,” she fired at him, angry that even on this cruise she couldn’t get away from her past. “I loved my first husband. He was a dream—my first lover. He’d been deployed to Afghanistan and was home on leave when he died in a car accident. He was driving to pick me up from class at the university, and a distracted driver was t-texting— ohh !” An upsurge of emotion crippled her mouth.
    “I’m sorry—”
    “Don’t apologize, Liam. And,” she swallowed back the hurt that curdled in her throat, “I won’t apologize to you for the things I want. For what I need .”
    “Evangeline, I want you to know…I find you very tempting. I find…” he clamped his eyes shut for two seconds, “I can’t seem to stay away from