With Every Breath (Sea Swept #2) by Valerie Chase Read Free Book Online Page A

her next contract was on the Midnight Star .” Thank the lord. I definitely don’t want to start up with Letta and her antics again.  
    “Come on, West. Let me train Yasmin. I’ll train her good.” Charlie waggles his eyebrows in case I didn’t catch his meaning. I sort of want to deck him, and the urge makes me frown. With her nosiness and psych babble about my mom just now, why the hell am I trying to protect Yasmin from Charlie? A gorgeous girl like her surely has the experience to fend off unwanted advances. Hell, maybe they wouldn’t even be unwanted.
    “I want you focused on photos, not hitting on Yasmin,” I say anyway. It’s true, after all. “You came up short on your daily roll count last cruise.”  
    Charlie face darkens. “Fun talk, boss,” he says sarcastically, and stalks back inside.  
    I sigh, because I hate being the guy who thinks about numbers and roll counts all the time. Sometimes I wonder if Mom would even recognize me. If she were here, I bet she’d look me in the eye and tell me in that gentle way of hers that I don’t look happy. That I’ve lost sight of what I really want.  
    What do I want, though? Besides another drink and to get the hell off this ship into a cushy corporate job as fast as possible, I have no idea. My mom back, I guess. My family made whole, the way it hasn’t been for seven years.
    But what’s gone is gone, and there’s no getting it back.  
    Thoroughly depressed now, I mentally rearrange my plans tomorrow. I’d planned to assign Yasmin to one of the others to train, but it actually makes more sense for me to do it. Camelia has already helped out her roommate enough, and the guys would all be too distracted to focus on training. Yasmin will already be deadweight until she learns what to do, and I can get her up to speed faster.
    Yasmin turned out to be a good sport about the Kippy suit after all. I’d figured she’d whine about it, especially considering those heels, but even though she was limping when we finished, she never complained.  
    Through the glass door, I catch sight of her on the dance floor. Her body moves with athletic abandon, her red top riding up to reveal the curve of her waist. The sight makes my mouth go dry. I bet her skin is soft. I bet if I licked the curve of her breast, I’d taste salt. I bet …
    I bet she’d slap me if she knew what I was thinking. Shaking my head, I toss back the rest of my drink and go inside, through the bar and into the crew corridors. It’s not even midnight, but I’m exhausted, and if I don’t get some sleep I’ll never be able to drag my ass out of bed in time for the dawn.
    I make my way through the maze of hallways and stairwells to my cabin. Department heads, thankfully, have single rooms, and a full-sized bed instead of those God-awful bunks. I check my camera, undress, and am asleep almost before my head hits the pillow.

    ~ ~ ~

    When I wake up, I’m not alone.  
    In the darkness, I dimly make out a shadow at the foot of my bed, sinking onto the bed. I sit up straight, about to jump off my mattress to tackle the numbskull who has broken into my room when the shadow laughs. A woman’s husky laugh.  
    Yasmin? My boxers get tight instantly at the thought, but then my intruder talks.  
    “You left the party without me.” Camelia slides over and brushes a cool hand across my bare pecs. “So I came to say good night.” Her voice is teasing and fluid. My sleep-hazed mind flits between disappointment and confusion and arousal as I sink back onto my elbows.
    “How the hell did you get in here?”
    “Shh.” She places a finger on my lips. “Did I scare you? I did not mean to scare you.”  
    She laughs again, and I can smell the rum on her breath. She’s drunk. Squinting at my alarm clock, I see that it’s 2:12 in the morning.  
    “You shouldn’t be here,” I say tiredly. “How did you get into my cabin, anyway?”  
    “The door was open. Just a little bit.” She bends her head