Free LOVE on The Horizon (Breaking The Rules #1) by A. M. Madden

meddling, delusional assistant made things worse.
    “I’ll handle it,” I said, not having the slightest idea how I would do that. Downing the rest of my drink, I climbed off the barstool and walked away, shaking my head.
    The one thing I was certain about was she couldn’t leave this ship. She was perfect for this job and made it very clear she loved being here. In the past weeks, I’d come to learn that, for the first time in her life, she finally felt optimistic with her career choice.
    There was no way I was going to take that away from her.
    Instead of going to her cabin, I dialed her stateroom number on a house phone. I simply couldn’t trust myself to be alone with her after what happened earlier. When it rang and rang, I worried Ricky wasn’t exaggerating.
    Reluctantly, a few minutes later I knocked on her door, fully expecting to see a distraught Rebecca. What stood before me instead was a vision of beauty in a white tank top and plaid pajama bottoms. Her damp hair smelled amazing, and it was obvious she was fresh out of the shower.
    I’d been duped.
    “Marco,” she said breathily. “Is everything okay?”
    “Except for the fact there will be a murder committed on this ship tonight, sì , everything is okay.”
    “Maybe you shouldn’t be voicing that out loud in the hallway. Come in.” She stepped into her room, but I didn’t follow.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked when I remained rooted at the door.
    “Um, nothing.” I glanced up and down the hall before slowly walking into her room. Even fully knowing it was a very, very bad idea, did that stop me? No.
    “Who are you going to murder?”
    “Ricky.”
    She laughed adorably. “What did he do now?”
    I recounted our conversation where he claimed she was distraught, of course, leaving out the part about my hard-on. I must have paused at least five times during my dissertation, distracted by the smell of her shampoo.
    “He was here giving me a hard time, but I did not threaten to leave. He lied about that.” She sat cross-legged on her bed and motioned for me to sit in the chair across from her.
    “Yeah, I figured that out. Lui è un rompiballe .”
    “That sounds serious.”
    Not wanting to translate that I called him a ball-breaker, I revised to, “He’s a pain in my ass by always threatening to quit. I believed him this time, though,” I admitted quietly, scrubbing a hand over my face. “He adores you.”
    “Do you want me to leave?” It then occurred to me she was misinterpreting my frustrations.
    “No, of course not.” She met my eyes but remained silent. “Rebecca, my unprofessional behavior today was unacceptable. I almost crossed a line, and I’m sorry. I don’t want you to think this is a common occurrence for me.”
    “It wasn’t all on you, Marco. I was there. I almost crossed the same line.”
    When she stared into my eyes, the urge to grab her and crush my lips to hers forced me to look away quickly. The more her deep blue eyes focused on mine, the more I couldn’t think of anything other than kissing her.
    “I have to go.”
    “Wait.” Her one word halted me before I could get to the door. She waited for me to turn toward her. “I don’t want things to be awkward between us,” she said sadly.
    “I don’t want that either.” Although she nodded, she didn’t look at all convinced that it wouldn’t be, and I felt the same.
    With each second that passed, the temptation to finish what I started became overwhelming. There was a paper-thin wall of self-control stopping me from touching her, and a simple look from her would be all it took for that wall to fall over. I needed to leave her room before it was too late.
    I walked to her door and turned back one more time. “Good night, Rebecca.”
    “Good night, Marco.”

    Inferno.
    To you Americans, it meant fire, heat, maybe even passion.
    To us Italians, it meant hell.
    It’d been three days since I went to her stateroom, and every moment of every day had been