Triton Read Online Free PDF Page B

much it isolated her.
    Brynn faced her guy again. “Want to dance?” she yelled over the music.
    “What?” he yelled back.
    “Want to dance? Like actually dance?”
    He stared at her, for a moment confused before his eyes flashed with understanding. He nodded to the corners of the teen disco, where a handful of adults stood with crossed arms, watching the dance floor like hawks. Chaperones. Yuck!
    And then she spotted something else . . . he was leaning at the bar: the hot guy she had seen by the pool whom Cedar had cockblocked. Jake, if she remembered correctly. Even in the dark club, he still wore his aviator sunglasses.
    He was chatting with a couple of older girls and looked bored.
    Brynn’s ideas of finding a perfect stranger flew out the window. She kind of just wanted him right now.
    “Got to go,” she muttered to the boy she was dancing with and pushed through a gap in the crowd.
    “Wait, I don’t even know your name?” the boy shouted behind her.
    Brynn ignored him, hastily tugged down her skirt—which had been riding up ever since she started dancing—and trotted over to the bar. She slid onto a stool at the opposite end as Jake, feeling a bit alarmed when her butt came into direct contact with the cool, molded plastic. A quick glance over her shoulder reassured her she was still covered.
    She glanced over at Jake. Though his head faced her direction, his shades blocked his eyes and she couldn’t tell if he was looking at her. She turned away, hot in the face.
    Was he looking at her?
    She peeked again, without moving her head, and out of the corners of her eyes saw the two girls leave. One of them pressed a folded note into Jake’s hand—a phone number, probably. He displayed no reaction, not even a thank you, just took the note stone-faced and pocketed it. His head didn’t move.
    The girls gone, Brynn was even more self-conscious that he might be looking at her, and her cheeks flushed. Screw it. She sighed loudly and blatantly turned her head to stare at him.
    He raised his eyebrows. “Where’s your brother?” he said.
    Oh, so he had noticed her. “You shouldn’t be scared of him,” she said. “You could beat him up.”
    “I don’t want to have to beat him up,” he said.
    “He left with another girl,” said Brynn.
    Jake’s eyebrow nudged higher. “You’re okay with that?”
    “Why wouldn’t I be?”
    “He gets to go off with some girl, but you don’t even get to sit next to me at the pool. Hypocritical, wouldn’t you say?
    “That’s him.”
    “Brynn, right?”
    She nodded. “Jake?”
    He rose from his chair, downed the dregs of an orange-colored drink, and turned to leave.
    “Where are you going?” she said, not meaning to sound so accusing.
    “Going to take a soak. You’re welcome to come.”
    “A soak?”
    “Hot tub. They won’t be too crowded this late.” He waited for her answer, face stoic like he couldn’t give a rat’s ass whether or not she joined him. Just her crap luck . . . he was one of those guys.
    But then a thrill fluttered across her skin. Jake was one of those guys. Older, sexy, self-assured . . . and in a few minutes, they could be giving each other half-naked massages in a private hot tub. Would Cedar approve?
    He’d have a heart attack.
    “Let me just change into my bathing suit,” said Brynn, climbing to her feet and smoothing down her skirt again, blushing hotly at what she was about to do.

 
    Midnight
    Naomi led Cedar , her unusual boy-find, through the hanging plastic flaps and into the crew-only area on deck two. Beyond the flaps, the floors were scuffed, the bulkheads made of unornamented white steel, and the overhead hidden above a maze of metal pipes and ventilation ducts.
    “I should just check,” said Cedar.
    “Give her space,” said Naomi. “She’ll love you for it.”
    “I want her to be safe, I don’t care if she loves me.”
    “Yes, you do care.”
    A waiter hauled a pallet of food past them, forcing them flat