"What?" mumbled Candi, obviously panicked.

"Never mind, just follow me."

Sarah led her over to the bar.

"We'd like two margaritas, please." She smiled at the bartender and leaned a little towards him at the same time, giving him a nice view of her cleavage.

The bartender smiled back. "How old is your friend?" he said, gesturing with a slight tilt of his head towards Candi.

"Old enough," answered Sarah, still smiling, with very enticing promises in her eyes.

Candi nudged Sarah with her toe. Sarah kicked her back. Luckily the bartender couldn't see what was going on down below the bar top.

"Here you go," he said a minute later, putting two very large margaritas on top of the bar in front of Sarah.

"Thanks, sweetie. What time do you get off tonight?" Sarah asked, flirtatiously stirring her drink.

"Not 'til three," he responded with a playful frown.

"That's too bad. Maybe I'll still be around then."

"I hope so."

Sarah turned to Candi who she caught rolling her eyes. "Come on, Sugar Lump, let's go find us a seat."

"I really wish you'd stop calling me that," Candi said to her back.

Sarah just ignored her.

They walked over to a dark corner where a comfortable couch and a couple of tables were gathered together. They dropped down onto the couch, setting their drinks on the table in front of them.

"So, what kind of meat is at the market today?" asked Sarah, scanning the room slowly from left to right, her eyes locking onto two guys who stepped away from the bar and began heading in their direction.

"A-ha, yes. I thought so. t.i.ts out, Sugar Lump. Incoming."

"What?" was all Candi could get out before two really hot guys were standing in front of them. She looked over at Sarah who was mouthing the words 't.i.ts out' at her and throwing her shoulders back at the same time.

Candi leand in and whispered, "What is this, Animal Kingdom?"

"Yes," deadpanned Sarah.

The big blond guy on the left spoke first. "Hey, what's up? What are you girls drinking?"

"Margaritas, of course," answered Sarah, evenly. She didn't seem fl.u.s.tered at all, just really s.e.xy.

"Mind if we join you?" asked the other one, looking at Candi.

"Sure, sit ... for a little while, anyway," answered Sarah, knowing instinctively that Candi would be too tongue-tied to respond properly.

"Uh-oh, Jack, we have a dangerous one here," said the blond, smiling. They moved some nearby chairs so they could sit across from the girls.

The guy named Jack got comfortable, setting his drink down across from Candi's. "So, I'll break the ice ... we're Jack and Mason, I'm Jack, he's Mason, and we're from New York. What are your names, and where are you from?"

Sarah answered for both of them since Candi seemed to have been struck dumb. "I'm Sarah and this is Candi; we're both from North Carolina."

Candi looked over at Sarah, looking as if she were trying to send a silent message, her eyebrows raised.

"What?" asked Sarah, looking directly at Candi.

"What?" responded Candi, acting innocent, while also raising her eyebrows again and giving a nearly imperceptible shake of her head.

Sarah deliberately ignored her and turned back towards the boys. "Is this your first time on this ship?"

"Yep," answered Mason. "How 'bout you guys? This your first time?"

"Yes, it is," answered Sarah as she reached out, lifting her drink off the table and taking a big drink through the straw before she continued. "We haven't really seen anything here yet. Is there a dance club on this ship?"

"You bet. Up on B-deck, just down the hall from our rooms, in fact."

Sarah got a sour look on her face. "B-deck. Isn't that near the top? With the ocean view balcony rooms?"

"Yeah, how'd you know? Is that where your room is too?"

Candi blurted out, "No! I mean ... no. We're down below that area. Our room doesn't even have a window," she finished sheepishly.

Jack jumped in, trying to bring the mood back to a happier place, "I've stayed in those rooms before, they're not bad. You hardly spend any time in them anyway, if you're lucky." He lifted his eyebrows encouragingly at Candi. His message was clear. Sarah could tell he was more than willing to give Candi a personal tour.

Sarah smiled. "I like that idea ... spending no time in the room." She looked over at Candi. "See? We just have to stay out dancing all night. Problem solved."

Candi smiled back nervously.

"The club opens at nine, but Jack says it doesn't really get going until ten or so. We were going to go over there later ourselves," said Mason. He lifted up his drink, holding it up in front of him. "Here's to having a good time, staying out all night, and dancing and drinking until the sun comes up!"

The others reached for their drinks, clinking them together across the table, toasting to a night of revelry. Everyone finished their drinks with big, long gulps.

Candi put her gla.s.s down on the table a little too hard, laughing nervously at her own clumsiness.

Jack looked into her eyes and grinned. He had the cutest smile. Candi took a minute to really look at him. His eyes were the brightest blue she had ever seen; paired with his dark hair, broad shoulders, and trim waist, they made him look like some sort of underwear model or something. He had a really manly jaw, square with a hint of beard shadow. She didn't know what to say to a guy this cute. He was almost as cute as Kevin. She wondered how old he was. He looked at least nineteen, maybe older.

Sarah nudged her and whispered in her ear, "Stop staring, dork."

Candi laughed self-consciously and looked down for a moment at her hands, trying to force herself not to twist them nervously.

"How old are you, anyway?" Mason asked Sarah.

Candi looked up to see what Sarah's response would be.

"How old do I look?" She started at him with a dare in her eyes.

"Old enough to get into a little trouble," was his flirty response.

"I guess you're right about that." Sarah turned to Jack. "What about you, Jack? Are you old enough to get into a little bit of trouble?" She smiled sweetly, acting as if she was oblivious to the game she was playing, making Mason jealous by acting like she cared about Jack. Candi could tell she really didn't care about either one of them.

"I guess so," he answered, smiling gamely, buying into her flirtatious manner. Then he looked over at Candi, winking at her.

Candi's face went red. She was confused with the games. First Mason flirts with Sarah. Then Sarah flirts with Jack. Jack flirts with Sarah and then with her, right there at the same time. In front of his friend. Was this normal?

Mason and Jack were both staring at her now. Candi started to squirm under their attentions, completely paranoid that she had a booger or something on her face. She casually reached up to wipe at her nose. Hopefully whatever they were staring at was now gone.

"Who needs another drink?" asked Mason, breaking the spell.

"All of us," said Sarah. "Come on, Mason, let's go get a round together."

Mason held out his hand for Sarah who took it and stood up.

"Be right back!" she said to Candi, waving at her with her fingertips. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Candi tried not to squirm. She knew that there were probably a whole lot of things she could do and not run afoul of that directive.

"Have you ever been on a cruise before?" Jack asked, back to staring at her again.

She tried not to let it creep her out with its intensity. "No, never. Have you?"

"Yeah. Several actually. They're all pretty much the same partying, eating, getting no sleep. Then you go home and back to the real world."

"Sounds like fun," was all she could think to say, even though it didn't.

"Yeah, it's fun, but it can get old. Buuuuut I think this one holds promise."

Candi smiled at his obvious innuendo out of courtesy, but she couldn't keep the misgivings from rising up in her mind. Something about him was off. Or maybe it was just the alcohol taking over her good sense.

"Why have you been on so many cruises?" she asked, before she realized how stupid that sounded. "Sorry, that was a dumb question."

"No, no, not at all. Well, my parents work a lot, so I guess they feel bad about me being stuck alone at the house all the time. So sometimes when they go out of town, they send me out with my uncle on these cruises. This time I took Mason with me instead. We go to school together."

"Oh, well, that's cool, I guess. I mean, my parents would never send me off on a cruise without coming along, so you're lucky."

"Yeah, well, it's fun; but like I said, it gets old. At least this time I have a room to myself. If you feel like checking it out later, just say the word."

Candi shrugged her shoulders noncommittally, reaching over to grab her empty gla.s.s. She sipped some of the melted ice water. She wasn't used to talking to totally hot strangers in bars, especially ones who were very possibly flirting with her if she wasn't mistaken, so she didn't know what to do or say. She was praying Sarah would hurry up and get back with their drinks.

"Are you going to the dance club later?"

"I'm not sure. If Sarah wants to, probably."

"What Sarah wants, Sarah gets, is that it?"

Candi laughed. "Yeah, pretty much. I don't bother telling her no anymore."

"You guys are pretty close friends, huh?"

Candi was surprised at this question. "I guess so. I mean, we don't know each other that well, but we get along okay."

"Huh. That's surprising. I saw you two earlier when you came in. You seemed pretty close."

Candi thought about this, realizing that she and Sarah had actually hit it off, even bonded a bit. She was happy about it and decided not to over-think it too much.

"We are, pretty close I mean. She's fun."

"I'll bet." Jack looked at her and smiled. "I'll bet you are too."

Oh my G.o.d, he's totally flirting with me, thought Candi. I can't believe a guy this hot is actually flirting with me! She couldn't stop the totally goofy smile that broke out across her face. Jack saw it and smiled back. Both of them just sat at the table grinning at each other Candi because a cute boy found her interesting and Jack for reasons she didn't want to a.n.a.lyze too much. The alcohol was starting to make her feel a little fuzzy, and she didn't mind it at all.

"Okay, what's so funny?" asked Sarah, approaching the table with a drink in her hand.

Mason followed, balancing three gla.s.ses. "Here you go everyone. Drink up." He set them down on the table, grabbing the nearest one and taking a long drink from it.

Candi and Jack took sips of their drinks, looking at each other over the rims. Candi was so nervous, she just kept drinking. Within thirty seconds she had drained her gla.s.s. Her loud bottom-of-the-gla.s.s slurp brought her back to reality.

"Oops, my bad," she said, then hiccupped.

"Oh boy, we have a lightweight here," said Mason, laughing.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Slow down, Sugar Lump, we need to last all night. Pace yourself." She had only taken one sip of her drink so far.

Jack winked at her, gallantly trying to make her feel better.

"So, what time are you girls going to dinner? The second seating?" asked Jack.

"No, we're going to the first seating," said Sarah absently as she played with her straw.

Jack looked at his watch and his eyebrows went up. "Well, if that's the case, you may want to drink up and get going, because it's six thirty right now."

"Oh, c.r.a.p, are you serious?" exclaimed Candi.

"Yep."

Candi stood up quickly. "Come on, Sarah, we have to go!" She could just picture the look on Mr. Peterson's face when they walked in a half hour late.

"I have to finish my drink," said Sarah.

"No, we don't have time!"

"I'm not leaving until my drinks is finished." Sarah sat stubbornly, and Candi knew she meant it.

"Fine!" Candi grabbed her drink and sucked the straw so hard the drink was gone in five seconds flat. She burped as she let out the little bit of air she'd also drank. "There!" She slammed the gla.s.s down on the table.