Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 99607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
I cleared my throat as I shook the fantasy of her out of my head. “Yes, actually.” Nine times out of ten there was nothing I wanted from her, but it was just coming up to noon and I needed her help.
She had an almost-permanent smile on her face, but it pulled a little wider, as if my asking for her help was what she wanted more than anything—that was bloody attractive. “What can I get you?”
“Well, first, I want to give you this,” I said, pulling out the preferences sheet from beneath my laptop.
She sank her teeth into her full bottom lip as she took the sheet from me and began to scan the papers I’d scrawled over. “This is really nice of you.”
It had taken some bollocks for her to ask me to fill this sheet in yesterday. She’d been trying to make her crew’s life easier, and my stay more enjoyable, but it would have been easier, less confrontational to have just stayed quiet. From our tour I could tell she was good at her job, but I hadn’t quite realized the care and compassion she had for her work and her colleagues. And I enjoyed that she’d called me out—and in such a charming way. She was all politeness on the outside but hinted at her core of steel. I had thought I was being helpful by not caring one way or another about the preferences sheet, but subtly she’d told me I was being anything but and that I had to let her and her crew do their jobs. She’d been confident and clear and my sheer admiration of her and the way I’d been handled meant I had to reward her and if I couldn’t fuck her, I could do what she’d asked and fill out the sheet.
“No inflatable banana,” I said, not being able to suppress a smile.
She giggled and heat grew in my belly. She had a beautiful laugh. “I thought you might skip that one.”
“I don’t avoid all fun if that’s what you think. But that’s a little too much.” Why did I care if she thought I didn’t like to have fun? I was here to work.
She nodded, smiling. “By the end of the trip, you never know what I might have talked you into.”
I raised my eyebrows. I was beginning to think she could persuade me to do a number of things that were against my own best judgement. I cleared my throat, trying to regain my focus. “I’d like you to go ashore and collect a package for me.”
“Excuse me, sir?”
Shit, her calling me sir shouldn’t be as arousing as I found it. “Please, it’s Hayden.” I shifted, sitting up on my lounger, trying to distract my dick. “There’s a patisserie on Lotissement Château Martin. I’d like you to pick up a cake.”
Her smile faded from her eyes but her full lips stayed in place. “No problem,” she said.
I pulled out a scrap of paper where I’d written down the name and address of the patisserie while on the phone to the lawyers last night.
“It’s only a short walk from the marina.” I beckoned her forward and she stepped toward me, closer than we’d been before. My face was level with her pussy and my eyes flickered up over her breasts to her face. Shit. Shit.
I stood abruptly and she took half a step away. I had to hold myself back from snaking an arm around her waist and pulling her against me. I didn’t know this woman. What was wrong with me? “Please be there no later than two. Someone will meet you and give you an envelope with some documents in it.”
“I think I should speak to Captain Moss. I mean—”
“It will be nothing but legal documents in the envelope along with a USB drive. I just don’t want to send or receive anything electronically.”
She nodded. “I understand, but I should just mention it to Captain Moss. It’s protocol if we’re picking up something from the shore.”
“Do you have a concern about my request?”
“I just need to run it by—”
“Tell me your concerns, or what the captain’s concerns might be and perhaps I can allay them. I’m going to be very disappointed if I can’t get a simple package delivered to me here. With no Wi-Fi, I’m having to rely much more on hard copy documents.”
“I understand and I’m sure it won’t be a problem. Leave it with me.”
Avery wasn’t being unreasonable. I was irritated because the documents I wanted her to collect were important, and I wanted her to know that I wouldn’t be asking her to do anything that wasn’t legitimate. “Just make sure you put the envelope in your handbag so no one outside sees you carrying it and walk out with the pastry.”