by Talia Hunter
After hanging up, Nate pulled on a pair of board shorts, threw a change of clothes and a towel into a bag with his laptop, and rushed out. The wharf wasn’t far, but he didn’t want to keep Dalton, the owner of the resort, waiting.
He tracked across the beach, glancing toward the clump of trees that had been the site of last night’s mistake. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to see Suzie again. He’d be busy until Wednesday and with the wedding over, she might not stick around too much longer.
Nate got to the wharf, shading his eyes as started toward the yacht. Without any breeze, the sea was flat and he was dazzled by the sunlight’s bright reflection. The yacht sat low in the water. Around 40 feet long, Nate calculated. A nice size.
Dalton was on deck, and Nate could hear the engine running. That was a relief. As the yacht apparently hadn’t been used for a while, Dalton hadn’t been sure whether it would start.
When Nate jumped on board, Dalton turned from where he’d been coiling a rope and gave him a nod. Though the man had mentioned he didn’t usually live on Lantana Island, he looked like he belonged here. His tan was deep, and he had visible nicks on his hands as though used to physical labor. A scar cut through one of his eyebrows, completing his rugged island look.
“Nice day to go out on the water,” said Nate over the noise of the engine. It had been far too long since he’d been on a boat. Though he was here to work, the feel of the deck moving a little under his feet brought back his only good memories of his time in Florida. His father’s yacht had been mainly for show, until Nate had arrived. It had become Nate’s escape, and the only place he had felt at home.
“You’ll need to run the engine for several hours to charge the battery,” Dalton explained. Don’t switch it off in the meantime, or it might not start up again.”
“Sure, I can run it all day. There’s no wind for sailing anyway.” Nate scanned the horizon. Not a cloud in the sky, and not much chance of any breeze. Probably a good thing, so he wouldn’t be distracted by the temptation to put the sails up.
All he needed to get the software integration working was a few hours under engine power. Once he had a baseline, he could do most of the software modifications on dry land before Wednesday’s final test.
“You said you’ve sailed quite a bit?” asked Dalton.
Nate nodded. “On my father’s 32-foot sloop. I have my Yachtmaster’s ticket.”
“Great.” Dalton waved a hand. “Then stay out as long as you like and I won’t send out the cavalry if you’re late back. There’s plenty of water in the tank and some tinned food in the cupboards. Just odds and ends, but enough to make a meal if you’re not fussy. Oh, and there are some fishing rods in the stern locker. Any problems, just hail me on the radio. It’s tuned to the station I monitor. If I don’t answer, try the coastguard on channel 9.”
“Mind if I unscrew the cover off your dashboard and hook my laptop up to the autopilot?” He’d explained about his software when he arranged to borrow the yacht.
“Be my guest. There’s a toolbox in the cupboard under the radio.”
“Thanks.” Nate grinned. “I’ll have to work on my software as I go, but I’m still going to enjoy this.”
“Rosa said she’d ask our chef to pack you some lunch. She should be on her way with it, and she can cast you off.” Dalton stepped onto the wharf and gave Nate a wave as he left. “Good luck with your test.”
While he waited for Rosa, the resort manager, to arrive with his lunch, Nate unscrewed the cover from the yacht’s dashboard. He was figuring out how he was going to connect his laptop into the navigation system when he heard a woman’s voice on the wharf. It was Rosa. But she wasn’t alone.
Suzie.
His heart somersaulted as he took her in. Her hair looked even redder in the sun than it had last night. The glower on her face was just as fiery.
Damn his heart. It shouldn’t leap at the sight of her, it should sink. Or even better, just keep beating like it was supposed to, and keep its opinions to itself.
The white dress Suzie was wearing clung to her curves. Perhaps in a dark room her dress could be considered clothing, but the bright sunlight turned it transparent enough that he could make out the shape of her limbs. On the wharf beside her was a suitcase.
“Mind if I ask you a favor?” said Rosa with a smile. She was a slim, athletic-looking woman with a basket in her hands that probably held Nate’s lunch. Pretty, for sure. But next to Suzie’s blazing red locks and white-clad curves, she all but faded away.
“The ferry’s not coming today and Suzie needs to get to Port Denarau to catch her plane home,” said Rosa. “Would you please take her there on the yacht?”
Great. With such an important job to do, the last thing he needed was to be stuck with the one woman guaranteed to drive him crazy.
“Can she catch a water taxi?” he asked.
Rosa shook her head. “They’re fully booked. The only way she’ll make her flight is if you’ll help. If you go right there, it should only take three hours. You could drop her off by lunchtime.”
Suzie curled her lip. “Believe me, I don’t like it any more than you do. But I can’t miss my flight. I have to get home.”
It didn’t help that the swooping neck of Suzie’s dress kept drawing Nate’s gaze. The way the fabric cradled her breasts reminded him of the way his hands had cupped them last night and that was the last thing he’d wanted to think about today. But it would be childish to refuse. He could survive her company for three hours.
Nate sighed. “Fine.”
Rosa’s face lit up, while Suzie shot him a look so full of daggers he was surprised not to feel them slice into his flesh.
“Thank you,” said Rosa. Then to Suzie, “Here, let me help you with your suitcase.”
Nate took her bag as they handed it over the rail, then accepted the basket from Rosa. Peeking in, he saw wrapped sandwiches, pastries, fruit, bottled water, a couple of orange juice boxes, and half a dozen cans of cola. He took both the suitcase and basket down to the yacht’s saloon, then came back up to take the steering wheel. “Can you cast us off?” he asked Rosa.
As Rosa untied the mooring lines, he gaze kept going to Suzie. She looked like she was deciding whether to abandon ship at the last minute.
“You two have fun.” Rosa threw the lines aboard.
Nate put the yacht into gear and felt his spirits lift as they pulled away from the wharf. He hadn’t sailed for far too long, and had all but forgotten how much he loved the feeling of freedom. Blue ocean stretched endlessly ahead, with no roads to restrict him.
Bliss.
He glanced at Suzie, who was still staring back at the wharf as though judging the distance to swim ashore. Almost bliss, he amended, hating the way he couldn’t stop staring at her curvy, tanned body. That ridiculous white dress may as well not exist for all it covered. The sooner they got to Port Denarau and she was out of his life for good, the better.
Suzie stepped down from the deck into the cockpit, but she didn’t say anything, just went past him and down the steps into the saloon. The yacht’s interior was comfortable, with leather bench seats and a dining table in the saloon, a serviceable galley for food preparation, and two decent-sized cabins with double beds. Perhaps Suzie would stay inside for the entire trip and he could forget she was there.
But a couple of minutes later, she came back into the cockpit holding a tube of sunscreen. She’d changed her clothes. Instead of the white dress, she had a sarong wrapped around her.
She stopped for long enough to fix him with a glare so fierce it could have singed all the hair from his body. “If I have to spend three hours trapped with you, I’m going to pass the time by sunbathing. I’ll be up there.” She nodded to the front deck. “If I fall asleep, please wake me when we arrive.” She stalked toward the bow and stopped in front of the cockpit. With one swift motion, she pulled off the sarong. Underneath, she wore a lime green bikini. If you could call such tiny scraps of fabric a bikini, that was
. It hid nothing.
Shit.
Last night had been dark, but the feel of Suzie’s body, and what he could see of it, had driven him mad with lust. Now his gaze could linger over every gorgeous curve, his hunger for her surged stronger than ever.
She had a tattoo on her shoulder: a crescent moon surrounded by a constellation of stars. A simple design, but beautiful. Her belly button was still pierced. He remembered her turning up at school one day with her white school shirt lifted and knotted around her waist to reveal a sparkling stud. The first teacher to spot her had sent her home in disgrace. But not before the entire school had seen her piercing. All the girls had wanted to be her. All the boys had wanted to have her.
Suzie squeezed a handful of sunscreen into one hand. She glanced quickly over her shoulder as though checking he was watching. Then she smoothed the cream slowly over her belly.
Nate swallowed hard, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. The stainless steel had been cool a moment ago, but now it felt warm.
Taking her time, Suzie rubbed the sunscreen in. Her hands swept slowly from her breasts to her thighs, following her curves. The show she was putting on had to be for Nate’s benefit. She must know full well how desirable she was and her performance was designed to taunt him.
If she wanted to arouse him, he wouldn’t let it work.
But as she squirted sunscreen straight from the tube onto her cleavage, Nate couldn’t stop a groan. And watching her push the edges of her bikini top aside to massage in the cream, he had to adjust his shorts.
She was deliberately torturing him. When she bent to give her legs a second coat and presented him with the delectable rounds of her buttocks, Nate knew it for sure.
He gritted his teeth. She must have felt how painfully hard she’d made him last night. So she knew the effect her display would have on him.
Her body double-coated, Suzie finally put the sunscreen down. She stretched, rotating to show off every angle of her body, then lay face down on the deck. Her ass was towards him. To make sure they weren’t about to hit anything, he had to scan the sea in front. Which meant for the next couple of hours at least, he’d have to keep staring at her gorgeous butt positioned in the center of his view.
Nate pulled at the front of his board shorts, trying to make more room. But when Suzie spread her legs wide enough that he could see the scrap of fabric between her thighs, his shorts stretched to breaking point.
“No,” he whispered. “Stop that, you heartless succubus.”
He shifted gingerly in his seat, his balls starting to throb. He had two choices. Either he could stride over and rip that tiny bikini off her, or he could find a way to distract himself.
His software. Of course. He’d connected his laptop to the yacht’s navigation system. Now they were underway, he should be collecting data for the tests he was going to run, and making the changes needed to get the boat’s autopilot to steer itself around obstacles. That’s what he would have been doing if Suzie hadn’t wiped all coherent thought from his mind.
Scanning the sea first to make sure there was only clear water ahead, he bent over his laptop and started modifying his code. Each time he glanced ahead, he saw Suzie’s glorious ass. She’d probably fallen asleep.
Once he had some basic tweaks in place, he plotted a course out of the main channel, letting his system take over the controls. Safer to find an out-of-the-way place with nobody around to run the first collision test. Last thing he wanted was to freak out any spectators. And when the time came, he’d need to wake Suzie to warn her.
Nate’s eyes traced the curve of her buttocks and for the hundredth time, he adjusted his shorts.
Come to think of it, did he need to wake her?
She’d be furious to discover he hadn’t dropped her off before running the first of his tests. Maybe he should save himself the grief and leave her sleeping.
And if she happened to wake in the middle of it? Would it be so bad if she got a little fright?
6
Suzie lay on the yacht’s warm deck, trying to relax. It was a gorgeous day. With the sea lapping at the sides of the boat and the warm, gentle breeze drifting over her, she should be in heaven. Would be, if not for Nate. Just her luck to get stuck with him.
At least it wasn’t a very long trip, so it would be over soon. And in the meantime… well, she’d noticed his gaze playing hungrily over her body. Wonder how he’d enjoyed the show? She stretched as though she were half asleep, letting her bikini bottom ride up a little more.
Like the view, Nate? Feeling horny?
It served him right for destroying her dress last night.
Maybe it was time to roll over. He’d had an eyeful of her butt by now, so he might want to stare at her breasts instead. And if it got achey in his pants, he only had himself to blame. He shouldn’t have lied about her to Harrison. He shouldn’t have said he was going to spank her. And the more she’d thought about his parting comment as he left her in the trees – something about her finally getting an A – the angrier she got.
Did Nate know she’d dropped out of school? Maybe not, he’d left town by then. But he sure as hell knew that Laura had been the sister who’d won all the academic prizes.
She rolled onto her back and put one arm over her face to cover her eyes against the sun. In a couple of hours she’d be able to get off this yacht and never see Nate again. It couldn’t come soon enough.
Instead of wasting her time thinking about him, she should be building up her confidence for the wedding she was catering on Friday. Every time she thought about doing it by herself, her stomach clenched. Scary. But exciting too.
She was Marianna’s first and only employee, and she wanted to repay her friend for giving her this chance. If she did well, Marianna might even take her on full time, which meant she’d finally be earning a decent salary again.
Yeah, thinking about Friday was her priority. Not dwelling over what an arrogant ass Nate was, or worse, remembering the feel of his incredible abs under her fingers. The memory made her shiver. Despicable as he was, how could kissing him have felt so good? Her body had betrayed her. Didn’t it know how much she hated him?
Stop thinking about him.
Suzie forced her thoughts back to the wedding. Shame the dishes they offered were so boring. Mini quiches and club sandwiches. If only Suzie could drag Marianna into this century and convince her to add some better options, they’d probably get a lot more business. How hard would it be to add sushi to their menu? Or Thai fish cakes? And what about dumplings?
They didn’t need to do the same old things they always did, and Suzie had made so many damn mini quiches she had nightmares about them.
If only she could make something different and show Marianna how much better their menu would be with more variety. Did she dare? And if she did, what dishes would she make?
The sun was pleasantly warm and the boat swayed gently from side to side, the waves slapping softly against the hull. Maybe she could talk to the bride about swapping out a couple of her choices, Suzie thought sleepily. Her eyes closed as she tried to calculate the cost of the ingredients in her head. She could go to the seafood market when she got back and check the price of prawns. The bride might like some delicious Vietnamese rice paper rolls instead of those awful mini quiches.
She’d fallen into a light doze when a noise came from behind her. Suzie forced her eyes open, then turned her head to see Nate easing down beside her. He sat with his knees bent, not looking at her, but staring at the water in front of them. A tiny, tree-covered island was passing slowly by on their left.
Suzie struggled up to sitting and gave Nate her best glare. He’d taken off his shirt. Did he think she’d be attracted to his bare chest? Not a chance. Although those muscles of his were hard to look away from. His abs rippled like the surface of a lake. Holy deliciousness, did the man spend his entire life working out?
With an effort, she forced her glare back to his eyes. “What are you doing?”
<
br /> He shrugged. “You were blocking my view.” He stared straight ahead and she followed his gaze. The water in front of them was a light, translucent blue, so it had to be shallow. And there was something huge and black rising out of it.
Suzie jumped to her feet. “There’s a rock. We’re going to hit it!”
Nate didn’t budge. What was wrong with him?
She raced to the steering wheel and tried to wrench it around, but it was hard to move, as though it was fighting her.
Finally Nate was on his feet too, rushing towards her. She’d thrown her body weight against the wheel, but it still wasn’t turning. It made a weird grinding noise.
Instead of helping, Nate grabbed her shoulder and tugged. “Suzie, let it go.”
The grinding sound got louder, but the stupid boat was going the wrong way. It was turning the opposite direction to the way she was trying to wrench the wheel.
“Suzie, stop. It’s steering itself—”
A loud bang made her jump. The engine coughed and died. Was that smoke she could smell? The engine had stopped, but they were still drifting towards the rock.
Nate grabbed the ignition key, turned it off, then on again. Nothing happened. “Shit. I’ll drop the anchor.” He ran to the front of the boat and Suzie followed. Perhaps she could help.
Nate did something to a winch, then pushed the anchor off its holder into the water. The chain rattled noisily as it ran out. Suzie stared at the rock. It was big, but not quite as close as she’d thought. And the tiny island was a short distance away to their side. Just a single hill covered in trees, with more rocks and a little white sand around its edge.
After lots of chain had rattled out, Nate stopped the winch. She stared at him in the sudden silence, her heart still pounding. Hopefully there wasn’t too much damage to the engine and he could get it started again. But she didn’t like his expression. It seemed almost accusing.
“At least we didn’t run into that rock.” She tilted her chin up. “No thanks to you.”
