She unloaded the supplies from the truck and packed them away onboard the Amanda Claire. After washing down the deck, she went to the bait shack to pick up some bait fish and shrimp. She had the boat ready for a day of offshore fishing a good fifteen minutes before their guests were to arrive, which left her just enough time to slather on sunscreen and check in with Mellie before she lost signal strength.
“Permission to come aboard?”
Gemma dropped her phone on the deck and jumped off the captain’s chair. “What are you doing here?” Her heart beat a little faster, and all the reasons she’d been telling herself to stay away from him blew right out to sea! She didn’t miss a single detail: blue board shorts hanging low on his hips and a faded blue Joe’s Crab Shack t-shirt pulled tight across his broad muscular chest and biceps. That unruly hair falling over his left eye and the way he tossed his head back and ran his hand through the dark locks to get it out of his eyes was perfectly dreamy. “Handsome” didn’t even come close to describing Grey.
“Is that any way to talk to your guest?”
He pulled off his sunglasses and this time Gemma’s heart gave a little flip as his blue-green eyes came into view. Wait…did he say ‘guest’? “Guest?”
Grey hopped onboard in all his smugness without waiting for an invitation. “I’m your charter for the day.”
She started shaking her head no, sure that she’d heard him wrong. “What?”
He plopped down in one of the bench seats and replaced his sunglasses on his nose. “You know. A charter. Where we go out all day to fish and come back weary and sunburned and talk about how much fun we had drowning bait.”
What was he up to? “Why?”
Grey stretched his arms out over the back of the bench and gave her a smile that did funny things to her stomach. “Really, Gemma? These one-word answers are not very forthcoming. Aren’t you supposed to greet your guests and make them feel welcome? I’m not feeling very welcomed.”
There was no way she could spend ten hours with him and not want to jump his bones. No. Not happening. “That’s…that’s because you’re not! Why would you charter a cruise when you have your own boats?” She’d never noticed that his leg bounced from nervous energy. How could he be nervous?
“Ah, yes. I do. But none of them have such a delightful captain as you. Shall we push off, then?”
Before she could stop him, he’d already untied the bow and stern dock lines from the cleats and they were pulling away from the dock. A little voice inside her head was cheering him on. Grey Anderson was taking her on a date! Kind of. She shook her head; this couldn’t end well. “This is my boat. Move. I drive.” Grey brushed past her as they changed places at the helm, causing a static spark between them. She’d wanted to rub against him like a cat. She needed to quit acting like a teenager and stop thoughts like that.
“Of course.” He gave her a sly grin.
From that little smirk on his face, she was confident Grey knew exactly how his nearness affected her. Distance. She needed distance so she could breathe fresh salt air and not his spicy cologne which caused too many indecent thoughts inside her head. “Go sit on deck and put on a lifejacket.”
“Aye, captain.” He saluted smartly and climbed down the ladder to the deck. Gemma headed the boat straight out to sea before he could see the corners of her lip fight to remain down. Eventually, she’d have to ask him what he wanted to try for, if he indeed wanted to fish, and then she could alter their course for the best spot. But for now, she needed time to get herself calmed down.
She wasn’t naive enough to think he only wanted to go fishing—he must have an ulterior motive—but fishing was exactly what they’d do, and she’d keep things completely professional. No touching, and certainly no kissing.
She glanced back at him, determination in her eyes, and her gaze ran over his windswept hair and his strong angular jaw, and those lips that could make her feel oh, so good. She licked her own parched lips and met his gaze. She couldn’t see behind his sunglasses, but it was obvious to her that he knew what she’d been thinking about. He smiled and his sinfully delicious dimples sent her turning back around. She closed her eyes and groaned. How would she survive for ten hours with him and keep her hands to herself?
Chapter 6
Grey
Grey was ready to jump overboard. When he’d come up with the idea of hiring a day-long charter, he’d seen endless possibilities of being trapped on a boat in the middle of the ocean without any way for her to escape. None of those possibilities included fishing! He’d thought they could talk and she’d get to know him. Isn’t that what people do on dates?
Grey flicked the end of his fishing rod and sighed. For the past eight hours, Gemma had taken him from one spot to another to fish for King Mackerel, Mahi Mahi and Grouper, and he hated fishing! Every time he tried to start a conversation she’d turn the conversation back around to something to do with fish, bait, or previous catches.
He knew she was scared—he’d seen it in her eyes—but he was, too. He was in uncharted territory; it scared the crap out of him, but he wanted her in a way that he’d never wanted another woman. He trailed his line and only halfway listened to her talk about the best time of the year for summer flounder. Who cares? He had to do something to get the conversation on a more personal level. But Gemma beat him to it.
“Grey, what’s going on?”
She turned toward him and he wished he could lift her sunglasses from her face so he could see her beautiful blue eyes and know what she was thinking. He wanted to tell her so many things, but she wasn’t ready to hear how badly he wanted her, so he went with another truth. “I hate fishing.”
Gemma sighed and then answered, “Me, too.”
They looked at each other and burst out laughing. Grey felt her laughter wash over him and go all the way to his toes. Did she even realize the effect she had on him? Gemma seemed oblivious to her power. He had to wonder if some of that naïve and innocent young girl still existed. It was hard for him to believe that she still had body-image issues. She was beautiful. Perfect even.
Her eyes danced as she turned to him. “Then why did you charter a day-long cruise?”
He’d never noticed she had three freckles sprinkled around her nose. He couldn’t stop from reaching up and swiping a finger across her smooth cheek. “Because I wanted to be with you.” He lifted her sunglasses from her face. Ah, there they were. Grey waited and watched a myriad of emotions cross her face. For a moment, she closed her eyes and leaned into his touch, and that excited him.
Grey smiled and started reeling in his line. “Want to go swimming? I know a really good cove where we could weigh anchor.”
“Yeah. Okay. I’d like that. Are you talking about Coral Cove?”
He forgot Gemma had grown up in the area. “Of course.” Grey pulled anchor while Gemma stowed their fishing gear. It took them an hour to get to the cove, but they spent the time talking about his family and her grandfather. Grey had no idea that Mr. Jackson had suffered a heart attack, and that was what had brought Gemma back home.
“It must be hard to keep two jobs going.”
“Not really. Pops is fine on the short tours, but the longer ones are too much for him now, so I take those. While I don’t enjoy fishing, I love being out in open water. There’s just something so grounding and peaceful being surrounded by nothing but the blue ocean water with no sight of land. I’ve always found it calming.”
That was his exact feeling as well. It seemed they had a lot in common. “I know your grandfather must be happy to have you back home.”
“He is.” Gemma checked the course setting. “Are you hungry? Would you like a snack?”
“Sure. That would be great.” Grey tried to keep his eyes off her bottom as she bent and rummaged around in the cooler, but it was a lost cause.
“Here we go.” She opened a plastic container and offered him some of the green dead-looking stuff inside. His expression must have mirrored his unenth
usiastic reaction because she laughed and Grey’s stomach clenched at the sound.
“What is it?” Grey eyed the green junk suspiciously.
“Kale chips. Go ahead and try one. I make them myself. They’re very good. Pops even likes them.”
Against his better judgment, he reached in, took a crispy green thing, and gave it a sniff. He got a whiff of salt and garlic and something completely foreign. He wrinkled his nose and tried to look delighted.
Gemma chuckled. “Go on. It won’t hurt you.”
He closed his eyes, tossed the whole thing in his mouth, and crunched down. His eyes flashed open. It wasn’t bad. He wouldn’t call them good, but they weren’t horrible. The flavor reminded him of the time Xander slammed his face into the ground and made him eat a mouthful of grass. That was the taste but with garlic and salt trying their best to mask the hideous flavor. But Gemma looked so cute and excited waiting for his opinion. “Delicious.” He was even able to achieve a believable lip smack.
“Have another.” She pushed the container and he swallowed before reaching in for more. When she turned to set the container down, he tossed the vile chip over the side and said a silent apology to the unlucky fish that ate it.
“See, I told you that you’d like them. Don’t worry—I have plenty.”
Grey’s stomach rolled and this time not in reaction to Gemma laugh. “That’s great!” Grey took the bottle of water she handed him and downed half the bottle to wash the slimy flavor away.
An hour later Grey thought his plan had been a genius move. Gemma had inner tubes on board the Amanda Claire, and they floated around the cove doing nothing more than talking. Grey surprised himself by having a very good time.
“And that was when you made your first million?” Gemma asked, splashing her feet in the water.
“Yeah. Then I reinvested it back into the company. My early success was thanks to Xander. He’s been with me from the start, helping with the financial side of the business and a year later, I was able to open another office in Porto Heli.”
“In Greece? That’s where Xander lives, right?”
“Yeah.”
The water was cooler in the late afternoon sun. Grey opened his eyes without raising his head from the inner tube, his eyes taking in every inch of Gemma’s tanned and toned skin. Her two-piece bathing suit was more conservative than most, yet his reaction when she’d dropped her khaki shorts and blue polo shirt to the deck had been debilitating. He had no idea she’d been hiding a body like that under her clothes. He was a grown man who knew how to control himself and his physical reactions when they weren’t warranted. Except where Gemma was concerned.
Her body was stretched over the inner tube with her long legs trailing in the water and her chest pushed up by the ring as she leaned back and rested her head on the plastic tube. He’d never seen a more erotic sight in his life. Seeing her so natural and beautiful pulled at something inside that he couldn’t identify. Everywhere he looked was perfection. “How did you do it?”
“Do what?” She scooped up a handful of water and let it drop on her chest—beads rolled down each lush slope, and Grey followed every inch of their journey. “How did you get in such amazing shape?”
“You mean how did I lose weight?”
He raised his head and look at her, “Is that okay to ask?”
“Of course. I spend my life talking about my weight-loss journey. When I started college, I was ninety pounds overweight and couldn’t make it across campus in the time allotted between classes, so I had to have a medic assist, which meant I was picked up in a golf cart and transported to class each day. Talk about embarrassing. Then I had to ask for a room on the bottom floor because my dorm didn’t have an elevator and I couldn’t walk up even a few flights of stairs without getting out of breath and my ankles swelling. I had no friends and I hated myself and every bite of food I put in my body, but I kept doing it because I was too depressed and too weak to do anything about it.”
“Was that the first time you’d been away from home?”
“Yeah. That also fed into the depression.”
“What happened then?”
“One morning I woke up and decided I wanted to live life instead of watching it go by. So I canceled my medic assist. I walked to and from class and slowly I changed what I ate. By the end of the first semester, I was down a size. I’d probably lost fifteen pounds. I was so large you couldn’t tell it, but I knew. By the end of my sophomore year, I was teaching my new friends how to cook healthy and quick meals. That’s when I decided to change my major from childhood education to nutritional science.”
What strength and dedication she’d shown at such a young age. “That’s amazing, Gemma. Did you open your business right out of college?”
“No, I’d been working for a fitness center in Raleigh before I graduated. I would have been happy to continue working there, but then Pops had a heart attack, and I moved back home. You know, he’s seventy-five, and I don’t know how many more years I’ll have with him, but I want to be there for him like he was for me. I took a step of faith and used the insurance money my parents left me and opened Fit2Live.”
While she’d been talking, Grey had floated close enough to grab the handle on her float to keep them together. “Gemma Jackson, you are a very remarkable woman, and I admire your resilience.”
She raised her head and smiled at him. “Thank you, Grey. I am very proud of what I’ve accomplished, but I’m a work in progress.”
“What do you mean?”
“Over half my life, I was either too scared or physically unable to live life the way I wished I could. Now I want to do it all. Mellie and I went paragliding at Kitty Hawk. That was such a rush. And we spent a week walking part of the Appalachian trail and I discovered I’m not a fan of camping. We’ve even been on a hot air balloon ride in Asheville and slid down the longest water slide in the world right in the city streets.”
“That’s wonderful, Gemma. You shouldn’t let anything stop you.” He had a few ideas of what they could do. He’d have to call his brother Wyatt, but he’d give her a thrill-seeking adventure.
They leaned their heads back against the plastic tubes. With the breeze gently blowing across their heated skin and their feet dangling in the cool water, Grey didn’t know when he’d spent a more peaceful afternoon—no meetings, no crazy merchants to deal with, and no harassing phone calls from suppliers. Just a beautiful afternoon spent with a gorgeous woman. And other than in his head, sex hadn’t been involved at all.
Later, Gemma pulled into the marina and Grey helped her close the boat down and walked her to her truck. He took her hand and Gemma didn’t pull away. The feel of her small hand in his made him feel like a kid walking his girl to class.
“I’ll admit—this has been nice. Well, once we stopped pretending to fish.”
Grey chuckled, “I enjoyed our time together, too.”
Gemma opened the truck door and tossed her backpack inside.
He didn’t want to let her go. “Go out with me tomorrow. We can take my sailboat down to Southport and go to the Farmers Market and stop at what my mom calls ‘quaint little shops’ along the street. We can even eat lunch at The Provision Company.” Her eyes sparkled and her nose did that adorable scrunching thing he loved.
“I haven’t been there in a while, and I love their shrimp po’boy sandwiches.”
She had to say yes. “So, you’ll go?”
“Grey, why are you doing this? You know nothing can come of it. I don’t do casual, and you don’t do relationships. I just don’t think we should…”
Her words sounded all wrong and hit him hard. “Don’t say no, Gemma. I want to spend more time with you.” Before she could say no, he leaned in, stole a kiss and cheered when she kissed him back. He kept it brief and then backed off. “I’ll pick you up at seven tomorrow morning.” He left her dazed and still leaning on her truck, looking well kissed. He whistled all the way back to his Tarja. This dating stuff wasn’t s
o hard after all.
Chapter 7
Gemma
“Grey, put me down. You’re embarrassing me.” Gemma’s eyes searched the surrounding area, and she slumped down in Grey’s arms when too many sets of eyes were upon them as he carried her down the sidewalk, thankfully away from the hospital.
“No, you’re injured.” His arms tightened around her, pulling her even closer.
Gemma rolled her eyes, but secretly gushed inside from being held in his arms. “I can’t believe you made us waste half our day in the emergency room for a scratch.”
“It isn’t a scratch.”
She chuckled. “They weren’t even going to put any stitches in until you demanded they do so.”
“I still can’t understand those inept doctors only using butterfly bandages. Your leg so needed the real stitches. And I still want you to see a plastic surgeon.”
Gemma took both hands and pulled his face to hers and Grey stopped walking. “Grey. Put me down. I can walk.” When he still didn’t look convinced, she did the strangest yet most natural feeling thing. She pulled his head down and kissed him. In broad daylight and on the sidewalk in downtown Southport. She maybe left her lips attached to his a bit too long, but who could blame her. She rested her forehead on his. She was in so much trouble. The longer she was around Grey, the weaker her resistance was becoming. “I find it very charming that you rushed to rescue me from a broken ornament in the Christmas Mouse shop.”
“I think we should sue.”
Gemma pulled back and saw his genuinely worried face and an unexpected hysterical laugh erupted from her mouth which she quickly disguised as a cough. It was her own fault. Her clumsiness had caused a glass ornament to tip over and fall, crashing at her feet where a shard of glass scratched her leg. Some antiseptic cream and a Band-Aid would have been perfectly fine with her, but not with Grey. “And I thank you for rushing me to the hospital on the handlebars of a bike. I can’t say I’ve ever done that before.”
Billionaires On the Beach: The Anderson Brothers Page 27
