by Talia Hunter
He caressed her bare butt cheeks and gave a low groan.
“You’re killing me, Suz.”
“Got to fill in the time somehow.” She gave him an innocent look over her shoulder. “If you prefer, I can look for a deck of cards—” She groaned, unable to finish the thought with his fingers between her legs.
“I need a condom.” He started to move off her and she couldn’t bear for him to stop touching her. She didn’t normally take risks, but this was Nate, not one of her bad boys. Surely he’d be safe.
“It’s okay,” she gasped. “I’m on the pill.”
He hesitated, his hand caressing her bare ass. Driving her crazy because his hand was almost-but-not-quite where she needed it to be. “I’m clean. But are you sure you want to take my word for it?”
“I’m sure.” And if he didn’t stroke between her thighs again, she was going to tackle him and force him to do it.
Nate leaned over her and pulled her long wet hair back from her face, gathering its length behind her head so he could kiss behind her ear.
His body weight pushed her down lower, so she was lying over the seat cushion. Then she felt his hardness press against her. His leg went over her thigh, pushing her legs closed over his length. It made her entrance so tight, she was afraid he might not fit. He braced, his hand holding her hip. She cried out as his length slid into her and pushed in deep.
She grabbed the edge of the seat and clung to it. He let go of her hair and it fell in wet strands over her face as she pushed back against him, helping him thrust inside her. “Nate,” she groaned. “Oh God.”
He paused. “Too intense?”
She wanted to laugh. Was he kidding? One more thrust like that and she was going to either orgasm or die, she wasn’t sure which. “I’m okay,” she gasped. Two words were all she could manage. His hand slid underneath her, around to her front, and his leg lifted off her thigh. She lifted her hips and parted her thighs so he could caress her. Oh yes. Yes. Maybe she’d orgasm, then die. As long as it happened in that order, she was beyond caring.
He lifted her hips further and his fingers stroked her as he thrust into her again, hard and fast. She mashed her butt against his pelvis, matching his rhythm and relishing the sensation of his length filling her to capacity. It felt like she was the perfect size for him, and if he was just a fraction of an inch bigger he wouldn’t have fit.
Sweet mother of ecstasy, he must discovered a few hundred new g-spots and he’s hitting them all.
Her orgasm swept over her faster than she’d expected, so strong it took her by surprise. Could he make her come like this every freaking time? He seemed to know exactly what she needed, and how she needed it.
He pumped her hard, bringing on wave after wave of pleasure as she surrendered herself to the sensation. Finally, as her own orgasm was starting to recede, she felt — and heard — his release.
Afterward, he lay over her for a few minutes. They were both breathing hard and in spite of his weight on her she felt as light as air. As though if he got off her, she’d go floating off into the upper atmosphere, never to be seen again.
“What are you doing to me?” he murmured so softly, she wasn’t sure whether he was asking her or himself. Then he moved and let her get up. He kissed her and brushed her hair from her face, and laughed a little for no apparent reason. Mind you, she felt like laughing too. It was something about the lightness of her body and the happiness in her chest. And by the look on his face, he felt the same way.
Not that she could stand around laughing with him. Her dress was covering her now, but her panties were in a damp heat on the ground and she really had to go to the bathroom to clean up.
She tugged herself out of his grip. “Back in a minute.”
“You want a warm cider? I’ll split one with you.”
“Sounds good.”
She floated down to wash and change. By the time she came back, he’d set up the cockpit’s collapsable dining table. Two glasses of cider were waiting.
She and Nate sat together on the bench seat she’d been lying over. There they were shaded from the late afternoon sun, and could watch the sun sparkling on the water. The blues and greens of the land and water around them were spectacular, and there wasn’t another soul for miles.
If it weren’t for Friday’s wedding, Suzie would be in heaven. But now her after-sex glow was fading, she was starting to feel anxious again. And Nate must be feeling the same time pressure.
“What are you going to do about your test?” she asked, feeling guilty again. “You can’t do it now.”
He took a gulp of his cider and shook his head. “At least I have enough preliminary data to do most of the software changes. In fact, I should be working on it right now.”
“What software changes?”
He shot her his crooked grin, the one that made her insides melt.
“I haven’t told you about my software yet, have I? It’s more than a self-drive system. It’s an artificial intelligence system that learns. It remembers everything about the surfaces it travels on. If it’s raining, it knows where the dips and potholes are and works out exactly how deep the surface water is and how slick the road is likely to be. And that kid with his raincoat pulled over his eyes who’s about to run in front of you? By the time his foot’s lifted off the sidewalk, our system’s figured out how to avoid him.”
His eyes were shining and she wanted to smile at how enthusiastic he was. It obviously meant a lot to him.
“And you’ve wired your system into the yacht? How will that work?” She pushed her back into the corner of the seat and pulled up one leg so her knee was on the seat between them. Now she could face him and rest her glass of cider on her leg.
“I need to make sure we can adapt it to use in boats without a total code re-write,” he said. “My business partner, Tristan, wants to sell our software. I don’t. A car manufacturer’s made us a generous offer, and I need to convince him to turn it down. Putting together a solution for boats will help fund us to go it alone.”
As problems went, it didn’t sound half bad. She should be so lucky to have a problem like that. “How generous is their offer?” she asked.
“Fifty-five million dollars.”
She jerked, spilling cider on her thigh. “Be serious.”
He didn’t say anything, just looked at her. It had to be a joke, didn’t it? So why wasn’t he laughing?
“Fifty-five million dollars?” She tried out the number on her tongue just to see what it felt like. It was Monopoly money. Anyone who did deals that enormous was living in an entirely different world.
“It’s not about the money.”
Wiping the spilt cider off her thigh, she couldn’t help but give a shocked laugh. “Not about the money?” she repeated. “Then what is it about?”
“For three years we’ve had a team of fifteen programmers working full-time on the software. The big guys are throwing billions at creating self-drive systems, but Tristan and I spent a fraction of that and came up with an artificial intelligence system that’s better than any of them.” He grinned. “We always joke that we’re creating Skynet.”
“Skynet? From the Terminator movies?”
“You like science fiction movies? The perfect woman.”
She still hadn’t got over the fifty-five million dollar shock yet, but she managed a smile. “You’re creating smart robots.”
He nodded. “And eventually the robots will become our overlords and wipe out the entire human race.”
“So you’ve developed a system so smart that somebody wants to pay you all that money. But you don’t want to sell it. Instead you want to use it in boats to drive around rocks?”
“Exactly.”
She drank some cider. That much money was impossible to wrap her head around. But he was already loaded after selling Journeyman, so it probably didn’t mean as much to him. It had been too easy to forget he wasn’t just an ordinary guy with the same kind of problems most people faced
. Somehow he’d discovered the secret to success. He was a genius, but was brains all it took? Because if it was, bad luck for her.
“Can I ask you a question?” she said, putting her cider safely on the table. “How did you get so successful?”
He shrugged. “Just lucky.”
“You sold Journeyman for squillions. Now you’ve got a new hit in a completely different field. It’s not luck. It’s something you’re doing. What is it?”
Nate hesitated, looking sightlessly to the side as though he were really thinking about her question. She realized she was leaning forward, holding her breath. If she could be anything like that successful, just once, it would change her whole life.
“You know what’s made the biggest difference in the way I look at things? It came from growing up with Harrison. Watching him.”
“What do you mean?”
“My brother taught me a lesson I’ll never forget and it’s shaped everything I do. When I wonder if I’m doing the wrong thing, I think about him and what he went through.”
“What lesson?”
Nate shook his head. “It’s Harrison’s story to tell. He’s the one who went through it, and it’s up to him if he wants to share it.”
“What?” She sat back in disbelief. “You can’t stop now. You have to tell me.”
“I can’t. Ask Harrison when you see him. You are going to see him, right? Didn’t you already promise?”
“Yes, but…” She let out an exasperated breath. “At least give me the gist of it. You can do that much, can’t you?”
“He taught me persistence. The power of believing in something, and keeping going.” He laughed, shaking his head. “But that doesn’t really cover it. Get Harrison to relate his story, then you’ll understand.”
“You’re so mean.” She grabbed her cider, screwing up her face. “You tease me with the secret to success and then say you can’t tell me. That’s torture, pure and simple.”
He dropped his hand onto her knee. Her skin was still damp and a little sticky from spilt cider, but he didn’t seem to notice. “You don’t need my secrets. You have your own business and you’re about to cater a big wedding. The way you cook, you don’t need any help at all.”
Suzie’s face went warm. Why did she lie to him? Now was the perfect time to tell the truth about it not being her business. But how could she confess she’d only been able to get a part time job, and only because Marianna did her a favor? If he knew about her struggle to find work, would he still look at her like that? Would he still want her?
“Besides,” he said, before she could screw up her courage. “Harrison didn’t give me a crystal ball. He can’t help me decide the right thing to do. Tristan wants to take the money and move onto something else, and maybe we should. Doing it his way would be a hell of a lot easier.”
“You want to know what I think?” She picked up her cider again, glad for the excuse to keep talking about him.
“Of course.”
“When you talk about your software, you’re like a kid at Christmas. I think if you sell now, you’ll regret it.”
“You know what? You’re right.” He grinned, picked up his own cider and clinked their two glasses together. “So screw it. I’m not going to sell, no matter what.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Screw it?”
“Yup.”
“That’s the way you turn down fifty-five million dollars?”
“That’s exactly how to do it. No apologies and no regrets.”
She shook her head. “I still think that’s an arrogant motto. But I like the way you say, Screw it, and that’s the decision made. I think I need to do a bit more of that myself.”
“There you are. I gave you a secret after all.”
Yeah, but not the secret. She was definitely going to ask Harrison about it when she saw him. Hearing about Nate’s multi-million-dollar choices made her more determined than ever. One day, she was going to get to make decisions like that. One day it would be her deciding whether to sell a company for squillions.
First step was to get home and make sure the food at Friday’s wedding was good enough to change Marianna’s mind about the food they offered. If she got a glowing recommendation from the bride, that would do it.
And maybe, once she’d built a reputation, she’d start a catering business of her own.
“So how are we going to get off this boat?” she asked him.
He glanced over the smooth sea. “With no wind we can’t sail anywhere, and with no power I can’t radio the coastguard. But they’ll come and check on us anyway, I’m sure.”
Fingers crossed. As much as she’d enjoyed herself on board the yacht, it was time for it to end.
Only, looking at Nate, that thought stabbed her with regret.
She’d miss him, that was for sure. And who would have thought she’d miss Nate Mason?
It was a good thing the yacht’s steering had broken. If it hadn’t, she wouldn’t have got to spend time with him. And worse, she would never have known what she’d missed out on.
Life sure had a weird sense of humor.
“I’ll throw a line over the side and catch some fish for dinner,” said Nate. “You think you can work some of your magic on it if I get some? Wave your wand and make it taste like angel food?”
She laughed, warmth spreading through her chest even as another slim blade of regret jabbed her through the heart. “Abracadabra,” she said.
14
Much to her satisfaction, Suzie was the one who caught the biggest fish.
Cooking it, she experimented some more with flavors she wouldn’t otherwise have tried. The lime cordial that had made the calamari taste so good turned into a delicious flavor glaze when she mixed it with chili and soy sauce, and stirred in a spoonful of sweet jelly.
She fried one piece of fish with dried herbs and garlic. She dipped another into her beer batter, tried a wine marinade, and even attempted to make a mustard paste taste good. That last experiment was the only one she could call a failure. The rest she arranged on plates like she had the squid.
“Smells like heaven,” said Nate. He hadn’t managed to find a sock big enough for a whole bottle of wine, so she’d donated a pair of leggings and he’d tied off one leg. Now he pulled the bottle of wine out of the wet leggings and felt it. “The pinot grigio has a definite chill.”
They sat in the cockpit so they could admire the spectacular sunset while they ate, and Suzie knew she’d never forget this meal. Right now, she wasn’t even upset about missing another flight. Her heart ached with the beauty of the sunset’s reds and yellows reflected in the still ocean. In front of them were the dishes she’d prepared, smelling and looking good enough that she was proud of what she’d managed to achieve.
And across from her sat Nate, his posture relaxed. His t-shirt was taut across his muscled chest and biceps, and she felt a secret thrill each time those impressive muscles flexed. His eyes were warm and when he gave her his crooked smile, she felt it all the way to her toes.
“I can’t wait a moment longer to taste this.” Nate leaned forward and took a portion of the fish she’d coated with the lime and soy sauce concoction. He closed his eyes as he chewed, then groaned with pleasure. “Up until now, the squid was the best thing I’d ever eaten.” He took another piece. “This might be even better. It’s a close competition, but that sauce is incredible. What’s in it?”
“It’s a secret,” she said smugly. She knew she was a good cook, but his praise still made her happy enough she could have done a little dance. “You can’t expect me to give away all my tricks.”
“Seriously, you should open your own restaurant.” He scooped another big serve onto his plate. “You’re a genius. A natural-born culinary genius, and your talent shouldn’t be wasted.”
She blinked, taken aback. Had Nate ‘Milhouse’ Mason, the guy she’d envied because he was so smart, just called her a genius? She took a sip of her wine to hide the sudden laugh that wanted to fly fr
om her mouth, the laugh that just as quickly wanted to turn into stinging tears. If only he knew the truth. What would he say if he knew she was a high school dropout?
He frowned. “Suzie, are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine.” She shook her head. What was wrong with her? How crazy to get so upset over a casual remark, and a compliment at that. It had been a figure of speech for heaven’s sake. “Sorry, I just…” Her voice trailed off as she remembered Nate’s motto. No apologies no regrets. She’d thought the motto sounded arrogant, but maybe there was something to it. Why was she apologizing? And why the hell did it bother her so much that she hadn’t graduated high school? It was none of his business. Only… she wanted to tell him. More than anything, she wanted to blurt out the truth.
If he looked at her with contempt, or pity, she’d just have to deal with it. And nothing he could say would be worse than what she’d said to herself over the years. Why hadn’t she done the exam at a community college by now? Enough already. She was going to book in for remedial classes as soon as she got home, and too bad if she was the oldest one in the classroom. It was about time she passed that stupid exam and put her secret shame behind her for good.
“Suzie?”
“Which plate of fish do you like best?” She changed the subject away from her sudden mood swing. She had to get a grip. Could the wine be going to her head already?
“All of it.” He heaped another spoonful of fish onto his plate. “You’d better make sure you get enough to eat before I finish the lot.”
She smiled, absurdly pleased that she’d finally made the decision to sit the high school exam again. This time she’d study her butt off and make sure she passed with flying colors. “I have plenty, so go ahead. And there must be one you prefer.”
“All the different ways you’ve cooked it are delicious, but the one with that amazing lime flavor tastes like an angel singing a hymn in my mouth.” He took another bite and sighed. “Flights of angels,” he corrected. “And an orchestra to back them up.”
She laughed. “You’re exaggerating. Besides, it’s easy to make fish taste good when it’s that fresh.”
