by Demi Alex
“Who was that?” Grace asked.
“My ex-husband’s stepbrother,” Charlie replied.
The stiffness in Ford’s body returned. Breath hissed through his teeth.
“Honestly, he’s okay,” Charlie said. “He’s not like James. Nothing like James. Will even tried to warn me away from him.”
Regardless of how much Charlie insisted Will was “okay,” Ford hadn’t missed his introduction as an acquaintance. An acquaintance was not a friend. An acquaintance was not concerned. There was more to the story, but it would need to wait for when they were alone. That was third-date material. He kissed her temple and squeezed her shoulder.
“Okay, baby. I’ll let it go.” For now. But he wasn’t dismissing the guy being there and especially not disregarding the fact that he’d approached Charlie. Nor was he going to let him within any proximity in the future. He was simply going to keep her to himself and court his lady as he’d intended to do. He’d woo her, get her, and figure out the rest later. He went for a lighter approach. “After all, this is our first date. Shit happens on first dates.”
“I’m sorry the scavenger hunt is ruined for you,” Charlie said, reaching for Grace’s hand. “Heard things were getting interesting.”
“Interesting is putting it mildly,” Tyler grumbled. “More like blistering. I need to get my girl some accessories since she’s expressed a specific liking or two.”
“It was fun while it lasted,” Grace said. “Lugging this big guy around got us some amused looks from the other participants.” She snuggled close to Tyler and turned her face up for a kiss. He obliged, and she turned to wink at Charlie. “And he thinks I’m responsive.”
That comment earned her a swat on her backside, and they all laughed. Charlie’s mood had significantly improved, and Ford knew his grand-mère had it right. A woman enjoyed being courted. The double date had also been a good way to go. It was nice being with another couple. Easy, fun, and just plain nice. Then it hit him. She wasn’t just his; he was also hers. They were a couple. Fuck.
“How about a stroll through the city of love for a delicious latte?” Charlie asked.
“More coffee?” Ford looked down at her and shook his head. “You’re going to be wired. I won’t be able to keep you under control.”
“You complaining, Mr. Control?” Charlie retorted.
“No, ma’am. No way.”
As they walked off the pool deck and to the elevator banks, Grace cleared her throat. “Speaking of control, has anyone seen Emma?”
“Grayson led her toward the aft of the promenade when we left the auditorium,” Ford said. “They didn’t even wave good-bye.”
“Aren’t the vendors with the toys on the promenade?” Tyler asked, and Ford confirmed they were.
“That’s good,” Grace breathed, and wrapped her hand around Tyler’s arm. “Maybe Grayson could remind her of how good it is to play?”
“It’s kind of convenient how things have developed since dinner,” Charlie said. “You think Lovers Sail played matchmaker by seating us all at the same table?”
“For sure,” Ford said, looking away before she had time for another question.
* * *
Over coffee, they learned that Tyler had a seven-year-old son named Chase who was being looked after by Tyler’s sister. He also owned a motorcycle repair shop that specialized in Harley-Davidsons, and was an avid fan of country music. Recently divorced, but officially separated for almost three years, Grace had no children, loved reading the classics, and was currently in between jobs. She was considering going back to school to get her teaching degree. Tyler pointed out the plethora of universities in Wake County, North Carolina, and she blushed with appreciation.
Tyler and Grace looked good together. They complemented each other.
“What about the two of you? You’re a perfect couple,” Grace said, throwing that adjective around.
Strangely, with Charlie tucked against him, Ford didn’t mind the reference. Even if he had seen enough to know that couples didn’t last, he’d take it while he could have it with Charlie. Having her against him felt too good not to. Fuck, he was a damaged selfish bastard. And fuck him when she figured it out and turned tail and ran.
“Well, um . . .” Charlie shifted in his arms.
“The way we met was perfect,” Ford said, rubbing his palm down the gooseflesh on her arm. His Charlie didn’t like deceiving anyone. He wasn’t about to let her down. So he chimed in, answering the question and giving her some breathing room. “When a gorgeous angel flies into a man’s arms, he has no choice but to catch her. I caught her.”
He relayed details of their meeting the previous day, even how Charlie had mistaken Eugenia for his wife, but didn’t bother to include a timeline. He didn’t lie, but he didn’t elaborate. Every word, every feeling was true. He’d caught an angel. He was holding onto her.
“There’s no denying this cruise is temptation personified, but we still have work to do. Charlie uses some of the downtime to work on an article she’s writing for City Wings magazine, and I’m storing up energy reserves for a new business venture that awaits me in New York.” The conversation between Ford and Tyler turned to business and the pace of expansion, effectively removing the focus from the state of “couplehood.”
Charlie’s body relaxed and her skin warmed again. She gave him a relieved smile and kissed his cheek. He grinned when he heard her mumble a promise to Grace that they’d get their girl talk in at a future time.
Once they returned their baskets to Bodhi and his staff, they made plans to attend the comedy show after dinner.
In the meantime, Ford had a second date to plan.
“Miniature golf or rock climbing?” he asked.
Chapter Twenty
Charlie chose rock climbing, which meant a wardrobe change. Ford made a few pointed comments about her picking that activity because she wanted out of a dress that showed off her pretty curves just right, but his reaction to her cuffed khaki shorts, which she’d paired with the neon-pink shirt that read Ask Me across the front, wasn’t lost on her. He gave her a head-to-toe inspection, then his gaze returned to the scrolled lettering and the braless boobs behind it.
“You trying to give me a heart attack, woman?”
“What?” She gave him her most innocent and wide-eyed look, handed him her room card, and strolled past him on four-inch platform sandals that put his mouth within reach. With a touch of her hand on his arm, she led him toward the elevator. “You think the shoes are too high?”
“No, ma’am. We supply climbing shoes on deck.” Placing a hand on each of her hips, his fingers splayed over the rounded flesh of her butt, he walked her back against the wall near the elevator. “Those heels are just fine. They make it easy to reach everything I want. But the total package on such pretty display, and being unavailable, well, that’s reason for bodily pain.”
He dropped his mouth to the curve of her neck and brushed his lips over it before his tongue licked down to her collarbone. His erection pressed into her belly, and his thigh fit between her legs. “I’m trying to be a gentleman. Trying not to think of all that delicious beauty covered by your clothes, but those breasts jutting out are driving me insane. No matter how slow my mind says to take it, I’m aching to take you fast. Fast and hard. You’re making it very difficult for me to stay on track with my original plan for the day.”
“Which is?” Charlie looked up at the fire burning in his eyes, and heat spread over her body.
“To date you. To win you over with charm and witty chitchat.” One hand moved from her ass to the side of her right breast. His thumb stroked over her nipple, and she arched against his touch for more. “There’s so much more to you than a sexy, mouthwatering, hot little body, and I want to get to know as much about you as I possibly can. This sailing and you being so oblivious to your physical appeal are testing my control.”
She shook her head and pushed at his chest, smiling sweetly as she put a few inches betwe
en them.
He placed the pink bikini bottoms in her hand. “Go back in and put these on for later.”
“Give me a minute.” Reaching into his back pocket, she retrieved her room card.
And a minute was all it took for her to return to her cabin, peel off her shirt, put on her bikini top, and then pull her shirt back over it. She stepped out of her shorts and panties, pulled on the pink bottoms, and her shorts again, then walked back out, took his hand, and suggested they take the stairs. No need for more elevator make-out sessions.
“Baby, you could wear a potato sack and I’d still find that sweet ass sexy as heaven,” Ford said from behind her, laughter in his voice. “Not to mention the way those tits bounce with each step, making me want to suck them until you come just from my mouth on them. And you will come like that, because from what I’ve tasted of them, and the way you squirmed when I had my mouth on you, those nipples are prime routes to a climax. So, for your information, chère, wearing your suit beneath that shirt does little to relieve my pain, but thanks for trying.”
She kept climbing the stairs, grinning at his exaggerated frustration, but glad he groaned as she turned on the landing and touched her lips to his.
“Honey, we have many dates—your words, not mine—to go on and an article to write. No time for daydreaming and such sweet talk.” Even if the mere thought of having him made her sex pulse like mad. “Maybe you’ll surprise me with another romantic movie in the dark as one of our dates today.”
“Maybe,” he replied.
And she really wished he would.
* * *
They hadn’t even had lunch yet, but Charlie had stepped outside her comfort zone and climbed a thirty-foot rock wall, beat Ford at a round of miniature golf while he stood behind her and showed her how to move her hips for the perfect swing, and had even spent time in the arcade playing air hockey and pretending to ski a double black diamond on a simulator.
“That was some play date,” she said, walking into the restaurant, her fingers interlaced with Ford’s. “It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome,” he replied. “Thank you for the date, chère.”
They chose a table for two in the back of the dining room with a view of the sea. He ordered a burger and fries; she decided on the Mediterranean antipasto plate. She was biting on a green olive when he put down his burger and leaned back in his seat.
“Your shirt says to ask you, so I’m asking: What’s the story with William Norrington?”
She dropped the remaining half of the olive on her plate and shrugged. “He’s not like James. Not in many ways.”
Ford didn’t speak but waited for her to continue.
“Will is the bad boy in the family,” she said. “He is wild, reckless, and takes no shit from his father and grandfather. Doesn’t care which fork he uses for the salad, and doesn’t care if he drinks beer out of the bottle rather than a fine wine in a crystal goblet at dinner.”
“And what does that have to do with warning you away from James?”
Shit, now he was asking the more difficult questions. Part of the answer, he’d undoubtedly discovered with his Internet search. The other was something she’d never discussed with anyone other than Will.
“Chère?” Ford prompted. “No matter your answer, I’ll understand. I simply want to know what we’re up against with him.”
“Okay,” she said, shaking her head. “You already know who I am and the kind of responsibility that comes with my family name. You didn’t freak over it, so I’m guessing you understand why I’m hesitant in laying it all out.”
“I also identify with it,” he said. “My father cut me off when I told him I wasn’t joining his firm and I decided against a law degree. I wanted nothing to do with his business and wanted him nowhere near mine.” He covered her hand with his. “I think we have that in common. Not that your family cut you off, but that we each want to be our own person and not a puppet of our family name.”
They did have that in common, but Ford not following in his dad’s footsteps wasn’t exactly as public as her being torn to shreds over making the wrong choice when it came to fortifying her family’s fiscal position. She’d fucked up and chosen wrong. Both for her family and for herself.
“James is a con artist,” she continued. “Proof is that he’s doing time for embezzling and trying to take the whole family for a ride. He’s also a con artist when it comes to personal relationships. He’s incapable of a personal relationship. He never wanted me; he only wanted access to my family’s money.” She bit her lower lip with the admission, and her vision went blurry from the tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, chère. You were young and inexperienced, and the fucker took advantage of your nature.”
She shook her head. She’d known all along that it was a financial arrangement on James’s behalf. She had. She wasn’t stupid. But she’d believed James had loved her in his own way and would eventually come to love her the way she wanted to be loved. She had accepted the lack of affection until that time would come. James had the exact ambition and business savvy her parents thought appropriate. He was charming in public, phenomenal at networking, and always closed his deals.
“I figured out what he was about rather quickly. I knew.” She didn’t meet Ford’s gaze because she didn’t want to see the pity in his eyes, so she stared at her lap. “Will knew, too. We became friends, and he tried to warn me before I married the asshole. I didn’t listen, and eventually Will had to back off.”
“So Will stopped being your friend?” Now Ford looked pissed. “He left you alone, without any support to face that fucker?”
No, Will wasn’t the reason for the defeated mess she’d crumbled into when the shit hit the fan and she couldn’t look away any longer. That had been all her doing. She carried all the responsibility, because she should have walked away from the messed up situation, but she hadn’t. She should have seen James’s true colors and not rationalized them away.
No sane man would let his woman, not one the likes of you, sleep alone, Will had insisted. The jerk is fucked in the head. You need more than he is capable of giving. Call it off, sweetheart. Call it off.
“No. He didn’t actually back away during the marriage. Just stopped insisting I see the light. We became even better friends,” she said, and Ford’s gaze narrowed on her. This conversation was proving harder than she’d originally thought. “Like I said earlier, he was the wild one in the family. He made it his personal mission to make family vacations fun and bearable for me.” She attempted a smile that she knew wasn’t real.
“James never did that for you?” Ford asked.
“We really didn’t interact much when we weren’t expected to,” she said, hearing how nuts it sounded and rubbing her forehead to ward off a headache. It only got worse after she had accepted his ring. He’d acted like she was an inconvenient appendage, not a lover. “As for Will, I got to know him during the family vacations. He would burst into the sedate gatherings with a sexy woman on his arm and a ready joke on his lips.”
In typical Will fashion, he didn’t care that his brother complained about being kept awake into the wee hours of the night because he banged “the latest slut”—James’s words not Charlie’s—into submission without any consideration for the family. The truth was Will made certain she’d hear . . . on purpose. He’d admitted as much to her. You deserve to scream and moan in pleasure. Can’t you see what you’re missing?
“So Will is easygoing, likes sex, and doesn’t bother to hide it,” Ford added. “Guess that explains his presence on the ship.”
She nodded, but once again lowered her gaze to her lap. “James was not into sex, didn’t like it, and didn’t bother to hide it.”
“He wasn’t a good lover,” Ford said, pulling her back into the moment and out of the sadness that had consumed her. “That’s all him, baby. Nothing to do with you. You’re so sexy and sweet, a man would have to be crazy
not to do everything in his power to learn how to please you.”
“I don’t think James noticed or cared that our relationship lacked intimacy,” she said. If he did, he didn’t do a thing about it. “He didn’t try to please me. It was more his husbandly duty.”
“That’s nuts. Did anyone else notice his attitude and say anything?”
Will had noticed, and he had told her as much. In fact, he’d repeatedly told her she deserved better. She deserved laughter with her man, wild sex that led to multiple orgasms, and everything his stepbrother wasn’t giving her.
“I already said that Will warned me. But I didn’t listen.” Not until it was much too late. Not until she’d lost herself and had felt like something to be scraped off the bottom of a shoe. “And in the end, it didn’t matter. James stole from my family. He used me to do it.”
Will had stood by her side and kept her sane throughout the horrific ordeal. Once the divorce was final, he had also suggested they give it a try. Not his typical hookups, but an earnest try at a true relationship. Unable to see past the family connection, she’d refused, and that was when they’d drifted apart. How was she supposed to share these details with Ford?
“It’s over,” Ford said, reaching for her hand. “You’re rid of James, and you’re doing great without him. You’re making your way as a journalist. Working to make your mark and do what makes you happy.” He felt her hand relax as he stroked his thumb over her knuckles. “Plus, look at where you are. You’re on a damn kink cruise. You’re surrounded by glorious sex and romance. No more boring sex for my girl. None. You do deserve better. You’re going to have better.”
She gave him a smile, and she knew this one made it all the way to her eyes. She deserved better, wanted better, and was going to have better.
“I’m up to the task,” he said, squeezing her hand and insisting she hold his gaze.
“What?” Charlie asked.
“Chère, I don’t care what it takes, and I don’t care what kind of barriers I need to deal with, you’ll take your pleasure.”
