by Tawna Fenske
“Do you want some water or a sink or some toothpaste or something?” Alex asked.
Juli extracted the toothbrush again. “No. This is how I brush my teeth.”
Alex stared at her, feeling fairly certain this was the strangest woman he’d met in a long time. Strange, but maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. She made him laugh, and it had been a helluva long time since he’d done much of that. And God she was gorgeous, even with the toothbrush making her cheek balloon like a hamster’s pouch. Her eyes were that perfect, aqua blue of Caribbean water. Her hair made him want to tangle his fingers through those loopy curls again. And that body…
As though reading his thoughts, Juli grinned at him around the toothbrush.
“So where am I sleeping?” she asked.
“The master stateroom.”
“Wow. Sounds fancy. How’d I score that?”
“There are three sleeping quarters on the boat. This room—which Phyllis has dibs on—and the guest room with two bunks—which is where Cody and Jake are sleeping, since they both snore. And then the master stateroom.”
Juli grinned. “So you’re sleeping with me?”
“No.” Alex shook his head and tried to ignore the surge of lust that hit him in the gut at the thought. “Out here—no. Bad idea for a lot of reasons. I’m sleeping on the flybridge, if the weather holds. If it doesn’t, I’ll be in the salon.”
“Flybridge? Salon? Do any rooms on this boat have normal names?”
“The flybridge is the open area on the upper deck. You can drive the boat from there or from the pilothouse on the main level where Jake is right now. The salon is sort of like the living room. It’s the one right off the pilothouse.”
“Where the cockpit is?”
“Right. And bonus points for knowing your boat terminology.”
Juli grinned. “I saw that in the pamphlet for my boat tour. Only whoever designed it couldn’t fit the word on one line, so it looked like two words. Cock. Pit. Funny, don’t you think?”
Alex stared at her. Juli shrugged and stuffed the toothbrush back in her knapsack. Then she looked at him again. “So you have your own sailboat.”
“Yes,” he said cautiously.
“Expensive. Must be a real chick magnet.”
“Right. That’s pretty much why I bought it. I don’t even know how to sail.”
She grinned again, and Alex felt some of the tension leave his shoulders. Then he wondered what the hell he was tense about in the first place. It wasn’t just the pirate mission or the job loss. There was something about discussions of women and money that always made him want to bite the head off large rodents.
“You’re a funny guy,” Juli said.
“I’m here to amuse you.”
“Great! So now what?”
He raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Well, are there any onboard activities or anything?”
Alex stared at her again. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but did you miss the part where we said this isn’t really your charter boat?”
She rolled her eyes. “I get that, wise guy. But don’t you guys have anything fun to do? A drinking game or a crossword puzzle or an entertaining interlude where you name all the marine life or something?”
Alex wanted to give her a stern look, but he could feel her exuberance making him smile in spite of himself. He fought it hard. “I think Cody brought Battleship—”
“Battleship! Wanna play?”
“Um—”
“The bald guy is driving the boat now, right?”
“Well yes, but—”
“So just a quick game.”
This was definitely not how he’d envisioned this pirate mission. Not at all. But Juli stood grinning at him, looking like a deranged mermaid, and Alex felt something warm inside him. Those eyes. And were those freckles on her nose? There was something so undeniably sweet about this woman. So fresh and warm and—
“I think I’m going to puke,” she gasped, her face turning an interesting shade of green faster than Alex could register the change.
Alex jumped back, frantically scanning the room for a suitable receptacle. Snatching a high-heeled leather boot from a corner of the floor, he handed it to her.
Just in time. Juli grabbed the boot and hurled into it.
Alex froze, not sure whether to give her some privacy or pat her back and murmur comforting words.
“Hold my hair?” she choked.
“Um—”
Alex grabbed a fistful of blonde curls and then studied the grain of the woodwork, trying to imagine himself anywhere but here. When Juli was finished, she set the boot on the floor and fished a water bottle out of the side pocket of her knapsack.
Alex watched her rinse her mouth, the color returning slowly to her face.
“Sorry about that,” she said, looking sheepish. “The ocean doesn’t really agree with me.”
“You still feel seasick?”
“Well, the drugs have probably worn off by now.”
“What did you take?”
Juli reached into her knapsack again and handed him a half-crushed cardboard box. He read the back and then studied her again. “You allergic to morphine?”
“Dunno.”
“If you are, it’s no wonder this stuff made you loopy. Come on. Let’s get you moved into your new cabin, and then out into the open air. I’ll give you something that’ll work a little better.”
He expected a joke about him luring her to the master suite on their wedding night, but Juli just stuffed her belongings in her pack, avoiding his eyes.
“Really, I’m sorry,” she said, shoving a shoe into the pack with more force than necessary. “I didn’t mean to ruin your trip.”
“You didn’t ruin our trip,” Alex said, feeling an odd pang in his chest. “Not yet, anyway. The day’s still early.”
“I’m such an idiot,” she said. “I always do stuff like this.”
“Stow away on strangers’ boats?”
“No. I mean I do the wrong thing and then everyone knows I don’t fit in.”
“You weren’t on our passenger list,” Alex pointed out. “I’m pretty sure we would have noticed you didn’t belong.”
She gave him a weak smile. “You know what I mean.”
He smiled back and touched her elbow. “Come on. You got everything?”
Juli glanced around the cabin. “Um, the boot?”
“Right,” Alex said. “We can dump that overboard in a sec. Sorry, I hope it wasn’t expensive.”
“The boot? Wasn’t mine.”
Alex grimaced. “Shit. Phyllis?”
“I doubt it. It’s a size 15 wide. Nice leather. Excellent detailing. Prada, actually. I wouldn’t have puked in it if I’d looked at it a little more closely. Cody maybe?”
Alex winced, wondering if this trip could possibly get any weirder. With a sigh, he hoisted his wife’s knapsack onto his shoulder.
“Bring the boot, and let’s go.”
Chapter 5
“I thought I was supposed to look out at something not moving,” Juli said, taking a sip of the tea Alex had given her as she stared out over the ocean from her lounge chair on the flybridge. “The horizon or something.”
Alex leaned down and took the tea from her before placing something sticky and amber-colored in her palm. “We’re in the middle of the ocean. Everything’s moving. Have some crystallized ginger.”
Juli accepted the amber lumps without much of a glance, preferring to stare straight into Alex’s eyes. They were the most interesting shade of green. Even with her aversion to the water, she couldn’t help but conjure up a plethora of ocean metaphors. Deep-sea green. Green as a glass float. Seaweed green.
Seasick green.
God, why did she have to puke in front of him? Was there anything more embarrassing? So much for her efforts to be normal for a change. So much for trying to fit in.
Alex frowned. “You okay? Your ears just turned really red all of a sudden.�
��
Juli touched her chilly fingers to one earlobe, holding the ginger lumps in her other palm. “I’m fine, really.”
“Are you going to eat that ginger or just fondle it?”
“Will fondling it be enough to get rid of the seasickness?”
“No. And neither will eating it. If you’re already seasick, there’s not much we can do about this round. We’re trying to prevent the next round. Are those bands tight enough?”
Juli fiddled with the odd little wristbands he’d slipped over her hands just a few minutes earlier. Small plastic beads pressed between her tendons, performing some sort of acupressure miracle Alex swore by.
“Tight enough for what?” she asked.
“Your wrists seem awfully small. Can you feel pressure?”
“Sure. Am I supposed to have circulation?”
“Preferably. I’d rather not have to amputate your hands at sea.”
Juli turned her wrist up to look at it. “Do they come in other colors? Seems like they could market pink ones for women, maybe yellow ones for kids—”
“Why don’t you phone me the next time you decide to stow away on my boat and I’ll be sure to have a full palette of colors for you to choose from.”
Juli grinned and grabbed the tea back from him, taking another sip as the wind ruffled her hair. The warm air above deck certainly felt better in her lungs than the stale stuff down in her cabin. Of course, that may have been because the air below deck smelled like regurgitated breakfast.
“Did Cody handle it okay when you told him about the boot?” she asked as she took another sip of tea.
“Cookie.”
“What?”
“He wants us to call him Cookie out here. And yes, he was fine with the boot. He offered to let you use the other if you need it.”
“That’s sweet.”
“That’s Cody.”
“He seems like a nice guy.”
“The best,” Alex agreed, easing himself onto the deck chair beside her.
“You seem very protective of your crew. Kind of paternal, really. You have kids?”
“No.”
“And you never got married?”
Alex stared at her. “Drink your tea and eat your ginger so you won’t have to take Cookie up on the boot offer.”
“Thanks for having him bring Uncle Frank up here.” Juli patted the top of the urn. “I promised he’d get to see the ocean as much as possible on this trip.”
“Don’t mention it. That thing’s latched, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not a fan of cremated remains flying around my boat.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Juli took another swig of the brew, then opened her palm and eyed the sticky lumps. “Candied ginger root?”
“Plenty of sailors swear by it.”
“My mother puts it in tuna casserole.”
“You don’t say.”
Juli tossed the lumps into her mouth and chewed, watching Alex as she washed the gummy, spicy mess down with another mouthful of tea. Reclining in a deck chair beside her, Alex might have appeared relaxed to the casual observer.
But Juli wasn’t a casual observer. She saw the odd glance he’d exchanged with Cody when he brought the tea. She heard him murmuring something to Phyllis earlier when the two of them went rooting for the acupressure bands. Heard the sharp notes of worry in the older woman’s voice. Something was up with these guys. Nervous cartographers? Was this really a high-stress occupation? It didn’t seem likely.
Or rather, it didn’t seem likely that was truly what they were doing out here. But why would they make up a lame story like that?
“You done?” Alex asked, taking the mug from her hand.
“Done. Thank you. For taking care of me, I mean.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Really, I mean, I’m a stowaway on your ship and all. You don’t have to be this nice.”
“I do have to. I don’t want you to puke again. It’s a rental. There’s a cleaning fee.”
“I’m touched by your concern.”
Alex grinned, his eyes crinkling pleasantly at the corners. “I’m a touching kind of guy.”
Juli felt the heat creep into her cheeks and took a sip of tea, hoping he wouldn’t notice. “So your friends—the other cartographers—they don’t like me much,” Juli said, wincing a little at the neediness in her own voice. “Did you tell them I’m sorry about all this?”
“It’s okay. You were just a surprise to them. And anyway, they don’t dislike you. Didn’t Cody ask you like a dozen times if he could braid your hair?”
“I thought that was part of the plot to throw me overboard.”
“No, that’s Phyllis who wants to throw you overboard. And Jake. And they wouldn’t really do it. Probably. It’s just that you weren’t in the plans.”
“I see,” Juli said. “And what are the plans, exactly?”
Alex stared at her for a few beats. “Like I told you. We’re mapping deserted islands. Do you know how many uncharted islands exist in the region where the Caribbean meets the Atlantic?”
“Isn’t that a trick question? If they’re uncharted—”
“There are a lot of them,” Alex said, ignoring her question. “This is a popular area for cartographers to work.”
“Why do I have the feeling there’s something you guys aren’t telling me?”
He grabbed her cup and swung his legs off the edge of the deck chair. “More tea?”
“Please.”
“You’ll feel better once you’ve got something in your stomach. Cody—Cookie—is down in the galley right now getting dinner ready, so that should help. You feeling okay?”
“Sure. So am I still going to get to spread my uncle’s ashes in the place I told you about?”
Alex looked out at the ocean for a minute, his expression thoughtful. When he returned his gaze to her, Juli felt her stomach give a pleasant little flip.
“Tell you what,” Alex said. “No matter what happens, I’ll make sure you get to do that. One way or another.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“That’s very nice of you,” she said. “Uncle Frank also asked me to throw two vodka tonics in the water and play Loverboy’s ‘Turn Me Loose’ when I toss the ashes. Will I get to do that?”
“Don’t press your luck.”
A soft, tinny tinkling sounded beneath them. Juli cocked her head to the side, listening. “Is that a triangle?”
“I’m not sure.”
Beneath them, Cody’s voice boomed. “Hey, guys! I’ll be serving hors d’oeuvres in the galley in six minutes. It’s black tie optional, of course.”
“Good thing,” Alex muttered. “I’m not sure where I packed my black tie.”
“You know, I actually do have a little black cocktail dress,” Juli said. “I brought it in case I ended up on one of those fancier cruise ships.”
“Save it,” Alex said. “Maybe you’ll get lucky and end up on one of those boats soon.”
Alex stood and extended a hand to her, hoisting her up with almost no effort. Nice arms, Juli thought, watching him turn and start toward the stairs. Nice ass, too, she amended, then chastised herself for ogling the captain. He’d made it clear they weren’t going to be picking up where they left off last night. He was all-business out here, though she had to admit she was curious about the nature of the business. Alex was definitely hiding something, though she had no idea what.
“So how do you guys decide who drives the boat?” Juli asked.
“We drew up a shift schedule, so we take turns. It’s mostly Jake and me, since Cookie is handling all the galley duties and Phyllis is dealing with all the computers and navigation.”
“Can I have a turn?”
Alex glanced over his shoulder at her. “You can operate a powerboat?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never tried. And maybe it’d be like motion sickness in a car—you know how you don’t get sick when you�
��re driving?”
“Right. It’s just like that. Without the fur dice on the rearview mirror.”
“Are you mocking me?”
“Yes.”
“Fair enough. Anyway, maybe once I get past the seasickness, I could even learn to like boating.”
Alex raised an eyebrow at her. “Thirty minutes ago you said you’d rather shave your legs with a carrot peeler than spend another hour on this ship.”
“I was puking at the time. The ginger has given me a new perspective.”
“Powerful stuff, ginger.”
They descended the narrow stairwell together, Alex a few steps ahead of her, reaching back to steady her once when she wobbled a little. They stepped into the pilothouse and moved toward the U-shaped dinette area where Cody—Cookie—had set the table with blue linen place mats and perfectly pressed linen napkins folded into the shape of a swan.
“Wow, Cookie, something smells delicious!” Juli said, taking a seat and spreading her napkin over her lap. “I hope you didn’t go to all this trouble because you have a guest onboard.”
Cody beamed at her. “No, no. This is just something I’d planned to do once we started this leg of the journey. I have a complete gourmet menu drawn up for the duration of our mission.”
“Mission?”
“That’s what cartographers call it,” Alex said, glancing up as Phyllis stepped into the room. “Right, Phyllis?”
Phyllis nodded and settled into the chair beside Juli. “Right. I’m starving.”
“I’ve selected wines that complement each course of the meal, so we’re starting with a crisp Pinot Gris from Napa Valley,” Cody said, filling their glasses from a bottle plucked from an ice bucket at the center of the table. Juli took a cautious sip as she watched Cody set the bottle back in the bucket and return to the table with a silver tray.
“Here we have bacon-wrapped dates in a port wine demiglace. And these are miniature quesadillas with brie and fresh grapes.”
Juli pointed at the pretty green flourish on the quesadillas. “What are the green swirly things shaped like flowers?”
Cody beamed. “That’s green pea guacamole. I used a pastry tool to achieve the exact shape of a gardenia.”
Juli clapped her hands together. “It’s lovely! Thank you.”
