CHAPTER 17 #2
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay here?” Nathan’s breath tickles the back of my neck, and I startle. I hadn’t heard him walk up behind me.
I spare the hammock one last lingering glance and then nudge him back inside.
Like a woman on a mission, I fill my Gucci tote bag with my sunglasses, a tube of 50+ sunscreen, my wide-brim hat and my Kindle.
Just in case the whole yachting thing gets boring.
(There’s a sentence I never thought I’d be thinking).
“Let’s go.” I push Nathan towards the door, my eyes hungrily running over his beach-ready form.
The man looks good in everything, including a pair of blue shorts (coincidentally the same colour as my bikini) and a white linen shirt.
His hair is messy, like he’s been running his hands through it, and his hands are reaching out for mine.
“You ready for this?”
I gulp, staring into his perfect face. Am I ready for this? I guess there’s only one way to find out.
“Yes, let’s go.”
His hand closes over mine, squeezing once as we walk along the jetty, away from the safety of our little bungalow.
“Hey, you two!” Rosie’s voice carries over the wind along with a humorous toot-toot. She’s driving a golf buggy, steering with one hand, the other holding on to her oversized hat. “Get in!”
We follow her instructions, hopping into the back and hanging on for dear life as she speeds off around the corner like she’s the Formula 1 driver.
“Rosie, slow down.”
“No can do, big bro,” she calls back, her grin clear in her voice. Rosie, it appears, is a little speed demon. “We have to hurry or we’ll miss the boat.”
Nathan shifts closers to me, his arm curling around my shoulders as if to shelter me from harm. I love it.
“Wouldn’t be the worst thing.”
Rosie slings the buggy into park and whips around to face us, her face flushed from the wind, the sun and the anticipation of whatever she has cooked up in that devious head of hers. “Oh, but it would be, dear brother. If we’d missed the boat, we’d have missed seeing that.”
We follow her triumphant gaze to where Victoria is standing on the top deck of the magnificent yacht in front of us, looking down at us with an expression of utter disdain on her face. Like the mere sight of us annoys her. Or perhaps that’s what she always looks like; hard to tell.
“Rosie,” Nathan chides his sister as we all walk the plank up to the yacht. An apt metaphor for how it feels to be heading into a gathering of these people. “We’re here because it’s easier than the alternative. We aren’t here to make trouble.”
I stare hard at Nathan, trying to gauge what he’s feeling and thinking. Is he saying this because he wants to keep the peace, to avoid confrontation? Or is it because of the lingering feelings I just know he has for his ex-girlfriend? Feelings he’s trying desperately to hide.
“That may be your motto this week, Nate,” Rosie says with an evil grin. “But I’m here for petty revenge. And I happen to know Miss Victoria is very displeased with the fact that you have a girlfriend, who is not only curing cancer but also looks like that.”
They both stare at me, and I hurriedly place my tote in front of my un-tanned ankles and feet. “Me?” I ask, distracted by my extremities. “She’s displeased by how I look?”
Nathan pulls me closer, cuddling me in under his arm in the most delightful way. “Yes, my oblivious girlfriend. She is much displeased by how utterly gorgeous you are.”
Well, then. That’s me dead. Nathan is cuddling me in his big, muscular arms and calling me gorgeous. I snuggle into him, trying to decipher what is real and what isn’t. Is this all part of the act? Is he doing and saying this because he loves how jealous it makes Victoria?
“What’s he doing here? I know he thinks he’s family, but really, this is a bit much.” Rosie’s petulant voice pulls me from my thoughts. Once again, I follow her gaze, and my eyes stumble upon the hottest man I’ve ever seen in real life. Apart from Nathan, but that’s different.
“Who is that?” I breathe, fiddling with my dress and standing up straighter in case he looks at me.
Nathan frowns down at me, pulling me in closer to his body, his arm a fraction tighter around my waist than a second ago.
“That is Lucifer himself,” Rosie announces with her usual flair for the dramatics.
“Rosie, behave,” Nathan says. “That is Theo Romano. My manager.”
My mind searches its archives. “That’s right. He used to be an F1 driver and retired a few years ago. I didn’t realise he was your manager.”
We walk out onto the upper sundeck, skirting around the now glowering Theo, who nods at Nathan without acknowledging Rosie. Wow. The tension there is palpable.
“That man knows everything about Formula 1. Cars, racing, drivers. I’m lucky to have him as part of my team.”
“Too bad he doesn’t also know how to be a human,” Rosie adds with a pout. She looks like a five-year-old whose mum refuses to take her to the zoo.
“Needless to say, these two don’t get along.”
I nod, glancing back at the man in question. He’s tall, with broad shoulders and chest and a narrow waist. His shock of thick black hair is contrasted by his bright blue eyes. Blue eyes that are fixed on Rosie with such intensity, I’m not sure how she doesn’t feel it. Maybe she doesn’t want to?
“Anyway, this is not about him,” she flicks a dismissive wrist at Theo and turns her bright, mischievous eyes back to us. “It’s about the two of you making Victoria crazy with jealousy.”
“That’s not what we’re here for,” Nathan says, his words ringing false.
She pushes him closer to me, turning my body so we are flush against each other. “That’s what I’m here for. Now stay like that, gazing at each other like you both love to do. I’m off to get a drink.”
I stare over Nathan’s shoulder as she skips away, overtly avoiding Theo as she heads to the bar. “What does she mean, gazing at each other like we love to do?”
Nathan moves in even closer, his arms wrapped loosely around my back. I glance up at him and am immediately lost in his gaze. In the warm blue of his eyes, in the expression staring back at me.
I guess this is what she means about how we gaze at each other. I don’t know if Nathan is faking it, but for me, I could stand here staring at him like this all day.
“So, tell me something.” He breaks eye contact, moving closer to whisper into my ear. My body responds—tingles everywhere. “What happened to your feet?”
I yelp, my face heating as I duck my head into the crook of his neck to hide. “Nathan! You weren’t supposed to notice.”
His chuckle is rich, warm and decadent. “I mean, I do have eyes.”
I thump his arm, trying to step back and run away in pure mortification, but Nathan is having none of it. He holds me tighter, tugging me closer, so I’m right up under his happy gaze.
“A gentleman would have pretended not to see,” I tell him with a playful huff, my humiliation easing as he looks down at me…like that. “And it’s not my fault. I blame Jade, who told me no one would be looking at my feet today.”
Nathan’s heated gaze travels over my body, and he growls. A low, guttural sound that has my stomach clenching. “Jade is right. I only noticed because I was trying to be a gentleman and not stare at all the parts I shouldn’t be staring at.”
I flush. “So, my ankles and feet aren’t off limits?”
He smirks, smoothing a few flyaway strands back off my face, his eyes zeroed in on my mouth. “Right now, Kitty Kat, I’m hoping they’re not the only part of you that isn’t off limits.”
And with that gruff warning, he leans over and presses his lips against mine.