12. Close Quarters
12
CLOSE QUARTERS
CHELSEA
The beach, moonlight, and kisses…some things to cross off of my New York City bucket list under the added category of Things I’d like to do if I’m ever in the Hamptons.
Never in a billion years did I think it’d be possible with Rex. His kisses deserved an extra category all their own.
Perfect, sensual…leaving me breathless.
While this moment was everything, my mind raced ahead. What came next? A romp in the sand? Or maybe he’d take me into that enormous home and sweep me to his room for a night of fun?
His lips seared into my skin, trailing kisses down my neck. A thrill worked down my spine, centering between my legs at the attention he lavished, and my nipples peaked, begging for him to palm them. I clung to him for this, no matter where he took me.
Okay, maybe one night with Rex was exactly what I needed to get him out of my system. We were both adults, both busy with our careers, and if we consented and wanted it, why not?
My phone chirped, jolting me away from every nerve ending in my body going crazy in his arms. I reluctantly worked out of them to read the message.
“Oh, it’s Brooks. He says he found Maisy and they’re talking. He’ll get her back to the party soon.” Another chime told me it was my sister. “And a text from her saying she’ll be okay.”
“Good. Now you can relax.”
“Yes, true.” The tension in my shoulders released. At least, I could relax about my sister. Spending more time with a man who had me on edge from the beginning was another matter. Inhaling the salty air, I gazed upon him. In the moonlight, he was even more dashing, especially with his sly smile.
Oh, I could do so many things with him, but a few seconds away was all I needed to bring me back to my senses. We’d essentially just met, and I rarely rushed these things. Always so busy with working at Mom’s diner and now the deli to put too much stock into relationships.
I’d dated here and there back home, even tried a serious sort of boyfriend for a while, but work and my family needs came first. How can a man compete with that? Perhaps it was the same with Rex, being a busy CEO.
Rex pulled me to him again, but I put up a hand to stop him. Still, something about him was different, like the air surrounding him crackled with electricity. It drew me to him from first sight.
“I’d really like to walk along the beach in the moonlight and dip my toes in the water. It’s on my bucket list for my time here in New York,” I said, and legitimately, it was.
“Bucket list, huh?” He glanced back at the house and I almost thought he’d abandon me again. “Okay, hang on. I’ll join you.” He took off his shoes that looked made of expensive leather and set them on the sand. I dropped my heels beside them, then he rolled up his pant legs a little. We walked down to the water’s edge, leaving the music and the party noise behind us, traded for the sound of waves crashing on the shore.
“Beautiful night. The stars are so bright out here,” I noticed, glancing up to the heavens. I never wanted to forget this moment.
“There’s Orion’s belt, see?” He pointed to the sky, but I had not a clue.
“Where? I don’t know what I’m looking for?”
He came in close behind me and leaned down so we were almost cheek to cheek and eye level, pointing again. “There, see the three stars in a row? They’re actually each bigger than the sun, and brighter, too. Did you know there are eighty-eight constellations?”
His breath feathered across my cheek, and his lips hovered only inches away, pointing out more stars. I desired the sexy man and his lips everywhere. But I continued walking to prolong the inevitable.
“How do you know so much about stars?” A breeze kicked up around us and I hugged my arms to my body.
“Old dreams of mastering the sea. I wanted to sail around the world as a boy and always researched it in my spare time. Finally, some years back, I almost did. Had everything planned to take a year and sail around the world.”
“Really? What stopped you?” I quickly glanced at his face, but it proved a hard read.
“Time…age. Here, are you cold?” He removed his jacket and stood in front of me, draping it around my shoulders, brushing his hands up and down my arms. “Better?”
“Oh yes, thanks.”
He kissed my forehead sweetly and leaned down, brushing his lips along mine. Either his kisses or the gritty sand under my toes turning my feet freezing added a shiver down my spine. Only now did I realize the beach wasn’t the best idea on a fall night like this. No wonder people weren’t out here in droves, walking the beach at night.
“Have you sailed at all since?” I asked between kisses.
“I take my boat out a few times a year. I’ll be sailing it in the regatta race tomorrow. Are you staying to watch?”
“Wait. You have a boat?”
“Yeah. Want to see it?”
“Oddly, I put sail on a boat on my wish list, but I was thinking more like the ferry that takes you across the harbor to see the Statue of Liberty.”
“That’s not a real boat.” He chuckled like a man with a big ego. “We can take my car to the dock, if you’re curious.”
“Sure. I promised myself coming here that I’d live a little. Why not?”
“Okay, but first, let’s dip your toes in the water, right? Come on.” His evil grin as he pulled on my arm to the water made me believe he’d toss me in it.
“Oh, I’m fine. My toes are already frozen from the sand.” I backed off.
“Nope, that won’t do. If you’re going to fulfill this bucket list, you do it all the way. Let me help you.” He held out a hand. “Trust me.”
Did I trust him? Something inside dared me to. I took his hand, and he led me back to the edge where the water crept up the shore.
Suddenly, he picked me up by circling his arms around my waist. I laughed and gazed down at him. “What are you doing?”
The sound of his feet sloshing in the water hit my ears. “Making this easier for you. I don’t want you to miss out on a thing, Chelsea. Point your toes.”
Slowly, he lowered me down his muscular body until my toes were in the freezing water.“Eep,” I yelped and laughed.
“There. Now you’re baptized by the holy water of the Hamptons.” He chortled and carried me back several feet to the shore.
As he set me down, a grin split my face, and I was breathless. “Thank you, Rex.” I reached up, cupped his cheeks, and pulled him in for another kiss. Because when would I have the chance ever to do this again?
A few minutes later, I stood with him in the seven car garage of the main house. “Take your pick,” he said.
“ All of these cars are yours?” I stared, wide-eyed. Rex and his family’s money were too much.
“Not all. My mother’s is the Rolls Royce. My brother, Richard, has those three there. I have these few here.”
I pointed to a gray Italian-looking car. “That one?”
“Nice choice. That’s one of my favorites, too.”
Within in minutes, we headed down the road to the dock and his boat. The scent of the expensive leather seats with the cool wind whipping my hair overwhelmed, but, no matter how cold I was, the evening had been such a rush. I couldn’t hold back. I waved my arms in the air and howled. Rex laughed, and I loved it.
“You’re gorgeous when you let go, you know that?” He complimented me.
My cheeks probably glowed pink under the moon. Something about the sea breeze in my hair and the man beside me had my heart racing as I hung my hand out and danced it on the wind.
“We’re here,” he announced, the ride over too early, before it’d hardly begun.
We parked as the only car in the Hampton’s Yacht Club lot this time of night, and walked to the docks, where several boats of different sizes all bobbed a little in the water.
“This one’s mine.” Rex pointed to a boat named Ship Happened . Of course, he had his own dock with a bigger boat than the rest. “Wait here.”
He jumped on board and disappeared into the yacht and I waited a few minutes, eyeing the length of it. I thought he’d be racing some little sailboat, not a shiny white ship that must be a hundred feet long. I shook my head.
He has plenty of riches affording whatever he desired, so different from me working hard for what I needed or wanted. We definitely came from two different worlds.
He lowered a plank of some sort and held out a hand for me.
“Does size matter when it comes to sailing?” I teased.
“Size always matters when it comes to having the best of everything,” came his sly smile and smart remark back. “Come on. I’ll give you the grand tour.”
From the control room to the lounge, everything had been decorated with rich ebony wood and a decor of white and navy blue. My jaw hit the floor in the kitchen with every available amenity a chef would need.
“I could cook a feast here. Do you cook?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I hire a chef when I sail for more than a few days.” Of course he did.
Next came the five bedrooms below deck. With lower ceilings and smaller but luxuriously furnished rooms, I started feeling closed in. I wasn’t sure I could handle a week of sailing in this, one night, maybe, but any longer and I might end up sleeping on the deck. Then it occurred to me. “Wait…you have claustrophobia, but these rooms don’t bother you?” I asked, squinting his direction.
He turned to face me with a deer in the headlights look and sighed. “I’m sorry Pearl told you that. It wasn’t true.”
I stepped back. “I don’t understand. Then why don’t you like coming into the deli?”
He shoved his hands into his pockets and lowered his gaze to the floor. “Dad took me to eat there as a boy, while he and Doug played poker in the back room. They played regularly after hours with some of their buddies.”
He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned his elbows on his knees, still looking down. “I was eating some cookies, and I choked. By the time any of them noticed, I was blue and not breathing. Next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital.”
My hand flew to my heart, and I sunk into the bed next to him. “My God, Rex, I’m so sorry. You must have been so scared.”
“Yeah, one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. I’m sorry, but I just can’t enter the deli without having an anxiety attack. I know it’s stupid. I’m a grown man, and it makes me sound weak.”
“No, no. Not stupid at all. You’re human. Nothing to be ashamed of.” I couldn’t help but rub his back, gliding my fingertips gently down his wall of muscles.
He shifted to face me. “Chelsea, the first day I saw you, I dared to go inside, but the walls caved in on me. Seeing you—the bright ray of sunshine you were behind the counter—grounded me and helped me get through it. For a few minutes, at least.”
“Until you dashed out.”
“Yeah.” He reached up and fingered the locks of my hair away from my face. “But I won’t be doing that again.”
“Promise?”
His hand did that thing, sliding behind my neck, pulling me into him. The move was so sexy, and I bit my bottom lip.
“I fucking want you.” He hovered before kissing me.
“What’s stopping you from taking what you want?” God, if he didn’t take me, I’d jump his bones. He had me that turned on right now with his vulnerability. How often did a billionaire sit next to me and reveal a secret anxiety he’d harbored for years, and then wanted to bed me?
The corner of his lips twitched. “There’s something you should know about me, Chelsea. Nothing stops me from taking what I want. Ever.”
His lips crashed onto mine, proving his point. The debonair billionaire set his sights on me and intended to take me. I had a feeling this night could be more than I ever dreamed possible, fulfilling more than what I wrote on my bucket list.