Chapter 37

CHAPTER 37

Max

I woke up late the next morning. I’d barely been able to sleep, as thoughts of Ash and what had happened in the broom cupboard last night kept me awake, and hard, for most of the night. I jumped out of bed and climbed into my clothes. I was almost running late for a meeting with one of the lodge’s marketing team members, Beverly, to discuss all the elements of the boat and also the various lodges they’d partnered with, and to be honest, I was not looking forward to it. Before working here, Beverly had worked at an exclusive resort in Namibia, where some years back I’d booked it for a large energy-drink commercial, and one thing had led to another with her.

Technically, more than one thing. Several things might have led to several other things with her, several times. I’d only found out it was her a few days ago when we’d chatted on the phone, where she’d gotten somewhat flirty and suggestive. And had I not been consumed with thoughts of Ash, I can guarantee that I would have been equally flirty and suggestive, and would have probably been expecting one or two things to lead to one or two more when I saw her today. But that was certainly not going to happen now. In fact, since Ash, I had not thought of another woman at all.

I walked onto the deck. The sun felt particularly bright and hot today. The boat had stopped at a dock so Beverly could board. I ran a hand through my hair. I probably looked very disheveled this morning. Ash was running around working, and if I thought I’d liked watching her work yesterday, well, I really loved watching her work today. Especially now that I knew what she looked like when she came. She bent over to take something out of a bag and I couldn’t help but stare. She must have sensed me looking, because she turned and looked straight at me too. My chest tightened, my cock tightened, and I looked down at her T-shirt to see her nipples had hardened too and she did not pull the gaping neckline of her T-shirt up either. In fact, she locked eyes with me and bit her bottom lip and, God, that was it. I grabbed the banister and squeezed hard, trying to remind myself I had a business meeting now and I could not run down there, pull those shorts of hers down and bend her over the side of the boat railing. Her eyes drifted down to my shorts and then widened. I tried to adjust the hard-on in my pants to make it look less obvious, while Ash watched me with a smile. Moments later, Beverly was onboard, though, and I could no longer stare at the object of all my desires.

“Hey,” I said awkwardly to Beverly, who was already looking at me like a piece of meat she wanted to sink her teeth into.

“Hey, long time. You look great.”

“Uh, thanks.” She looked at me expectantly, clearly waiting for me to compliment her too. Shit this was not good at all. I was going to have to give off a very professional vibe today that would hopefully make it very clear to her that things were leading nowhere without having to actually say it to her face. The assumption most women made about me, because I was perpetually unattached, was that I was always game for anything. And that assumption would have been correct, right up until Ash had walked back into my life.

“You look . . .” I searched for the words. “Botswana suits you,” I said, and had no idea what the hell that meant. It was a compliment, though. Wasn’t it? She looked at me oddly.

“Insane heatwave we’re having,” I said, trying to steer the conversation away from physical appearances. But she did not give up that easily. The meeting took far longer than it should have: her eyes lingered on me when she spoke; her arm brushed mine a few times. She kept me as long as she could, explaining the most unnecessary details. I kept trying to make her hurry up, which she clearly misinterpreted.

“Looks like you want this meeting to be over as quickly as possible,” she’d said, twirling a strand of hair round her finger. “Have some other plans for when this is over?” She smiled coquettishly and I felt utterly stuck in something I did not want to be in, and knew that I was going to need to tell her soon. When the meeting was finally over and I walked her to the exit, I could feel an expectation boiling in the air around us.

She turned and looked at me, waiting. The question wasn’t just in her eyes and her mouth, it was also in the clothes she’d worn today, not as corporate as they might have been, just a little too tight and a little bit too short. Beverly was beautiful and sexy, with an incredible body too, and yet . . . I wasn’t even vaguely attracted to her. I didn’t want her. Not one tiny part of me wanted this woman, who was making her intentions very clear by leaning seductively against the banister and pushing her chest out.

Beverly reached forwards and touched my elbow with her hand. She rested it there and I knew that this had gone way too far. I put my hand over hers and started pulling it off. Only, she read this move very, very wrong.

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