Chapter 2 #2
It was her. His bear heaved inside him when he caught sight of her dark hair.
Jace could feel her presence. In fact, he was pretty sure he’d been able to sense her the entire time she’d been on board.
He knew what that meant, but could it really be?
After all this time? And in such an odd circumstance?
He would need to find out more, but he had a job to do right now.
As Marissa prepared drinks for the men, who were now weighing the merits of various brands of wristwatches, he glanced over his shoulder.
The bride had brought her flock to the oversized wraparound couch.
The two giggly ones flanked her, squealing every now and then and gesturing wildly with their hands as they spoke.
The tall one perched herself neatly and carefully in an armchair, displaying herself like a museum piece.
She was a little further back, situating herself in the corner of the couch.
She watched and listened to the conversation but wasn’t really a part of it.
One finger spiraled around a lock of hair, twisting it into a thick rope.
While the other women wore bright, lightweight sundresses, she’d opted for a pair of loose black trousers and a fitted tank top.
The beast inside him didn’t give a shit about the job he was there to do, and it was getting impatient. Jace stepped over to the group of women. “Can I get you ladies anything to drink?”
“Oh, just get me a cosmo like Gretchen has!”
“Same!”
That took care of the first two. Jace turned to the tall one, who let out a long exhale through her nostrils at having to go to the trouble of looking at him.
“Sparkling water with a squeeze of lime,” she commanded in a low voice.
Jace then turned to the last one, whose name he had yet to learn. In fact, she was the only one whose name he cared about. “And for you?”
Her green eyes flicked up to meet his. They widened for a moment and then quickly turned away. “Nothing for me, thank you.”
Even as he relayed the drink order to Marissa, her presence continued to pull at him.
His eyes returned to the sofa, but she was gone.
It only took him a moment to spot her. She’d left the small crowd on the deck and slipped off to starboard on the narrow spit of decking that ran around the cabin and toward the bow.
He thought for a moment before he grabbed something from the fridge and slipped out the side door.
She stood with her elbows on the railing, leaning slightly out as she gazed over the water. She appeared to be lost in thought, and she hadn’t heard him come out. The breeze blew her hair back slightly from her face, letting him see more of the structure of her cheeks and the line of her jaw.
“You shouldn’t be the only one without a drink of some sort.” Jace stepped to the railing next to her and handed her a cold can of soda.
She startled a bit but then laughed when she saw what he was trying to give her. “I figured a boat like this was too fancy for a simple soda.”
“You never know what you might find here.” He’d certainly found something unexpected. “Jace Brigham.”
She glanced at him again, those green eyes flashing for just that moment before she glanced away. “Erin O’Leary.”
At least now he knew her name. And he liked it. “Are you enjoying your trip so far, Erin?” Her name rolled beautifully down the length of his tongue.
She tipped her head slightly to the side, and her shoulders contracted in a minimal shrug. “It’s all right.”
He knew it’d gotten off to a bad start. He knew she’d been embarrassed by her luggage mishap on the deck when she’d first arrived.
What she didn’t know was that he hadn’t stopped thinking about it since, but probably not for the reasons she would imagine.
Erin wouldn’t need that toy if he had any say in the matter.
Still, his mind flashed with an image of her in her cabin on the bed, her head craned back in ecstasy against the pillow as she slipped the little silver device between her legs.
Jace tightened his jaw and forced himself back into the moment. He was getting carried away, but that was easy. “Forgive me for saying so, but you don’t seem like the type I usually see on these charters.”
She looked at him more fully now, letting go of some of that aloofness that she wore like armor. “Is this where I’m supposed to tuck my hair behind my ear and tell you I’m not like other girls?”
“I already know you’re not.” Jace sensed the shifter in her, but it wasn’t one he was familiar with.
She definitely wasn’t a bear like himself, nor was she a wolf like some of those who’d been adopted into his clan.
It was a mystery to him, and it made her all the more intriguing.
“This isn’t exactly the scene where you’d normally find me, either. ”
“So, you’re not like other captains?” she challenged.
The hint of a smile that played on her lips made his stomach twist. “You could say that. I used to do long charters like this, but it was too much while I was trying to raise my son.”
“You have a little boy?”
Was that a hint of wistfulness he detected in her voice?
No, Jace decided. He was reading too much into it.
Most women wanted to hear about children.
“Not exactly a little one anymore. He’s just about grown.
” Jace turned and nodded toward Ian, who was politely offering everyone dainty little slices of cucumber with slices of salmon on top.
This had Erin turning around so she could look back and forth between Jace and Ian. “Oh. I see the resemblance now. I can imagine it would be hard to be a parent while you’re gone for days at a time.”
“It was, and my family helped me a lot, but I still found that the day tours were much easier to deal with. Even so, Ian has fallen in love with the water just as much as I have. He’s got plans for his own boat tour company someday.
” Jace didn’t really want to just yammer about himself, but at least he had her talking.
Erin reminded him of a feral cat when she was around the other passengers.
Somewhat tolerant, pretending here and there to be part of the crowd, but overall keeping to herself.
“A friend of mine asked if we could fill in while he had surgery, so here we are.”
“Mm.” She nodded as she took a sip of her soda.
Erin was now leaning back against the railing.
She didn’t look as uncomfortable as she had on the couch, but there was still a wall up around her.
“Gretchen and I were best friends as little girls. We grew up and changed over the years, but we’ve always kept in touch.
I knew it was going to be…interesting…to join her for this little cruise, but it’s her wedding. What else could I do? So here I am.”
“It’s funny how things like that work out,” Jace noted quietly.
His hand twitched. He wanted to reach out and touch her, just to brush his fingertips against her arm at least. More, hopefully, but she created a longing in him that he’d never experienced before.
“Sometimes I think fate puts us where we need to be.”
Those catlike eyes slid up to his and then quickly away again. Every time he started to make progress, she’d slip backward again a moment later. “Possibly. Sometimes, I wonder if we ought to have a say in the matter.”
“The line between destiny and free will can be kind of blurry.” He’d never thought about things that deeply, but at the moment, it seemed right. Jace had chosen to take this job. It’d been a conscious decision, yet it’d put him right there with Erin. He’d been put right in the path of his—
“Captain! Yoohoo! Captain!” Gretchen was shaking her empty glass in the air.
Jace frowned. “Duty calls.” He slipped past Erin and went back to the lounge to help Marissa and Ian serve the guests.
On a smaller yacht like this, he had to serve as both captain and crew.
They could probably have used a couple of extra hands to take care of the demanding wedding party, but there was only so much space for the crew to sleep.
He whipped up some more cosmopolitans, but his mind was on Erin as she stood by the railing and sipped her soda.