Chapter 25
DASH
Iwoke up to my phone buzzing and bouncing around on the nightstand. The damn thing was ringing at what had to be an ungodly hour.
I fumbled for it in the dark, careful not to jostle Krista.
She was curled up on her side, one hand tucked under her cheek, completely out.
The sheet had slipped down to her waist, and even in the dim light filtering through the porthole, she was gorgeous.
I was suddenly hungry. I wanted my mouth on her tits again.
I squinted at the glaring light on my screen. Mom. That couldn’t be good.
I slid out of bed as quietly as I could, pulled on the robe, and closed the door behind me. I jogged up the stairs to the deck before I finally answered the phone. “Hey, Mom. What’s going on?”
“Dash! Sweetheart, I’m so glad I caught you.” She sounded bright and energized, like she’d just had three espressos.
I squinted at my phone. Three in the morning. Jesus Christ. Where in the fuck did she think I would be? Never mind. I didn’t want to know the answer to that.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I’m finalizing the guest list for Santorini and I need to know how many seats you can get me. Front row, obviously. More of my friends want to come now that word’s gotten out about the show. Everyone’s so excited!”
I rubbed my hand over my face. “Mom, how many are we talking?”
“I think to be safe, I should get at least ten more. Can you do that?”
“Yeah, I can make that work.”
“You’re a darling. And I have the best news—Callum’s coming too!”
I stopped pacing. “Callum?”
“Yes! Isn’t that wonderful? He wants to see how you all do runway shows.
He’s been working with the launch of the wedding line, but he’s looking to familiarize himself with everything else we do.
His sister and Mandy mostly cover the creative side of things, but he’s eager to see how the business itself works from all angles.
I thought it would be perfect for him to observe. ”
Callum was one of the Blackwell cousins from LA.
His father, my uncle Max, ran a movie studio out there, but Callum and his sister, Cleo, had teamed up with Mandy, Briggs’s wife, to start a line of wedding products.
“Well, he won’t get much out of this from a business perspective, but it’s a good chance for him to see how chaotic some of these events can be behind the scenes. ”
“Exactly,” she said. “I’m so proud of you, sweetheart. You’re going to show him how it’s done. He’s so impressed with everything you’ve accomplished.”
“That’s great, Mom,” I managed.
“Make sure we’re all seated together, will you? Front row, center if possible. I want to see everything.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“You’re such a good boy. I should let you go. Have a lovely evening!”
“Mom, it’s three in the morning here.”
There was a pause. “Oh no. Oh, Dash, I’m so sorry. I got distracted after spending all day with my accounting team going through the donation funds for the charities. The numbers just blur together after a while and I completely lost track of time zones.”
“It’s okay.”
“Are you getting enough sleep? You sound tired.”
I almost laughed. I’d been dead asleep after the best sex of my life with a woman who’d somehow become the center of my entire world, and now I was talking to my mother instead of cuddling back up with Krista.
“I’m fine, Mom. I promise.”
“I love you, sweetheart. I’ll see you in a few days. And remember—front row, center. I’m counting on you.”
“Love you too.”
I hung up and sighed. Callum was coming. This was my thing. My chance to prove myself, and naturally someone had to come in. Someone else to see if I could keep my shit together. If I was going to spectacularly fail.
I’d worked my ass off. Krista and I both had. We’d dealt with fires and drunk influencers and a hundred other crises. We’d made it work. And now Callum was going to waltz in at the finish line and take notes like I was some kind of training manual.
Talk about annoying. This was mine. This runway show, this success? It belonged to me and Krista. We’d earned it. And I wasn’t going to let anyone, not even family, diminish that.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
I’d deal with it later. Right now, I had a beautiful woman sleeping in a very comfortable bed that I wanted to be in too.
I turned to head back inside and nearly jumped out of my skin.
Krista was standing in the doorway, wrapped in her robe, with her wild, wavy hair creating a sexy halo of sorts around her.
“Everything okay?” she asked quietly.
“Yeah. Just my mom calling about seating for the show.”
She stepped out onto the deck and came to stand beside me at the railing. She didn’t touch me. Just stood next to me. “At three in the morning?”
“She forgot how drastic the time difference is.”
Krista nodded slowly. “She only called about seats?”
I should have known I couldn’t hide it from her. She read people too well, read me too well.
“My cousin Callum is coming to the show,” I said. “To observe how we do runway shows. For his wedding line.”
“And that bothers you?”
“It bothers me that everyone acts like this is some kind of learning opportunity instead of my fucking accomplishment. I know they’re all waiting to see what I fuck up so they don’t make the same mistakes.”
“So prove them wrong,” she said simply. “Don’t give them the chance to learn from your mistakes. Give them a masterclass.”
“I can’t guarantee perfection. You know things like this are never perfect.”
“Make it so flawless that when Callum walks away, all he’ll have learned is that he’s got a hell of a lot to live up to.” She tilted her head. “You’ve been working your ass off. Don’t let him in your head now. Don’t let anyone in your head. You know what needs to happen next, right?”
I did. I knew exactly what needed to happen next. “Yeah.”
“Then do that. One thing at a time. The rest is just noise.” She made it sound so simple.
“You’re probably right,” I said.
“Probably?” She smiled and reached for my hand. “Now come back to bed. We need sleep.”
Together, we lay down on the plush mattress. Krista laid her head on my chest. “You’re going to kill it in Santorini,” she said into the dark. “I know you will.”
I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “We’re going to kill it.”
I woke up and was initially a little confused by the gentle rocking.
It wouldn’t be the first time I woke up with the world moving, but usually it was due to a hangover.
Not this time. The yacht was quiet except for the gentle lap of water.
Krista was still asleep beside me. Once again, I found myself awestruck by her natural beauty.
I slipped out of bed and went to my cabin to get dressed, brush my teeth, and do a little something with my hair. Then I headed up to find the crew already preparing for our beach excursion. The captain informed me we’d be arriving at the private cove within the hour. Everything was on schedule.
By the time I got back to the cabin, Krista was awake, sitting up in bed with the sheet pulled up around her chest, hair gloriously messy. I couldn’t believe she always wore it in a ponytail or bun. That mane needed to be free.
“Morning,” she said, her voice still rough with sleep.
“Morning. We’ll be at the beach soon. Crew’s making breakfast.”
“Beach?”
“Another surprise.”
I wanted to climb back into that bed with her. I wanted to peel that sheet away and pick up where we’d left off. But I also wanted to get her to that beach and give her another perfect day before we dug into the last big challenges of this campaign.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s eat and then go play.”
“Play?” She raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah. You know that thing normal people do when they’re not working themselves into the ground?”
She smiled and threw a pillow at me.
An hour later, the yacht anchored in a secluded cove with crystal-clear turquoise water and white sand.
It was postcard perfect. The crew lowered a smaller boat to take us ashore along with a cooler full of food and drinks.
The beach was completely private. Not another soul in sight.
Just us, the sand, and the endless blue water.
“This is unreal,” Krista said, turning in a slow circle to take it all in.
She was wearing the swimsuit I’d taken off her last night. Getting to see it in daylight was an experience. This was who should be in our product launch. She wasn’t model perfect, with her womanly curves, but she would look jaw dropping.
“Stop staring,” she said.
“Stop being so gorgeous.”
The crew had set up a small table with an umbrella and chairs, along with everything we’d need for the day.
“They’re really just leaving us here?” Krista asked.
“They’ll come back in a few hours. Or when I call them. Whichever comes first.”
“What if something happens?”
“Like what? A shark attack? Pirates?”
“Uh, stingray attack. I don’t know.”
I pulled out my phone and held it up. “Satellite phone. We’re covered. And they won’t be so far away they can’t get back to us in an emergency.”
She nodded, but I could see her trying to relax into the idea of being completely alone with me on a deserted beach. The control freak in her was probably cataloguing all the potential disasters.
“Relax. Please. Just for today.” I took her hand. “Try it for me.”
She took a breath and let it out slowly. “Okay. You’re right. I’m being ridiculous.”
“You’re not ridiculous. You’re just not used to letting yourself loosen up. Come on. Let’s go swimming. That’ll work off some of that tension.”
I stripped off my shirt and headed for the water, knowing she’d follow. She wasn’t one of those women who was afraid to get her hair wet or have her makeup melt away. Probably because she was beautiful either way.
The water was perfect. Cool enough to be refreshing, warm enough that I didn’t want to immediately get out. I dove under and came up, pushing my hair back from my face. Krista was standing at the water’s edge, testing it with her toes.
“It’s not cold,” I said.
“I’m coming.”
She waded in slowly, making little gasps as the water rose higher, and then she dove in. Three seconds later, she surfaced a few feet from me. She splashed me and I splashed her back. Within seconds we were in a full-on water fight, laughing like idiots as we tried to dunk each other.
I caught her around the waist and pulled her against me. She wrapped her legs around my waist instinctively, her arms going around my neck. The laughter died as we stared at each other.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hi.”
I kissed her. Slow and sweet and tasting of saltwater. With her wet body sliding against mine, there was no way I could resist. I carried her out of the water with her clinging to me like a starfish. I stretched her out on the blanket and once again peeled away the bathing suit.
“We’re alone?” she whispered.
“Completely.”
She pulled me down for a kiss that made it clear she wasn’t the least bit worried about being seen.