Chapter Three
CHAPTER THREE
The rest of dinner passed uneventfully, and Theo was the first to turn in, reminding his crew to have fun but to remember there was work to be done in the morning. He was kind about it, but once he left, Captain Chuck was more severe, instructing everyone to retire for the night.
The chief stewardess, Emma, showed me and Joel to the stateroom where we’d be staying. She was a small woman, maybe five-feet tall, with curves and long brunette hair highlighted with silver streaks that was braided to the side. I audibly gasped when she opened the door, and she smiled, standing next to it while Joel and I brought our bags inside.
“It’s one of the smaller rooms, but hey — compared to bunk beds, I’d say it’s an upgrade.” Emma smiled, and it wasn’t in a way that showed envy or an opinion of any kind. When she turned to look at me, her green eyes were kind and gentle. “I’m excited for you to join us on the voyage, Aspen. And I look forward to getting to know you better.”
I blushed, tucking my hair behind one ear. “That’s so kind. Thank you, Emma.”
“By the way, I’m from Austria. I heard you mention you’d like to visit there. I can tell you all the best places to go — the non-touristy places.”
“I would love that,” I said, and then we were both laughing as Joel flopped belly first onto the full-size bed.
“This is heaven,” he mumbled against the pillows.
“You’re washing your own bedding, Joel, just so you know,” Emma warned, but it was with a smile. “I’ll let you two get settled. See you in the morning,” she said to me next, and then she closed the door and left us alone.
Joel and I were both exhausted by the time we brushed our teeth and changed for bed, but the excitement of the day filled us, and Joel pressed me into the sheets and kissed down my neck until I came to life again under his touch.
It didn’t last long once he was inside me, but I didn’t mind — just being connected to him had me overflowing with happy hormones. When we finished, he kissed my cheek and pulled my back to his chest, curling around me like the Cheshire cat, and we fell asleep.
He was already gone the next morning when I woke.
It was just past seven, but when I got dressed and made my way up to the main deck, I wondered how I’d slept in so long with all the commotion. The crew was busy rushing this way and that, the deck hands working together and calling out terms that made no sense to me — like stern spring and bow spring . Each member of the crew had earpieces in and walkie-talkies on their hips that they used to communicate with each other, and there was never a moment of silence as they got the boat ready to pull away from the marina.
I grabbed a muffin from the galley where a small continental breakfast was set up for the crew, and then I walked around, listening and watching, taking pictures of the crew as they did their various jobs. I felt that same unease niggling in my belly as I watched everyone work so hard. It didn’t feel right that I was there, that I didn’t have a role to play that morning. I took pictures like they mattered, like I was there for a reason, but I couldn’t shake the reality that I had no place being there at all.
“Hey,” Emma said when I passed where she was arranging flowers as a centerpiece in the main deck salon. “Got a second to help me?”
I dropped my camera, letting it hang from the strap on my neck. “Oh God, please give me something to do so I feel a little less useless.”
She chuckled at that, finishing where she was arranging the flowers before she waved for me to follow her. I had a little more time to study her in the light, and what struck me was she had such feminine curves, but such a strong, square-set jaw and severe green eyes. She could have been a movie star, but at the same time, felt as comfortable as a relative.
We gathered behind the bar, and then she handed me a clipboard with a long list of liquor, wine, and beer names.
“I need to make the rounds and check on the staterooms, make sure everything is looking the way it should. Can you go through this list and take inventory of how much we have of each, and highlight any that are under the minimum amount listed beside it?” She tapped the paper to show me where I’d find that amount.
I nodded. “I’m on it.”
Emma winked at me, and when she left, I instantly felt better having something to do — even though I was fairly certain Emma already went through this list and had an idea of what she was working with before we left shore. Still, she saw me wandering like a lost puppy and gave me a task.
I liked Emma.
I took my time doing the inventory, but then I was back to making my rounds, camera in my hands as I tried to be as out of the way as possible while still capturing some shots of the crew, the yacht, and the shoreline as we cruised alongside it. I didn’t miss the looks I got from most of the crew — a mixture between curiosity and annoyance. They wondered why I was here just as much as I did, and I tried my best to stay out of their way and appear like I was working just as they were.
Emma had given me a copy of the cruise itinerary after I finished up at the bar, and I learned we were cruising toward Saint-Tropez first. We would take it slow and easy, and likely make landfall there around sunset the next evening. Just the casual way she’d said it to me made me laugh. How absurd that I should be on a boat this size on my way to a place I’d only ever dreamed of going before now.
I wandered up the stairs that led from the main deck to the owner’s deck, bypassing that level completely and continuing on to the sun deck. It was the highest of the four, and had one of the two pools onboard, as well as the hot tub. When I made the final ascent and rounded off the staircase, I stopped mid-stride at the sight of Theo.
He was sitting on the edge of the pool, his legs in the water, sunglasses covering his eyes as he tapped away on the laptop balanced on his thighs. There was a glass of water sweating next to him and a platter of fruits and vegetables that were half-eaten.
He wore nothing but a pair of navy blue swim trunks, and just as I expected the day before when I’d first met him in that suit, his chest and arms and abdomen were lined with exquisite muscles, tanned and highlighted by a sheen of sweat or lotion, I couldn’t be sure. The Spanish shoreline stretched out in a picturesque way behind him, and I found my finger itching where it hovered over the shutter button of my camera. Luckily, this time, I had the good sense not to give in to the urge.
I stood rooted in place, watching him type and the way the muscles on his arms flexed and tightened with the movement. His dark blond hair was disheveled, and something about his bad posture as he sat there rounded over his laptop made me smile.
He’s human, after all.
I’d come up top to get a different view of the shore, but taking the cue from the rest of the crew, I knew I should try to be invisible when it came to Theo. So, slowly, I took a step backward, trying to be quiet as I made my way back downstairs.
I hadn’t set foot on the second stair down before Theo said, “I’m not going to push you into the pool, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”
I turned to find him smirking and still tapping away on his laptop.
After a moment, he closed the screen and set the computer aside, chuckling when he looked up to find me still gripping the stair railing. “Please,” he said, gesturing to the pool. “Join me.”
My eyes shifted to the pool, back to Theo, and back to the pool.
“I’m not accustomed to having to make requests twice, Miss Dawn.”
His voice was deep and smooth, and he relaxed back onto his palms, stretching out and letting the sun cast its rays over his tanned, cut abdomen.
I swallowed, tucking my hair behind my ear as I shuffled across the deck. My hands left my camera only long enough to lower me down on the opposite side of the pool, then I dropped my feet into the cool water and held my camera like a lifeline once more.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Theo said, and I glanced up at him just long enough to see his gaze tracing the shoreline.
I looked at where my hands folded over my camera again and nodded.
“Have you ever been to Europe before?”
I shook my head.
Theo was quiet for a long pause, so much so that I looked up again and found him leaning forward, elbows balanced on knees, sunglasses pulled down to the tip of his nose as his eyes assessed me. “I make you uncomfortable.”
It was a statement, not a question, and it made my cheeks heat so furiously I let my hair fall in front of my face again to hide the crimson.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Don’t be,” Theo replied with a chuckle. “Do I scare you?”
“No,” I said with a laugh of my own. “I just… I feel a little out of place.”
“Because you’re on a multi-million-dollar yacht?” He frowned. “I don’t understand, isn’t that commonplace for everyone?”
He smirked at his joke, and I relaxed a little, loosening the grip on my camera. “That’s part of it, yes.”
Not to mention the way you stare at me like you want to eat me alive…
“But it’s more so that I feel weird not working, especially when everyone else is.” I nodded to his laptop. “You included.”
“Ah, you caught me,” he said, sighing as he shoved his sunglasses back up his nose and looked at the laptop. He pushed it even farther away, like that would stop him from reaching for it. “I’m trying to take an actual vacation, but I’m afraid I’m a bit of a control freak.”
“Worried the building will burn down in your absence?”
He chuckled. “Something like that.”
“What is it you do, anyway?”
At that, his head snapped back a little, like the question was a smack across the cheek.
Oh, God.
“I’m sorry,” I rushed out, shaking my head. “I should probably know that already, shouldn’t I? Oh, God. I’m sorry.” I shook my head more furiously, gripping my camera tight again. “I shouldn’t have asked.”
“No, no,” Theo said, holding his hands out toward me. “It’s alright. It’s refreshing, actually.” He leaned back on his palms again, pausing. “What do you think I do?”
I shrugged. “Hedge funds?”
He barked out a laugh at that. “That’s a fair guess, given the size of this yacht. Sadly, I’m terrible with investments, which is why I pay someone to handle mine for me.” Theo reached for a grape on the platter next to him, popping it in his mouth. “Ever heard of Envizion?”
I balked. “You work for the biggest database management system in America?”
“Worse. I created the beast.”
My jaw dropped open. I couldn’t help it, and Theo laughed at me before I could clamp my teeth together again. “Wow. I feel like an idiot.”
“Don’t. If you’re not in Silicon Valley or an avid reader of business magazines, I don’t expect you to know who I am. And like I said,” he added with a smile. “It’s kind of refreshing.” Theo furrowed his brows, looking off in the distance. “Usually, people know who I am before we’ve even been introduced properly. Or rather, they think they know who I am.”
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing hard in his throat. When he looked at me again, I tore my eyes away.
Silence fell between us, and I watched my feet kicking in the water, my mind racing. No wonder my sister had flipped out when I mentioned Theo. Envizion had started more than a decade ago as one of the first email marketing companies for big corporations and small businesses alike. But over time, it had grown more in the technology and database software arena. And today, it was by far the best known and most successful. Their commercials ran during the Super Bowl, boasting their latest innovations. They sponsored sporting events and business conventions. Their name was on every software imaginable.
I didn’t have to be in the workforce to know that practically any company worth working for used Envizion technologies for their database management, and that there was more money in that company than I could even wrap my head around.
“You’ll be pulling your weight around here,” Theo said after a while, and I frowned at him in confusion. “I’ll have days where I’ll want you onboard taking photographs for some guests I’ll be entertaining. And I’ve already seen you taking pictures of the crew and the boat and the shoreline.”
He’s been watching me?
I sighed. “I suppose.”
“And you’ll be doing work of your own, the same you’d have done if you were on the original trip you planned.” He tilted his head. “What is your goal with the photographs you capture in your time over here?”
I kicked my feet in the water, tucking my hands under my thighs. “I want to build a travel photography portfolio to use in my job applications when I return to the States.”
Theo nodded. “And in your dream scenario, who would call you and offer you a job at the end of it all?”
“Dream scenario?”
He nodded.
“TIME Magazine ,” I said on a laugh, because I knew it was ridiculous to even consider. “But really, I’d be happy with any photojournalist position that gave me free rein to travel and capture what I felt was worth capturing.”
“Street photography?”
I smiled in surprise. “Ideally, yes.”
Theo took his sunglasses off, leaning forward again and watching me from across the pool. The way the blue water of the sea lay out behind him and the turquoise water of the pool reflected, his eyes almost glowed, the gray replaced by a translucent blue.
“I look forward to the day your photos and name are in that magazine.”
I pulled my hair over one shoulder, twirling the ends of it. “You say that like it will happen.”
“It will,” he said confidently. “And I’ll frame it when it does.”
I scoffed. “On the off chance it did actually happen, it would be years from now. You wouldn’t even remember me.”
Something sparked in his eyes, and his lips curled just a millimeter before they leveled out again. Then, he scrubbed a hand over his jaw, sliding his sunglasses back on and standing so quickly I fumbled to do the same.
“I need to make a call,” he said, grabbing his laptop. “Please, help yourself to anything you’d like,” he added, gesturing to the plate of fruit and the bar at the far end of the deck. Then, he paused, laptop tucked to his side, a line of sweat dripping from between his chest down the valley where his abs rippled together. “And Miss Dawn?”
“Yes?”
“You are consequential,” he said, voice low and rasped. “You’d do well to realize that and use it to your advantage.”
He left me with those words, and I spent the rest of the morning dissecting them in his absence.