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“No, not which I’m aware,” he repeated Benjamin’s words with gentle mocking. “I saw someone t
his morning I’ve never seen before, so I thought she must work aboard now. Are any guests visiting staff?”
His employees were welcome to bring family and friends to visit, but he had insisted on small groups only and well-coordinated to stay out of his way. He wouldn’t mind if that morning’s tempting morsel strayed across his path though.
Benjamin frowned, but it was one of contemplation rather than annoyance. “I haven’t heard of any of the staff members having family or friends aboard, but that would have to be cleared with the captain first, as usual. Or yourself, sir.”
“The skipper hasn’t mentioned anything to me, so maybe you could find out?” Captain Kohl usually remained aloof and preferred to interact with him via email. He couldn’t blame the old gal, since she seemed to have her nose firmly buried in navigational charts and lived and breathed his superyacht.
He was happy to have her dedication, but he wouldn’t mind a more personable captain for his boat sometimes. “You know, maybe it’s someone in the captain’s family? She did look a bit familiar.” Could it be Captain Kohl’s daughter or niece was visiting? Was the captain that old? He couldn’t be sure, never having seen much of her face behind her sunglasses and captain’s hat, but she carried herself so stiffly and seriously that he imagined she had to be somewhere in her fifties.
Interest piqued, he decided on a course of action. If it was a visiting family member, she didn’t work for him, so the rules of fraternizing with the employees that he’d set upon himself after the last debacle were superseded, weren’t they? It made sense, after all. And as long as he made it clear to the girl that it was only a temporary arrangement while she visited her family member, that there was no future between them, he didn’t run the risk of pissing off his skipper and losing her.
That would be a shame, because she was an efficient machine who kept his boat running at maximum effectiveness. If his engines died suddenly, he imagined Skipper Kohl could get the boat running just by sheer strength of will alone.
Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to flirt with her relative after all, but he wasn’t always a man who endorsed or embraced good ideas. Instead, he lived for the moment, and in that moment he wanted to get better acquainted with the woman he had seen swimming that morning. “Never mind asking her, Benji. I think I’ll swing by to speak with the captain to suss it out.”
Benjamin nodded as he lifted the tray. “Very good, sir.”
As his valet left him, Sawyer went to the mirror to check his appearance. He smiled at himself, his teeth gleaming white. His eyes were the same shimmering blue as ever, and his boyishly messy hair was sure to charm the newest quarry in his sight. Meeting with the captain seemed like the easiest way to learn more about her visitor, if that girl was someone here to see Skipper Kohl.
He strode through the ship, soon arriving at the bridge. Captain Kohl stood in front of the myriad electronics that kept the boat running, her attention on a large electronic readout resembling a map. Presumably, she was ensuring they were on course for docking in San Francisco the next day. He cleared his throat, and she looked up at him with obvious shock.
Inside the bridge, she wasn’t wearing her customary sunglasses, and he realized he’d always met with her somewhere else on the ship, usually on the deck. In three years, he hadn’t seen much of his skipper anyway, and she had always carefully controlled the meeting times. It was a strange realization, and he wondered why he hadn’t noticed that before.
As he drew closer to the captain, he also realized he had never paid much attention to her before either. With her sunglasses and skipper’s hat, it had been difficult to see anything beneath the surface, so he had always responded to her manner more than her appearance. “Good morning, Captain Kohl.”
She inclined her head like a regal princess, though she was obviously still discomfited to have him on the bridge. “Good morning, Mr. Sinclair. It’s unusual to see you up and about this early.”
He glanced at the clock, startled to realize it was only a little after nine a.m. That was certainly much earlier than his usual rising time of noon-ish. He nodded and shrugged. “It happens upon occasion.”
Her lips softened into a slight smile, the only sign of reaction. “Yes, I suppose it does. What can I do for you this morning, Mr. Sinclair?”
“Skipper, I wanted to know if you’ve hired someone else, or if you have a visitor aboard?”
She frowned and shook her head. “No, sir. Why?”
He lifted a shoulder easily. “I just saw an unfamiliar face this morning and wanted to know who’s aboard ship.” Yes, that sounded neutral enough not to make her suspicious or protective of her relative, if she had one visiting. Since she had denied that, and had no reason to suspect he had any interest in her niece or daughter, she was probably telling him the truth. So who had he seen in the pool this morning?
The answer came unexpectedly as she stood up and turned to walk toward him. Her hat brushed against the wall as the ship listed slightly to the left, knocking it to the floor. As the skipper bent to pick it up, he drew in a sharp breath at the frizzy and wild hair springing free from underneath. Even confined in a bun, it was clearly the same style, or lack thereof, that the woman at the pool had worn this morning.
No way. It couldn’t be that his cold, distant ship’s captain was also the same hottie from this morning. Could it? He admired the shape of her rear as she picked up her hat, and even her regulation uniform couldn’t quite hide her luscious backside from the eye of an experienced aficionado of the female form.
Wow, this delectable creature had been on his boat for three years, and he’d never noticed? He was definitely slipping—or she was just that good at hiding her femininity. He had honestly assumed she was middle-aged or older, but as she turned to face him, and he got a good look at her face, it was clear she couldn’t be much more than her early thirties.
She must have worked hard and diligently to be skipper of a superyacht at her age. He didn’t know much about her background, having only met with her once shortly after he had purchased the yacht before hiring her. The dealership from whom he had purchased the vessel had arranged the hiring service, and he had met with three different captains before choosing Kohl almost randomly.
Now, three years later, he couldn’t recall her service record or employment history, or even exactly why he had picked her over the other two men who had applied. Perhaps it had been because she was a woman, and the uniqueness of having a female captain had appealed to him. Could he really have been that sexist? Because it was sexism to have chosen a woman just for the novelty of it.
It certainly hadn’t been because he’d realized just how attractive she was, so perhaps she had made an impression on him in some other way. He wished he could remember the interview, but only sketchy details returned to him. That was Sawyer’s way. If it wasn’t important, he blocked it out or discarded it so his mind wasn’t weighed down with excess baggage. He winced when he realized that made him sound empty-headed or shallow, but it was how he lived.
Once her hat was back in place, she looked more like the captain he knew, but he couldn’t help recalling the way she had been that morning. His pants grew uncomfortably tight the longer he stared at her, and Sawyer realized he wanted to spread her across the table holding all the paper maps and strip that boring uniform from her body so he could compare it to the one he’d seen this morning, examining up close and personally.
His brain raced, and he had a plan in place before he even fully thought it through. “What are your plans in San Francisco…Nadia?” Thank goodness for the prompting of her uniform badge, as he might not have remembered her first name without it.
She blinked, clearly startled at the use of her first name, or perhaps it was the personal question. When she licked her full lower lip, he had to bite back a groan.
“I’ve booked to stay in a bed-and-breakfast for the week, sir. Do you need me to remain closer to oversee the maintenance more personally?”
