A waiter wafted past with a tray of cocktails. Cam grabbed two and passed one of them to me.
I shook my head. ‘Working.’
‘We need to drink to blend in. Look around.’
I looked. Every single person had either a cocktail or a glass of champagne in their hand. I nodded at Cam and then brought the drink to my lips. He did the same, all the while staring at me over the rim of his glass.
‘What?’
‘We haven’t done things like this before. We spent so much time together, but only at the academy. We’ve never gone for a drink, hung out socially, done something normal.’
I looked around pointedly. ‘Normal? We’re undercover on a superyacht, about to search through the possessions of a possible diamond smuggler and money launderer, while a hit man may or may not kill him, or us for that matter. I would hardly call this normal.’
Cam laughed, which made his drink wobble. Some of it spilled over his hand, and he immediately brought it to his lips and licked it off. Suddenly everything seemed to happen in slow motion once again. His lips on his skin, the tip of his tongue grazing it, his mouth closing over the liquid, the sucking sound. I stared.
‘See something you like?’ he asked, which turned my staring into a very rapid blink.
I’d been caught, no point in denying it. ‘Maybe. And you?’
‘And me what?’
‘Anyone been able to keep up with you? Know you like it a littleroughtoo?’
There was a shift in Cam’s demeanour now. He took my cocktail from me and put it down on the tray of a passing waiter, along with his own glass.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked as he took a step towards me.
‘Getting rid of all the distractions so I can tell you something important. So you’ll always remember it.’
‘What?’ I felt uneasy, but also somewhat intoxicated by this strange change in mood.
‘You ruined it for me, Lizzy.’
‘Ruined what?’
‘Sex. Intimacy. Relationships. You set the bar so high, no one else has ever come close.’
The words made my stomach plummet, like an anchor thrown overboard, tumbling to the very bottom. For a moment, the world seemed to tilt, or was that just the yacht? I didn’t know, but something happened that caused me to move closer to him.
I wasn’t supposed to be having these moments with Cam, but they seemed to keep happening more and more frequently. I could feel my resistance crumbling – or had it crumbled already?
‘There you guys are!’ Amber’s cheerful voice cut through the moment. ‘I’ve been waiting for you! Thought maybe my bestie had fallen overboard or something!’ she teased, pulling me into a warm, slightly tipsy hug. ‘You guyshaveto let me give you a tour of the yacht!’ she chirped.
Cam and I exchanged a look. Did she know what she’d just done for us? Basically handed us exactly what we wanted on a silver platter.
‘We’d love that,’ we both said at the same time, perhaps a little too enthusiastically.
‘Great!’ Amber linked arms with me and led us towards a door. But just as we were about to go inside, I felt someone watching me. The feeling was an icy one. I turned back to look, but there was no one there.
The first room we entered was a large, opulent dining area with a mahogany table so huge and shiny you could see yourself reflected in it. Not to mention all the gold. It was everywhere, and I mean everywhere!
‘Dining room.’ Amber waved a dismissive arm as she walked into the next room, a lounge with plush white sofas, ottomans and, of course, gold scatter cushions. ‘I like to hang out here,’ she went on with yet another dismissive arm flap.
As she led us down a staircase, some more casual commentary followed.
‘That’s the spa room – Victor has a masseuse on retainer. This is the media room. Oh, and that’s our suite right there.’
Just as she was about to walk us down another staircase, a crew member rushed up to us.
