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“I did bring something to change into, actually,” I reply. “Stay up here and call out for me if anything happens. I’ll be back in a moment.”
It’s not a swimsuit I have stashed below decks – although I do change into a linen shirt and shorts. A far more appropriate for a man of my age and social standing… not to mention, I have no intention of actually getting in the water today.
No, I have something even better than that planned. I gather all the ingredients and bring them up to the deck, setting them out ready on a flat surface near the wheel that serves as a table.
“What’s this?” she asks, turning from the view of the ocean to watch me, and I don’t miss her hungry gaze roving over me, taking in my legs. I keep in shape. It’s one of my greatest sources of personal pride. And I can’t say I dislike seeing her enjoy it, too. Part of me wants to rip off the rest of my clothes and get her opinion on how well I’ve kept myself together despite being twenty years older than her, but I resist. Good things come to those who wait.
“Mock-tails,” I tell her, grabbing a shaker and rattling the ice inside. “Lie down on the side and get some sun. I’ll whip us up some drinks so we can relax. Sounds good?”
“Sounds amazing,” Liliana grins, and when she lies down on the deck like I suggested, I can’t help but pause. I watch her settle into the sunlight, her legs stretched out ahead of her. I should get a hat and sunglasses from below, make sure that she’s covered up. For some reason I can’t really explain, I do have a woman’s hat below, it was left in the boat as kind of a décor item when I bought it, and I didn’t bother to throw it away. I always meant to. Now I wonder…
Was this always supposed to happen? Did part of me know, somehow, that one day I would find a woman who was smart, sexy, open, intriguing, and interested enough to share my boat with me? Did part of me somehow know that she would also be adorably unprepared and that I would need things on hand to protect her with?
I have always been a successful man. Luck never came into it. I worked hard, and smart. I built myself up from a respectable wealth to somewhere much higher, gained a reputation that follows me, expanded and built until I had everything I needed. Everything except for a family. But now, seeing this beautiful woman draped across my boat, waiting for me to claim her for the first time…
I have to say I feel like the luckiest man on earth.
Chapter Eighteen
Liliana
“You’re going to burn, you know.”
I open my eyes at his alarming statement, lifting the wide, floppy sun hat Nico gave me to wear. “Do you really think so?”
“The sun can be deceptively hot out here,” he says, quite serious. He waves a tube of sunscreen at me. “Here.”
I reach out to take it, but he pulls it out of my reach and gestures for me to turn around. “I’ll do your back for you.”
“Oh, thanks,” I say, laying on my front. Within moments I feel the touch of something cold on my skin, followed quickly by the sure and confident touch of his fingers, gliding across the back of my neck and my shoulders.
I relax into his touch as he continues to rub the cream into my skin, slipping his fingers under the edges of my swimsuit to make sure he gets every part of me that might be touched by the sun. It’s so dreamy out here. The quiet, interrupted only by the waves and the birds, the warm sun, the delicious drinks he’s made. With this gentle massage, too, I could just fall asleep happily.
“Turn over,” Nico says, his voice slightly husky. It makes me wonder as I do as I’m told, but his eyes are covered by sunglasses, hiding his emotions. Lying on my back looking up at him, I feel myself swallow hard.
He pours more of the sunscreen into his hand and starts to rub it into my shoulders from the front. I feel the tension that I didn't even know I was holding pouring out of me. His touch is so firm yet so gentle, almost as if it’s calibrated perfectly to make me feel at ease and happy. At the same time, his touch is starting to drive me wild again. I bite my lip, wondering when he will stop.
But he doesn't stop with just my shoulders. He moves further down my arms, rubbing the lotion into every part of my exposed skin down to my fingertips. I already put sunscreen on earlier, but I don't bring that up. Why would I? I'm already having the time of my life, and this is making it even better. I don't want him to stop.
