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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Tim woke from his nap feeling somewhat disconcerted. He didn’t dream much during the day, usually, but his nap had been disturbed by an unceasing mental playback of scenes of dissatisfaction.
Something was wrong.Hewas wrong or doing it wrong. He didn’t know how to do this thing—to win this woman—but was more committed than ever to figuring out how. It didn’t matter how much time he needed to take to court her. She wasn’t a woman he’d convince to give him a shot in just a few weeks. It took longer than that for doms and subs to decide they wanted to play exclusively with each other.
He wanted to drag her, grumbling, from port to port and experience things that didn’t have to do with boats or BDSM.
He found her in the cockpit with her long legs draped over the chair arm, chuckling at something in the book.
Spotting him, she closed it. Her smile softened a bit and then went away completely. “Did you enjoy your nap?”
“What’s wrong?” he demanded.
Her brows snapped together in a flash. “Nothing. Why?”
“Really? Because you looked disappointed just then.”
“That’s silly. I don’t know what you think you saw, but I’m not. I promise.” She set her feet on the floor and leaned to set the book on the nearby console. “I was just thinking about too much all at once. I hope you don’t take it personally. It really wasn’t about you.”
He dragged his thumb along the piping on the top of the seat and considered that. He didn’t believe her. She was holding something back. He knew expressions—knewbodylanguage because as a dom he needed to be able to make quick adjustments before his partner processed that what they were feeling was the wrong kind of pain. She wasn’t being honest, but he wasn’t going to push her.
Notyet.
“Did you get an email back from Clay?” she asked.
“We could go look.”
“Okay and…um.” Her gaze tracked slowly down his chest and settled near his crotch. Then, sheepishly, she looked up at him. “Did you… You know. While you were resting.”
“Did I jerk off?”
Her posture went arrow straight and cheeks went dark as plums.
He liked her bashful and embarrassed. When she was off-guard and a little uncomfortable, he could tear down some of those sky-high emotional walls around her.
Generally, he wouldn’t have dignified her with a response, but he wasn’t “on” at the moment. Didn’t feel like playing the power exchange game. He really just wanted to sit and do nothing. Withher.
“Before I napped, yes, I did. Just keep that in mind for the future in case you ever wonder. I can put some serious strain on my body and withhold pleasure for extremely long periods of time, but generally, I handle business privately if I don’t anticipate having intercourse in the near future.”
“Oh,” she said with obviously false coolness. Her cheeks were still blazing.
Beautiful.
“How about we get a little sunshine?” he asked, rubbing his palms together. He wanted her back out in the light where he could appreciate the way her skin glowed.
“O-kay, but how about you get me a little sunscreen? I don’t want to go back to Shora looking like an over-fried pork rind. Everyone’s going to wonder where I was.”
So tell them. Tell them who you belong to.
The thought came easily, but his tongue was trained well enough not to betray him.
“I’ll meet you out there,” he said instead.
Tim made some quick sandwiches, pulled a couple of bottles of water out of the fridge, grabbed his tablet, and joined Valerie on the deck. He found her raising her arms over her head and stretching her back like a lithe cat.
She was a knockout with clothes on, but with all that lean length and luscious extra in all the right places put so enticingly on display, he wished she’d never put clothes on again. If he could keep her locked in his office all day, naked like that, going to work to supervise a bunch of guys building boats would be at least eighty percent less grueling.
He set everything on the table and embraced her from behind. “You arebeautiful.” He skimmed his palms over her breasts and down her belly, lingering at the space over her pubic bone. She was so warm and full of life.
