AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“This is perfect,” I said, setting down our bags and taking in the sheer size of the yacht.
“Uncle Chris!” The little kid came running up to Chris and threw his arms tightly around his waist.
I lifted my sunglasses to get a better look at him, but his face was buried in my brother’s T-shirt. The older woman he was with came over and took him by the hand.
“Come help me get the snacks ready,” she said and promptly led him away.
I shook my head at Christopher. “How do you integrate yourself into every family you work with?”
He gave me a stiff smile and shrugged but said nothing. I narrowed my eyes as I studied the obviously weird behavior.
“Will anyone else be joining us?” Julia asked the captain.
He shook his head and replied with a thick German accent, “You are the last to arrive. We’ll be setting off for a trip around the bay in two minutes.”
The captain touched a finger to his cap and then left us, being replaced almost instantly by a server with a tray of drinks. She couldn’t be a day older than twenty and looked like she’d stepped off the pages of Sports Illustrated. I watched Chris immediately find the floorboards very interesting in the presence of her bikini uniform. Julia winked at me, enjoying his open display of discomfort, and I stifled a laugh.
“My name’s Megan,” the server said, her ample bosom glistening with baby oil. “Please enjoy your champagne—freshly squeezed orange juice for you, Mrs. James—while we cast off. Mr. Moretti will be out with you in just a moment.”
My hand froze on the stem of my glass. She couldn’t have said what I thought she did, and the huge smile on her face certainly didn’t give any sign that she just introduced my worst nightmare. I looked over at Chris and Julia, and the look on my brother’s face was all the confirmation I needed. Because it wasn’t just Megan’s breasts he was actively trying to avoid anymore, it was also eye contact with me.
“Chris…” I started, but the rest of my interrogation got cut short by the appearance of the man himself.
“On time for a change,” Luca said from the upper deck, a huge grin on his face, arms spread wide.
My stomach flipped. He looked more tan than usual; his light brown eyes looked amber with the sun glistening on him. Wearing a white short-sleeved shirt with buttons that weren’t buttoned at all. His abs rippled as he laughed, descending the steps to greet us on the lower deck.
Luca’s eyes met mine for a split second, and I could swear there was a mischievous glint in them. He’d planned this, I just knew it. I caught sight of the telling bulge in his tight blue shorts and averted my eyes instantly, feeling a hot rush of warmth creep into my cheeks.
Goddammit. What was he thinking? What was Chris thinking? There was no way I was going to survive this.
On instinct, I turned back to gauge the distance from the railing and the pier. I could feel the yacht slowly moving beneath my feet but figured a good mix of desperation and determination would help me to make the jump back to shore.
“How’s your sea legs, Scarlett? You don’t look so good.”
I turned back to find Luca smiling widely at me, a glass of champagne in his hand too. And even with my brother and sister-in-law standing with us, he was shameless as he let his gaze trace my exposed curves.
“I feel fine,” I said, folding my arms across my chest in a lame attempt to cover up. “I would’ve felt better if I’d known this was going to be a work trip.”
Christopher snorted, and Julia elbowed him in the ribs to get him to quit being an ass. It helped, and he bit down on his lips, sharing a look with Luca.
“I kind of had to lie to get her to come along,” he told his friend. “She won’t admit it, but sometimes Scarlett needs a little nudge in the fun department.”
Luca looked at me with a raised eyebrow. We both knew what that look meant. He had firsthand knowledge of my ability to… have fun, as Christopher put it. No nudges required. But that was our secret. Although, the way I felt myself melt under his unwavering gaze, I wasn’t sure how much longer we’d be able to keep it that way.
“Well, I’m glad you could join us,” Luca said with a dizzying amount of politeness. As if he didn’t know what it was like to share the most intimate of moments with me. “And I promise I won’t make you do any work.”
He held out his glass to me, and my muscles tensed against the sudden urge I felt to empty mine in his face. That was sure to get Christopher asking the wrong kind of questions. So, I did the only thing I could and mirrored Luca’s politeness by lightly tapping my glass against his.
“It’s a pleasure,” I said through a forced, tight smile. “If you’ll please excuse me.”
I ducked away from the three of them as quickly as I could and made my way toward the door leading below deck.
“Oh, that reminds me,” Julia said from behind. “I need the bathroom too.”
“Puke buckets are on the left,” Luca called out.
I bit my tongue as I heard both he and Christopher start laughing. It was bad enough that I was stuck there having to put on the biggest act of my life, but seeing their amusement made it that much worse.
