NautiCal (Forever Wilde 8)

“Stop,” I growled. “I don’t want any details. Do you understand?”

“No. I don’t. You asked me to tell you what happened, and now you’re saying you don’t want to know. Which is it?”

We stared at each other.

I finally sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. He at least needed to know the sticky situation we now found ourselves in. “Prescott is engaged to marry my brother. And as far as Lucas knows, they are not in an open relationship.”

Cal’s face crumpled. “No. Oh shit. No. You have to know I didn’t know that. I would have never ever even looked at that asshole, much less let him—”

I held up my hand again and ground my back teeth together. Cal snapped his lips shut and looked contrite.

I sighed. “It’s not your fault. But we are now at sea on our way to Turshall Cay to pick up my sister’s friends. From there, we’re headed to the BVI for some island-hopping. I won’t be able to return you to St. Mitz for a week.”

His eyes went round, and he lost a little of his brash confidence. “Well, shit.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Right. So you see my dilemma.”

Cal sat forward and rested his arms on his knees. “You have to tell your brother about this. He shouldn’t marry that pompous dick.”

“Lucas won’t believe me.”

“Then I’ll tell him.” He stood and put his hands on his hips. I was struck stupid with how sexy he looked wearing my old Pride T-shirt and pajamas. “Lead me to him. We’ll fix this right now.”

“No. That’s not going to work. I might… have a history of trying to break him up with people.” I hated admitting that out loud, but he needed to understand why it wasn’t that simple.

“Why?”

“Well, once he dated a guy who’d been charged—but not convicted—of defrauding three previous paramours. I tried to warn Lucas that the guy was a serial swindler, but he didn’t listen.”

“What happened?”

I sighed. “The asshole found out I was sniffing around and took off. Lucas blamed me for ruining his relationship with my suspicions and the private investigator I’d hired.” I mumbled the last part.

Cal’s lips quirked up. “The what, now? The private investigator?”

“Then there was the time he dated a woman who kept asking him for a ring, only it had to be ten carats and it had to be a specific setting from Cartier, blah, blah. Clearly she was only into him for his money.”

Cal winced. “That’s a harsh thing to say about your brother.”

His words stung, but he didn’t realize that regardless of how incredible my brother was, sometimes people only saw the money he had. “I didn’t mean it that way. I think he’s wonderful. That’s why I’m so protective. But Zara was about as deep as a buoy. Everyone but Lucas knew she was all about the flash. And my brother deserves more than that. He deserves more than someone who can’t wait to get her name on his club memberships and asks on the third date if he wouldn’t mind her making a few ‘minor’ changes to his town house with the most expensive interior decorator in town.”

I leaned back on my hands on the soft bed. “I want him to find a companion who challenges him. Someone who values him and sees him for the smart, sweet man he is. Lucas doesn’t even like a flashy lifestyle, and yet everyone he keeps dating is all about name-dropping and wearing the right clothes and…” I stopped when I realized Cal was eyeballing my own clothes.

“What?” I asked, looking down at my plain white shorts and button-down shirt.

He chuckled. “Asks the man who’s probably wearing clothes worth more than my annual salary as a charter captain and standing on a yacht worth more than most people earn in two lifetimes. A yacht he named after himself no less.”

I opened my mouth to tell him how wrong he was, to snap and bite at someone who dared question me while trespassing on my fucking property, but I realized he was right. I was being a hypocrite. But that wasn’t going to ever, ever stop me from being protective of my brother.

“I didn’t name it,” I muttered petulantly. “It was a gift. Sort of.” I didn’t mention the giver had used my own money to buy it.

Cal’s jaw dropped open before he began a deep belly laugh. “Whose Christmas list do I need to get added to? Jesus. A gift?” His voice squeaked. “This?” He looked around at the two-year-old ship I still wasn’t sure about keeping. The man who’d given it to me remained on my shit list, and as much as I loved this ship, I did not love the association to the man who’d named it.

“Irrelevant.” I rubbed my jaw, the barest seed of an idea germinating. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I want you to seduce Prescott away from Lucas. Get him to dump Lucas and pick you instead.”