NautiCal (Forever Wilde 8)

“When you mentioned your grandfathers earlier, I didn’t realize they were a couple. That’s amazing. They were able to keep it secret?”

“Oh. No. They weren’t… I mean, while they were active duty, Doc was still married to my grandmother. It was after they got out and Grandpa came to work on Doc’s family’s ranch that they fell in love. After my dad and his sisters were born and my grandmother had passed away.”

He told me more about his large family and the ranch in northern Texas. I could hear the affection in his voice for his grandfathers, his siblings, and the land he grew up on. As the comforting rhythm of his voice washed across me, I realized I’d relaxed into the mattress and fallen half-asleep. For some reason, I didn’t want to fall all the way asleep and miss a minute of hearing his stories.

“What about you?” he asked. “How did you get into sailing?”

“My father belonged to a yacht club on Lake Michigan. I don’t even know why since he never took the time to go there very often. But he signed me up for sailing lessons when I was a young teen, and I fell in love. Unfortunately, they didn’t have sailing at the boarding school I went to, so I never got back to it until college. Thankfully, at Northwestern they have a sailing center. I was able to take more classes, rent boats, go on group trips, and pretty much sail whenever the weather was good enough. It was my go-to stress reliever, especially during finals in the spring.”

“That sounds amazing. I sailed for Texas A&M’s rec team, but I also took eighteen credit hours every semester so I could graduate early. It didn’t leave as much time for sailing as I’d hoped.”

That explained how he could be so young and already have so much professional sailing experience. “Did you get a business degree?”

He made an affirmative sound. “Management, specifically. In hindsight I shouldn’t have focused so much on small business. Maybe I can get a job in yacht sales in Galveston. It’s worth a shot.”

I tried to lighten the mood since this story had obviously reminded him of a lost dream. “But then you’d have to pretend your favorite boats weren’t five-thousand-dollar Sunfish,” I teased.

He huffed out a soft laugh. “What about you? If you hadn’t been gifted this yacht, what dream sailboat would you want?”

“The J-Class Rainbow by Holland,” I said immediately. “I’ve been obsessed with it since I saw a YouTube video of it two years ago. Gorgeous ship.”

Cal chuckled again, and the warm laughter relaxed me farther into the bed. “Dude, that’s worth less than this monstrosity. Why not sell this and get that?”

“No one I know wants to sail on it with me. My brother and sister don’t like the way a sailboat tilts. Plus, it’s a completely different experience. I like being on the water, and you have to admit, this is a nice way of doing it. Diving is easier off a boat like this, and it fits more people in comfortable staterooms.” I thought about our current situation. “Although still not enough for this trip,” I added with a smile.

“If only you could afford both,” he teased. “Can you imagine? ‘Which luxury yacht shall we take out today, Brendan, the motor or the sail?’ Talk about first-world problems.”

“Who’s Brendan?” I asked, to steer us away from the topic of money. He clearly had no idea who I was and what I did for a living, and I suddenly discovered I wanted to keep it that way. If he knew I could afford both, and both of the shipyards where they were crafted as well, there was no telling what he’d think. “My pretentious fictional boy toy is named Chauncey.”

Cal chuckled. “But can we call him Chaunce when we’re in a hurry?”

“I frequently do. ‘Chaunce, be a dear and fetch me the chablis tout de suite’ is a phrase that is often heard around the hedge maze when I’m parched.”

He laughed some more, and I idly wondered how much of my fortune I’d be willing to give up to hear his laughter continue.

But these were dangerous waters, and I’d already given myself one stern reminder about the fact Cal was essentially an employee which meant he was off-limits. Flirty joking was fine. Imagining him naked and impaled on my cock was not fine.

After a few minutes of silence, Cal yawned. “Thank you for letting me stay,” he said in a sleepy voice. “I’m sorry for… all this.”

I made a sound of acknowledgment and forced myself to turn away from him again so I wouldn’t be tempted to reach across the smooth sheets to touch his warm skin. As tense as I felt right now, lying so close to someone this alluring, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get any sleep at all. I’d most likely get up in the morning with my muscles tied in knots from trying to hold myself on the very edge of the mattress.