Skylar sighed. “You’re welcome to use the shower before you go.” She pressed her palm against my arm and pushed before she slid out from under me.
I watched the expression on her face—she was serious. She was expecting me to leave. Fuck, my ears were still ringing, and my muscles were wrung out, and I wasn’t entirely sure I wouldn’t want to go again in ten minutes.
“It’s been a slice of heaven,” she said with a yawn.
I couldn’t ever remember being asked to leave before. I was the one who was usually counting down the minutes until it seemed acceptable for me to pull on my clothes and skip out. “You worried that if I make you come again, your criteria will start to crumble?” I asked.
“If that’s what you need to believe.” She pulled out a t-shirt from under the pillow, covered her delicious body, and rolled away from me, feigning sleep. At least, I think she was pretending.
I guess that was me dismissed. If she hadn’t been so damn beautiful, so completely alluring, I might have been a little irritated. But she was so confounding that nothing was a surprise.
I scanned her body as she brought the sheet up.
For the first time in a long time, I wanted to stay the night. Ideas of how I’d engineer another meeting with her ran through my head. I couldn’t ask her. She’d say no. I wouldn’t even get her number successfully at the moment.
I shifted off the bed, dressed, then bent over and placed a kiss on her shoulder. “Sleep tight, beautiful,” I whispered and headed out. This girl might be the only woman I ever wanted to sleep with more than once. And ironically, she clearly wasn’t interested in anything but tonight.
Hopefully a night’s sleep would sweep her from my mind.
Six
Skylar
I didn’t do headaches, unkempt hair, or bleary eyes, even when I was hung over. Which I wasn’t. I wish I could have blamed last night on the alcohol. As I pulled my wheelie case behind me up the dock, I had to dampen down a smile. No, I wouldn’t have wanted to be drunk last night. Every second was etched on my memory just like it should be. I was pretty sure I’d remember Landon for the entire summer.
Jesus, that man knew what he was doing in the sack. I’d had three orgasms. Three. I didn’t know that was possible. It had certainly never happened to me before. Landon undressed me and poof, I was orgasming left and right. But it wasn’t just the physical pleasure he’d provided. He’d taken control of my body and for some reason I’d let him—even though I knew better. When he looked at me, it felt safe to surrender to him. And although that was liberating, it was also terrifying. I’d never felt such desire for a man. I’d deliberately avoided any guy who might have any kind of power over me.
“Hey, Skylar,” a familiar voice called from behind me.
I stopped, erased my grin, and turned around as August half walked, half ran up the dock. “You’re early,” I said.
“Yeah, I wanted to catch up with you after last night. How was it?” she asked. “He looks like he knows his way around a woman’s body.”
Of course Landon was experienced. I dreaded to think how many women he’d been with, not that it mattered. I just didn’t want to imagine that last night was normal for him. Because it hadn’t been normal for me. Anything but. “I guess,” I replied as I pointed at the 162-foot superyacht in front of us, the word Sapphire painted on its side in swirly blue writing. “This is us.”
“The name is so cheesy,” August said.
“His pet Chihuahua, apparently. The interior’s lovely. Did you see the photographs?” I asked,
hoping the pictures weren’t from a hundred years ago or from another boat or something.
“No, there weren’t any online.”
Yachts owned by private owners didn’t often share images online. If you were rich enough to own a superyacht, you didn’t need to shout about it. “I requested them.” There was no way I was accepting a job without understanding what I was walking into. Yachting was only glamorous as a guest. Staff quarters were never great, but some were better than others, and I always wanted to know what the place I’d call home for the summer was going to look like.
“Of course you did.”
We hopped out of our shoes and lugged our bags onto the bow of the boat. “I’m meeting the captain at twelve. Let’s go figure out rooms.” I checked my watch. We had an hour. The rest of the crew wouldn’t arrive until after my meeting, and I would have allocated crew cabins by then. We had two days until the owner arrived—plenty of time to get things shipshape.
“You haven’t told me about your night with Landon. How was it?” August asked.
At just the mention of his name, my heart began to thud against my chest. I needed to forget about last night. Focus on today, but I couldn’t stop my grin creeping back onto my face. “He’s a charming guy and he knows it.”
“I knew you’d like him.”
“I didn’t say I liked him.” I led the way into the main saloon of the boat. It was exactly how the pictures had depicted it. It was all simple glamour—dark woods, low lighting, modern. It looked like a New York townhouse.
“This is beautiful,” August said, taking in the room as she spun a full 360 degrees. “Is this real gold leaf?” She peered closer at the bottom of the bar at the far end of the room, which had been covered in luminescent squares.