Then he cursed himself for his own selfishness, hoping he might relax enough to sleep but knowing it was completely hopeless that he would ever feel at rest.
When Dani awoke, a number of hours later, she found Valerio sleeping soundly on his recliner in the main cabin. She walked over to stand beside him, fighting the urge to cover him with a blanket. He had told her never to touch him while he slept and she wasn’t about to overstep that boundary, no matter how much she wanted to soothe the beast that roared in him.
Frowning, she took a seat at the opposite end of the cabin and successfully busied her fretful mind by reading over some of the finer details of their new Caribbean expansion. She might not be a fully active CEO, thanks to his demotion of her, but she had been the one to put the work into the planning of this base and she wasn’t about to let him go in unprepared. She was able to separate her emotions from her professional work.
She thought of Valerio’s urging her to focus on her independent contracts and how success had felt when it had been on her own terms. It had been hard work, a lot of travelling, and impossible to forge any kind of relationship in such a transient role. But that was what had drawn her to the work in the beginning—it had been the perfect balance. She had spent half her time working with her brother and the other half travelling solo.
But even though she had believed she was content, something had felt strangely lacking. The travel had grated on her sleep schedule, and she’d felt no desire to see any of the cities she’d landed in, preferring just to get her work done and sit in her rented apartment or hotel room watching romantic comedies and eating cold pizza from the box.
The lack of travel in the past six months while she had been running Velamar had been a welcome change of pace, but it still hadn’t quite eased the restlessness that had long plagued her.
In the months before Duarte’s death, she had been drawing up plans to start her own PR firm—something she had always dreamed of. Initially she had believed that she needed more experience or larger jobs—that no one would take her seriously until she had proved herself on a grand scale. But bigger jobs and more respect had come and still she’d held back.
Now she was about to be the co-owner of a global yacht charter firm and about to marry her business partner.
Unable to focus on work any more, she set about tidying away the items that Valerio had left out on the table. A photograph slid from his wallet onto the floor and she picked it up, frowning as an image including herself stared back at her. She remembered that day. The picture had been taken at the very first charity yacht gala she had planned six years ago. Just a few months before she’d moved to London and met Kitt.
Duarte stood centre stage, looking straight into the camera, while Dani and Valerio stood either side of him. Dani’s hand was outstretched towards her brother’s best friend as though she was mid-punch. She sighed, seeing that look in her eyes that she remembered so well. But she couldn’t quite place the expression on Valerio’s face...
Embarrassment, perhaps?
Had she been that obvious?
She scrunched her face up, cursing how terrible she had always been at disguising her emotions. Even now, did he know how utterly infatuated she had been with him? Could he tell that she still struggled with that pull of attraction?
She let her eyes wander from the photograph to the real-life, grown-up version of the man. He lay completely relaxed, his strong jaw in profile, showcasing the kind of chiselled designer stubble that most male models would have killed for. His arms were crossed over his broad chest, where the material of his shirt strained over the taut muscles that lay underneath.
She imagined what this flight might have been like had they been a real engaged couple on their way to a romantic whirlwind elopement. That version of her wouldn’t have thought twice about sliding onto her sleeping fiancé’s lap and running her fingers along his perfect jaw to wake him with a sizzling kiss... And maybe that kiss would have led to the kind of mile-high aeroplane chair
sex she had only ever read about in magazine confession columns.
Just as she allowed herself to imagine the mechanics of such an act, the Captain chose to announce their descent. Valerio woke with his familiar knee-jerk rapid awareness. His eyes landed on her and Dani felt herself freeze as though she’d been caught with her hand in the proverbial cookie jar.
His gaze seemed curious, and she wondered if her erotic daydreams were somehow painted across her forehead. She felt far too warm as she cleared her throat and slid into the seat across from him, averting her gaze as she commented all too loudly on the picture-perfect view of the island of St Lucia below.
Their first stop was the office of a very prestigious local attorney, to ensure that the documents their company lawyer had filed in application for a marriage licence had been received. They were assured that all was going to plan, and that the short ceremony would take place in two days’ time, as per the legal waiting period during which they must not vacate the island.
Dani ignored the twist of nerves in her gut at the idea that in a mere forty-eight hours she would be legally wed to the silently brooding man by her side. He had been distant since their argument, his brow permanently marred by that single worry line in the centre. At one point she had almost reached out to smooth it down—had even had to pull her hand into a tight fist and marvel at how ridiculous she was being.
They left the attorney’s office and walked the short distance to the marina, where Velamar’s sleek new Caribbean base was in the final stages of being finished. The building was single-storey, in traditional St Lucian style, with an enviable frontage of the large marina, which housed the beginnings of their sleek new fleet of charter yachts and catamarans.
‘Well, what do you think?’
Dani crossed her arms as Valerio silently took in the bright, modern entrance foyer. The interior was still a mess of plastic coverings and unfinished paintwork, but the majority of the structural modifications had been completed exactly according to her orders.
Valerio was silent, his eyes seeming to take in every small detail as he moved around the large space. He craned his neck upwards to the feature chandelier hanging above their heads and let out a low whistle.
‘I had it commissioned by a local artist.’ Dani spoke quickly, before he tried to comment on the possible price of such a frivolous item. ‘I used local tradesmen for everything—including furniture design. I figured it was good for our global image, as well as making a statement about our commitment to being a part of this community—not just another big company setting up shop.’
‘It’s genius. This design is the perfect blend of our brand mixed with a St Lucian flavour.’ He shook his head. ‘You’re perfectly on schedule too, by the looks of things. We’ve never managed that on any of our projects before.’
She fought the impulse to make a snarky comment about how she was just that good—about how he was making a mistake by removing her from her CEO duties. Instead she let his compliment sit for a moment, then replied with a simple thank-you. It was very adult, for the pair of them. Very professional.
More than once she caught him watching her from the corner of her eye as she spoke to the small management team who had been running things on-site. They were jumping over one another, eager to show the progress that had been made in readying the base for the first launch in the upcoming season.
Valerio seemed oddly distant now, allowing her to take the lead on the walk-through while he stood to the side and listened.
She suggested they take the team to dinner, to show their appreciation of their hard work, and was delighted when Valerio booked a sleek little boutique restaurant on the harbour that served the most delicious lobster she had ever tasted. He stepped easily into the role of charming CEO as he regaled the small table with entertaining stories from the company’s early days, starting up in Monaco, and the various catastrophes they had endured.