Love At First Taste (Love Comes First 3)

Maybe it’s time to find a new career and settle down. I want to get married and start a family. I’m only twenty-five, but I feel the desire getting stronger every month.

I always knew I wanted to settle down, but I thought it would be later, like in my thirties. I didn’t realize it would creep up on me so fast.

This traveling non-stop lifestyle is not very conducive to a serious relationship. It’s hard to bond with someone when you’re in Aruba one week and in Bermuda the next. Who’s going to put up with that?

For some reason, my mind goes to that guy I met in the dining room. He was cute even if he did come across like he had some kind of horrific brain injury. The way he was just standing there, gaping at me… I didn’t know whether to laugh, to be flattered, or to be frightened.

He had a huge muscular body with a wide tall frame, which probably meant he played football in high school and maybe even in college, which also means he’s probably taken a lot of hard hits to the head, which probably explains the brain injury.

The small radio strapped to my shoulder clicks on, jerking me out of my daze. “Aubrey,” the bartender Julie says. “I’m taking my break. So are Eivind and Knut.”

I quickly click on the radio. “No. Not until I check the bar. Julie? Julie!”

She’s gone. Damn it.

I rush over to the pool area and feel my blood starting to boil when I see that it’s still a mess. There are clothes and bottles everywhere.

“Julie!” I say into the radio again. “Julie get back to the bar!”

“She went into her room with the Norwegians,” Mila answers through the radio. “They’re not coming out for a while.”

I grunt in frustration as I walk over to the pool and grab the bottle of Jägermeister that’s floating on the water.

I don’t know what’s going on with those three, but they have some kind of weird sex pact or something. Eivind and Knut seem to have no problem sharing their girl.

I could never be in a relationship like that. I’d want my man and that’s it. I wouldn’t want to share my heart, or his, with anyone else.

“Gross,” I whisper to myself when I see the sticky bar. I place the glasses and some bottles in the sink before heading over to the couches to clean up the clothes. There’s a bikini top, some plastic beads, a couple of shirts, and a pair of swim trunks that I pick up with a fork.

When the area is looking good enough to leave until Julie comes back from her Norwegian sex party, I grab a sponge and get to work on the scuffed-up floor.

I’m so focused on scrubbing that I don’t notice the man’s presence until he’s standing in front of me.

I look up and see the guy from before. He’s looking better than ever in beige pants and a dark navy collared shirt with the long sleeves rolled up his thick forearms. His dirty blonde hair is styled to the side and he’s got a smile on his handsome face that brings tingles to my skin.

“What are you doing?” he asks in a deep voice that’s like a shot of brandy to my ears.

“Cleaning up stripper tracks,” I say as I turn back to the scuff marks and try to rub them off. This teak floor costs more than most people make in their lifetime and these girls never seem to give a shit.

He walks to the bar and looks over it.

“My bartender is coming back in a few minutes if you guys are already starting round two of your frat party,” I say, my voice thick with annoyance.

He just ignores me and walks around it.

“You can’t just—”

My words stop in my throat when I see him walking back out with another sponge.

“Oh,” I say as he gets down on his knees in front of me and starts scrubbing out a stripper footprint. “You don’t have to.”

“I want to.”

“It costs one point two million dollars to rent this yacht for four days. You really don’t have to clean it.”

He looks at me with a devastating smile. “I know, but I want to help you.”

I quickly drop my eyes to the floor so he doesn’t see me blushing.

“Thank you,” I whisper, barely loud enough for him to hear.

“It’s true what I said before,” he says after a long moment. “I just met these guys. Really. My brothers and I handle the groom’s investments and they invited me down as a thank you. I couldn’t say no to a client.”

He gets out the mark he’s working on and starts working on the next one. With those big strong arms, he’s a lot faster than I am.