NautiCal (Forever Wilde 8)

I glanced at the long sofa against the wall in my bedroom.

“No,” he said.

“You didn’t even listen to my idea yet.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “For shame, Mr. Worthington, sir. You’re old enough to be my father.”

The arrow hit its mark with a thunk. “I’m forty-two, not fifty!”

“Huh. You look older.”

Cal was even cuter when he was trying to get under my skin.

“Hear me out,” I began.

He put his hands on his hips and tapped his toe on the ground, which would have been ten times more impressive if the collar of his shirt hadn’t gaped enough to show me a glimpse of smooth collarbone. “I’m listening.”

“What if… I mean, think about it. How can I explain your presence here? What if I say you’re my guest?”

“Your guest with benefits? Are we back to the Pretty Woman thing now?”

“No. No. They all know I would never sleep with someone like you.” My heartfelt reassurance hit the room like a delayed depth charge.

“Oh. Right,” he said weakly, plonking back down in the chair. “Of course. Sure. Silly me.”

I lurched forward, trying to suck back in the words. Before I knew what I was doing, I’d knelt on the floor at his feet and put my hands on his knees. “No, Cal, that’s not what I meant.”

We both looked at my hands resting on his warm legs until I slowly removed them and lurched back to sit on the bed again. What the fuck? I didn’t grovel and apologize to people for speaking my mind, and I sure as hell didn’t give one whit about the feelings of this young man who was a complete stranger to me.

I wasn’t the only one confused by my actions. Cal’s eyes were wide and wondering. Fine. Maybe I cared a tiny bit about his feelings. I wasn’t a monster.

“I, ah,” I continued. “It’s just that… I had a bad breakup and… never mind, not important. Anyway, it’s not like I’m even…” I took a breath and tried to remind myself this guy didn’t care about my love life and he was young enough to be my child. He wasn’t, of course; he was an employee. Period. And if breaking up with Mason had taught me anything, it was never to get involved with an employee. Cal would sleep where I put him. He did not need to know any further information about me or my family.

“Suffice to say—”

Cal snapped his fingers. “Dive master!”

“What?”

“I saw the tanks on board last night. You dive, right?” He seemed to be coming up with this idea right in front of me.

“Well, yes.”

“Tell them you hired me to be the dive master for the week, and because the boat is full, I agreed to sleep on deck. I’ll just keep my… stuff… in here and use your bathroom.”

“Is that skimpy outfit we found by the hot tub your ‘stuff’ because if so, I’m guessing your dive gear was accidentally left behind in St. Mitz.”

He shot me a look of annoyance. “All of my stuff is in a storage locker back on the island. I stashed it there because the hostel is a cesspit full of freeloading assholes.”

He was worse off than I thought if he was staying at a youth hostel. And so young. I cleared my throat. “We’ll get you new stuff at Turshall Cay. They have a big dive shop and some clothing boutiques next to the marina. But I don’t think dive master is going to work. If you’re part of the crew, you won’t have as much opportunity to be around Prescott. He needs to think you’re—”

The door opened and my sister came barging in. “Worth, Lucas and I can’t figure out—” She stopped and stared at where I sat facing Cal, both of us leaning toward each other with our elbows on our knees. “Who’s this? What’s going on?”

Cal stood up and strode confidently toward Natalia with his hand outstretched and his cheeky grin in full blast mode. “Hi. I’m Cal Wilde. You must be Worth’s sister. He’s told me so much about you.”

I stared at him wondering how he’d even known my sister was on this boat. “Uh, Nat, Cal is…”

What the hell was I supposed to say? We hadn’t had time to come up with our cover story yet.

Cal jumped in. “Worth’s friend from sailing school. We were on the master course together. Hope you don’t mind, he invited me to join you this week, and you know how hard this face is to say no to.” He reached over and squeezed my face in his hands, making my lips turn fishy. I tried to keep my eyes from bugging out in surprise.

He was so charismatic, so charming, that I immediately dropped my shoulders. This was going to be a walk in the park. In addition to hopefully opening Lucas’s eyes to the joke of a man he was engaged to, Cal would add some much-needed levity to the trip I’d been dreading. Maybe he’d even get the focus off me for a while so I could avoid the “you’re a workaholic” lectures I was sure my siblings were planning.