The Ruthless Gentleman(18)
Again he looked at me, opened his mouth and went to speak before shaking his head and grabbing his computer. “I’ll be next door,” he said and swept past me, that earthy, masculine scent following him.
It was probably for the best. The less time I spent in close proximity to this man the better. Normally, I played along when guests told me more than they ever should about their personal business—everything from sexual exploits to dreams for the future. I’d nod, smile and feign interest, but I’d never be tempted to ask for more detail—it wasn’t my business and I’d never been particularly interested—always focused on the job and the service I was providing rather than the people I was providing it to. With Hayden Wolf, I found myself having to hold back from following him into the office and asking him a thousand questions. That desire couldn’t just be his muscular arms and searching eyes. I’d never been taken in by just the physical before, but with Hayden it seemed as though there was more to him—his family, his drive. The way he looked at me. Yes, it was better that he left me on my own. I’d be able to focus on getting his room fixed rather than the man I was fixing it for.
Eight
Hayden
Despite the heat and the rocking of the yacht, I couldn’t sleep. My plan had been to spend all night in the office working with advisors based in New York, who I’d selected because they had no public connection to Cannon. Then I’d thought I’d sleep in the day on deck. Working all night was fine. Sleeping all day wasn’t. Especially not today. I was due to hear from the lawyers, and I didn’t trust Wi-Fi, so I was having to go old school and have everything couriered to the boat in hard copy or on USB sticks.
I checked my watch, noting it was about half an hour since I’d seen Avery Walker. Right on cue, the main salon doors swished open. When she’d been cleaning my room, I’d found her so distracting that I’d had to leave the room. I’d been mesmerized by way her hands gripped the bed linen and found myself fantasying about pushing her onto the bed and my shoving her skirt up to her waist.
“Anything I can get you?” Avery asked as she came out onto the main deck. She made it sound as if she’d just happened to be passing by, but I’d been watching. She was always passing by every twenty to thirty minutes, catering to my every need. Her ponytail swished behind her as she came to a stop by my lounger. How would that ponytail feel wrapped around my hand?
I cleared my throat as I shook the fantasy of her out of my head. “Yes, actually.” Nine times out of ten there was nothing I wanted from her, but it was just coming up to noon and I needed her help.
She had an almost-permanent smile on her face, but it pulled a little wider, as if my asking for her help was what she wanted more than anything—that was bloody attractive. “What can I get you?”
“Well, first, I want to give you this,” I said, pulling out the preferences sheet from beneath my laptop.
She sank her teeth into her full bottom lip as she took the sheet from me and began to scan the papers I’d scrawled over. “This is really nice of you.”
It had taken some bollocks for her to ask me to fill this sheet in yesterday. She’d been trying to make her crew’s life easier, and my stay more enjoyable, but it would have been easier, less confrontational to have just stayed quiet. From our tour I could tell she was good at her job, but I hadn’t quite realized the care and compassion she had for her work and her colleagues. And I enjoyed that she’d called me out—and in such a charming way. She was all politeness on the outside but hinted at her core of steel. I had thought I was being helpful by not caring one way or another about the preferences sheet, but subtly she’d told me I was being anything but and that I had to let her and her crew do their jobs. She’d been confident and clear and my sheer admiration of her and the way I’d been handled meant I had to reward her and if I couldn’t fuck her, I could do what she’d asked and fill out the sheet.
“No inflatable banana,” I said, not being able to suppress a smile.
She giggled and heat grew in my belly. She had a beautiful laugh. “I thought you might skip that one.”
“I don’t avoid all fun if that’s what you think. But that’s a little too much.” Why did I care if she thought I didn’t like to have fun? I was here to work.
She nodded, smiling. “By the end of the trip, you never know what I might have talked you into.”
I raised my eyebrows. I was beginning to think she could persuade me to do a number of things that were against my own best judgement. I cleared my throat, trying to regain my focus. “I’d like you to go ashore and collect a package for me.”
“Excuse me, sir?”
Shit, her calling me sir shouldn’t be as arousing as I found it. “Please, it’s Hayden.” I shifted, sitting up on my lounger, trying to distract my dick. “There’s a patisserie on Lotissement Chateau Martin. I’d like you to pick up a cake.”
Her smile faded from her eyes but her full lips stayed in place. “No problem,” she said.
I pulled out a scrap of paper where I’d written down the name and address of the patisserie while on the phone to the lawyers last night.
“It’s only a short walk from the marina.” I beckoned her forward and she stepped toward me, closer than we’d been before. My face was level with her pussy and my eyes flickered up over her breasts to her face. Shit. Shit.