The Ruthless Gentleman(44)
And I could give myself a break from wanting her. Maybe even find an Italian woman to seduce and bury myself in. Perhaps that would push Avery out of my mind.
“Are you fucking crazy? Everything is working. You’re making good progress with your deal, Cannon haven’t figured out what you’re doing and we’re eliminating potential leaks. Why would you jeopardize that?”
Why indeed?
“I’m not suggesting I come back to London,” I replied. “I’m just feeling a little stir crazy. I want to go ashore. Overnight.” True, but it was only part of the story.
“What? Stay in a hotel or something?”
“Yeah. Maybe get rid of my sea legs. I’ve been on this thing a month and I just want to get back on dry land for a few hours.”
Landon was right—I was in one of the most beautiful places on earth. As well as trying to make things easier on myself, maybe I could enjoy it if I was away from the yacht and everything connected to the Phoenix deal. I had a day or two while I waited for the lawyers to review everything. I could afford to catch my breath. I wanted to see the place Avery was so keen to visit.
“You mean you want to get laid,” he said. I didn’t respond. I had no desire to discuss my need to fuck Avery Walker out of my system with Landon. “I don’t know. We’d need some time to set it up. I’d want to check out the hotel before you got there, and you’d have to do a full sweep for bugs when you got back.”
“I do a full sweep twice a day on the yacht anyway so that’s not a problem. And I won’t do any business on shore or make any calls. I want you to set this up.”
He sighed, and I could almost hear the cogs in his brain trying to process what I was saying, trying to find a solution. “I could send in someone to conduct surveillance while you’re there. You never know, if we get lucky someone might be following you.”
“Lucky?” My brother was a twisted fucker.
“When were you thinking?”
“Day after tomorrow.”
I could almost hear the eye roll.
“Okay, leave it with me. I’ll find a hotel. I’ll also get some security for the boat while you’re ashore. It’s a good job you’ve got money. This is going to cost you.”
I chuckled. “Just stop whining and make it happen.”
Hopefully my being ashore would ease Avery’s burden. She’d told me she’d always wanted to explore Taormina—now she’d get the chance. Perhaps it would take her mind off what was happening at home. And maybe I’d stop thinking about her.
Landon could organize this without any consequences for the Phoenix deal, couldn’t he? If I didn’t conduct any business on shore then the only risk would be someone planting a listening device on me while I was on dry land and me taking it back to the boat. But I could scan anything I brought back. This shouldn’t be a problem, and my little brother wasn’t the type to not tell me when he thought I was being an idiot. An overnight trip would be worth it. I could distract myself and make Avery happy. Not that the chief stewardess of the Athena’s happiness was on my agenda at the moment.
Definitely not.
I was just going stir crazy. I needed to find something else to think about.
Nineteen
Avery
Nothing made me happier than my dad cracking jokes about the Sacramento Kings’ shitty defense. It meant he was feeling better. And I got to hear it because of Hayden’s generosity in letting me use his satellite phone. He couldn’t have been more thoughtful or concerned. I’d also called my aunt and between the two of us we’d arranged for some additional care for my brother to ease the strain on my dad. He’d been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and although apparently it was easily managed with the drugs, I wanted him to take it easy.
“All crew, all crew in the mess—five minutes,” the captain announced through my radio on my nightstand.
I groaned and peeled myself off the bed. All-crew meetings mid-charter were rarely a good thing. Usually it meant there was a serious complaint or an unexpected change of plans. Surely Hayden would have told me if something was wrong? He’d started to ask Skylar for things here and there, but I hadn’t seen him properly interact with anyone other than me and I kinda liked it that way. It was ridiculous but I didn’t encourage him to ask Skylar for things. I liked to be the one who got him what he needed. It was my job to ensure guests had everything they wanted, and he was the only guest on this charter, so it made sense I would be his main point of contact. I was the chief stewardess. He was a guest.
A guest, so I shouldn’t be kissing him on the top deck while watching fireworks and sipping champagne.
A guest, so I shouldn’t be playing our kiss over and over again in my mind.
A guest, so I shouldn’t be wondering if he’d ever kiss me again.
I blew out a breath, smoothed my hair back into a ponytail and headed to the mess.
“How’s your dad?” August asked as I appeared at the doorway.
I slipped onto the banquette. “All over the Sacramento Kings and their shitty defense, apparently.”
She laughed. “Sounds like he’s getting back to normal.”
Neill high-fived one of the engineers while Eric tried to explain why the joke he’d just told was funny. With twelve of us in the tiny space, it was loud but good-natured.