The kayaks were bright red and orange. She would like those colors.
“Come on,” Chad grinned at her. She looked adorable with goggles covering almost half her face. “Let’s go see some fish.”
They jumped in the water and lowered masked faces into the bay.
Before Chad knew what hit him, he heard a shriek and had an armful of sputtering Jennie. She quite literally climbed up him and was clinging to his shoulders, legs and arms clamped around him as high up as she could go. It would be funny to anyone watching.
Chad grinned, trying to ignore his body’s immediate response to her. He refused to acknowledge the fact that at that moment, the string bikini she wore was giving him access to parts of Jennie’s body he’d only ever dreamed of touching. His arms were under her ass, holding her up. The sensations produced by their wet skin were wreaking havoc on his senses, but she didn’t seem to be aware of that at all.
“Problem, Jen?”
She bit her lip and nodded her head.
“And that would be...?”Damn, she’s cute.On any other woman, this would seem like a coy ploy for his attention. With Jennie, it was real. She was well and truly freaked by something and he was more than happy to be her knight in shining armor. Especially when she wrapped her body around that armor.
“The fish,” Jennie said, eyes wide. “A fish touched my legs. It went right between my legs!”
He let a slow smile form. “I need to protect you from the fish?”
She nodded. “They’re huge. And scary. And kind of gross.”
They were pretty big. Some of them were one-and-a-half feet long and about as wide around the middle as Chad’s forearm. He had expected smaller fish, too. But seeing her so freaked out was pretty damned cute.
And holding her was pretty sexy. Really, really damned sexy, as a matter of fact. Chad lifted her up to the dock, then let his hands skim down to her thighs—pretending to be Jennie’s concerned husband did have its perks.
“Want me to hold you in the water and see if that makes you feel better?”Say yes. No, say no. This is a bad idea… But, please say yes.
Before Jennie could answer, a fish jumped out of the water and splashed back in. Chad assumed it was trying to catch a bug skimming the surface of the water. Jennie must have assumed it was an attempt to eat her, because she was up and running off the dock in a heartbeat. So much for Jack’s theory that Jennie Evans wasn’t afraid of anything.
Chad pulled himself out onto the dock, trying not to laugh too hard—and losing that battle. He scooped up their beach bag and towels. The items quickly became crucial parts of Chad’s ensemble as he followed Jennie back to the villa.
Watching the sway of her sweet ass as she hightailed it through the resort had his dick harder than he’d care to share with the other guests. With their belongings held casually in front of him to hide his predicament, he let himself enjoy the show. He’d have to shower with ice water when he got back to the villa, but it was worth it.
Jennie had the sexiest ass Chad had ever seen. That ass in a bikini?
Deadly.
Chapter 12
The first week of their working vacation passed fairly quickly. They stuck to the pools instead of the ocean so Jennie didn’t have any more run-ins with the terrifying fish of the Florida coast. And they kept an eye out for the nephews.
Jack wasn’t in any hurry for their assessment and rarely checked in with them. That struck Jennie as a little odd, but she brushed it off. She and Chad were having more fun than she thought they would. They spent their days in the resort where she managed to befriend a few of the employees.
Most of the employees seemed to feel that the Masters brothers didn’t have much to offer. They were careful not to badmouth them too much, but Jennie didn’t miss the undertone of what people weren’t saying. No one respected the brothers. The brothers were dead weight on the resort and none of the employees would be sorry to see them go.
People liked and spoke well of Jonathan Masters, the owner, but they said he rarely came there anymore. From what Jennie could see, the managers were running the show and, it seemed, running it very well. The place had an incredibly relaxing atmosphere with attention to detail and customer service that left guests feeling pampered. It was exactly what a tropical vacation should be.
At night, they went to dinner and then played cards or talked and laughed back in the villa. They talked and laughed a lot, actually. More than she had thought they would.
Even though it was hard to ignore the sexual undertones that always sparked between them, Jennie really enjoyed being with Chad on this new level.
The night before, they had gone to one of the restaurants that had dinner and dancing. Jennie was stunned to find out Chad could salsa, rumba—you name it, he could do it on the dance floor. As he whirled her around, making her breathless, she had to laugh. She never would have pictured her tough soldier-man boss as a dancer.
“Where did you learn to do this?” she had asked when they sat down for their entrees.
He shrugged a shoulder and grinned at her. “I have my secrets.”
She shook her head at him, to which he’d just winked.