I laugh. “Will I now?”
She hitches a shoulder. “Yeah, it’d be weird if you didn’t.”
“You’re right.”
Her eyes slide up to mine, big and blue. “I am?”
My fingers slide into her hair and grip the base of her head. I pull her face to mine; my mouth is close to hers, I can feel the heat off her lips. Hear thegulpin her throat.
“Nice try,” I whisper.
She curses as I slide her off my lap and rise to my feet.
“Chef Marco prepares my meals and leaves them in the freezer. Help yourself to them and anything else on the yacht.” I tug out my wallet and toss my Amex on the coffee table. “You already have my spare card but I’m guessing it’s in my car along with your phone. Use this.” My gaze rises to hers. “I’m sure you remember the pin,” I say dryly.
“Obviously.” She swoops it up and holds it up to the light. “Hmm. I don’t think they deliver pizza to the middle of the Pacific.”
“They will if you tip well enough.”
As I stroll toward the door, her presence tugs on my back. I have this ridiculous urge to delay my flight another hour. Not even just to fuck her again, but to just…dothis.Talk shit and piss her off.
Instead, I grip the door handle and tell her, “Try not to burn the place down, Penelope.”
“Rafe?” The way she says my name bounces like an echo in my chest. I pause, glaring at the wood grain on the door. “All my other fuck buddies call me Penny.”
Violence hits me like a lightning bolt.
“And all your other fuck buddies will be six-feet-under if you mention them again.”
Forthethirdtimein an hour, I float into the forgotten living room at the back of the yacht. Instead of sighing into the silence like last time, I sink down on the window seat and press my cheek against the cold glass, as if it’ll extinguish the restless heat underneath it.
After a ridiculously long shower, I’ve been wandering the yacht like a spirit condemned. A collegiate hoodie instead of a Victorian dress; chained by leather restraints and violent orgasms, rather than the shackles of doom.
I lasted less than two hours before the sound of the decks groaning and the endless grandfather clocks ticking began to grate on me, chafing at my skin.
Now, as I press more of my body against the glass, staring at the rain fracturing the bright lights of Devil’s Cove on the horizon, I rattle my brain for something to do.
The answer comes like one of those cartoon light bulbs: I’ll work.
I’m not scheduled for a shift, but what else am I going to do tonight? Hide in Rafe’s room while the casino vibrates above me? With a quick glance at the Breitling, I realize Laurie and the like will be bobbing over the Pacific in a staff shuttle soon.
Spurred on by new vigor, I dart down to the laundry room and pick up a spare uniform in my size. Brushing the tangled evidence of rough sex from my hair, I paint on a face that looks too innocent to enjoy being gagged by a belt. Within thirty minutes, I’m behind the bar, stocking the mini fridge and loading the dishwasher.
But the start of the shift comes and goes. The hour melts into the next, the solitude tightening like a noose around my throat. No Laurie, no guests. When the dishwasher’s three lonely beeps fill the lounge, signaling it’s been two and a half hours since I put it on, I drop the rag I’m clutching and stomp up to Rafe’s study.
I find Laurie’s number in one of those Rolodexes old people have and use the phone on his desk to call her. She answers on the first ring.
“Yes, boss?”
“Laurie, it’s Penny. Where are you?”
“Penny?” She pauses, the line filling with the muffled sounds of a bar. “Rafe’s closed up the yacht until New Year’s Eve, sweetie. He didn’t call you? He said he would.”
Closing my eyes, I sink into the leather chair and drop my head against the backrest. “No, he didn’t,” I say tightly. Although I guess that solves the dilemma of trying to hide the fact I’m living onboard from my colleagues.
“Full pay, of course. And the staff Christmas party will still be going ahead. Wait.” The noise behind her fades, and it sounds like a door slams behind her. “How are you on the boat? The staff shuttle wouldn’t have been running—”
It’s stupid and childish, but I panic and hang up on her. When the phone shrills with a call back, I dive under the desk and turn it off by the plug.