Easy Come(Plaything #1)(11)

I reached down to the megaphone I kept handy beneath the helm. I flicked it on and put it to my mouth. Georgie was about to stretch out on the lounge. "Stop there."

Hearing my amplified order startled her. She laughed when she saw that I was holding a megaphone. She stood next to the lounge and shaded her face with her hand as she stared up at me in question.

"Walk to the end of the lounge and face it. Captain's orders."

Georgie saluted me. The gesture nearly tossed a nipple from its hiding place. Which gave me an idea. "Untie that bikini top and take the damn thing off. Tan lines, remember?"

I barked my order confidently, but Georgie hesitated.

"Go ahead. There's no one around except a few seagulls and your captain, and he's giving you an order." I made my voice deeper. "Just think how good that sun will feel on those tits."

She shot me another grin over her shoulder. This one came with a brow lift. I held my breath as she reached behind her neck and untied the knot. She dropped the strings and reached back to untie the rest of it. Still facing the bow, her back to me, she held her arm straight out with the bikini top hanging off her fingers. She tossed it onto the lounge, then instantly crossed her arms over herself.

"Uh, the captain said nothing about substituting arms for the teeny bikini."

She kept her arms crossed over her breasts as she spun around to face me. Then without warning she dropped them.

"Fucking perfect." I'd muttered the words to myself, completely forgetting about the device in front of my mouth that could broadcast anything, even a mutter meant only for my ears, over the entire deck.

I didn't need to guess whether Georgie had heard me or not. She bowed her head politely as a thank you.

The cove was straight ahead. I pointed toward it. Georgie walked, topless and sexy as hell, across to the port side of the boat to get a look. The inlet was surrounded by a curved piece of coastline, far too rocky to be used as a beach, which wasn't allowed anyhow. Tall, dense foliage provided shelter for the wildlife, while also providing a nice bit of privacy around the water in the cove. It was a great piece of paradise, but you needed a boat to reach it.

While I looked for the right place to anchor, Georgie returned to the chaise lounge. She stretched out on her stomach. I slowed the boat, shut down the motor and pushed the button to drop anchor.

I finished up on the bridge and walked down to the deck. I flicked on some music and walked toward the bow. Georgie had swept her hair to the side to make sure her back got full sun.

She didn't lift her head or look up. "You are casting a shadow over me."

I didn't move. I took a moment to gaze over her body, mostly naked save for the small piece of fabric covering her ass. "I don't recall me telling you to stretch out on your stomach."

"No? Well, I don't want to burn. And since my breasts have never actually seen the sun, I figured they might be a little sensitive."

"Do you mean to tell me you have never sunbathed naked before?"

She moved her head to the side to peer up at me from her forearm pillow. "Yes, of course. All the time. Some of the people in the apartment complex complain when I'm out there at the pool stark naked, but they eventually get used to it."

I sat on the adjacent lounge. "I was going to whip up a batch of margaritas. Sound good?"

"Absolutely." She reached down to the bottle of lotion. "But would you mind putting some lotion on my back. I don't want to burn. The sun seems extra strong out here on the water."

I took hold of the bottle and stared at it as if she'd just handed me a bottle of nitroglycerin. I'd just recovered from watching her strip off her bikini top. Touching her was a whole new layer of agony.

Georgie's face turned up to see what was taking so long. She looked slightly embarrassed. "You don't have to. That's all right. I'll just pull my shirt back on."

"No, sorry. I was just trying to decide if we should swim first."

"It's waterproof."

"Waterproof. Yeah, that makes sense." To my own ears I was sounding like a complete idiot, but I didn't seem to be able to stop myself. I had probably had twenty different women sunning topless on the deck of my boat, but today, I was acting like a fifteen-year-old who'd just gotten a glimpse of his first pair of tits.

I squirted a glob of lotion into my palm.

Georgie turned her face away from me, resting it on her arms. She startled and giggled as the cold lotion touched her skin. At first, the fragrant lotion provided a semi-solid barrier between my hand and her skin. But that barrier eventually disappeared, leaving only a thin layer of cream between my palm and her back. I moved my hands across her shoulders and down along her back, following the curve of her waist. I tried to ignore the urgency of my cock and every muscle in my body tensing. My hand slid over her hips. As much as I warned myself not to go farther, my fingers slipped under the triangle of fabric on her bottom.

Georgie breathed in sharply as my fingers slid between her ass cheeks, coming dangerously close to the apex of her thighs where her pussy stayed tucked beneath the flimsy bathing suit bottoms. I continued on over the exposed skin of her bottom, knowing damn well that I should have applied more lotion but no longer wanting that barrier that I'd been so thankful for just seconds earlier. Her skin was warm from the sun, and it felt as silky as I'd imagined. And I'd imagined it plenty. My body was getting dangerously close to the point of no return.

It took all my will to remove my hand. I saw her thin shoulders relax as I pulled my palm away. I heaved in deep, fast breaths as I stared down at her. "I'm going in for a swim," I said tersely, not waiting for her response.

I walked over to the railing running along the bow, climbed over it and dove in without looking back. The water wasn't nearly cold enough.





Chapter Fifteen





Georgie





The awkward lotion session had put a crimp in what had been shaping up to be a wonderful day. Trey went swimming and then climbed back on deck looking far more dark and brooding than I'd ever seen him. I wanted to kick myself for asking him to apply lotion. Avoiding sunburn hadn't been my only goal at all. I was just dying for the man to touch me, to show some inclination for getting physical with me. Apparently, he would have preferred if I had asked him to stick his hand in a pot of boiling water.

I had waited for Trey to climb out of the water before I jumped in. The water was colder than I'd expected, and after a few circles around the boat, I managed to freak myself out enough about the possibilities of carnivorous sea creatures swimming along with me that I quickly pulled myself up the ladder and back on deck.

I heard the distinctive buzz of the blender coming from the galley. Margaritas. Maybe the afternoon wouldn't be a total bust after all. The dip seemed to have cooled some of the grumpies out of the ship's captain.

Trey's eyes looked pale against his tanned skin. He'd managed to get a good shade darker in our short time on deck. Whereas I’d only succeeded in burning my bottom. The towel I'd wrapped around myself chafed against the pink raw skin, making the idea of wearing jeans unappealing.

"How was the water?" he asked.

"Cold and seething with sea life. Which is why I am back inside already." It seemed we were once again talking, even if it was just small talk. "That and the salt water was stinging the sunburn on my—" I decided not to finish my comment. I knew the damn bikini was going to be an impractical nuisance.

Trey seemed to understand what I meant and did a poor job hiding his amusement.

I pointed at him. "Don't laugh. You were in charge of suntan lotion back there. Who'd have thought Trey Armstrong, playboy owner of Plaything, didn't know how to apply suntan lotion." Humor had gotten me through this whole thing, and I decided it was the easiest way to wash away the awkward part of the day.

I wasn't quite ready to give up on the plan yet. I'd managed to write what I considered some pretty thought provoking stuff this morning, and I wanted to keep working on the article. Trey had already opened my eyes to one more thing today when he had asked me to take my top off. I was shocked that without much hesitation, I took it off. I was still grappling with whether or not I did it to try something new, something I had never dared to do before, or whether I did it hoping to excite the captain. The lotion fiasco proved that the latter was a complete failure. I was going to have to go with the daring myself to do something I'd never done before angle. I had to admit it felt good and freeing to be mostly naked lying out under the sun.

I'd always found the easiest way to get drunk was to have a tasty drink in my hand, and the margarita Trey had blended was delicious. It didn't take me long to get to the bottom of the first round and start on a second. We nibbled chips and dips while we sat on the inside couch sipping our drinks. I hadn't given much thought to my hair after the dunk in the ocean. It had begun to dry in the natural curls, ringlets that I'd spent a good portion of my life pulling through a flat iron to pretend that I had been blessed with straight hair.

After a few drinks, we'd both loosened up. Trey reached across and pushed one of the curls off my forehead. He did it with such care, I could have easily convinced myself that it was a tender moment that meant something. Particularly because he'd done it with a serious intensity in his gaze that made it feel as if we'd formed a connection. I quickly passed it off as my imagination, the tequila and a good dose of wishful thinking.