The boat’s engine kicked to life, and Nate began to sail the boat out of the harbor, heading along our planned route. I climbed up the ladder and met him in the pilot’s room, sitting down in the copilot’s chair.
“How do you know where you’re going?”
He pointed at a little GPS screen. “There’s a route programmed in there. Any idiot could do this.”
“Fortunately we have the best idiot of all.”
“Keep that up and I’ll throw you overboard.”
“I’d love to see you try.”
He laughed and nodded down at where Tommy was making the customers put their life vests on. “What do you think of them?”
“The customers? They seem fine.”
“Bunch of rich assholes, if you ask me.”
“Everybody around here is a rich asshole, Nate.”
He grunted. “Yeah, except me.”
“No. You’re just an asshole.”
We rode in silence while Tommy gave the group his speech, something about the area’s history and other nautical facts. I didn’t care at all, and I was sure Nate would have fallen asleep if he’d had to listen, and so we drove the boat together in silence, heading along the preplanned route.
“How are things with your friend?” Nate asked suddenly.
“She’s fine. Haven’t really talked to her since we went out on the yacht.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That was a few days ago. Nothing wrong there?”
“No. She just got a job as a waitress at one of the bars in town, so she’s been busy.”
“Good for her. Probably shouldn’t be working at a bar, though.”
“She’s perfect for it.”
“She probably gets plenty of tips.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, nothing.”
I glared at him but didn’t say anything else, getting annoyed already. It’d barely been an hour and he was pushing my buttons hard.
Things had been strained between the two of us ever since we’d gotten off the yacht. The image of his naked body, his huge, hard cock standing erect in front of me, kept coming back over and over. As soon as I’d gotten back into my room, breathless and soaking wet, I’d had to touch myself until I came. I’d had to get that image out of my head.
But that didn’t help. Most of the time, Nate was either lying around drinking beer by the pool or going for long, crazy runs. He was practically never wearing a shirt, which made it so much harder than it had to be. He was my stepbrother and that was all there was to it.
Besides, my dad was stepping up his dating pressure. I didn’t know why, but he really wanted me to meet a bunch of young, eligible men he knew, probably because he didn’t think that I was capable of meeting and marrying the proper guy.
I was sick of him pushing the same lame investment banker onto me over and over. Okay, it wasn’t literally the same guy, but I had used the wrong name more than once, to everyone’s embarrassment. They were all named Chet or Michael, and they all loved boats as much as my dad did, and they all loved cocaine most of all.
That was pretty much all you needed to know.
And yet, despite Dad bringing around eligible men all the time, the only guy I couldn’t get off my mind was so supremely not-eligible that it made my skin crawl. He was rude and crude and muscular and serious and loved to make fun of me, and he was also my stepbrother.
Nate began to slow the boat down and brought it to a stop.
“Why are we stopping?” I asked him.
“Map says to.”
“Okay, any clue why the map says to?”
He shrugged. “Nope. We should probably go down and help Tommy out, though.”
I stood up and rolled my eyes at him while he dropped the anchor. I walked down onto the deck and leaned up against the railing as Tommy began to pass out fishing rods. He showed everyone where the bait was and where the beer was and basically stepped back to let the men cast out and teach their women how to do it. It was all pretty old fashioned, but I didn’t mind.
“Does it usually go like this?” I asked Tommy once he joined me.
“More or less. It’s an easy job.”
“Ever have any problems?”
He sighed and looked off into the distance. “No, but I’ve heard rumors.”
“Rumors about what?”
“Pirates.”
I stared at him for a second and then burst out laughing. “Like with eye patches and peg legs?”
“No. Pirates with speedboats and machine guns.”
“You’re serious?”
“They’re rumors, but sometimes rumors are true. Apparently, there are some pirates that patrol these waters and like to board boats and steal everything they have.” He paused, looking away. “Sometimes they steal the women, too.”