“Whatever you want to do is fine with me, princess,” he grunted at me, “but don’t act like that pussy doesn’t ache every time I’m around you.”
“Nothing aches,” I snapped back.
“Whatever you say.”
We lapsed into silence, and I inwardly kicked myself for opening my stupid mouth. He didn’t seem to mind, but I felt like a total idiot.
I quickly got up and went down to help Tommy finish up packing everything away. I decided chores were better than sitting up with Nate, where the tension between us was thick as hell and ready to snap at any moment. I couldn’t promise myself that I wasn’t going to let myself get swept up into Nate’s powerful gaze.
Once we were docked, I tied the boat off and got out of there as fast as I could. I needed to get home and think about things.
As I walked up the driveway, I could have sworn I heard Nate laughing. I looked back but didn’t see a thing.
Chapter Eight: Nathan
Storm clouds were gathering in the south as Claire and I pulled into the marina parking lot.
“Not promising,” I said to her.
“It’s just rain. My weather app says it won’t be bad.”
“Still,” I grunted. “Not the best idea to take tourists out on the water in a rain storm.”
“Scared?” she asked teasingly.
I gave her a look. “I’m never scared.”
We parked and I climbed out, walking down toward the dock. Claire followed, hurrying to catch up. It was our second day of work and I was already bored of the job, but the money was fine, and, plus, I had nothing else to do.
“You don’t have to be such a hard ass all the time,” she said.
“I’m not a hard ass.”
“Sure you are. You pretend to be this badass Navy SEAL, but you’re really just a lazy jerk.”
“It’s not pretend, babe. It’s who I am.” I smirked at her.
“Yeah, see, exactly. That’s what I’m talking about.”
I laughed at her, genuinely amused. She really had no clue who she was talking to or what I had done in my life, but I didn’t need to correct her. She could think my attitude was just some act or whatever she wanted.
Truth was, once you were a SEAL, you were always a SEAL. The shit you did for your country, the amount of training, it all made you into the person you were. There was no getting rid of it, not ever, no matter how hard you tried. I was just embracing my identity.
We walked down the dock and saw Tommy leaning against a wooden pole up ahead. He had all of his stuff still out on the dock, not packed on the boat like it had been the day before.
I liked Tommy. He was a no-bullshit kind of guy, a local his whole life. He probably disliked working for men like Jonathan as much as I did, but I wasn’t going to make any assumptions about him. Tommy was in his mid-forties and affable, basically a decent guy so long as you didn’t have high expectations for him.
“Morning, kids,” he said as we approached.
“Morning,” I grunted in return.
“Looks like an ugly day,” Claire said.
Tommy nodded. “Actually, looks like we have this afternoon off.”
“Why’s that?”
“Had a bunch of cancellations this morning, so I decided to call it entirely.”
Claire frowned. “Really?”
“Yep. Sorry about making you guys come all the way down here. I’m going to make the calls; you two can head on back.”
Claire looked out across the water while I was already planning my day in my head.
“Hey, Nate,” she said, “let’s go out anyway.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s going to rain and we have no customers. No, thanks.”
“Come on. It’ll be fun. You can show me how to fish some more.”
“No, thanks, babe. I have a long run calling my name right about now.”
“Don’t tell me you’re afraid to go out in the rain?”
“You know I’m not.”
“So what’s stopping you?” she pouted, clearly trying to play it up. I shouldn’t have fallen for her shit, but I was having a hard time saying no.
“Mostly just that I don’t feel like it.”
“Fine. I’ll go out alone if you’re so scared.”
I sighed and looked at Tommy, who just shrugged. “You two do whatever you want,” he said. “I’m heading home.”
He stood up, gathered his stuff, and walked back toward the parking lot.
I turned back toward Claire. “You really set on this?”
“I am.”
“Fine. Let’s do it.” I hopped on board. “You untie the lines.”
She did as told, which brought a nice little smile to my face as I climbed up into the pilot’s room. There was nothing better than a hot as fuck woman that obeyed commands. I briefly wondered what else she’d do.