Royal Rock:A Bad Boy Royal Romance(54)

"He do that a lot?"

"Yeah," I said, "he really does."

Nate frowned at Joshua for a second and then looked back at me. "You  have any issues with guys like him, you come find me. Understand?"

"Okay," I said softly.

"Seriously, Claire. Any issues, you find me. I'll handle it."

I nodded quickly, my heart skipping a beat. "Okay. I will."

He leaned back against the railing. "So, interested in that guy?"

"No, not at all," I said quickly.

Too quickly, clearly, because Nate's face lit up in a huge grin.

"Defensive?"

"No," I muttered.

"Seems like you're a little embarrassed to be caught getting hit on."

"Its not my fault my dad wants me to marry some proper investment banker just like him."

"It's weird he's doing that. Isn't that usually a mom's job?"

"Yeah, well, ever since my mom died, my dad took up the slack."

"Shit. Sorry."

"Don't be. It's okay."

"If it helps, my mom gave up trying to set me up a long time ago."

"Why's that?"

"Apparently proper ladies are intimidated by me." He stood up and moved  close to me. "Truth is, though, they usually ended up throwing their  panties at me and begging for it. But Mom doesn't know that."

"I'm sure you obliged."

"I'm a gentleman, after all."

The day went like that for another few hours. Nate and I went around  helping people and serving lunch while Tommy answered questions about  the area. Finally, our time was up, and we helped everyone pack away  their rods and their catches, though nobody got much of anything.







Back up in the pilot's room, Nate began to sail the boat back toward the  harbor. I felt relieved to be hidden up away from everyone. Joshua and  his associate, Al, kept giving me looks all afternoon, but whenever Nate  got too close they would instantly look away.

Part of me was thrilled to see that. Part of me loved that Nate could  scare other men away simply by being near me. I loved that he was  powerful and masculine enough that he didn't even have to try. And yet  part of me was afraid of him and how easily he could posses me.

I knew I was skating on thin ice. There was a razor-thin margin between  us, and one tiny slip up would leave me reeling and in the palm of his  hands.

Once there, I knew I'd never get away.

"Almost back," Nate grunted.

"Yeah." I looked out the window and down at Tommy giving the customers  his last little speech. "Listen, Nate." I bit my lower lip, not sure  what I wanted to say. "We shouldn't do this."

"Drive the boat back?"

"No. I mean, you shouldn't scare guys away."

"Scare who away?"

"Those guys. Joshua and Al."

"Seems to me they needed scaring."

"We're stepsiblings now. My dad is going to be throwing guys at me all the time."

"And you're going to want to date one of them."

"I don't know. Maybe."

Not at all, not even slightly. But whatever I needed to say to make that tiny margin wider would be good.

"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.





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.

I started the engines and enjoyed their hum as I sat back and waited for  her to finish. I didn't know what she was playing at trying to get us  out on the bay alone in the rain, but I couldn't exactly back down. I  wasn't a coward, but I just didn't see how it was going to be fun. Then  again, seeing Claire get soaking wet might be worth it.

"Let's do it," she said, appearing in the cabin door.

"Full speed ahead." I hit the throttle and we were off, pulling out into the bay.

She sat down next to me and put her feet up on the dash.

"Nothing better than the open sea," she said.

"Didn't know you were into it."

"I wasn't, I guess, but it's really growing on me."

"All you needed was a SEAL to show you the ropes."

"Yeah, right," she mumbled.

The clouds began to grow darker in the sky, and I frowned down at the  little radar screen. We clearly had a storm coming, but Claire was  probably right. It was going to be mostly rain, which meant the water  shouldn't be too choppy. We'd be fine out in the bay.

"Where to, then, captain?" I asked her.

"I'm the captain now?"

"Honorary. We both know who's really in charge."

She laughed. "I don't know. Let's go to the same spot as yesterday and do some fishing."

"Roger that." I tapped a few buttons and set the course. The ship could  probably navigate by itself if I let it, but I liked having control over  the steering. As we began to get farther out away from land, the rain  started, a little drizzle at first that quickly turned into a real,  steady rain.