The Devil She Knew(7)

"You said you've sailed quite a bit?" asked Dalton.

Nate nodded. "On my father's 32-foot sloop. I have my Yachtmaster's ticket."

"Great." Dalton waved a hand. "Then stay out as long as you like and I  won't send out the cavalry if you're late back. There's plenty of water  in the tank and some tinned food in the cupboards. Just odds and ends,  but enough to make a meal if you're not fussy. Oh, and there are some  fishing rods in the stern locker. Any problems, just hail me on the  radio. It's tuned to the station I monitor. If I don't answer, try the  Coast Guard on channel 9."

"Mind if I unscrew the cover off your dashboard and hook my laptop up to  the autopilot?" He'd explained about his software when he arranged to  borrow the yacht.

"Be my guest. There's a toolbox in the cupboard under the radio."

"Thanks." Nate grinned. "I'll have to work on my software as I go, but I'm still going to enjoy this."

"Rosa said she'd ask our chef to pack you some lunch. She should be on  her way with it, and she can cast you off." Dalton stepped onto the  wharf and gave Nate a wave as he left. "Good luck with your test."

While he waited for Rosa, the resort manager, to arrive with his lunch,  Nate unscrewed the cover from the yacht's dashboard. He was figuring out  how he was going to connect his laptop into the navigation system when  he heard a woman's voice on the wharf. It was Rosa. But she wasn't  alone.         

     



 

Suzie.

His heart somersaulted as he took her in. Her hair looked even redder in  the sun than it had last night. The glower on her face was just as  fiery.

Damn his heart. It shouldn't leap at the sight of her, it should sink.  Or even better, just keep beating like it was supposed to, and keep its  opinions to itself.

The white dress Suzie was wearing clung to her curves. Perhaps in a dark  room her dress could be considered clothing, but the bright sunlight  turned it transparent enough that he could make out the shape of her  limbs. On the wharf beside her was a suitcase.

"Mind if I ask you a favor?" said Rosa with a smile. She was a slim,  athletic-looking woman with a basket in her hands that probably held  Nate's lunch. Pretty, for sure. But next to Suzie's blazing red locks  and white-clad curves, she all but faded away.

"The ferry's not coming today and Suzie needs to get to Port Denarau to  catch her plane home," said Rosa. "Would you please take her there on  the yacht?"

Great. With such an important job to do, the last thing he needed was to  be stuck with the one woman guaranteed to drive him crazy.

"Can she catch a water taxi?" he asked.

Rosa shook her head. "They're fully booked. The only way she'll make her  flight is if you'll help. If you go right there, it should only take  three hours. You could drop her off by lunchtime."

Suzie curled her lip. "Believe me, I don't like it any more than you do. But I can't miss my flight. I have to get home."

It didn't help that the swooping neck of Suzie's dress kept drawing  Nate's gaze. The way the fabric cradled her breasts reminded him of the  way his hands had cupped them last night and that was the last thing  he'd wanted to think about today. But it would be childish to refuse. He  could survive her company for three hours.

Nate sighed. "Fine."

Rosa's face lit up, while Suzie shot him a look so full of daggers he was surprised not to feel them slice into his flesh.

"Thank you," said Rosa. Then to Suzie, "Here, let me help you with your suitcase."

Nate took her bag as they handed it over the rail, then accepted the  basket from Rosa. Peeking in, he saw wrapped sandwiches, pastries,  fruit, bottled water, a couple of orange juice boxes, and half a dozen  cans of cola. He took both the suitcase and basket down to the yacht's  saloon, then came back up to take the steering wheel. "Can you cast us  off?" he asked Rosa.

As Rosa untied the mooring lines, his gaze kept going to Suzie. She  looked like she was deciding whether or not to abandon ship at the last  minute.

"You two have fun." Rosa threw the lines aboard.

Nate put the yacht into gear and felt his spirits lift as they pulled  away from the wharf. He hadn't sailed for far too long, and had all but  forgotten how much he loved the feeling of freedom. Blue ocean stretched  endlessly ahead, with no roads to restrict him.

Bliss.

He glanced at Suzie, who was still staring back at the wharf as though  judging the distance to swim ashore. Almost bliss, he amended, hating  the way he couldn't stop staring at her curvy, tanned body. That  ridiculous white dress may as well not exist for all it covered. The  sooner they got to Port Denarau and she was out of his life for good,  the better.

Suzie stepped down from the deck into the cockpit, but she didn't say  anything, just went past him and down the steps into the saloon. The  yacht's interior was comfortable, with leather bench seats and a dining  table in the saloon, a serviceable galley for food preparation, and two  decent-sized cabins with double beds. Perhaps Suzie would stay inside  for the entire trip and he could forget she was there.

But a couple of minutes later, she came back into the cockpit holding a  tube of sunscreen. She'd changed her clothes. Instead of the white  dress, she had a sarong wrapped around her.

She stopped for long enough to fix him with a glare so fierce it could  have singed all the hair from his body. "If I have to spend three hours  trapped with you, I'm going to pass the time by sunbathing. I'll be up  there." She nodded to the front deck. "If I fall asleep, please wake me  when we arrive." She stalked toward the bow and stopped in front of the  cockpit. With one swift motion, she pulled off the sarong. Underneath,  she wore a lime green bikini. If you could call such tiny scraps of  fabric a bikini, that was. It hid nothing.

Shit.

Last night had been dark, but the feel of Suzie's body, and what he  could see of it, had driven him mad with lust. Now his gaze could linger  over every gorgeous curve, his hunger for her surged stronger than  ever.

She had a tattoo on her shoulder: a crescent moon surrounded by a  constellation of stars. A simple design, but beautiful. Her belly button  was still pierced. He remembered her turning up at school one day with  her white school shirt lifted and knotted around her waist to reveal a  sparkling stud. The first teacher to spot her had sent her home in  disgrace. But not before the entire school had seen her piercing. All  the girls had wanted to be her. All the boys had wanted to have her.         

     



 

Suzie squeezed a handful of sunscreen into one hand. She glanced quickly  over her shoulder as though checking he was watching. Then she smoothed  the cream slowly over her belly.

Nate swallowed hard, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. The  stainless steel had been cool a moment ago, but now it felt warm.

Taking her time, Suzie rubbed the sunscreen in. Her hands swept slowly  from her breasts to her thighs, following her curves. The show she was  putting on had to be for Nate's benefit. She must know full well how  desirable she was and her performance was designed to taunt him.

If she wanted to arouse him, he wouldn't let it work.

But as she squirted sunscreen straight from the tube onto her cleavage,  Nate couldn't stop a groan. And watching her push the edges of her  bikini top aside to massage in the cream, he had to adjust his shorts.

She was deliberately torturing him. When she bent to give her legs a  second coat and presented him with the delectable rounds of her  buttocks, Nate knew it for sure.

He gritted his teeth. She must have felt how painfully hard she'd made  him last night. So she knew the effect her display would have on him.

Her body double-coated, Suzie finally put the sunscreen down. She  stretched, rotating to show off every angle of her body, then lay face  down on the deck. Her ass was towards him. To make sure they weren't  about to hit anything, he had to scan the sea in front. Which meant for  the next couple of hours at least, he'd have to keep staring at her  gorgeous butt positioned in the center of his view.

Nate pulled at the front of his board shorts, trying to make more room.  But when Suzie spread her legs wide enough that he could see the scrap  of fabric between her thighs, his shorts stretched to breaking point.

"No," he whispered. "Stop that, you heartless succubus."

He shifted gingerly in his seat, his balls starting to throb. He had two  choices. Either he could stride over and rip that tiny bikini off her,  or he could find a way to distract himself.

His software. Of course. He'd connected his laptop to the yacht's  navigation system. Now they were underway, he should be collecting data  for the tests he was going to run, and making the changes needed to get  the boat's autopilot to steer itself around obstacles. That's what he  would have been doing if Suzie hadn't wiped all coherent thought from  his mind.

Scanning the sea first to make sure there was only clear water ahead, he  bent over his laptop and started modifying his code. Each time he  glanced ahead, he saw Suzie's glorious ass. She'd probably fallen  asleep.