Victoria’s Secret Wish(10)

She stepped forward, hoping she wouldn’t twist an ankle in that infernally deep carpeting. David’s handshake was warm, firm, and his eyes…impossibly blue, and perfect with such a bright smile.

“It’s, um, great to meet you,” he said.

Did she really have to let go of his hand? Probably. “Likewise. Thanks for coming.”

Britt cleared his throat. Crap. Was he jealous? No, smiling. And a real smile, not the Negotiation Smirk. “And these are our friends, Mark and Carmyn Fenton.”

David’s mouth fell open. “Oh wow. I loved you in that last Bond movie as the villainess.” He rushed forward to shake hands with Mark–briefly–and then Carmyn. “You’re my mother’s favorite actress.”

Carmyn laughed. “Ah, that wasn’t acting, hon. Ask my kids–that’s how I really am. Evil.”

Clearly starstruck, David beamed. “Wow. Just…wow. Thanks for inviting me.” He turned to Britt. “It’s amazing in here.”

“A bit decadent, but we wanted it to be vacation-y,” Britt answered. “Here, how ’bout a look around? Of course this is the bar, and living area. Then we’ve an extra bedroom over there behind that door, with its own loo, a guest loo here, and here– Come on, this is the master suite.”

David followed Britt, and Victoria’s gaze followed David.

“Killer ass,” Carmyn said.

She should chide Carmyn and tell her to lower her voice, but… “God.” Killer ass was right.

“Now who is he really?” Carmyn put on the demanding mom-face.

No way was she giving him up. “He registered as Bo Davidson. That’s all I’m gonna say.”

“Great. Now I’ll spend the entire dinner trying to guess his identity. My digestion will suffer, and it’s your fault.”

Victoria laughed. Silly theatrics. “Whatever. I think I can live with causing you that sort of distress.” Britt and David seemed to be spending an awful lot of time in the bedroom. Surely Britt wouldn’t try to talk him into anything so soon?

“…and now we’ll head out to the veranda,” Britt said, entering the living room. “We’ve our own hot tub, and a private pool. Disappearing edge–or infinity, I believe it’s called. Quite ingenious, no? Of course, pools probably don’t excite you in the least. Bit like taking work home with you, eh?”

Silence.

Victoria stepped outside, with Carmyn and Mark right behind her.

“Er, right.” Britt picked up where he’d left off. “Here’s a changing room, another bar, and a nice outdoor seating area for dinners and the like.”

“It’s, uh…nice.” David coughed. “And very private.”

“I insisted on that,” Britt answered. “No one on the ship can see into this deck area, and from what I can tell, it’s damn hard to see from the air as well.” Another knock at the door sent Britt back to answer it.

“So, Bo.” Carmyn moved close to him. “Why don’t you tell us about yourself?”

David did a cute little wiggle thing where he looked like he’d crawl out of his skin if he could. He took a deep breath and said, “I’m a semipro surfer. We’re based out of Hawaii, but we do travel the circuit.”

Carmyn narrowed her eyes at him.

“A few guys I met earlier down on the Lido deck said they’ve seen me on the Surf Network.” A small smile tugged the corners of his mouth up. God, he looked even cuter when he was up to no good.

“Thank God you’re going to tell us the truth though, right?” Carmyn coaxed.

David chewed his lip and looked sideways at Mark.

Well, at least she could reassure him. “No need to worry about Carmyn and Mark,” Victoria said. “They’ve introduced many a celebrity to me who wanted to be clients of Fantasy Mountain.”

“My real name is David Roman.”

Mark snapped his fingers. “The swimmer! You took gold in the 400-meter freestyle. That was my event in college!”

Carmyn shook her head. “You’ve had one hellish time with the ’razzi. No wonder you’re traveling under an alias.”

“Dinner has arrived,” Britt called from inside. “Surf and turf.”

They filed into the dining area, where the servers had already set out condiments and were busy filling wine glasses. Each place setting included a silver-domed platter. Fast and efficient, the servers finished, left the wine bottle near the head of the table and rolled their cart out the door.

When the door had shut, Mark said, “Top-notch service. On the payroll, or volunteers?”

“Mia and Ron are employees who transferred here from the Mountain,” Victoria answered. “They serve five first-class suites and ours. They also head the wait staff. The temporary crew members were all assigned to berths where the passengers had crew fantasies.” She took a seat to the right of Britt, who’d taken the spot at the head of the table. Mark settled next to her. Carmyn sat across from Mark–knowing Carmyn, there’d be a foot job before dinner was over–and next to David, who pushed her chair in and then eased into the chair to Britt’s left.