“Thank you, sir.” He thought about Dylan for a moment, longing to tell the Colonel more about the boy and the situation. It would be so easy to bring Dylan into the Ivory clan. He’d be accepted and loved and, regardless of what Liza thought, he’d be brought up right.
Shit, what a mess. “I’ll be in touch with you, sir,” he added vaguely.
They finished the conversation after a moment, and Nate headed back to the bridge, but before he turned the corner, he heard the pretty, musical notes of Liza laughing.
The impact brought him to a halt, making him realize how rare a sound that was. And how much he wanted to hear more of it. She had laughed over lunch, but she’d been cautious, asking a lot of questions about his family, keeping the subject on him and not her. Now he realized, with a little regret, he’d found out very little about her. And everything in him wanted to change that.
He came around the corner, and she was still laughing with the captain, but her face flushed slightly. “Everything okay?” she asked, her laughter fading.
No, he thought with a start. This wasn’t okay. Every minute with her, things just got more complicated. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just...work things. You want to walk to the bow and watch the docking? It’s a lot of fun from up there.”
“It’s fun from here, too,” Captain Vicary said with a flirtatious wink at Liza. “But you can take her.”
Without thinking—well, maybe he thought a little—Nate reached for her hand. “Careful, he’ll have you working here if you show any interest in yachting at all.”
She settled her pretty gaze on the captain. “We were just talking about that.”
“She’s working for me,” he said, pulling her hand into his chest. “And it’s time we finalize that arrangement right now.”
She let him guide her around to the bow, their feet tapping the teak deck in unison. “He’s a lady killer, you know that,” Nate said.
“Captain Vicary?” Once again, the infectious laugh. “He let me steer for a while. It was great. I got us around that island all by myself.”
He laughed. “With the help of a crew and a few engines, not to mention radar navigation. But I agree, it’s a kick to drive this thing.” And so was putting his hands on her waist and getting behind her, guiding her up the last narrow set of stairs to the tip of the bow.
There, he stayed right behind her, close enough that her body molded into his and the wind blew her hair against his cheeks.
“I swear I won’t make a ‘king of the world’ joke,” he teased.
She tilted her head back just enough to catch his gaze. “But you are king of the world, Nate Ivory. And this thing is damn near as big as the Titanic.”
“But more seaworthy, I hope.” The wind lifted more of her hair, and he reached out and got a handful, sliding it to the side to revel in the shape of her bare neck. And a sudden bloom of chills on her skin. “Are you cold, Liza?”
Her body, just close enough to his so that he could feel her from shoulders to thighs, relaxed a little. “Anything but.”
“Good.” He studied those chill bumps and the tiny dark hairs on the nape of her neck, fighting a very strong desire to lean forward a few inches and plant one little kiss on that smooth, smooth skin.
“You know what you are, Liza?” He dragged one finger over the skin, making her shudder.
“I bet I seem terribly pedestrian to you.”
“Pedestrian? That is not at all the word I was thinking right now.” Delicious. Inviting. Feminine. “Why would you say that?”
She glanced over her shoulder at him. “I’m not made for this, you know. This...life. I’m really kind of simple and ordinary, and my idea of an exciting Saturday afternoon is a trip to the Germ Factory with Dylan.”
“The Germ Factory?” He laughed. “What the hell is that?”
“A play place with bins of plastic balls for jumping. That’s what I do, Nate. And during the week I straighten out documentation messes for the county. I don’t...drink cocktails on yacht decks with billionaires.”
“Well, you do today.” He looked at her for a long moment, then gently touched her chin, directing her face forward. “Now watch how fantastic your buddy Vicary is at docking. He’s going to take this thirty-foot-wide monster and slide it right there, between those two piers.”
He felt her sigh, doing as he suggested, and letting herself slip a little closer to him. She fit perfectly there, so he rested his hands on her shoulders, and neither of them spoke, letting the sounds of the crew dropping the dock cushions on either side of the yacht and the low rumble of the engines fill the silence. A few birds squawked in greeting, somehow intensifying the tangy, briny smell of the sea.
An unexpected lurch made Liza fall into him before she grabbed the railing for stability.
“And speaking of straightening out documentation messes for the county…”
“Yes?”
“Are you taking the job as chief unraveler of red tape for my organization?”
Slowly, she turned, trapped by his body and the railing, the look on her face saying she either didn’t believe him or...maybe she liked the idea. He couldn’t tell.
“You know you want to, Liza.” As much as he wanted to kiss her right that moment, to seal the deal.
“I’m not going to lie, Nate. I’m intrigued and interested. But…”
“No buts, say yes.”
“Not yet,” she replied.
He added a little more pressure, pulling her forward as if he could just impress upon her how fantastic this idea was. “Look, I’m lost in this job. I’ve never had a freaking job in my life. I don’t want to fail, and you’re...you’re like a secret weapon. You’ve worked your whole life.”
“You say that like it’s some kind of true accomplishment instead of a jail sentence. Plus, Nate, I hate to break it to you, but out here in the real world, everyone works their whole life. That doesn’t make me some kind of Wonder Woman.”
“You are a Wonder Woman when it comes to land documents and official records. I’m going to work right at the Casa Blanca Resort until we get offices built on-site at the stadium, and it’s beautiful there...”
He didn’t have her, he could tell. She was definitely waffling between “you’re out of your mind” and “no.”
“And,” he added with a smile he hoped charmed her, “they have that amazing kids program.”