The guests started to arrive a little earlier than expected, but the three of them had a routine that ensured they were ready for it. Drea only half watched as they piled on, wiping down the bar and making sure that everything was ready for once they were out on open water. She looked up as she heard some giggles that made her freeze—“Candy” and her friends were getting on the boat. Damn it, that must have been the group of female names that looked familiar. Right behind them, though, was the part of the story that she had failed to mention earlier. Brig and all his buddies were also joining them again today. She took a deep breath, watching them all settle in. One of the blondes had basically surgically attached herself to one of Brig’s buddies—they must have been the pairing that Vaughn had witnessed the night before—and they settled right up at the front of the boat. The rest of the group followed, the girls smiling and winking at Kyle and Dalton as they did so.
Glancing over at the boys as they continued to help guests onto the boat, Drea couldn’t help but smile to herself. The sun glistened off of Kyle’s tan skin, and watching the muscles on his back move and contract as he worked caused all sorts of butterflies in her tummy. She was still so hurt by what she had witnessed last night, but thoughts of what it would be like to hold on to that back as he moved above her filled her head. Thoughts of how his tongue would feel against hers and the friction as he rubbed—
“Hi!” A high-pitched voice pulled her from her daydream. She looked over to find “Candy” standing in front of her across the bar.
“Hi,” Drea answered, taken aback by the girl’s sudden appearance.
“I’m Staci, with an i,” she said, reaching a hand out to shake. Drea took her hand and shook back.
“Drea. Nice to see you again.”
“Thanks! We just had sooooo much fun yesterday, we couldn’t resist another trip!”
“Glad to hear you enjoyed it.”
“So, you spend all day with these boys? You lucky girl!”
“Yeah, they’re the best. I really couldn’t ask for better crewmates.”
“Or a better view!”
“That part isn’t so bad either,” Drea admitted.
“So, can you give me the inside scoop?”
Drea shook her head, startled, not sure she heard Staci correctly. “I’m sorry, the what?”
“You know, what do I need to know about him? Likes, dislikes, favorite sex position, things like that.”
Drea felt like she’d been hit in the gut with a sledgehammer. This wasn’t really happening, was it? This chick had not just asked her Kyle’s favorite sex position. I’m not gonna cry, I’m not gonna cry, I won’t let her see me cry. She took a deep breath, since she had to answer. Staci must have seen something in Drea’s eyes that made her understand the panic Drea was suddenly feeling.
“I mean, I just figure you’re the best person to know these kinds of things. We had a great time last night, and I just really want to continue to make a good impression.”
“Oh, yeah, totally. Well, ummm, he’s not a big fan of the rum punch,” she said, trying to come up with something, pointing with her thumb at the pitcher sitting just to her left. “More of a rum and Coke guy. His favorite candy is peanut M&Ms—he won’t touch the plain ones. He loves classic rock, but don’t bring up Van Halen or else you’ll get an earful about David Lee Roth versus Sammy Hagar that is just a never-ending cycle.”
“Yeah, I don’t know who that is, so I can promise not to bring that up.”
“Right,” Drea responded. Staci didn’t know who Van Halen was? How the hell did Kyle find this girl the least bit interesting? Because he’s not interested in her mind, Drea, just those really perfect boobs. “Well, he’s a pretty typical dude, so, music, boats—always safe topics. As for the sex part, I can’t really help you there.”
“I probably shouldn’t have asked that question. You seem like too nice of a girl to have gone down that road with him. Well, thanks for the tips!” She winked as she turned and bounced back to join her friends.
Drea just stood there, unable to move. She tried not to hyperventilate. She wanted to cry, scream, and throw up at the same time. She looked around her, looking for something, anything, to distract herself from the fact that she was pretty sure Staci had just insulted her in the sweetest way possible. She was too nice? Just what kind of raw, dirty sex did they have last night? And just why wouldn’t he be interested in having it with her? Oh, that’s right, she was just his best friend, not an actual girl.
“Hey, sugar,” Dalton said, waving his hand in front of her face, bringing her back to the moment. “What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?”
“Nothing,” she said, blinking away the sting of tears and forcing a smile.
“Those tears tell me otherwise, darlin’. But I promise you, we got this.”
“I adore you, Dalton, but I think you are very, very wrong here. I can’t compete with that.” She pointed at Staci and her friends harshly.
“You can too, although I can’t figure out why the hell you think you need to. But Drea, I told you last night, you are sexy as hell—you just need to own it. Now, we’re about to get a move on, and your uncle just hopped on board, and since I’m pretty sure neither of us want to answer his questions about your tears, inhale deeply, embrace your sexy, and once we’re out in open water, whip off that tank and show off those puppies, would ya?” He winked and walked away.
Chapter Eight
Grayson leaned against the inside of the bar, sipping on a cup of the rum punch Drea had just finished mixing up. She was wiping down the bar again, trying to work out some nervous energy, hoping her uncle couldn’t tell. The catamaran slowed down as they reached a spot out in the water to start the safety talk.
“Alright ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to talk safety. I promise to keep this short and sweet, just like all my previous relationships!” Dalton said, delivering his well-rehearsed line perfectly as always. “Your safety is my number one priority, no matter the activity, so here we go! We start with a life jacket, and yes, you have to wear one. So, if you think you’re gonna get out of it so the sexy little bartender back there will have to give you mouth-to-mouth, then you’re gonna have to find a different excuse! Although, ladies, if you need my help getting it to fit properly, you just let me know!” He winked in the direction of the blondes.
“Does he use this spiel on every excursion?” Grayson asked Drea.
“Oh yes. He changes it up slightly from day to day, but for the most part, I can recite it, line for line, bad jokes, winks, and all.”
“He’s a piece of work, that one,” Grayson said, shaking his head.
“I think he’s a keeper, Uncle Gray. The old ladies just loooove him!” Drea said, dragging out the O in love, batting her eyelashes and making googly-eyes at her uncle.
“Hey!” She turned back to the front of the bar to see Brig standing there, a flirtatious smirk on his face.
“Hi, you’re back.”
“We had so much fun yesterday, and I missed you at the bonfire last night. Thought this might be the only way to catch you.”
Before Drea could respond, her uncle pushed up from the section of the bar he was resting against and moved up to stand right next to her. She could see a light scowl on his face and he looked Brig up and down. Grayson had to have a couple of inches on him, but wasn’t near as bulky as the meathead. In a fight, however, especially if the topic of said fight was Drea, her money was solely on her uncle.
“You need to be listening to the safety talk,” Grayson interjected.
“Just wanted to say hi—”
“Great. You said it, now back up front to listen.”
“And what makes you think you’re so special? Standing there like you own the place. Why aren’t you listening to the safety talk?” Brig challenged.
“Because I do own the place. And the fucking boat you’re on too. So I don’t think it’s uncalled for to tell you again to sit your ass down.”
“Ok!” Drea interjected. “Brig, he’s right, the Coast Guard requires that you listen to the safety talk, even though it’s the same as yesterday. I’ll make sure to come chat in a bit.”
Brig nodded his head and turned to head back to the front of the boat, where all his buddies were sitting with the blondes. When she was sure he was out of earshot, she turned to her uncle and glared at him.
“Wanna explain why you just went all Uncle Vaughn on him?” Grayson just glared right back at her. “You have never, not once, gotten huffy with a guy who was interested in me, not even when I was in high school. Hell, you were the one who taught me how to sneak out so that Uncle Vaughn couldn’t bitch out my dates.”
“Who’s the douche?”
“For one, a guest! For two, just some dude. He hit on me at the gym yesterday and then was on our excursion.”
“I don’t like him.”
“Don’t like who?” Kyle asked, coming down from his perch.
“Well, I don’t particularly like him either, but whatever, he’s a guest.” Drea pulled her tank off, revealing her new suit. “But if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go apologize for my asshat uncle and try and save our tip!”
Kyle watched Drea pull off her tank top as if it were in slow motion. It wasn’t a new motion, it was an act she did every day—strip down to her swimsuit to go hop in the water with the guests. But today, today was as if it was happening for the very first time. He saw her reach for the hem of the shirt and didn’t think anything of it until she started to lift it higher, inch by inch, revealing her beautiful golden-brown skin instead of the lycra of her swimsuit. When she reached the point of pulling it over her head, making her breasts shift in those small cups, he was pretty sure he’d been rendered useless. He’d seen her breasts in a bikini top before when they’d been hanging out on her porch or a couple of times when they’d taken the boat out, just them. They’d made plenty of appearances in his fantasies, and thoughts of playing with them were regularly conjured as spank bank material. But something about that shade of purple against her skin and the way they sat in that top, he could feel all the blood rushing to his groin. As she turned to go, all he could think was that he couldn’t wait for her to take off the shorts too.
Stop thinking of her like that, her uncle is standing right next to you, Kyle thought, swallowing hard. If he didn’t stop staring, it was going to be impossible to hide what he was feeling. Not that the sudden tenting in his board shorts was helping anything.
“This is the point where I should tell you to stop ogling my niece, dude,” Grayson said, startling Kyle out of his thoughts.
“Sorry, sir, I wasn’t, I mean…” he trailed off. “I’m gonna head back up and drive the boat.”
Once they pulled up to the location of the shipwreck, Kyle killed the engine. He could hear Drea giggle and as he peered down he saw she was back at the bar chatting with her uncle. He hated to admit it, but he was thoroughly relieved that the giggles weren’t in reaction to that meathead. It had taken every mind trick in the book—thinking about sports, picturing Margaret Thatcher on a cold day as Austin Powers would say, his parents having sex—but his boner was finally subsiding. Those giggles weren’t helping, though.
He stared out over the ocean from his perch and sighed heavily. He just needed to remind himself why he was here. He was all about the job. He was so close to being able to afford going out on his own. Once he had his own boat and was running his own charters, then maybe he could have a relationship. That was assuming Drea even wanted him. He’d seen her with Dalton last night, and then whispering again this morning. He hated the idea of them together, but if it was really what Drea wanted, he’d figure out a way to deal with it.
He closed his eyes and enjoyed the movement of the boat underneath him. It should have been more than enough to calm him down, but the last twenty-four hours had him rattled. The meathead, Staci with an i, seeing Drea run off in tears and then refuse to tell him what was wrong—it all weighed on him. How could so much change in such a small amount of time?
Kyle headed down to the main deck when he heard the guests reboarding the boat. He told himself it was because he was doing his job, that he was mingling with the guests, and not that he wanted to get a full view of Drea in that bikini. He scanned the boat to find her up front, helping someone undo their life jacket. Brig stood not far from her, obviously waiting until her attention could be back on him.
“Glaring at him won’t make him go away,” Dalton said, coming up behind him.
“I’m not glaring at anyone.”
“Sure you’re not. Just keep lying to yourself.”
Kyle turned to look at Dalton next to him. He was looking at Drea with a smirk on his face Kyle couldn’t quite read. “What’s going on, Dalton? What am I missing?”
“If you gotta ask the question, buddy, then I don’t know how to answer that.”
“I know something is going on, Dalton. What happened with Drea last night?”
“You ask her?”
“She brushed me off, told me it was ‘nothing,’” he answered, making air quotes with his fingers.
“Then there’s your answer.”
“Except I’m pretty sure you know something I don’t,” Kyle accused.
“Dude, I told you last night, I just don’t understand what goes through your head sometimes. Take that however you want, but if she’s not gonna tell you what she was upset about, it sure as hell isn’t my place.” He turned and walked toward an older couple who had just come up from the water, smiling flirtatiously at the woman as he offered to help her out of her life jacket.
“You didn’t want to get in the water?” Grayson asked.
Kyle shifted slightly as his boss appeared to his left. “It was a full tour. Only Drea gets in on the full tour days.”
“I was on the boat, you could have easily joined her. You deserve to have some fun too.”
“I went yesterday. It would have been unprofessional to get in two days in a row.”
“Dude,” Gray sighed, shaking his head. “A little piece of advice you didn’t ask for: you can't be a chickenshit your whole life. At some point, consequences be damned, you just gotta go for it.”
Chapter Nine
They pulled the boat back into the harbor and started to help all the guests disembark. The older couple that Dalton had been chatting with earlier stopped to thank him for his help and tell him about the great time they had. The wife grabbed hold of his face and kissed his cheek hard with a loud smack.
“I’ll never wash this part of my face again, Margie,” Dalton said, playing up his accent and winking. “George, you better get her back to your room before I try and run off with her.” The couple laughed, and she swatted at Dalton as her husband grabbed her around the waist and pulled her in the direction of the resort. A few steps down the way he spun her and pulled her in for a deep kiss.
“May we be so lucky someday,” Kyle remarked to Dalton, nodding his head toward the older couple, still kissing on the pier.
“Speak for yourself, dude. Well, hello…” Dalton replied, grabbing Staci’s hand, helping her down. He kissed the back of her hand, and she giggled and batted her eyelashes. “I do hope to see you later this evening, Staci with an i.”
“We were talking about going up to Paradise Point tonight. Have a couple of bushwackers, see what kind of trouble we can find.”
“Then I guess I’ll just have to find my way up to Paradise Point. And I promise, after a couple of bushwackers, we can find plenty of trouble.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“I’m looking forward to it,” she said low and husky, winking at Dalton. She turned to Kyle and smiled brightly. “Thanks for everything, Captain Kyle.”
“See ya,” he nodded. He turned to check to see if anyone was left on the boat. Much to his dismay, he saw the only guest left was Brig, standing there talking to Drea.
He climbed back onto the boat, trying to make it look like he wasn’t watching them caref
ully. She was smiling, but only her customer service smile. Could Brig tell that it wasn’t genuine? He saw Grayson come up behind Drea and say something to Brig, but couldn’t quite tell what it was. Drea pushed him away, laughing, but then turned back to Brig looking a little more serious. She gave him a high five and he turned to make his exit off the boat and down the pier.
Kyle walked back to the bar where Drea was sorting through paperwork. “Hey, you.”
She looked up and smiled at him. Her real smile. “Hey back.”
“So, what does the rest of your week look like?” Grayson asked, coming up the stairs from the underdeck.
“Well, Dalton has tomorrow off, I think, and then spends the rest of the week over on the Believin’ with Bobby for the booze cruises. Kyle and I have private tours every day until Sunday, when we’re both off. And they are small private tours—I think our largest group is four or five guests, so that’ll be really nice.”
“We have a day off together?” Kyle perked up.
“Yes, just like we usually do.”
“Right, it’s just I’ve been picking up those extra tours and you’ve been out with Leona, so we haven’t really taken advantage of those off days in awhile,” he responded, stumbling over his answer. Shit, I sound like a dumbass, and in front of the boss.
“Dude, keys to the Runnin’ are yours. You two wanna go out and play on Sunday, fine by me. Hell, leave Saturday night. Just as long as you’re back for work on Monday,” Grayson said, leaning against the bar.
Before he could answer, a symphony of trills and beeps came from their phones, which were all housed in a drawer in the bar. Drea opened the drawer, reaching for the phones and absentmindedly handing each guy their phone.
Family mtg, Big House Beach, 10 min. BE THERE. -V
“What the hell does he want now?” Grayson grumbled. “He couldn’t have told us whatever this is at breakfast this morning?”
“Think he was too busy delivering the news that you had to wear the shirt. Speaking of which, don’t think I’m not on to you and why you had the brilliant idea to come and join today’s excursion, since it meant getting to take it off,” Drea commented, looking at her uncle knowingly. “So, you better put it back on, but your secret is safe with me.”
Can't Fight This Feeling (Indigo Royal Resort Book 1) Page 6