by Lauren Wood
I nodded, but I could feel my face getting red like my hair. It really was good to see him again, no matter what old memories and haunts that he brought up. It was good to see that life was treating him well by the looks of it. He was successful and still just as handsome as ever.
CHAPTER 4
GREG
I was still watching the door that she had left out of, still not sure that what had happened was real. Amber was next to me when I looked back to the empty drink that was in front of me, as well as the one that was next to it that Mandy had used.
“Are you ready to go?”
An hour ago, before I had seen Mandy, I was ready to take Amber back to my hotel and give her everything that I had. She had already pleasured me in the bathroom and now it was her turn. She had been patience and though she was as pretty as she was before, more so now that I was a little drunker, I didn’t want her. The last thing I wanted to do was go anywhere with her. Everything had changed.
“No, I think I am going to head out. I’m not feeling so good all of a sudden.”
Her blue eyes looked at me as if I was lying. She was someone that I used to know as well, though Amber was just a friend that I went and seen when I was back in town. It was every few weeks and it had been a regular thing for several years. Amber was not happy with me and I knew that she wasn’t going to go quietly. While I tried to get her out the door before she blew up, I was a little too late and some trickled out before we cleared all of the people. The last thing that I needed to do was start a scene. It was bad enough that I was there with her when Mandy showed up. I didn’t need any more gossip about me reaching her ears. Not when I was trying to get another chance.
“Who is she!?”
I knew which she Amber was talking about. I didn’t want her to get her nose in it so I told her that she was just an old friend that I used to know a long time ago. Amber wasn’t buying it, but I didn’t owe her anything, so I didn’t say much else. It was too hard to explain it in my own head. How was I supposed to say it to her when I didn’t quite know what it was that I was doing or why I still felt the clinch in my heart all of these years later. There had always been something about Mandy and the draw I had to her was still undeniable.
“I have to go Amber. I will give you a call in the morning before I head out.”
“So that is it?”
Her red lips were pouting and for a moment I almost went with her because I needed the release that she would give me. Amber was many things, but she always was one to pleasure me well.
“For now. I just wouldn’t be any good the way I am feeling and you deserve better.”
It sounded good in my head, but reflected back in her eyes, I knew that it was a load of crap. She stormed off and if I was smart, I would have gone after her, told her that I was just feeling off and offer her a quiet night in with me. There were a lot of things I could have done, but I just let her go. She wasn’t the one that I wanted and now that I saw Mandy again, I remembered why no one else had done all of these years.
Driving back to the hotel, my mind slipped to Mandy. She looked the same as she always had. Her red hair was a bit longer and a bit more tamed, but it was still the same as when I had buried my fingers through her hair while we were making love. I had always loved her hair and there was a part of me that had ached to smell it, wondering if she still used the same shampoo as before. I would never admit to how long I had spent in grocery stores trying to find the right bottle, just so I could have that smell of her. I never found it and if I did get to see her again, I knew that I was going to have to find out what it was.
The room in the hotel was a lot smaller than I remembered and I was sure that it was because I was pacing before I went to bed. I couldn’t stop thinking about Mandy and all of the things that we had done together when we were young. She was the one that I thought of late at night when I was alone. Now I wondered if she was ever going to call me. Had I missed the only chance to see her that I was ever going to get? The idea was unsettling and I knew that there was a part of me that was never going to get her back. That sort of thing was only in my dreams.
***
“Morning sunshine.”
I smiled into the phone and wiped the sleep from my eyes. Looking at the clock, it had only been a couple of hours since I had lay down and though I was supposed to leave in a couple of hours, I was still debating what to do. It is what had kept me up all of this time and I was no closer to an answer than when I had started asking the question to myself last night.
“Did you get some rest before your flight?”
“Yeah.”
“Liar.”
I sat up and wiped my eyes until they were a little sore. I hadn’t really gotten any sleep, but that wasn’t any matter. I still had a million things to do and the only one that was going to get them done was me.
“I was going to bring over some breakfast before I left for the week. Do you have anything in particular that you would like?”
My Aunt Dawn told me that there wasn’t anything that she could think about and I was just going to have to pick something out for her. I knew that she wanted French toast, but she would never really ask for it because of her diabetes. She knew that I would tell her no, so she didn’t even ask anymore.
I hung up the phone and realized that it was still a little while before my flight and I was thankful that she woke me up instead of me waking up at the last minute and not getting to go see her. It had been a long time since I had missed a flight out of Watertown, but the last time I had been forced to rent a car and drive back to Chicago. It was easier to pay a little more and let someone else do the traveling.
I checked to see if there were any messages that I had somehow missed. I was waiting for Mandy to call me. I was sure she would, but then again, she had ghosted me so many years ago. There was no telling if she was just going to do it again. I tried to tell myself that I wouldn’t care like I had the last time, but I would have only been fooling myself. If I never heard from her again, I would be devastated like the last time.
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PREVIEWS
Be My Sailor
A Single Dad and Virgin Romance
Be My Sailor: A Single Dad and Virgin Romance
“I’ve rented an entire cruise ship but never knew we will be accompanied by a mermaid…”
Blurb
Her graceful innocence surprised me.
The way she stared at me with her intensity made me so hard I could barely control myself from taking her in front of everyone.
I wanted to feel her skin against mine, her warmth against my heat.
I wanted her to scream my name in her voice that had the ability to turn Ash into fire.
I craved to corrupt her, take away the innocence she’d prized for twenty-one years. Make this one week unforgettable in her memory.
Life gives you a lot but takes away even more. I learnt this a long time ago, but never had I wanted my little daughter to face it. I have money, a lot of it, but even that couldn’t save her mother from death.
Now, I need to bring back the brighter part of life she’s lost the vision of. I want to see her truly smile again.
A week long cruise to the Bermuda might achieve this.
But then I saw her.
And she did come for me, multiple times; giving me the solace I didn’t know I needed.
But there are people I don’t trust in here. The Journey of the deep blue might not be as pretty as it’s supposed to be.
Is this solace going to be another thing I’d lose to life?
***
Chapter 1
Dana
After Oceania docked at the Port of Miami, I met my father in the reception lobby to bid farewell to our passengers as they disembarked. There was always c
ertain sadness to it, saying goodbye to new friends and funny personalities that we knew we’d never see again. Even so, nobody ever wore anything but a smile, especially to shake my father’s hand and even to see me. My father wore his full captain’s uniform for these occasions, so tall and handsome, his brown hair graying just a bit around the sides. Captain Seth Ballard treated every passenger like a diplomat from the beginning of the cruise to the very end. And our customers often behaved in a similar fashion, if the rumors one heard about Washington debauchery were true.
They didn’t call Oceania ‘the commotion on the ocean’ for nothing.
After seven days of the pure recreation on the greatest floating resort on the high seas, the usually college-aged passengers walked past with relaxed smiles, darkly tanned skin, colorful t-shirts, swollen bellies. They'd eaten and drank and played to the hilt, a floating Spring Break, and there was nothing to do by then but to shake the captain’s hand and maybe a last-minute flirtation with his daughter, also the lead singer in the show band and, therefore, a shipboard minor celebrity.
One young man, who’d gone without wearing a shirt for most of those seven days, had been especially amorous, despite Dana’s courteous refusals. She was well-experienced in the tender art of letting them down gently; she did it every single time.
“There’s the angel of the Atlantic,” he said, referring to more than just my blue eyes and blonde hair, which did give me a certain look, I suppose. But he went on, “I’m gonna take this cruise every six months until you agree to marry me,” he said, his voice looping with a slight surfer accent, popular in the West Coast, especially Southern California.
But Capt. Ballard smiled with a little nod. “We look forward to seeing you again … ”
“And again,” I said, “and again … and again … ”
We all shared a chuckle as the young man joined his friends and walked out of the air-conditioned reception area to the already humid Miami morning.
Another man approached with a woman on his arm, though both had arrived separately. He shook my father’s hand, thanked him for a fine voyage, then turned his attention to me. He was young, but he had a professional air that a lot of our frat-boy and sorority-sister passengers lacked. He asked me, “Are you sure you won’t reconsider?”
I smiled, deliberately bashful and more than just a little flattered. “I don't think so, Mr, Sanders.”
“Douglass, please. I’m telling you, Dana, a voice like yours, that face, that body ... ” This made me flinch, but not because I was uncomfortable with my body or with being complimented about it. More and more, I felt men on the ship staring at me, looking me up and down. And I knew why. Over the previous twelve years I’d grown from gawky tween to a pretty and vivacious teenage girl and then to an attractive young woman. I didn’t obsess over it, or use my looks the way Caroline did, but I knew I’d grown up to be quite pretty, and men were more and more interested in telling me so. But I didn’t like hearing it while I was standing next to my father!
Douglass went on, “You could be a big, big star. Don’t tell me that’s not what you really want.”
I glanced at my father, and he down at me. That made me nervous, because I never could keep anything from my father. Not that I lied to him, I never did. But I didn’t always want him to know what I was thinking every time. And he was so smart and knew me so well, it was just about impossible to prevent it.
So I gave him the answer I’d given before, the one or two times such an invitation had come up. “That’s really very sweet, but I just don’t think I’m ready yet.”
Douglass Sanders shook his head, his gorgeous brunette companion glancing around, increasingly annoyed with the conversation. “Dana, I’ve produced hits for Brianna, for Heather Gates, for New Girls in Town, and I can tell you … you’re ready.”
But I could feel my father’s gaze upon me, and I just didn’t want to get too far into it, not there and then. So I said, “Well, I’ve got your business card,” which wasn’t entirely the truth. He’d given me three of them.
“Use it,” Douglass said, pointing at me with his index finger as if he were shooting me with an imaginary gun. With that, he led his new conquest away, slipping his five-hundred-dollar aviator sunglasses over his face.
My father stared at me, and I tried to look away. It wasn’t easy, despite the many distractions in the lobby. Cruise director Caroline Sempter nodded and smiled and had to fend off would-be suitors of her own. Male passengers, and a lot of the females too, gave their eyes one long, last drag across Caroline’s face and body, committing it to memory. They copped their last feels, pulling her close for a kiss on the cheek, maybe a glance of side-boob. Caroline was the belle of the ball, and that didn’t surprise me; it happened every time. Caroline was gorgeous, with long, curly red hair, creamy freckled skin, green eyes, an hour-glass physique, long legs. The curves of her toned calves led up into her smooth thighs, their curves pressing against the inside of that white skirt. Her breasts were round and firm, straining the buttons of her blouse. Her waist was small and graceful, tempting any man to rest his hands there. She had thick, full lips that shimmered with gloss, plump and so kissable. The nape of her neck was creamy and freckled, her little ears hiding beneath all those brassy red curls. I’ve never had a thing for girls, but honestly, if I did, Caroline might be just the kind of woman I’d go after. And she was every bit as charming and outgoing as she was pretty, smiling and laughing and casually setting her hand on a man’s arm, his shoulder, leaning in close. She enjoyed their attention, and she enjoyed giving them her own. I often wondered what else she gave them, but I didn’t know for sure and, to be honest, I really didn’t want to know.
It was just one of the many things she and I didn’t have in common. Caroline had an outgoing way about her that I never had, a confidence, a certainty that she was the prettiest woman in the room, the most desirable, even if she wasn’t. Oceania was a floating playground for the young and frivolous with at least some money to spend and most of their lives ahead of them. The young men were almost exclusively well-built, toned, in the peak of their youth. And the girls were often flawless, with sparkling smiles and bodies free of even a speck of body fat. Even so, perhaps even more so because of it, Caroline flashed those big green eyes with practiced skill, rolling her shoulder just so.
Still smiling and nodding at the disembarking passengers, my father said to me, “Don’t forget the meeting, in the grand banquet hall.”
“Of course not, Daddy. When have I ever missed a meeting?”
He shrugged. “How often do we have staff-wide meetings at the last minute? Just running a tight ship, dear.”
“No no, you’re right, Daddy. But I’ll be there.”
“I know you will be,” he said, giving me a little kiss on the side of my head.
*
The grand banquet hall, the largest of three, was filled with every member of the Oceania staff. I sat near my father instead of with Sticks Simmons, Eric Newton, Barry Meuller and the rest of the musicians in the show band. The room still smelled quite strongly of bacon and coffee from the morning breakfast.
“There’s something a bit unique about our trip out to Bermuda this time,” my father said, his hands behind his back, pacing slowly in the front of the room. “In fact, in all my years on the sea, I’ve never come across anything like it.”
“Daddy?” I said, expressing the piqued interest of everybody in the room.
My father held his hands out to calm me and anyone else with my growing confusion. “All’s well, folks, take it easy. The thing is, we’re setting out with a very special guest.” But this only furthered my confusion. We’d had special guests before; celebrities, sports stars, even the sons of famous politicians. But we all knew not to share anything we saw happen or try to use it against any of the passengers, so there was no reason to gather us all together just for that.
My father explained, “His name is Preston Hutchinson.” I was thinking, How special co
uld he be? I’ve never heard of him. But my father once again seemed to be reading my mind. “He made a fortune in tech stocks, real estate — ”
Barry Mueller brushed his long, feathered brown hair from his handsome face. “Is he famous? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of him.”
“He’s too rich to be famous,” my father answered, some of our crew chuckling. I noticed Hector Gonzales and a few of the other bartenders sharing smiles and nods. Wealthy single dads meant two things to bartenders; lots of drinks and big tips.
“Mister Hutchinson,” my father went on, “or Hutch as he apparently likes to be called, is arriving with his young daughter, Blu. She’s nine, I think, maybe ten.”
Oceania was basically a party boat, not perfect for a kid that age. But I could already name a dozen or more fun things for him to do, so I still couldn’t quite figure why my father had called this big meeting.
But then he stopped pacing, turned to face me and the rest of the crew. “And they’re coming alone.”
I was completely stumped. A man traveling with his daughter was no Earth-shattering news. It happened quite a bit, as I thought about it. I had to assume, the guy’ll probably go home with a new girlfriend. If he's that rich, it’s almost a certainty.
I even thought I saw Caroline’s posture straightening just a bit, shoulders back, breasts pushing out from behind her uniform blue jacket.
“I think we can handle that,” Caroline said.
My father smiled. “I should hope so. Because when I said they were coming alone, what I meant was … they’re going to be our only passengers on this run.”
I could hardly believe what I was hearing. “The whole ship, Daddy?”