Gypsy Heat: A Gypsy Beach Novel

by Jillian Neal

  Grady was stupefied for one long moment. Nate and Beau’s scowls were nothing compared to Nadya’s.

  “What the hell is that supposed mean?” she spat.

  Several muffled gasps echoed from the men. Zach’s face fell into his hands. His father slapped him on the back and mouthed a silent apology to Grady.

  Fury shot through Grady. Who did these people think they were? Now that the bruises were all but gone, Nadya had donned a multicolored crocheted bikini. She covered it up with denim cutoffs and a short, open, kimono-Gypsy robe that hung past the shorts, covering the tiny peek of the bottom of her ass cheeks,- much to Grady’s chagrin.

  She was wearing a body chain, but that certainly wasn’t new. She made and carried them in her own online store. Grady couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off of that seductive chain hung under her bikini with three seaglass charms that swayed between the bottoms of her breasts and her bellybutton. His fingertips were aching to follow it from the middle of her cleavage downward. He’d been mildly concerned that he’d have to knock a few heads together for gawking at her and drooling, but never had it occurred to him that some guy would want her to put more clothing on.

  “My girlfriend can be any place she might want to be at any time. She can also wear or not wear anything she’d like. I’ll see to it myself. The only way my ship wouldn’t be safe for her is if one of you decides to do something that might threaten her in some way. If you’re planning something like that, we can cancel this trip right here and now. Otherwise, you keep your opinions and your hands the hell away from Nadya, and I won’t be forced to drag anybody back in a net. You got that?”

  “Well, that certainly won’t be a problem.” One of the men huffed. “There’s no need for vulgar language.”

  Beau chuckled under his breath. “Yeah, shut the fuck up, Grady.”

  After another round of gasps, the men finally divided themselves up and climbed aboard. Zach followed Grady onto Gemini. His father decided to try to buffer the group on Orion.

  What little blood had returned to Zach’s face seemed to slither downward when one of the men halted Grady and Nadya in their track to the bridge. “You know women should adorn themselves in respectable attire and never wear jewelry.”

  “That really sucks for women that have to hang out with you and hear you talk.” Nadya rolled her eyes. “Since I make jewelry for a living, I think I’ll keep wearing it, and respectable has never been my style.”

  Grady narrowed his eyes. His nostrils flared and his biceps flexed of their own accord. “I believe I just told you to keep your opinions to yourself. I don’t like repeating commands.”

  “But she could remove her jewelry and put on respectable clothing. Your tattoo is sinful as well, but that will be more difficult to remove.”

  Panicked, Zach stepped in. “Mr. Deaton, sir, uh … we’re not supposed to judge, remember?” He grasped for straws.

  “Is this some kind of deranged nightmare?” Grady shook his head as he guided Nadya up to the bridge and slid the door closed.

  “It can’t be a nightmare. You’re here.” Out of the glaring disdain from the would-be fisherman, she turned right back into his sweet angel. Leaning forward to see out of the windows and down to the decks where Beau was giving final instructions and the deckhands were feeding hooks through lines, she rolled her eyes. “They remind me of Peter.” She all but gagged.

  “You married some kind of religious nut job?” As much as Grady didn’t want to think about her ex, the thought of that was shocking to him.

  “Not exactly religious, just super controlling. The abuse was not the only reason I was only married six months. He was just such an ass.” She convulsed again, and Grady bit back any further questions.

  “I know you never want to see him again, angel, but I think I’d like for him to meet my fists.”

  She gave him that sexy smile that sent all the blood flow and electricity that resided in his body directly to his groin. “As much as I would love to watch you beat his ass, I’d rather him just stay in Cali and leave me the hell alone.”

  “Agreed. Now, let’s get this thing going so we can get back. Beau’s got Ms. Archer sitting with Pops today, but she usually wants him to be back around four.”

  “Who’s Ms. Archer?”

  “New neighbor lady across the street. She keeps an eye on Pops for us when we all go out. Makes sure he doesn’t get too far out of the yard. He still walks down to the dock occasionally, but he’s not supposed to.”

  Concern drowned Nadya’s previous grin as she nodded her understanding. Since Pops condition varied day to day, Grady wasn’t certain how to explain it to her. He hoped against hope that Pops would remember her, but wouldn’t ask too many questions. Distracting himself by concentrating on getting Gemini out of its slip and guiding it out beyond the islands, he kept a wary eye on their guests.

  “What the fuck are they doing with the nets?” he huffed. Two of the guys had stopped Robert from throwing in the nets. Grady never left them in long, but if they wanted bait fish, the nets had to go in the water.

  “I’ll go see.”

  “No, angel, just stay put. God only knows what they’ll say next. Beau’ll take care of it.”

  “I want to know, too. You steer. I’ll be right back.”

  Keeping his eyes trained on Nadya as soon as she made it to the bow, Grady charted the waters with ease. He’d done this a thousand times. Navigating his thoughts took far more concentration. She was wearing the ring he’d gotten her when he was seventeen on her ring finger. As much as that delighted him, he wanted to get her something nicer. Currently, he couldn’t even begin to save up for a fancy diamond ring until he knew what was going to happen with Beau’s case.

  That led him to the kid that had run away from the houseboat the day before. He began formulating a plan. If the police weren’t going to do anything more than accuse the Gypsies, he’d prove them wrong. If they couldn’t catch a criminal, he would. He would protect what was his.

  The men’s accusations about what Nadya was wearing churned in his gut again. Sanctimonious assholes. He shook his head, adjusted the wheel, and guided Gemini towards the reefs. A thought he’d been adamantly avoiding forced its way through the barriers his mind had tried to erect. Is that what he sounded like when he balked at letting her spend money on him and his brothers? Did he remind her of her ex when he argued about who paid for dinner? Was he really going to make this an issue when he’d been given another chance to make a life with her?

  Determination clenched his jaw. He’d wanted so badly to take care of her he’d screwed up again. Damn his stubborn pride. He’d adjust and let her take the lead whenever she wanted. He had to be her partner if he was going to be her husband. Some other prick had given that a shot, but she was his angel, and she always had been. Until his dying breath, he swore to himself then and there that he would do right by Nadya Montgomery. Nadya Havens. A broad grin formed on his chiseled features as he watched the instrumentation closely. The reef could damage the bottom of a boat if the captain didn’t know what the hell he was doing.

  Checking the bow again, he could no longer see her. He slid open the door and leaned out while steering with one hand. Scanning the port deck, he located her. Her jaw was cocked to the side. Her hand was propped on her sexy little hip, and she was staring at one of the men like he was about to be on the receiving end of her rather notorious temper; notorious if you’d grown up on Gypsy Beach, that was.

  Grady’s blood heated and stirred. God, she got him going like nothing ever could. He couldn’t leave the bridge until they’d passed the last of the islands to go see if she might like a hand in throttling the idiot that had her cornered.

  “Nady, angel, you okay?” he called down to the deck, shooting a furious glare at the man in question.

  She beamed up at him and hid a discreet eye roll. “I’m fine. I’m gonna grab us some Mountain Dews then I’ll be back up.”

  “I miss you,” he chuckled as
he watched her take her right hand and slide the man out of her path before flipping him off as she made her escape.

  She returned to his bridge carrying two ice cold Mountain Dews she’d pulled from the cooler in the galley. He opened hers for her and then scanned the waters again before downing a long sip of his own. “What was that all about?”

  “Oh, well apparently, we need a chaperone since we’re not married, and they disapprove of the nose ring.” She rolled her eyes. “I told him that I’d been sleeping with you since I was six so I really didn’t think we needed a chaperone now. He was speechless, which is how I executed my escape.”

  “The nose ring is fucking sexy. It drives me wild, and this has to be the strangest group of people I’ve ever had on this boat, and that’s saying something.” Grady shook his head.

  Nadya giggled. “That poor Zach guy. He’s marrying into this.”

  “I guess it’s good they have family that cares,” Grady allowed. Nadya had never had that. Pops did what he could, but that wasn’t much.

  “What was up with the nets?”

  “Oh, they wanted Beau to tell them how to wash and mend a net. Something else about disciples or something. Beau told him to let Robert sink the nets and he’d tell them later or there wasn’t going to be any bait.” She shrugged.

  Grady considered that. He’d never set foot inside a church, but he’d navigated the waters of the Atlantic all his life. Took something big and miraculous to create the world they lived on. To him the waters and the beach were his church, and Nadya was most certainly a gift from God. He just didn’t know much beyond that. She was all he’d ever needed. God had seen to that, and Grady would be forever thankful.

  Eighteen

  Sticking her drink bottle in a mesh pocket on the wall of the bridge, Nadya wrapped her arms around Grady’s waist from behind him. Grinning, he slowed Gemini when he saw the gulls dipping down to the water over the deep reefs.

  Nate guided Orion around to the other end of the reef, and the deckhands began baiting lines as the anchors lowered.

  “You know, all of this talk about being proper and having chaperones makes me want to do something naughty,” she whispered in Grady’s right ear. He spun to stare into her dark eyes.

  “Does it, angel?” His voice rumbled from deep in his chest as several ideas sprang to the forefront of his mind. He didn’t have any condoms on the ship, but that sure as hell didn’t mean he couldn’t give her some love and get her off.

  She gave him a slow, sexy nod and dug her hand into the back pocket of the cutoffs she was wearing. When she pulled a condom out, Grady was concerned his shuddered groan of elation was probably audible to the decks below.

  He took the foil packet from her hands and laid it on counter behind the wheel, then located a short remnant of boat rope that he’d cut earlier in the season. Working quickly, he laced the rope through the door handle and the latch and tied one hell of a figure-eight knot, preventing anyone from being able to pull it open.

  When he’d made certain they were secure, he drew her body into his and laid siege to her lips with his own. She opened her mouth, coaxed his tongue inside, and began to suck. He jerked away. Time was of the essence. “You’re making me hard, angel.” Grasping her backside, he rocked her body against his rapidly stiffening cock. “You gonna take care of that for me?”

  Another slow, sexy nod. She kept her onyx eyes locked on his as her hand caressed his zipper line.

  “You have to be quiet for me, angel, like a good girl.”

  Her body shuddered and her breaths sped as a slight moan escaped her. He shook his head. “Quiet, angel. We have to be quick and quiet.”

  With that he spun her back to his chest and edged her to the far starboard side of the bridge, out of sight of anyone that might try to see what was going on from a vantage point below. He’d block what was his and his alone with the expansion of his body. He wasn’t sharing.

  “So needy aren’t you, angel? You hurt for me don’t you?”

  “Oh God, yes!” she gasped and rocked her sexy little ass against the fierce bulge of his cock.

  “I’m gonna make it all better, angel, but you have to be quiet.” Reaching around her waist, he unsnapped the shorts and lowered them before he grasped the tie sides of the bikini bottom and did away with it altogether. He let a low growl hum in her ear. The back of the body chain dipped low. A tantalizing little butterfly charm sparkled at the top of her backside, making his mouth water and his cock throb fiercely. “So fucking sexy, angel. You drive me wild.”

  She pitched back against him as he toyed with the charm.

  He brought his fingers to his mouth and sucked them to provide her sweet little clit some lubrication until he made her body weep for him. When they were wet, he gently traced between her folds back and forth, making her desperate for more. “Feels so good when I touch you, doesn’t it, angel?”

  A breathy moan escaped her as her body swayed between his and the wall. His improvisation on lube had been unnecessary. She was already saturated with the idea of him taking her here when they could be caught. “So nice and wet for me. You know you need it don’t you? Need me to open you up and take what’s mine? You need my cock don’t you?”

  “Now,” she fought to keep her commands to breathy whispers.

  “God, I like you greedy, angel. Such a good girl.” He speared his fingers deep in her channel, making her frantic for more. She leaned forward and ground her body against his hand. So fucking greedy it drove him wild. When her abdomen began to quake he leaned in, forcing the orgasm from her. Another moan and he knew she was going to give them away. Gently he placed his left hand over her mouth. “Quiet, angel. You have to be quiet for me.”

  When she was only panting and no longer making audible sound, he pulled both of his hands away. “Hold onto that wall for me.” Unsnapping his jeans and lowering his boxers enough to get the job done, he sheathed his cock. He returned his hand to her mouth, gently reminding her not to make a sound as he began to pump her full of him. “You want it? You take it all for me.”

  She arched her back, giving him deeper access, and he was the one that almost growled out his pleasure and alerted the whole damn boat to what they were doing. Clenching his jaw and letting his head fall back for a half second, he kept his hand locked on her mouth but brought the other back to her clitoris and strummed it rhythmically.

  Hearing the passengers’ excitement over something that had been caught, he picked up pace. He needed to make an appearance on deck soon. When her body cinched tight around him, he was set to detonate. He pounded into her hard and unrelenting. “Come for me, angel. I’ll take you again tonight. I’ll make you scream for me. I’ll bring you over and over again, I promise, but for now, come for me like a good girl.”

  Her moan hummed against his hand as she obeyed. Her body tugged against his cock, pulling his release from deep within his balls. His entire body tensed as he filled the condom, and she collapsed back against him, letting her head loll on his shoulder as her body continued to shudder.

  “That what you needed, angel?” He cradled her closely, pleased with the expression of extreme satisfaction painted on her features. When he threw away the condom, she spun in his arms and buried her face against his neck. He wrapped her up and swayed her with the roll of the boat.

  “It was perfect.”

  “Hey, Grady,” called from entirely too close by.

  “Fuck,” Grady hoisted his jeans up and had them snapped before Beau pulled on the bridge door. Grady’s knots held. He doubted he’d get a merit badge for typing a rope to keep your brother out when you want to bang your girlfriend, but the thought made him chuckle.

  “Hang on a second, Beau.” He helped Nadya tie her bikini back on, and when she was dressed he slid open the door.

  Beau was shaking his head. “Seriously?”

  “We were talking,” Grady lied with ease.

  “Uh huh, sure you were. Our passengers would be so disappointed i
n you,” Beau smirked. “Hell, they might stone you.”

  “Let ‘um try. What are you doing up here?”

  “I’ve been asked forty-seven times how deep we are, which way land is, if the knots I tied are good, and if the lines are the same kind James and John used. Other than the knots, I really have no way of knowing any of that. They want to ask you, and the snapper are biting. Thought you might want to throw a few lines in. Nate’s got a ton.”

  Grady sighed. He tried to be patient with overly inquisitive passengers, but it didn’t matter how deep the water was there, and it changed every few feet. Land was always behind them since the ships they ran weren’t large enough to get out far enough for that to be a concern, and Beau could sure as hell tie a knot.

  “I’m fine. You and Nate fish, but for now, watch the bridge. I’ll see if I can’t pacify our sailors.” He took Nadya’s hand and guided her down to the bow to field questions for a while and to give Beau a break.

  By the time he docked Gemini, he was more than ready to be done with this particular group of tourists. Zach extended him and Nadya an invite to the wedding Sunday, but they politely declined.

  As soon as he could break away from the fileting and loading, Grady checked the houseboat and office. Nothing seemed to be amiss, and no one was around that shouldn’t have been.

  Nineteen

  Relieved, he helped Nadya up into the truck and headed back to the Food Lion to get provisions for dinner beyond the snapper Nate caught. Truthfully, he was delaying taking Nadya back to Pop’s house. Her old house was nearby, and he didn’t know what kind of distress might come from stepping back so deeply into their past.

  He loaded up enough steak and baking potatoes for everyone to have a feast. Nadya carefully selected greens for a salad and oil and vinegar for some of Molly’s dressing.

  Grady picked up half and half and Sweet and Low packs, eliciting a broad beaming grin from his angel. He was secretly pleased when she picked up a pound of Maxwell House. It’s what they’d been raised on. He was a little concerned she would have taken to some fancier brand while she lived in California. They may have grown up — her body had definitely taken on drop dead sexy curves that hadn’t quite filled out when she was sixteen — but she was still his angel. He was certain they would both change through the years, but as long as they grew together, that was all that mattered.