by Violet Paige
What number was I? Ten? Twenty? One hundred?
As far as I could tell, Bruin rarely spent a single night alone in his bed. It was a new girl every night. And the crew were here all the time, hardly ever taking time off. I had been in the yacht business long enough to know that for most crew members, this was a lifestyle. It paid extraordinarily well, and it was exciting to travel around, almost like a free vacation except for the fact that, well, they were working. There were certainly worse jobs to have. But in this case, these crew members had to know exactly why I was here. And it wasn’t to inspect the ship or have a polite, buttoned-up business meeting. Bruin had brought me here for one reason and one reason only, and I knew they knew.
Awkward.
“Miguel, take our guest’s luggage. She brought an entire closet’s worth of stuff, it looks like. Must be awfully heavy for one woman to carry,” Bruin remarked with just a hint of a smirk on his handsome face.
I blushed. I probably looked ridiculous, carrying all this stuff with me. I hated looking high-maintenance. I mean, I kind of was, but not by choice. It was important to my job, and my job was the most important thing to me. Well, besides Jeff.
Oh, God. Jeff.
Miguel stepped up and took my suitcase from me with a smile. “I’ll take that, ma’am.”
“Thanks, Miguel,” I replied, my cheeks still hot.
“Where will I take it, sir?” he asked Bruin.
Bruin waved his hand. “To my stateroom. Just put it in the closet.”
What? His room?
“Wait,” I interrupted before Miguel could walk away with my stuff in tow. “Why your room? Shouldn’t my stuff be in my room?”
Bruin grinned. “One and the same, Jillian. My room is your room.”
“That seems awfully unprofessional,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “Besides, Mirabella is massive. There are plenty of rooms to choose from without us having to bunk together, Bruin.”
He didn’t waver for even a second. He took my arm and began leading me to the stairs and down to the hall where his room was located. Miguel followed behind dutifully.
“Bruin, I’m serious,” I said firmly.
“Well, there are other rooms, but I think you’ll have to agree that mine is the best one. The largest, the most comfortable, the best view. And the services provided in my room are the best of the best,” he growled.
“S-Services?” I repeated, frowning in confusion.
He nodded slowly as he led me to the room. He stood back to let Miguel walk by and put my luggage away. I pulled away from him. “Bruin, I am not staying in your room. I’ll take the one next door. Final offer.”
He looked at me for a long moment, his face unreadable. Then he shrugged.
“Okay. Whatever you say,” he agreed with a radiant smile. “Here, let me show you your room, then. We’ll get reacquainted.”
“I think I can figure out how to use a bed on my own, thanks,” I said, a little sharply.
Bruin simply laughed. “Damn, you’ve really changed since I last saw you.”
“Well, yeah. I’m twenty-five now. I was a dumb kid back then.”
We walked into the smaller stateroom and he closed the door behind us, then said to me meaningfully, “Jillian, you may have been a kid, but you have never, ever been dumb.”
I blinked a few times, surprised at the compliment. I kept waiting for the punch line, but it never came. Instead he simply started showing me around the room. “Right. Here’s the en suite bathroom, the wardrobe, the linen closet with towels and extra sheets for the bed.”
“Thank you,” I said. Then, I opened my mouth to say something else and stopped myself. I didn’t know what to say. Bruin caught it, though. He caught everything.
He sauntered up to me wordlessly and cupped my face in his hands. I stared up at him, afraid to even breathe. His hands were huge and warm and I could feel my whole body tingling with desire. “You’re fucking beautiful, you know that?” he murmured.
“Bruin…” I trailed off.
He bent down to kiss me, softly at first, and then harder. Forceful. Passionate.
My plan to avoid all bodily contact evaporated. Suddenly, I couldn’t get enough of his touch. And he knew it. He picked me up, wrapping my legs around his waist, and he carried me to the bed. He pushed me down onto my back, spreading my legs apart with his hand roughly. I gazed up at him, breathing hard, afraid that he might stop before we even started.
But not this time.
He hiked up my dress and knelt down between my thighs, gently rubbing his face into my heat. I gasped and instinctively reached down to twirl my fingers in his thick hair. He smirked up at me, knowing I was lost. I was his. I always had been.
He hooked a finger until the band of my panties and pulled them aside, then dove in without any warning. He ran his tongue slowly up and down the length of my slit while I groaned and closed my eyes. He flicked his tongue over the sensitive bud of my clit, his hands gripping my thighs, wrenching them further apart. He wanted everything out of the way, a clear path to my pussy.
“So wet for me, Jillian,” he growled.
“I don’t know how you do it,” I breathed.
“Do what?” he asked, circling my clit with his thumb so that I was twitching and writhing with intense, almost overwhelming pleasure.
“You make me forget everything. Who I am. Why I’m here. How?” I asked between moans. He chuckled, a smirk on his face.
“I know what you want. What you need. I can feel it. Fuck, I can smell it,” he said huskily. “And I’m going to give you what you need. As long as you promise to trust me.”
“I promise,” I whispered, without hesitation.
“Good. I’m going to make you come so hard you forget your own damn name,” he promised, leaning forward and sucking my clit.
I arched my hips and cried out, my hands gripping the sheets on either side of me. I wrapped my legs around his neck, pulling him in close, begging him not to stop.
And he didn’t.
He plunged his tongue into my slick hole, his fingers rubbing my clit in tight, delicious circles while I groaned and whimpered. It felt so fucking good. Even in college, I had never had a man go down on me before. I knew what it was. I wasn’t that naive. But I never thought it could feel like this. Bruin licked up every drop of my gushing juices, sucking my clit into his mouth, flicking it with his tongue until I was almost screaming. I could feel my climax coming, my body tensing up for the release.
“Yes! Oh, fuck yes!” I cried out, rolling my hips and gasping.
“Come for me, baby,” Bruin growled. “I want to taste you.”
“Oh my God, Bruin, it feels so fucking good,” I whimpered. He began circling my clit with the stiff tip of his tongue, stoking the fire higher and higher. “Oh God. Just like that. Ohh, please don’t stop. Bruin… Bruin!” I screamed.
I came so hard I thought I might black out, my body trembling and weak as Bruin sucked up every drop, his hands keeping my thighs spread apart. “Good girl,” he said, licking his lips.
“Oh my God,” I gasped. “Oh my Hod, I can’t believe this is happening.”
He stood up and wiped his mouth. “Believe it.”
I was limp, unable to move as my body shook with the aftershocks of intense pleasure. God, it had been such a long fucking time. And never had I ever felt like that before. Not by myself or with anyone else. Bruin was magic. True fucking magic.
I forced myself to sit up and tug my dress back down, suddenly feeling very exposed.
“You can stay in this room if you like, but I have a feeling you would have a much more enjoyable time if you stay with me,” he said pointedly, and walked out of the room.
Fifteen
Bruin
“Are you sure this is necessary? It’s just the two of us.” Jillian was trying to say as I led her down the carpeted hallway to the dining room, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“That’s exactly why it’s necessary,�
�� I explained.
Her arm was laced through mine, and I gave it a gentle squeeze as she looked up in awe at the room I led her into. Lavish black carpeting gave the room a dark, moody feeling that was accented by the dim lighting on the ceiling. I’d had all but a single table removed, the one reserved for us sitting in front of the massive glass window overlooking the deck and the sea in front of us. Candles burned on the table, but that light was nothing compared to the full moon outside that gouged a streak of white on the black waters.
“Oh my God,” she breathed. “What is it like to be your accountant?”
“Well-paid,” I said with a gentle laugh.
I led us to the table and pulled her chair out for her before taking my own place, and the waiter who was standing at attention already had a couple of bottles of wine ready.
“Château Lafite, or Domaine Ramonet Montrachet Grand Cru for you, madam?” the server asked, holding out the red and white respectively. By the shocked look on Jillian’s face, I could tell she actually recognized those names.
“Steak,” I mouthed silently to her when she looked to me for help, and she pointed to the red with a sheepish grin.
“Is this what I think it is?” she asked me as he poured our wine for us.
“Jill, we’ve been too touch-and-go the past week,” I said, leaning forward and admiring the reflected candlelight in her eyes. “This week is going to be about showing you what things are like in my life. Everything I can do. And I don’t just mean what I showed you in the bedroom earlier,” I said once the waiter had walked off, my voice low and husky. Her face burned a shade of red that complemented the blue of her dress lovingly.
“So, let me guess, you have a gourmet sushi chef on retainer?” she asked jokingly.
“He’s on vacation with his family in Tokyo,” I said, taking pleasure in watching her eyes widen. “This week’s chef is Australian, and I don’t think he’ll disappoint. You’re not a vegetarian, are you?”
She shook her head.
“Good. I was hoping to start off the week with a little color. We have stuffed mushrooms to start with,” I demonstrated, and with perfect timing, our server returned with two plates of steaming, perfectly cooked mushrooms absolutely bursting with a creamy stuffing and smelling rich and earthy. “And after that, full-blood Wagyu tenderloin. And of course, some dessert cheese and wine afterward.”
“How would madam like her steak cooked?” the server asked kindly.
“Medium-rare,” Jill said dumbly up at him, still in shock about everything.
“Oh thank God, I was worried you might be a well-done kind of woman,” I said. “I find it true that once you’ve gotten a taste of blood,” I warned, holding her gaze meaningfully. “You keep coming back for more.”
She squirmed in her seat and took a drink of wine rather quickly, and I grinned. Sometimes, Jillian gave me the impression she was somewhere between guest and hostage on this ship, and if I were a gambling man, I’d suspect that some part of her enjoyed that. Of course she was neither. She was always free to leave. Always. But I knew deep in my gut it would never come to that.
Dinner was exquisite. We made small-talk about the details of the yacht over the appetizer before the cuts of steak arrived. I’d never seen a woman tear into a steak like that before. I wondered if she’d ever had Wagyu beef before, because she devoured it as if she’d been starving.
Being able to give her that luxury made me feel proud in a way I rarely felt when entertaining guests.
By the time we finished the dessert cheese and wine, conversation had turned to where exactly I was taking us over the next few days. But we were on our third glass of wine, and I was starting to feel restless in my seat.
“I mean, I’ve never honestly looked at yacht destinations, really” she was saying, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.
“Always too busy running things behind the scenes to enjoy it a little yourself, I’d imagine,” I assumed with a smile. “Come, an empty dining table is no place to really enjoy a yacht. You can bring your glass,” I added as we started to stand up. Jillian swayed a little, but I took her arm in mine again to guide her.
I led her upstairs to a spacious lounge that included an even more panoramic view of the waters ahead of us with less of the deck in the way. Where the dining room’s theme was black and white, this lounge’s was a dark, seductive red and dark wood, with long couches circling a large coffee table in the center, a hot tub in the corner, and a bar near the front. It was all unattended, of course. I wanted the lounge to ourselves.
“There are no set destinations on my yachts,” I said, leading her to the windows and peering out into the illuminated seas. “I have a rough plan, but I was hoping to get your input on the details.”
“My input?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. “I’m not sure what I could do, but…”
I smiled at her and walked over to the coffee table’s large, glass surface reached under it to press a button. The screen under the glass table lit up, and it displayed a map of the Caribbean before our eyes, a dull glow in the dim room, and a little red blip showed where we were located.
“Yes, I have a map inside a luxury coffee table like some kind of Bond villain.”
I chuckled at her expression, and I beckoned her over with a finger. She strode over to the thing and peered over it, setting her wine glass on the arm of one of the chairs.
I set my own glass down, moved behind her, and slipped my arms around her hips. She turned her head to look back at me for a moment, but she didn’t resist.
“I see how you carry yourself around the ship,” I whispered into her ear, and I felt her whole body shiver. I squeezed her closer. “You’ve grown into a woman who knows what she wants. You act like you’re not comfortable with the serving staff around, but you’re a natural, Jill. This suits you.”
“This?” she whispered back.
“Being a part of this world,” I stated, running a hand down the length of her arm to her fingertips, clasping her hand gently. “You’re such a hard worker that you don’t know how to enjoy the benefits. Let’s start slowly.”
I guided her hand over to the red blip on the screen. “That’s us,” I said. Then guided her to the cluster of islands just off the coast of Florida. “To be back in seven days, all this is open to you,” I said, tracing my finger around a radius of islands. “We’re headed for the Bahamas generally, but what looks good?”
She stared at the map for a few moments, and she wasn’t as overwhelmed by choices as I was expecting. In fact, she put a finger to her lips, peering at the map with genuine interest. “I hear the Berry Islands are nice,” she said thoughtfully. “Where are they?”
I smiled and guided her finger over to the little chain of islands, putting her finger on them. As I did, I pushed her forward a little more, my hot breath on her neck.
“I know docks there that very few people know about,” I revealed. “You have good taste.”
“You can tell what kind of taste I have from a guess off the top of my head?” she prodded with a little laugh. Her body a little more relaxed thanks to the wine.
“Of course,” I said in a thick voice that made her still, my hand sliding around to her front. “When someone has never really experienced something before, their instincts are the best judge of what they’re really like.”
She was silent for a few moments, but she didn’t resist the gentle swaying of my hips behind her. “Bruin, what happened earlier was…”
“Instinct,” I admitted, now running my hand on her inner thigh through her blue dress. “You let your instinct guide you, Jill, and it was worth it, wasn’t it?”
I wasn’t even sure if she knew she was nodding softly. I could feel the storm inside her. “You tasted so fucking good.” I breathed into her ear. “I’m thinking about things that I haven’t explored, either.”
“Don’t try that with me,” she warned, finally turning around to face me. My hands held her round ass, and I looked d
own into those defiant eyes. “You’ve had women all over the world. How am I any different?”
I cupped her face with my hands and ran a thumb just below her lip, admiring the glossy lipstick. “You’re the one who’s been right in front of me the whole time.”
I pressed my lips to hers. The heady wine and the tension we felt between us made us melt into each other, and Jillian soon found her knees going weak under me.
I groped her ass, and one hand went up her back, feeling the smooth fabric before my fingers found the zipper. She gasped a little and broke the kiss, looking up at me in surprise. She knew full well what it would mean if I drew that zipper down.
“Here?” she asked, a glance to the window.
“We’re in private, trust me,” I growled, a smug smile on my face. “The only question is whether you want this.”
Her lip quivered for a moment as I watched the storm of feelings roil under the surface. Even though I knew what my heart and body wanted, I felt it too. The tension of knowing each other so long and leaving so much untouched. How close I’d been to the family. Her brother. The secrecy. The feeling of her coming on my face, giving me a taste of her honey I’d never forget.
She nodded hastily and kicked her shoes off, and I felt a roar of triumph well up inside my chest. I pressed her into another kiss as my hand drew the zipper down in a swift motion, and I helped her wiggle out of the little dress. I tossed it aside and stood back, my hungry eyes looking her up and down.
And with everything stripped away but her bra and panties, the shy, nervous Jillian I remembered was back for a moment, looking up at me with hesitation, even fear. She was worried she didn’t look the way I wanted her to.