Page 3 of Spring Break with a Mafia Prince
“That kind of evening, huh?”
A soft, sweet voice that should never have been anywhere near my father or my boat brought my head up too fast. The blacked out horizon swam in a sea of stars that wouldn’t stay put as I turned toward the girl who spoke to me like I hadn’t nearly just puked my guts into the ocean below me a moment before anyway.
A vision in a pale blue, cotton dress with thin straps and a sweetheart neckline that stopped at her mid-calf, my body’s reaction to her hit me somewhere around the chest region. Dirty blonde hair that curled in a light wave around her throat and tumbled down her bare back shifted gently in the night’s breeze that I hadn’t noticed in my bid to escape my father’s lair. Hell, she could have been there the whole time and I might not have noticed her.
How the hell did I miss her standing there?
The thought made me illogically angry, but before I could rein my temper in, the words I didn't want to say flew out.
“What are you doing here?” I snapped, and winced.Fuck, I sound like my father.
The girl watched me quietly. Anyone else might have taken a step back. Anyone else might have run like hell when I glowered at him like I just did with her.
Anyone who knew my name. Which was when it hit me.
She has no idea who I am.
CHAPTER TWO
FALCON
I took a second glance at myself. Charcoal pants, white shirt, half unbuttoned, hair a mess from rubbing my hands through it a second ago. And I hadn’t shaved in days. Hell, I probably looked like any random college aged kid out for a joyride.
“Sorry, that was?—”
“Rude,” she reprimanded me gently. “It’s okay. We all have those nights. I think my father is having one right now.” My mystery girl, who had be college-age, like me, tilted her head toward the stairs I came up a few minutes before.
Raised voices emanated from behind the door I’d shut.
“Ah.” My father mentioned a late meeting.No wonder he finished up with the slut so fast.“Did you just arrive?” A single nod. Not once did her eyes turn wary. “Mmm.” I rubbed a hand over my chin, the not so short bristles biting into my palm. “And you have no one else with you here? Just your father?” I winced as something banged below. Not a gunshot, but her father wasn’t the only one having a shit night.
“Just me,” she said softly, standing there in that thin blue cotton sundress long after the evening set in.
And the night breeze which wasn’t so gentle in spring. The long hem drifted around her slim calves, her hands twitching like she might wrap her arms around herself, but she didn’t shift under my gaze.
It took me less than half a second to make the decision.
“Where are you staying?”
“We have a house behind the town. It’s not far, just enough away from…everything.” she shrugged.
I nodded; I got it, not wanting to be in the middle of the tourist destination of Love Beach. “Within walking distance?”
“If you’re used to walking.”
“Campus is fairly huge. I’m on spring break. Wait here for a minute?” I asked.
Hell, that was new. I didn’t ask anyone for anything.
The girl nodded again, and didn’t move. The single movement gave me the impression that she was used to waiting on other people to get their business done before anyone thought of her.
I rolled my lips inward on that thought, still watching her face as I backed up a few steps and mimicked her nod. “I’ll be back in a second.”
I turned on my heel and jogged forward, toward the bow of the boat, not willing to head lower toward my room. I’d left a zip up hoodie on the bridge earlier in the day where the captain resumed an old lesson in teaching me how to read nautical charts. For whatever reason, I loved studying the damn things, and he was more than willing to share an old passion with an eager student.
“You didn’t move.” I found the girl standing exactly where I left her.
She looked up at me curiously. “You did say not to.”
