Page 3 of Booked for Summer

‘Um, thank you for carrying my case,’ she said when she finally caught up. He nodded, his gaze coming to rest on her rucksack, and the keyring. ‘Do you think he looks like a caterpillar, or a worm?’

He stared at her blankly. ‘Does it matter?’

‘It does to him.’ The man’s eyes flew open, and she liked that she’d caught him off balance. Evened her up a bit.

‘Worms are brown, he…itis green.’ He shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe he was having the conversation. ‘Enjoy your stay, Jade.’

Her stomach swooped at the sound of her name in that deep drawl. A second later he was gone, those long legs striding back towards his boat.

‘Welcome, Miss.’ Her new driver– she was sticking to that. They used a wheel, didn’t they?– gave her a wide smile. ‘You’re going to Haven Resort, yes?’

‘Um, well, not exactly.’ Seeing as he seemed friendly, she added in a whisper, ‘I’m actually going to work in the bookstore next door.’

‘Ah, you’re Flo’s girl.’ He gave her a conspiratorial wink. ‘Don’t tell anyone but we have an arrangement. I let her shop use the resort water taxi, and she sorts the wife out with books whenever she wants one. So maybe we’ll see more of each other. I’m George, the wife is Emma.’

She held out her hand to shake his. ‘Pleased to meet you, George. And I look forward to talking books with your Emma.’

He chuckled. ‘Careful, don’t go being too friendly or she’ll never leave your shop. So, have you been to Nantucket before?’

‘Nope, it’s my first time.’

‘Ah, well it’s an odd mix of quaint and sophisticated but there’s something for everyone. And the scenery is spectacular.’

Involuntarily, her gaze tracked the tall, lean, dark-haired figure as he climbed back onto his motor yacht. ‘I can imagine.’

* * *

Liam resisted the impulse to stop and… what? Stare? Walk back to continue a conversation about worms, for Christ’s sake. But God, the desire to turn around, to have those enormous blue eyes rest on him a little bit longer… it was almost overwhelming. He was used to female attention– amazing what a bit of money could do– but he wasn’t used to enjoying it. Craving more of it.

And he knew where she was heading. The same place he was.

The smart side of his brain told him he didn’t need the distraction, and there was no way the blonde Brit with the curvy figure crammed into a bubble-gum-pink top and tiny shorts, would be anything but a distraction.

The side of his brain connected to his dick told him a distraction was exactly what he needed while he tried to juggle expanding the Haven Resort empire, managing the Nantucket resort (thanks to the resignation of his resort manager) and finally completing the purchase of the neighbouring wharf from a highly eccentric seventy-year-old he’d been trying to pin down for over a year. And who’d just wriggled out of yet another meeting.

If you’d not been so rude, that curvy blonde bombshell of a distraction could be with you now, in your boat. Looking up at you from under her lids with those big eyes.

He shook away the image and cast off the mooring lines. Sliding open the doors on the main deck, he walked forward through the salon to the bridge. Unable to help himself, he turned to watch the Haven transfer set off. A blonde figure, dressed in bright pink, sat on the aft deck, face turned towards him. No, face turned towards his boat. She couldn’t possibly see him through the tinted glass.

Enough. He yanked his phone out of his pocket and dialled Jeremy, guest-services manager at Nantucket and, whether he wanted it or not, now his right-hand man. ‘I’m on my way.’

‘Sorry, who is this?’

Liam scowled down at the phone. ‘You know damn well who.’

‘Well, okay, I might know because I might have you saved in my contact list under Big Bad Boss Man, but a few pleasantries wouldn’t go amiss.’

God, the man was frustrating. If he wasn’t such an organised pain in the ass adored by customers and staff alike, and if he hadn’t made himself indispensable since the resort had opened, and Liam wasn’t already one key member of staff down, he might suggest Jeremy find another resort owner to piss off. ‘I’m warning you I’m on my way, rather than turning up unannounced, how muchpleasanterdo you want me to be?’

Jeremy let out a pained-sounding sigh. ‘I suppose in your world that was a kindness. Okay boss, see you soon. We’ll get the red carpet out for you.’

Liam ended the call, well aware the man was being sarcastic. Neither Jeremy nor Leroy, the restaurant manager and Jeremy’s fiancé, tried to kiss his butt, which Liam had a grudging respect for. But he was the boss, something he’d worked fucking hard to achieve, and he figured he was owed some respect.

Speaking of respect, or lack of it, he punched in the number for Flo.

‘Ah, Mr Haven, I thought you might call.’

He forced a calm into his voice that he wasn’t feeling. ‘You didn’t bring me the signed contract.’

---