Page 5 of Bear's Midlife Bridesmaid
At least now he knew her name. And he liked it. “Are you enjoying your trip so far, Erin?” Her name rolled beautifully down the length of his tongue.
She tipped her head slightly to the side, and her shoulders contracted in a minimal shrug. “It’s all right.”
He knew it’d gotten off to a bad start. He knew she’d been embarrassed by her luggage mishap on the deck when she’d first arrived. What shedidn’t know was that he hadn’t stopped thinking about it since, but probably not for the reasons she would imagine. Erin wouldn’t need that toy if he had any say in the matter. Still, his mind flashed with an image of her in her cabin on the bed, her head craned back in ecstasy against the pillow as she slipped the little silver device between her legs.
Jace tightened his jaw and forced himself back into the moment. He was getting carried away, but that was easy. “Forgive me for saying so, but youdon’t seem like the type I usually see on these charters.”
She looked at him more fully now, letting go of some of that aloofness that she wore like armor. “Is this where I’m supposed to tuck my hair behind my ear and tell you I’m not like other girls?”
“I already know you’re not.” Jace sensed the shifter in her, but it wasn’t one he was familiar with. She definitely wasn’t a bear like himself, nor was she a wolf like some of those who’d been adopted into his clan. It was a mystery to him, and it made her all the more intriguing. “This isn’t exactly the scene where you’d normally find me, either.”
“So, you’re not like other captains?” she challenged.
The hint of a smile that played on her lips made his stomach twist. “You could say that. I used to do long charters like this, but it was too much while I was trying to raise my son.”
“You have a little boy?”
Was that a hint of wistfulness he detected in her voice? No, Jace decided. He was reading too much into it. Most women wanted to hear about children. “Not exactly a little one anymore. He’s just about grown.” Jace turned and noddedtoward Ian, who was politely offering everyone dainty little slices of cucumber with slices of salmon on top.
This had Erin turning around so she could look back and forth between Jace and Ian. “Oh. I see the resemblance now. I can imagine it would be hard to be a parent while you’re gone for days at a time.”
“It was, and my family helped me a lot, but I still found that the day tours were much easier to deal with. Even so, Ian has fallen in love with the water just as much as I have. He’s got plans for his own boat tour company someday.” Jace didn’t really want to just yammer about himself, but at least he had her talking. Erin reminded him of a feral cat when she was around the other passengers. Somewhat tolerant, pretending here and there to be part of the crowd, but overall keeping to herself. “A friend of mine asked if we could fill in while he had surgery, so here we are.”
“Mm.” She nodded as she took a sip of her soda. Erin was now leaning back against the railing. She didn’t look as uncomfortable as she had on the couch, but there was still a wall up around her. “Gretchen and I were best friends as little girls. We grew up and changed over the years, but we’ve always kept in touch. I knew it was going to be…interesting…to join her for this little cruise, but it’s her wedding. What else could I do? So here I am.”
“It’s funny how things like that work out,” Jace noted quietly. His hand twitched. He wanted to reach out and touch her, just to brush his fingertips against her arm at least. More, hopefully, but she created a longing in him that he’d never experienced before. “Sometimes I think fate puts us where we need to be.”
Those catlike eyes slid up to his and then quickly away again. Every time he started to make progress, she’d slip backward again a moment later. “Possibly. Sometimes, I wonder if we ought to have a say in the matter.”
“The line between destiny and free will can be kind of blurry.” He’d never thought about things that deeply, but at the moment, it seemed right. Jace hadchosento take this job. It’d been a conscious decision, yet it’d put him right there with Erin. He’d been put right in the path of his?—
“Captain! Yoohoo! Captain!” Gretchen was shaking her empty glass in the air.
Jace frowned. “Duty calls.” He slipped past Erin and went back to the lounge to help Marissa and Ian serve the guests. On a smaller yacht like this, he hadto serve as both captain and crew. They could probably have used a couple of extra hands to take care of the demanding wedding party, but there was only so much space for the crew to sleep. He whipped up some more cosmopolitans, but his mind was on Erin as she stood by the railing and sipped her soda.
3
Erin nervously fingeredthe black lace of her sleeves, knowing the dress she’d picked out for tonight’s dinner party hadn’t been quite right. Getting dressed up had never been her thing, but knowing she’d probably see Jace again had motivated her as she’d gotten ready in her cabin. He was a shifter, that much she knew. In fact, she was sure she knew quite a bit more about him despite their vague talk and the short amount of time they’d spent together. It was enough to make her realize how much she wanted to see him again, and she’d overheard Gretchen telling him that he simplymustjoin them for the pre-wedding dinner.
“What we really need are some good tax cuts,” Archie proclaimed. “Yeah, I know, you get all thepoor people whining about it. What they don’t understand is that a guy like me, who’s making a lot of money, is also creating a lot ofjobs.It’s a service I’m providing for my community and for the economy, and I should be rewarded for it instead of punished.”
Phillip cut a neat square of his steak and nodded. “Of course. There’s plenty that the poor don’t understand about finances, though. That’s why they’re still poor!”
Erin blinked at the appalling conversation around her. Archie and Phillip had struck her as used car salesmen from the moment she’d been introduced to them, only worse. They just wanted to make a buck, and they didn’t care who they stepped on to get it. It was no surprise to her that they were still single, but she didn’t doubt some vapid gold diggers would come and find them eventually.
“What about you, Florence?” Archie turned to the guest next to him. His eyes slid down to her breasts, which were mostly exposed except for the thin film of her dress that held onto her nipples by some sort of magic. The material dipped almost to her navel. “You probably make plenty of money on the runway. You shouldn’t have to give all that up just because someone else doesn’t want to work. I mean,if they want food, they should get a job instead of going to the soup kitchens and demanding to be fed on taxpayer dollars.”
Erin pressed her tongue to the top of her mouth, promising herself not to make a scene. These people were wealthy, but it didn’t mean they were smart.
Florence slowly turned to look at Archie. “How can I feel bad for the hungry? I’ve made a lot of money by not eating.”
And this was just the first night. How would she get through a week of this? Erin glanced down the table, noting that Jace had been seated at the complete opposite end, and frowned to herself. It was only polite that Hugo and Gretchen had put the captain near them, especially if they were trying to treat him like a guest of honor, but it still irked her. If she had to suffer through this, it would’ve been nice to do so in the company of a hot guy along the way.
“You see,” Hugo was saying, leaning back in his chair and pointing at Jace with his fork, “there’s a lot of history behind sailing. It was the backbone of the economy, both in individual countries and around the world. It made the difference between life or death for some people, and this country wouldn’t be anything without it. You might know how to operatethe ship, but do you truly understand the meaning of maritime history?”
Jace watched the groom placidly. “I’m fairly certain I do.”
Wow. These people were unbelievably pretentious. How could Hugo talk to him that way?
