Page 50 of The Second Chance in the Mediterranean
“Can’t sleep?” he asked me once.
“Nah, not tired enough yet. Figured I’d get some work done.”
“Cool.” He nodded and wandered off.
Later the door swung open and instead of Toby, it was Seb. He startled when he saw me. Glancing around quickly, he checked to make sure we were alone.
“What are you doing up, flaquita?” He leaned over the table, planting a slow, long kiss on my lips.
When he pulled back, I blinked up at him, my breathing coming ragged. “I thought we’d hang out on your watch.”
Seb’s eyes warmed. “You didn’t have to do that. You need your sleep.”
“Right now I’m getting plenty. But I might curse you out when we’re knee-deep in the regatta.”
He grinned at me. “Acceptable. You know I do have to actually do stuff.”
“Yeah, I thought maybe I could tag along?”
“You can tag along anytime you want,” he purred.
“Perv.” I smacked his shoulder and climbed to my feet. “What’s first?”
Seb wasn’t kidding. First he led me up to the helm, where he took notes on the boat’s position, the wind conditions, and the radar. We pulled out a rangefinder and he showed me how to measure the distance between us and other boats. “We have to make sure no one’s going to drag into us or vice versa.”
“That was always a concern onEik. We only did anchor watches a few times when the weather was bad, but I know Jonas was always worried.”
“It has always amazed me about how many smaller boats actually do drag anchor. It’s scary watching someone’s boat just fly backward and you don’t know if there’s anyone on board or what. And then when they hit another boat . . .” Seb shuddered.
We went downstairs to the main deck and walked a loop around the entire rail. Despite us being alone, the boat was still brightly lit. I had assumed that someone would turn off the mast lights and underwater lights when we all went to bed.
“Nah, they pretty much stay on all the time,” Seb said when I asked. “It makes us more visible at night. And have you ever noticed the light at the top of the mast? It’s hard to see from here.”
I looked up and tried to shade my eyes against the brightness of the mast lights. “No, what’s up there?”
“A flashing red light. We have to have one for air traffic. We’re so tall, airplanes have to watch out for us.”
“What? That’s crazy.”
He laughed. “Yeah. Funny how on most superyachts—non-sailing ones anyway—even though they are bigger, they aren’t taller. You don’t have masts, so you would never think about something like that.”
“What next?”
“Well, normally when we are at anchor, we’ve got guests on board, so I have to clean. But since we don’t have guests, things are pretty tidy right now, and Toby probably got a lot of the day’s dirt.”
“So, what do you normally do when you’ve got free time at night?”
“Hang out in the pilothouse. Wanna come up with me? Or should you go to bed?”
“Nah, I’ll come up.”
We climbed the stairs and entered the helm again. Seb checked his watch. “I have to do another reading on the hour, and I prefer to keep the lights off so I can see better.”
“Oh really? I would say it’s nice and romantic, but the glow from these instruments makes us look pretty ghoulish.”
Seb grinned. “Ooooohhhh! I’m a ghost. Coming to eat you.” He tugged me to him, pulling our hips to touch, and his lips chased mine, bending me back for a kiss. I gripped his collar, opening up for him and sliding our tongues together. Seb groaned and pulled me harder to his body.
When we broke off, we were both breathing hard, and I nuzzled his nose until I caught sight of the captain’s chair, dimly lit in the darkness. Placing a hand on Seb’s chest, I pushed him back. I tilted my head. “Take a seat, Captain.”
