Stranded With The Captain. Sharon Hartley

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ man turned and stood with his back to her, staring up the mast, the rear view as spectacular as the front. Clasping his hands, he stretched his arms high overhead, rippling the muscles in his amazing shoulders, completely unaware of her ogling.

      And here, likely, was Spree’s captain. Funny; she’d pictured their captain as an old salt with a British accent. She didn’t know where the accent came from, but the photo in the brochure had definitely been of such an older gentleman. Not this dangerous-looking buccaneer with a body that only came from spending a lot of time in the gym.

      Not that he’d worked his muscles to where they were too obscenely bulky and huge. No question this man was strong, but also wonderfully flexible.

      Flexible? Where is this coming from? Get a grip, Cat.

      “Ahoy there,” Joan shouted.

      Cat cringed. The man turned. Piercing dark eyes openly checked them out. He smiled, displaying perfect white teeth.

      “Can I help you, ladies?”

      “I hope so,” Joan said. “We’re your charterers for the next week.”

      The pirate’s expression morphed into a scowl. He moved closer to them. “You’re not due until tomorrow,” he said.

      “Well, I know,” Joan said, using what Cat recognized as her most wheedling tone. “But we hoped we could put our food aboard tonight.”

      “You bought your own provisions? I thought you were using the concierge service.”

      “We changed our minds,” Deb said. “And saved a ton of money.”

      Still frowning, the man placed a hand on a metal wire connected to the deck. “I hope you used the suggested list.”

      “Of course,” Joan said. “Are you the captain?”

      “Yes. And according to your contract, you don’t have the boat until noon tomorrow.”

      “But some of our food needs refrigeration,” Debbie said.

      Mesmerized by a bead of sweat sliding down the captain’s chiseled chest toward his low-slung cutoffs, Cat forced herself to listen to the discussion.

      “What would it matter if we just stored our food in the coolers overnight?” Deb asked.

      “Please,” Joan added hopefully.

      Appearing none too pleased, the captain hesitated, but shrugged. “Sure. How can I resist three such lovely ladies?”

      “Thank you,” Cat said, and was rewarded with another smile.

      The captain jumped from the deck of Spree to the dock. “I’m Javi Rivas, your captain.”

      “Joan Pastorini. What happened to Captain Bree?” Joan asked.

      “He had an emergency. Sorry about my appearance, but I wasn’t expecting you.” The captain shook Joan’s hand and turned to Deb.

      “I’m Debbie McMillan,” she said.

      “Cat Sidran.”

      When the captain shook Cat’s hand, he winked, and heat warmed her cheeks. Damn. He must have noticed her drooling.

      “Come on,” he said. “Let’s grab a dock cart to transport your provisions.”

      Telling herself to quit leering at the captain, Cat and her friends followed him down the dock toward land where he helped them transfer their grocery bags from the car into a wooden cart and wheeled the cart back to Spree, where they passed their provisions to the captain on deck. The process took three trips.

      Maybe they’d bought too much food.

      “Come aboard and I’ll show you where to stow your food,” the captain said with a glance at Debbie’s feet. “Tell me you brought deck shoes.”

      Deb looked down at her stilettos. “They’re in my suitcase.”

      “You have to put them on before you come aboard.”

      “Seriously?” Deb asked.

      “Didn’t you read the preboarding instructions?” Javi said.

      “Don’t worry about it, Deb,” Joan said. “We’ll put away the groceries. Go wait in the shade.” To Javi, she said, “She burns easily because of her fair skin.”

      “Then I hope she brought sunscreen. You, too,” Javi said to Cat, holding out his arm to help her aboard. “Redheads burn quicker than blondes.”

      Landing on deck, Cat silently moaned when she couldn’t stop heat from flooding her face again. The curse of a redhead. What was she, thirteen? He helped Joan onto the boat, then said to Cat, “Come with me.”

      She followed him into the cockpit, through the opening and down four steps to a cooler shaded area below deck. Wow. Spree was gorgeous, all varnished wood and neatly arranged pastel cushions.

      “This is the main saloon,” Javi said.

      “It’s lovely,” Cat said. Light flooded the area through an open hatch overhead and porthole windows on the side.

      “I’ll give you the grand tour once your food is stowed, but this is the galley,” he said with a sweep of his arm.

      “That’s the kitchen, right?” Cat asked.

      “Right. This is a top-loading cooler, which runs off the ship’s generator. Freezer is one side, refrigerator on the other.” He removed a hatch that cleverly folded to cover one side or both, and then moved to the front of the boat where there was another opening to the deck.

      A hatch, Cat reminded herself.

      “Start passing the bags through,” he yelled up to Joan.

      “Pack items you’ll use first last,” he instructed.

      After the perishables, he helped Cat and Joan store dry goods into overhead cabinets. Despite being out of the April sun, they were all sweating by the time they finished.

      Fanning herself, Joan plopped onto the sofa. “Is it always this hot down here?”

      “There’s not much air circulation in the marina, but under way, it stays fairly cool below deck,” Javi said. “When we’re at anchor, I’ll put up wind scoops on the hatches to help ventilate below.”

      “No air-conditioning?” Cat asked with a glance at Joan.

      “Just the wind,” the captain said.

      “Right. Let’s go find Debbie,” Joan said, avoiding Cat’s gaze.

      The captain nodded, and Cat followed him into the cockpit where they discovered Debbie waiting on the dock with her luggage.

      “What the hell is that?” Javi demanded.

      Cat СКАЧАТЬ