Marooned With A Millionaire. KRISTI GOLD

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СКАЧАТЬ her how to fly. He’d taught her a lot, the most important being that life was what you made it. No matter how tough things got, silver linings did exist. Lizzie still believed that and probably always would, even if she didn’t have a job at present.

      She supposed she could go back to being Lizzie the Makeover Artist at the salon. Less stress than owning her own business. Less money, too.

      Lizzie toyed with the necklace at her throat. The chain contained her two most prized possessions—her father’s St. Christopher medal and the heart he had given her mother on their first anniversary, four months before Lizzie’s birth. Her good-luck charms served as a reminder that everything would work out, as it always had. After all, she’d survived losing her only family. She would survive this loss, too, because in the end, she wouldn’t be alone. She would have her baby.

      A grinding sound followed by a loud curse pulled Lizzie out of her musings. Obviously Ahab was in command of some colorful language, even a few compound words she hadn’t heard except on cable-TV comedy shows.

      Maybe she should just submerse herself underwater until he calmed down from whatever had him so irate. Maybe she was responsible for his rant.

      The door flew open and the man with many curses entered the room. “Here’s your T-shirt.” He tossed it onto the cabinet where she’d laid out her clothes and underwear to dry.

      Covered only by clear water and a full-body blush, she attempted to look pleasant. “This tub is heavenly.”

      “It’s also full of water.”

      He not only cussed like a typical sailor, he also talked in codes. “Yes. That’s what you usually do. Fill it up.”

      He scowled. “I have limited fresh water on board. We have to be conservative.”

      He moved closer to the edge of the tub, and Lizzie decided then and there that if he hadn’t seen her in the altogether when he’d entered the room, he certainly could now. What the heck. She couldn’t really cover herself, and frankly she wasn’t all that inhibited when it came to her body. However, the smoldering look in his eyes made her want to roll over onto her belly, face down, to try to rid herself of the heat his presence had generated.

      Instead, she came to her knees, folded her arms on the tub’s ledge and rested her chin atop them. “I would really like some privacy, if you don’t mind.”

      “I’ve seen a naked woman before.”

      “Not this naked woman.”

      His gaze slid over her once more. “I’m not looking.”

      Could’ve fooled her. “Thanks for the T-shirt. Is there anything else?”

      He turned toward the cabinet and studied her undies. Guess he didn’t find her drawers at all satisfactory. Obviously he resented her cluttering his bathroom. Or he might just plain resent her.

      “Actually, there is something else,” he said. “Several things. First, the rules about bathing on the boat.”

      “I promise I won’t take another bath while I’m here.”

      “I doubt that.”

      “Seriously, Jack, I don’t bathe twice a day unless I happen to exert myself.”

      That brought his attention back to her. “It’s going to take us more than a day to get back to land.”

      “I didn’t think we were that far offshore.”

      “Relatively speaking, we’re not. But we have a few problems.”

      From the stony look on his face, Lizzie wasn’t sure she wanted to hear about their problems. But she guessed she might as well. “What’s wrong?”

      He rolled his neck on his shoulders, obviously dealing with a pain perhaps directly associated with her. “First of all, I went to check on the mast, to see if you did any damage. When I raised the sail, it blew out. The jib might catch some wind, if there was any, but there’s not much to speak of. And to top it off, the sails won’t come down because the block was damaged when you hit the mast.”

      “Oh.” It was all she could think to say. “Surely the Coast Guard will be here soon.”

      “Not likely.”

      “Didn’t you call them?”

      “I tried. Your little basket took out the radio antenna.”

      She frowned. “Oh, so that’s what that was.”

      “Yeah, that’s what that was. I have no way to communicate with anyone.”

      Surely things weren’t as dire as he had made them out to be. “Doesn’t this boat have some sort of an engine?”

      “Under normal circumstances, yes. But I have no power since something’s caught up on the prop. Would you happen to know what that could be?”

      “You did cut the cables, right?”

      “Yeah.”

      “What about the tether lines?”

      “Tether lines?”

      Uh-oh. “The ones that hang from the gondola. They tie down the balloon once you’re grounded.”

      His scowl made her want to shrivel and shrink. “Great. Thanks for telling me.” He turned toward the door but before exiting faced her again. “Take your time, princess. Might be your last soak for a long while.”

      The nerve of him, calling her princess. Nobody called her that and got away with it. She stood without regard to her nudity. “I’m quite through now, and I’m definitely not a princess.” Ahab.

      His silver eyes darkened as he gave her a lingering once-over, from chin to thighs, pausing at intimate places in between. “I could argue that point, but right now I have other things to do.”

      Then he was gone, leaving her dripping, naked and totally bumfuzzled. Full of questions she needed answered now, whether he liked it or not.

      Princess. Ha! She’d just have to show him that when backed into a corner, Queen Elizabeth could be a royal pain in the posterior.

      Two

      Lizzie grabbed the towel hanging from the bar at the end of the tub and quickly dried. She shoved the T-shirt over her head, thankful it was long enough to provide adequate cover. Refusing to wear soggy panties, she stomped out of the bathroom, barefoot and covered only in thin cotton. If she hadn’t lost her canvas slides during the swim, then she could give Ahab a swift kick in his great-looking butt for good measure.

      As she left the bathroom in search of the salty seadog, she tried to tell herself that she understood his frustration, his snippy attitude. He’d been minding his own business, bothering no one, until she’d dropped in unannounced. But did he really have to be so nasty? She couldn’t help that he’d been the only thing in sight when she’d made her emergency landing. And a nice landing it was, even if he didn’t appreciate it. After all, she could’ve landed on his СКАЧАТЬ