Love on the High Seas. Yasmin Sullivan Y.

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      Chapter 4

      Jeremy had gotten up at seven. It was too early to be getting up, but it gave him an hour in the gym. And that early, he almost had the place to himself, except for Alistair, who was a workout fanatic.

      The two had laughed when he had come in to find Alistair on the elliptical machine. But it gave him the chance to update his friend on his new romance and let Alistair know that he’d be gone for the day.

      “No, we haven’t done anything yet.”

      “Uh-oh. Are you losing your touch? It never takes you this long. Hey, Myron said you got tongue action on the first night. What’s happened?”

      “Myron has a big mouth. And nothing’s happened. Maybe I just want to take it a little slower this time.”

      “Uh, no,” Alistair said and laughed. “Maybe she does.”

      “Okay, so she does. But I’m liking it this way, too.”

      “That means you’ve been bitten by the love bug.”

      Jeremy put down the forty-pound weight he was lifting and looked at his friend. “Maybe. Too soon to tell.”

      Alistair raised his eyebrows. Maybe said a lot, at least for Jeremy.

      Actually, Safire wasn’t turning out to be anything like her description—except that she was hot as hell. She’d probably been lying on her application like all the singles—height, age, weight. He chuckled to himself.

      Only Safire didn’t have to lie. He was even more attracted to who she really was than to the racy profile she’d submitted. He was more intrigued by Safire herself. He could also tell that underneath her controlled demeanor there really was a fiery, sensual woman. He wanted her to come out and play.

      He had to admit this much: had they simply gone to bed together the first night, he probably wouldn’t be spending all this time getting to know her. And he was enamored with what he had gotten to know. He could see her passion, but he had also gotten a taste of her wit and her smarts. He wanted more of her—not only under the sheets but also outside the sheets, and that was a rather new prospect for him.

      Jeremy put on a short-sleeved white shirt and a pair of khaki slacks. Some socks and his boat moccasins and he was ready to go. He slipped his wallet into his back pocket, clipped his phone onto his belt, dropped his camera into his breast pocket and headed to the State Room to find Safire.

      She was already at a table but hadn’t gone to the buffet as yet. She was pouring over a sheet of paper in front of her, and as he sat down she started chattering.

      “Good morning. I’ve got it down to Coral World and Bluebeard’s Castle, but I think we can have lunch there, so we can save that for later.”

      He could see her sheer pleasure over the prospects of the day.

      “Should I have brought my swimsuit?” he asked.

      “Oh. I didn’t bring mine, either. I thought we were shopping. Although you can swim at Coral World,” she said. “But then we’d have sand in our britches all day.”

      Jeremy laughed out loud.

      “Promise me,” he said, “that tomorrow, whatever else we do, we go to either Magen’s Bay or Frenchman’s Reef.”

      “You know the island well, don’t you?”

      “I have college friends from St. Thomas,” he said. “I’ve visited before. But I haven’t been to Coral World.”

      “Perfect. We start at Coral World. We walk the aquarium, pet the fishes in the petting zoo and have our pictures taken with an iguana.”

      Jeremy laughed.

      “It goes with the picture of me kissing of the dolphin. Stop laughing.” She swatted at him playfully. “Anyway, then we go to Bluebeard’s Castle, and then we can shop till you drop. Sound good?”

      “Sounds wonderful. But let’s get some breakfast so we don’t miss the safari.”

      “I’m too excited. You go ahead.”

      He took her arm and tugged her to the buffet. “Eat something. For me.”

      They both had a light breakfast and caught a nine o’clock safari that would drop them off at Coral World and pick them up in two hours. He wrapped his arm around her for the safari ride and linked their fingers once they got to the aquarium.

      He got shots of her petting the starfish and stingray and other sea creatures in the petting zoo. All he could think was that he wanted that hand on him. Then she took the camera from him.

      “I’m not petting a stingray,” he said. “Do you know why they call it a stingray?”

      She laughed. “I did it. Come on.”

      “You did, but apparently you don’t know why they call them stingrays.” He laughed. Nevertheless, he put his hand in the water and petted the animal so that she could capture the image.

      “Now I just have to get you kissing a dolphin, and we’ll have matching images. Hey, how do I get these from you?”

      “I’m sure there’s someplace on the ship where we can burn them onto a CD. We’ll check.”

      They got another tourist to snap a photo of them in front of the iguanas and then headed down into the circular dome that led to the ocean floor. The top aquariums were self-contained, but the bottom wasn’t an aquarium at all; the glass opened onto the ocean floor and the animals of the reef.

      He loved watching Safire’s reaction. He also loved having her hand in his or his arm around her.

      She had on orange capris with a light orange sleeveless top that was made out of chiffon with a lining underneath. It billowed out at her hips and made her look ethereal. She had on strappy gold one-inch sandals to go with it. It was all simple, but it made her look simply stunning.

      She had also started touching him back—nothing major, but without seeming to think about it, she put her hand to his chest when she pointed out the shark swimming in a huge circle around the aquarium tier. Every time she touched him, it sent a quiver through his body and puffed his ego up just a little bit more. If only she knew what she was doing to him. Later, she grabbed his shoulder and shook it when she realized that what she was seeing was an octopus.

      “You just got that?” he teased.

      She СКАЧАТЬ