Chapter Sixteen

Blake was furious. He was trying to treat Jewell better and she wasn’t allowing it. If she wanted to throw it in his face that he owned her, then he damn well was going to show her exactly what he could do with his property. He knew he should try to handle this a bit differently, but for some reason he reverted to the heartless asshole she expected him to be, and he couldn’t seem to stop it.

That thought made him even more furious. Here he was trying to be a good guy — he was taking her out on a freaking date! — and she wasn’t being cooperative.

He’d been rock hard since the moment he walked into her bedroom and saw her lying there, her body restless, the blankets falling away, and her sleep shirt not offering much of a barrier to his view.

He wanted her, and yet he’d given her the choice whether to have sex right then or to wait. But the choice was out of her hands now. If she wanted him to be controlling, controlling was exactly what he would be. As much as she protested, maybe, just maybe, she liked having him take command.

Her world had been spinning out of control since she’d lost her mother, and maybe what she needed was someone to stop the spinning, someone to pull her from the whirlwind she was trapped in. Whatever the reason, she seemed to settle down only when he forced her hand.

None of that shaky pop psychologizing mattered at the moment, though. All that mattered was that he was hungry for her, and he’d had enough waiting. His brother had made him think, but Blake wasn’t about to change who he was — not for his family and certainly not for this woman, a woman who made his world spin out of control too, and did it every time she was near.

“Wow!”

Blake broke off his internal rant when Jewell’s feet stopped moving and he heard her exclamation.

“‘Wow’ what?” he asked. He couldn’t tell what had made her so excited.

“Are you really so used to this much wealth that you don’t see what’s right in front of you?”

Blake looked at the yacht gently bobbing at the dock in front of them. Was what she’d said true? Did he really not notice these things anymore? That wasn’t something that pleased him. There’d never been a time when he could have called himself poor, but he still appreciated all he had. Or did he really? When it came down to it, was there any more excitement left in his life?

If there hadn’t been any, there would be now. He decided it was time to create some. Instead of going to his own boat, he moved her toward the one she was admiring.

“Let me show you the inside,” he said, once again taking her hand as he helped her aboard the nearly two-hundred-foot vessel.

“I didn’t know private boats were made this big. Does this belong to you, Blake?”

He decided not to answer that question yet. “Many people own large boats,” he told her. “They become a sort of second home. You can live on them if that’s what you choose.”

“Sort of like Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle,” she said with a nervous giggle.

“Well, his wasn’t quite this size.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Her voice was hushed as they climbed on board.

As they passed top-of-the line furniture and exquisitely laid tables, he tried to see the boat through Jewell’s astonished eyes. Blake was more than ready to claim Jewell again. He rushed her through the yacht and stepped inside what seemed to be the main stateroom.

She gasped in delight. The walls were mahogany; wide-open windows and gleaming glass doors led out to a private balcony. The ceiling was gilded; it was as if they were floating in a classic English country house. The room had in its center a huge four-poster bed that he was going to get her into — if he made it that far.

“Jewell …,” he said, and she didn’t hear him. “Jewell,” he said again and she turned, her face the picture of awe.

“Sorry. What?” she asked, looking around the room again.

Walking up to her, he placed his fingers beneath her chin and backed her against a built-in bookcase filled with rare books, books he’d love to explore at any other time.

 “I’m going to peel your clothes away, piece by piece, slowly and completely, and then I’m going to take you hard and fast. And then we’ll start all over again and do it all night long. I can please you in ways no one else ever could.”

“But … this … here?”

“Right here. Right now.” Blake pressed his body up against hers, letting her feel how ready he was to take her right this instant.

“This is your boat, isn’t it?” She looked around nervously, as if finally realizing that the décor wasn’t exactly his style.

“Why would you ask that? Are you afraid of being caught?”

“Yes,” she said nervously, looking away from him over to the door he’d shut firmly behind them.

“That’s part of the appeal,” he told her, and his excitement built.

“Why are you doing this right now? Why here?”

“Because I can.”

Jewell’s eyes widened. His body throbbing with need, Blake grabbed her for a kiss she wouldn’t soon forget. He knew he’d never get enough of this woman.