Avery

When faced with the sweeping vista from the top of Taormina, the only thing I wanted to do was share it with someone. Hayden being there hadn’t shocked me. It was as if it was meant to happen because the moment was perfect and he made it more so.

“Hey,” he said.

I kept my gaze forward, unwilling to tear myself away from the most perfect view I’d ever seen . . . though Hayden Wolf’s sugar-brown skin against his white shirt might be a strong contender to the sight of Mount Etna rising out of the landscape.

“Is it everything you hoped it would be?” he asked.

So he hadn’t forgotten I’d wanted to come here.

“More,” I said softly.

We stayed gazing out in silence for a while.

“Where’s the rest of the crew?” he asked.

“The boys are in an Irish pub just off the piazza and the girls are on the beach.”

He didn’t respond.

“I got a guide,” he said, holding up a pocket-sized booklet with a picture of the amphitheater.

I laughed. Hayden didn’t strike me as a man who’d pour over guide books. “Did you read it?”

He shook his head and pushed his hands into his pockets. “I was waiting for you so you could explain it all to me.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You were waiting for me?”

He shrugged. “Maybe.”

It felt as if we were talking in code, but I didn’t have the decryption key.

“Well, the place was built in the third century BC. They don’t actually know if it’s Greek or Roman because the brick suggests Roman but the way it’s laid out—”

Hayden turned to me and placed his hand on my arm. “Stop. I’m not really expecting you to be my guide. You’re off duty.”

I tried to ignore the press of his fingers. “I just want you to enjoy it.”

He held my gaze and slipped his hand from my arm and down my back. It was the act of a lover, a boyfriend, a husband. “Now you’re here, I couldn’t like it more,” he said, then turned back to the view.

Despite the heat, I had to repress a shiver.

A few minutes later a cloud passed over the sun, breaking the spell this place had trapped us in. “What’s next?” he asked, turning to me.

“Next?”

“Where do we go now?”

The corners of my mouth quivered. “We? I thought I wasn’t on duty.”

He cupped my face and swept his thumb over my lips. “You’re not. Where do we go now?” His tone was matter-of-fact, as if he always touched me as though he owned me, as if I shouldn’t be shocked he had his hand on the small of my back as he guided me down the steps.

I should have made my excuses and left. I should’ve done a lot of things. But being there, in that beautiful place I’d wanted to visit for so long, I just wanted to enjoy it. And I knew I’d enjoy it just a little more with Hayden. We’d run into each other by accident, after all, and if any of the rest of the crew spotted us, I could legitimately say that I’d found him and ended up walking around the island with him. I didn’t have to tell them if I enjoyed it, though I knew I would.

I puffed out a stream of breath. “Let’s walk around, get lost a little.”

“Really?” he asked, smiling at me. “That doesn’t sound like you.”

“Maybe it’s the me that you don’t know so well.” It was my day off. Today I wasn’t a yacht stewardess and Hayden Wolf wasn’t a customer.

He nodded. “Then that sounds like an irresistible proposition.”

We headed right when we got out of the theater and made our way down the hill. The streets were perfectly uneven, part slate-gray cobble, part asphalt, shaded by the buildings either side of the narrow streets. We had to dodge the scooters as they raced up the hill in the opposite direction and children as they ran past us. It was difficult not to get distracted by the potted flowers tumbling from balconies above us and the noise of the rambunctious Italians as they went about their every day.

I stopped outside a shop window crammed with colored pots and plates, so bright it was as if the colors of the Mediterranean originated from this store.

“You want to go in?” he asked. Was Hayden Wolf about to go shopping with me? This titan of industry who was always so focused and serious was about to browse homewares? Perhaps I didn’t know all of him yet either, but despite myself I wanted to.

We headed into the store, suddenly surrounded with a riot of primary colors and robust crockery. “I’m not sure this would look right on the Athena.” I laughed as I picked up a blue plate covered with pictures of sunshine-yellow lemons.

“A different style for sure,” he said, looking at a bowl of ceramic oranges.

“What’s your home like back in London?” I asked the question before I realized how personal I was getting. The barrier between guest and stewardess dissolved more and more with each second. I’d been here before, the divide between us lowering to the point I forgot myself and risked too much. Desperate to maintain distance from anything that might cost me my job, I’d spent a lot of time and effort putting that barrier back up. But here, with Hayden, it didn’t feel so wrong. In fact, it felt completely and absolutely right.

He frowned as if he were trying to remember his own home. “It’s more like the yacht I guess,” he said, as if he’d never thought about it before.

“Do you like it?”

“I don’t think about it.”

“Is this you trying to pretend you’re not fussy again?” I elbowed him, but he caught my arm and slid it around his back while putting his hand on my hip. The familiar way he touched me caught me off guard. It was as if he knew my body already, understood how we fit together.

“I’m just not fussy about everything. My home office chair was very expensive and is incredibly comfortable, and my bed is huge and handmade.” He pulled me toward him. “Some things I obsess over—others I don’t notice. But when I decide I want something, I won’t settle for less than exactly what I’ve set my mind on, and I won’t rest until I have it.”

It was meant to be light conversation but what he was saying had weight. It revealed a lot about him and although I hadn’t been digging, it was almost too much to know. I twisted, pulling away from him, and headed toward the exit.

“But the huge bed is important because it gets so much action.” I wiggled my eyebrows and dipped under his arm as he held the door open, trying to lighten our conversation. I wanted the day to be fun.

“Grazie,” Hayden called over his shoulder to the store owner, who was reading his paper behind the counter. “You seem to have a poor impression of me,” he said, dipping to speak directly into my ear. “I think you of all people know that my bed hasn’t been getting much action recently, but it seems I might have to try harder to impress you.”

I grinned but didn’t respond. Everything about him was impressive.

“Tell me about your work and why you’re on the yacht,” I asked as we wove our way through a group of children all dressed in school uniform, heading in the opposite direction. Hayden seemed so committed and obsessive about what he did, I wanted to understand what drove him.

“It will make me sound paranoid if I tell you,” he said, grinning at me.

“Try me. Maybe I’ll like paranoid.”

“It’s a long story,” he warned.

“Just give me a little shove if I doze off,” I said, nudging him with my elbow.

He paused before he spoke. “My mother and father fell in love when my mother was engaged to another man.”

Was he changing the subject? I’d thought I was going to be hearing about his business.

“They met at a charity gala. Apparently it was love at first sight. The stuff that only exists in fairy tales.”

“That’s romantic,” I said, wondering if the instant pull I’d had for Hayden had been what his mother had felt for his father.

“Yeah, I think it was for them. But she was already engaged to a business rival of my father’s, so things were a little complicated. I don’t know the details, just that my mother and father ended up together and that pissed off her ex-fiancé.”

“I imagine it would. He must have been annoyed.”

Hayden squinted and slid his sunglasses over his eyes. “Annoyed was the least of it. He wanted revenge. And he didn’t stop until he’d destroyed the business my father had worked so hard to build up. It took a decade, but when I was about seven my father was declared bankrupt.”

“And it was your mother’s ex-fiancé who caused it?” I slipped my hand into Hayden’s.

“I didn’t find out the story until years later. I’d never understood why we moved from a comfortable house in a nice street to a cramped flat above a chip shop. We’d just been told that dad had to find a new job that didn’t pay as well. Our parents shielded us from the evil there was in the world. But apparently, ruining my father wasn’t good enough. He wants to bury me as well.”

“Shit, Hayden. So you’ve come to the yacht so he can’t spy on you?”

He squeezed my hand, acknowledging the connection between us. “Yeah. To buy this company I know he’d steal from under me if he got the chance.”

“It must be awful to still be so bitter after so long. Did he ever marry?”

Hayden shrugged. “Yeah. He did. I guess it wasn’t about love. It was about power.”

I got the feeling there was more he wasn’t telling me, but he’d confessed so much I didn’t want to push. I liked the idea that he hadn’t grown up with money—it made his lack of focus on certain things make sense and why he found it so odd that I would offer to unpack for him. I wanted to know more, but I wanted him to enjoy the few hours he had off rather than focus on the reason he was working so hard, so I swallowed my questions.

We walked up and down hills, hand in hand, for hours as if we were just two tourists, enjoying everything Taormina had to offer—dropping into shops, admiring various vistas. It was everything I’d expected and just a little bit more because I was sharing it with Hayden. He was surprisingly interested in the details around us—the people who all seemed to be in such a good mood, the way some of the houses slanted so much it looked as if they were about to collapse.

The road opened up into a small square with trees in the middle and tables from the cafés dotted between them.

“Coffee?” he suggested.

I nodded, and we found a spot in the shade.

“Due caffè americano per favore,” he called to the waitress as he held out my chair for me.

“You trying out your Italian to impress me?”

“Is it working?” he asked, leaning back in his chair, regarding me intently as if he were a painter and I was a bowl of fruit.

I narrowed my eyes as the waitress set our drinks down. “Are you fishing for compliments?”

He tipped his head back and laughed from deep in his belly. “I wasn’t, but it did sound a little needy, didn’t it? I can order a coffee and a glass of wine but that’s about where my Italian begins and ends. The UN isn’t going to be calling me up to offer me a career as a translator any time soon.” He stroked his jaw with his knuckles. “You’re feistier on solid ground.”

“This is me. My uniform’s back on the boat.” I took a deep breath, then I held out my hand. “Avery Walker, nice to meet you.”

To my surprise, instead of shaking it, he held it in his and didn’t let go. “Hayden Wolf. What you see is what you get.” Was he jibing me, accusing me of being a fake?

“My job requires me to be professional, to not always say what I think, to suck it up when guests annoy the crap out of you. That’s just life.”

He didn’t respond right away, just stared at me as if he was taking it all in. “I know. I just like Avery Walker better.”

I smiled. “Me too. But I do what I need to in order to succeed at my job. You should understand that—you’re in the middle of the ocean for two months to be good at yours.”

He raised his arm, resting it on the back of the empty chair next to him, and stroked his thumb across the wooden slat. “I hadn’t thought about it like that. I guess it’s just a different kind of sacrifice.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes, being on a luxury superyacht traveling down the Italian Riviera is such a sacrifice.”

He smiled, and the way he scanned my face showed he was smiling because I was laughing, as though he took pleasure from my happiness rather than because I was teasing him. Joy bloomed in my chest.

“You sound like my brother,” he said. “And it’s definitely beautiful, but it’s always a sacrifice when you’d rather be somewhere else, doing something else.”

I blinked and turned away. I didn’t want to talk about sacrifice or what I’d rather be doing—the life I’d thought I’d have before my brother’s accident. “Is he like you, your brother?”

“No, not at all. He’s the brawn. I’m the brain.”

My gaze darted down to his muscled arms, strong thighs and tight abs covered by his white linen shirt. “If you’re the brain, I’d like to see his brawn.”

“Did you just ogle me?” He sat forward in his chair, his eyes narrowing.

I lifted a shoulder. “Bite me. You said it—it’s my day off. You’re not my guest today.”

He chuckled and sat back.

“So your brother didn’t end up like you in a corporate job?”

Hayden shook his head. “I guess he wanted a worthier life.” He paused and squinted, vulnerability flashing across his face, though I wasn’t sure where it came from.

“That’s a huge sacrifice,” I said.

“Absolutely.” He nodded. “I could never do anything like that. Landon’s special, built for duty and honor.”

Real adoration passed through his voice. In my experience, it was unusual for anyone rich to value anything but wealth, yet Hayden understood there were more important things.

“All I do is make money, but I try to . . .” He winced, and I sat forward, resting my chin on my hand, wanting to hear what he said next. “It sounds ludicrous, but I try to act honorably. Like a gentleman. In the City, business is generally full of snakes. People wanting to make money out of depriving other people, or getting one over on others.” He slid his long legs out in front of him. “I don’t believe it has to be like that. I think that if you look after people, your employees, you get much better results than if you treat them like shit. If you respect people, generally you get the same back.”

I smiled at him. What was he? Some kind of ethical corporate tycoon? Did such a person really exist?

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m no angel. I’m shrewd, I’m demanding and ruthless when I need to be. But I don’t break my promises. I reward loyalty and I don’t lie. And I never work with those who do.”

His jaw tightened, and I could tell his mind had shifted to something else. I couldn’t help but focus on the man in front of me. The guy I’d judged as being another spoiled millionaire but was anything but. He respected, even idolized, his brother who’d served his country. Hayden was someone who wanted to do the right thing and make money.

I’d thought he was just a hot piece of ass, when really, he was so much more.

He swept his thumb across my cheekbone. “For the record, you can objectify me any time you want.”

My pulse danced in my wrist. He was acting like this was a date, as if we were lovers. Was it? Would we be? Though today was my day off, Captain Moss wouldn’t draw such a clear distinction between on-duty and off-duty behavior, but the more time I spent with Hayden, the more the line between us blurred and faded.

“But what about your brother?” I smiled. “Can I objectify him too?”

He withdrew his hand and chuckled. “That I might object to. I’m not one to share.”

I tried to bite back my grin, enjoying the way he’d acknowledged the connection we had. “I noticed. Are you not planning to have any guests on the Athena at all?”

He picked up his coffee, his large hand dwarfing the delicate white cup. He took a sip, then shook his head. “I’m here to work—you know that.”

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth, trying to hold myself back from leaning over and tasting the coffee on his lips. “I know. But you’re here. I thought maybe things had eased up or you had decided to take in more of the Med.”

He pulled his wallet from his pocket and left some notes under the saucer of his coffee cup, then stood and held out his hand for me. “You said you’d always wanted to see Taormina, so here we are.”

I stood and he scooped up my hand and we began walking back up the hill.

“Surely we didn’t stop here for me?” It had occurred to me it was a huge coincidence that the only time he’d come ashore was in the one place I’d told him I most wanted to come, but I hadn’t really thought that was why he’d stopped here.

“Partly. I wanted you to have the chance to see it.”

My heart clunked against my ribcage. This stop had been about me. This was the real Hayden Wolf, the Hayden Wolf who believed in treating his employees well and never breaking his promises.

“And given you’re not one to take a day off, I thought if I came ashore, you’d be forced to . . .”

There was absolutely no point in even pretending I could resist him for a moment longer.

I pulled at his hand, dragging us beneath a stone arch and into a tiny walkway between the houses. “Kiss me,” I said, leaning against the brick. I’d never had anyone do something so thoughtful, so selfless, for me, let alone a man who had no reason to think about me at all—I was just the hired help.

He didn’t need to be asked twice. He brought his hands to my face, and his gaze dipped to my lips then back to my eyes before he finally placed his lips to mine.

It wasn’t enough. I needed more. I slid my hands around his ass, and up and under his shirt to his hot, hard back and pulled him toward me. He groaned, his tongue slipping between my lips as he ground himself against me. One hand trailed down my neck, slipping my top from my shoulder, exposing my skin to the hot air. He pulled back and looked at me.

“You’re so beautiful.” He dove toward my neck, sucking and biting, sending off buzzes and pops across my skin.

Threading my fingers through his hair, encouraging the press of his skin against mine, I arched into him, wanting more, more, more.

At that moment I didn’t care if the rest of the crew filed past us or Captain Moss tried to interrupt. All I wanted was Hayden Wolf’s mouth on mine, his hands roaming my body, his erection pressed against my stomach.

Suddenly, he jerked away and took a step back. “I won’t be able to stop if I touch you any longer,” he said and blew out a breath.

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth, feeling a little wanton at being able to drive such a self-controlled man to the edge.

He steadied his breathing, shook his head and took my hand, pulling me under the archway again and resuming our walk back up the hill.

His pace was quicker than before, as if we were no longer wandering and now had a purpose or a destination.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To my hotel. We’re going to have dinner. You’re going to need your strength.”

“I am?” I asked, jogging a couple of steps to keep up with him.

“You most certainly are, Avery Walker, because I’m going to be keeping you up all night.”

A warm shiver ran down my spine. He wanted me just as much as I wanted him. There was no point in pretending. No longer any chance of holding back with this man.

I was off duty, the crew was miles away and I just wanted some time free of worrying about the consequences of anything. A few hours of Hayden before he went back to being forbidden fruit. A few moments that were about me and my wants, needs and desires.