Hayden

“Can anyone here play chess?” I asked as I wandered into the galley. I was waiting for a phone call from the U.S. and had forty minutes to kill. As the deal progressed, the bulk of the work I needed to do had tapered off and I became increasingly reliant on the lawyers to move things along.

Three people turned to look at me, and though Avery kept her head down, the blush in her cheeks was all the attention I needed.

“Not me. I’m a card man,” Neill said.

“I can set you up with a Jet Ski if you like?” Eric offered.

I shoved my hands in my pockets. “I only have forty minutes.”

“Avery, you do that thing on the board. Isn’t that chess?” August asked.

Avery looked up. “Backgammon,” she said simply.

“That will do,” I replied. I enjoyed the thought of some one-on-one time with Avery, even with the rest of the crew milling about. “Come on, Walker.” I turned and headed to the smaller salon and dining room, where the games were kept.

“What are you doing?” Avery hissed, bending to pull out the red leather backgammon set from the sideboard.

I frowned. “Killing some time until the next draft of the agreements is circulated. What’s the problem?”

“Main deck?”

“Sure, do you want a drink? Skylar,” I called, and she popped her head out of the galley. “Can you get me a glass of water please? Avery, what do you want?”

Avery glared at me, so I shrugged. “That’s fine, just the water.”

Taking the backgammon set, Avery headed out to the main deck.

“You can’t offer me a drink like I’m your guest, Hayden. It’s weird.”

“It’s weirder that you’re at my beck and call after . . .”

I’d woken up to an empty bed this morning, but I couldn’t remember having fallen asleep. We’d fucked until we were both raw and exhausted, but neither of us had talked about what happened next. I hadn’t told her that this didn’t feel like a one-time deal for me.

I couldn’t remember ever knowing I’d want to fuck a woman again before I’d fucked her for the first time. These feelings and experiences were new. Different. Avery was different.

“It is what it is,” she said, sliding the fastening of the case open and laying the board flat on the table. “I have something I need to tell you later,” she said as she pulled out the red and cream counters and began arranging them on the board so they were completely aligned.

I knocked her hands out of the way. “Stop. I’m red.”

She shrugged. “That’s fine.” She nudged my hands away, trying to place the red counters on the red and cream triangles in front of me. “Did you hear what I said?” she asked.

I stroked my hands over hers. “I can set out my own counters.”

“You don’t like me doing things for you?” she asked.

“I like you doing things to me,” I replied, remembering how her eyes watered when my cock hit the back of her throat.

She sank her teeth into her bottom lip and her blush told me she was remembering the same thing.

“Hayden,” she whispered.

Christ, she was so fucking sexy when she blushed. So innocent. So perfect. I took the red counters from her hand and linked my fingers through hers. Our eyes locked and for a few seconds the rest of the world melted away. A horn from another boat sounded and she pulled away, trailing her fingers along mine as if she was losing my touch reluctantly.

“When we’re alone, I’m not your guest. I’m Hayden. Understand?”

Her eyes flickered behind me. “But we’re not alone. That’s the issue. Deck crew are twenty feet away for all you know. Skylar will arrive with your water at any second.” She set the cream dots on the triangles. “You are my guest while you’re on this yacht.”

Her gaze flickered up to meet mine and she grinned.

“You gotta give this girl a break and act like a guest or I’m going to get fired, and you of all people know I can’t afford for that to happen.” She was talking as much to herself as she was to me. The pull between us was undeniable.

I was proud that I understood why keeping her job was so important to her. The fact she’d told me how paying for her brother’s medical expenses was the reason she was here made me feel important. Christ, I ran a multi-billion-dollar company and knowing something private about Avery Walker was what made me feel important. How did she have that much power over me? Perhaps it was simply because she was a better person than I could ever be.

“I didn’t get to see you this morning,” I whispered.

She raised one eyebrow at me as she finished laying out her counters. “I think you saw quite a lot of me last night and this morning,” she whispered.

I couldn’t resist that pouty little mouth and teasing eye roll. I reached across and swept my thumb across her bottom lip.

For a second we were back in that hotel—in a private space, the two of us the only key holders.

The swish of the electric doors interrupted us, and I moved my hand, but it was too late. We’d been caught.

Avery’s soft eyes slid into sadness as she looked up to see who had come through. It wasn’t until Skylar placed the water in front of Avery that I saw she wouldn’t meet my gaze—or Avery’s. Skylar’s cheeks pinked, and I knew for sure she’d seen everything.

“Thank you, Skylar,” I said.

“Can I get you anything else?” she asked, eyeing the closing doors as if she were being timed and if she didn’t get through before they shut she’d be stuck in this awkward situation.

“No thank you,” I replied, trying to catch her eye to see if I could figure out what she was thinking.

I’d fucked up. I had no idea what the dynamic between Avery and Skylar was like. Would Skylar report her? Did she want Avery’s job?

Skylar scurried away.

“I’m sorry—”

The scrape of Avery’s chair, teak against teak, cut me off. “For me, please go down to your office, while I . . .” She shook her head. “I’ll come and find you later. I need to tell you something anyway.”

“Of course,” I said. Never had I been incapable of controlling myself with a woman. What was happening to me? Had I just ruined everything with an uncharacteristic lack of self-discipline?

I was an idiot.

I stood as she began packing away the backgammon. I wanted to help. “I’ll do—”

“Jesus, don’t you get it?” Her jaw was tight and her words sharp. “This is my job. My livelihood, my way of looking after my brother. This is not your fault—I was weak, it was my decision to be . . . pulled under by . . . but please don’t make this worse. Pretend you have a call and go.”

“Very well.” I turned to head back inside, my whole body itching from her words that seemed to press into my skin and burn. Weak? Pulled under? What had passed between us last night had been so much more than sex, certainly more than lust taking over and pulling her under. She’d felt it too, hadn’t she?

But I didn’t say a word. Skylar catching us in an intimate moment had been my fault. I knew I shouldn’t have touched Avery in public. I understood what this job meant to her, how losing it would be catastrophic for her family. I deserved her anger and I couldn’t dilute or erase it.

Not yet.

Avery

It was my job to make things right for people, from billionaires to my brother and everyone in between. I was used to solving guests’ problems and ensuring my stewardesses, the chef, the captain, my dad and anyone else in my orbit was happy. I just had to do it for myself this time.

I slid the backgammon case back into the sideboard, straightened my skirt, and headed to the galley. I exhaled just before I went in. I hoped to God Skylar hadn’t mentioned what she’d seen to anyone. If she’d kept it to herself then there was a chance this situation was salvageable.

Skylar sat at the banquette, flicking through a magazine, while Neill chopped vegetables. If she’d told Neill, surely they’d still be talking about it.

“Can I talk to you in the laundry room?” I asked, trying to keep my voice light and breezy, as if I wanted to catch up about towels and mops rather than discuss the real possibility of me losing my job.

Without looking at me, Skylar closed her magazine and shuffled off the bench.

“Where’s August?” I asked.

“Napping. She’s on break.”

I nodded. I’d been lucky that Skylar had caught us and not August, who I’d chastised several times at the beginning of the charter for even talking about hooking up with a hot guest or mentioning how handsome Hayden was.

I was such a hypocrite.

Skylar shut the door to the laundry room behind us. Despite there being only one guest on the yacht, the washers and dryers were constantly in use and provided the soundproofing we were going to need for this conversation.

“What are you doing?” Skylar asked, her eyes wide as she stepped toward me.

I pressed my fingers against my temples, as if I were trying to stop my brain from exploding. “Did you tell anyone about what you saw?”

She jumped up to sit on one of the washers. “Of course I didn’t but, Avery, what the fuck?”

My body sagged and I leaned back against the dryer. Maybe this was still containable. “I’m sorry, I just—”

“Don’t be sorry. Tell me what’s going on. Is he . . . pressuring you?”

My eyes darted up to meet hers. “No, of course not. I mean, he would never . . .”

“When did it start?” she asked.

Did it sound stupid to say as soon as I laid eyes on him? At least that’s where the kernel of desire had been born—for me. “Last night was the first time . . .” The first time I’d let myself acknowledge all the things I was feeling, the first time I’d forgotten to fight the attraction I had to him.

“Got physical? This hasn’t been going on the whole charter?”

I reached behind and leveraged myself up to sit on the opposite dryer. “We’ve never . . . not on the boat.”

She drew back. “But you have slept with him?”

There was no point in denying it. “Last night.”

She let out an exhale. “That’s where you were last night. Eric said he’d seen you with some ginger guy.”

“It wasn’t planned. We ran into each other . . .”

Skylar rolled her eyes.

“I’m serious. I went to the Greek theater to do the whole tourist thing. I had no idea he’d be there. But, I can’t say I wasn’t attracted to him before that.”

Silence sat heavily between us. She had no reason to trust what I was saying. I’d broken the golden rule and crossed the line with a guest, putting my job and everyone’s tip at risk. “You didn’t tell anyone?”

“No, I wanted to speak to you first. But I’m not going to have to tell anyone if he touches you like that again in public—”

“I know. I think he was trying to be nice or something.” At least I hoped that was all it had been. I wasn’t sure if he’d just been thoughtless or selfish when he’d touched me when I’d just asked him not to. Both, maybe. As much as he might be a moral millionaire, he was still used to getting everything he wanted. He still snapped his fingers and expected people to jump.

“Is it worth risking your career over a one-night stand?”

That was the question. Last night I had felt as though whatever was between us was worth risking everything for, but today? Although we hadn’t discussed it, whatever was between us hadn’t felt fleeting. “It didn’t feel like it was a one-night thing.” But what else could it be? We lived in different countries, had different priorities. I couldn’t maintain a relationship with a yachtie who had the same lifestyle as me. What hope did I have that things would work out with Hayden Wolf? “I just really like him.”

“Well of course. He’s gorgeous and rich—”

I scrunched up my nose. “It’s not about that.”

Skylar sighed and tipped her head back, skeptical. “Seriously. This could get you fired. It’s reckless. It’s just not you.”

“I know.” It was out of character. My family’s security was everything to me. “It’s just he’s a really good guy and we’ve ended up spending time together and—” Physical desire would have been easier to resist but Hayden’s kindness, his passion for what he did, the way he talked about his brother. Every time I learned something new about him, I liked him more.

“So what? Are you going to have an affair with this guy?”

I looked away, so the anxiety that churned in my stomach didn’t show on my face. An affair seemed so crass. What had happened between us shouldn’t have a label that applied to anyone else. It should have its own box, its own atmosphere, it was so different, so special.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “It’s only been a few hours since . . . I haven’t had time to think.”

Skylar slid off the washer. “I don’t want to see you fuck up your career so some bored, rich dude can get his rocks off, however hot he might be.”

How could I explain that what she was describing wasn’t what had happened between Hayden and me? We’d shared things. Connected. Hadn’t we?

“Look, I won’t say anything to anyone,” she said.

I hadn’t asked her to keep my secret, but I still felt equal measures of relief and guilt as she spoke.

“I don’t want you to get in trouble. I like you and Moss would have a fit. He’d fire you in a nanosecond. But if August or Eric or someone else was to find you . . .” Yachting could be bitchy and there were plenty of second stewardesses who would have taken the opportunity to bury me. I was lucky Skylar was standing in front of me and not one of the countless other, more ambitious girls I’d worked with.

“I know. I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t plan it.” I hated breaking the rules, but I especially hated pulling Skylar into this mess.

“I can’t imagine you did. You’re always so careful about everything. So . . .”

My stomach churned. She was right. Hayden had me making decisions that were against my nature, against my better judgement. What was I thinking? I’d gotten away with it this time. I hoped. But the only way to ensure no one else found out was to put a stop to things. “I should be clear with him that nothing else is going to happen between us.” I hated the sound of the words as they left my lips.

“Maybe. I just know that the road you’re on at the moment seems to be signposted trouble,” she said.

I was so used to having as much in my life nailed down as possible, so used to being focused, to following the rules, that continuing to break them didn’t seem realistic. But the alternative of never being with Hayden again seemed unbearable. It was as if someone had opened the curtains in a dark room and shown me I’d been missing daylight this whole time. It was too heartbreaking to shut those curtains right away. But Skylar was right. This sunlight—Hayden and everything he brought with him—could burn, corrode, and ultimately destroy my entire world. And in four weeks he’d be gone anyway. What was I doing?

Skylar opened her arms to give me a hug and I slid off the dryer into her grasp. “Whatever you decide, be careful. We’re in close quarters and people are pretty good at sensing chemistry. You only need people to suspect something for things to get difficult for you.”

The sensible decision was to put a stop to whatever had started between Hayden and me. Things had gone too far already, and it wasn’t as if we were going to ride off into the sunset. It was ridiculous to think it might be the beginning of something. In four weeks, the charter would finish, Hayden would go back to London and I’d continue with the season here. Where did that leave us? And if there was nothing beyond these next four weeks then surely losing my way of supporting my family couldn’t be worth it. However painful it would be, I needed to redraw the line in the sand before I lost everything. I had to end whatever there was between us.