Saying goodbye to the girls was so much harder than expected, but I know they’ll be fine. I know my mentor is a good man, and their uncle Dominic is even better.

Valentina had a harder time than I expected saying goodbye, and I know it made Franco uneasy, which is another reason I am leaving. They needed a chance without insecurities, and apparently, I am feeding his.

The girls made it so even I felt sorry for him because of it. Although, it was of his own doing.

Packing my belongings in my room at the New Jersey home, which Valentina offered me for nothing since they wouldn’t be coming back until Franco could get his paperwork in order, I am ready for a new start.

This morning, before boarding a commercial flight to New jersey, I went to my bank and made two major transactions, leaving my account considerably lower than I was comfortable with. One was for a new bigger, faster boat, with more comforts than my other one, already waiting for me at the marina. Those who say money can’t buy happiness haven’t a clue. This boat will surely make me happy.

The other transaction is pending acceptance.

I knew Paige wouldn’t be accepting of coming here. However, I didn’t expect her to have a date already in the works, nor did I expect her to be sitting in the parking lot of Black Financial.

I would fly down this minute, but I have a boat to check out. I would drive her car to her, but that completely fucks up my plan. And this feeling, this awful feeling in my chest when I think of her, only one other person has made me feel the same in my chest, and it didn’t end well.

With less than eight hundred nautical miles, I plan to use them to get my fucking head on straight by the time I see her. I need to try to decide if I’m fucking losing my mind because of all the changes in my life, or if there is something worth exploring with her. If I’m wrong, I will make damn sure that door is closed, sealed, and this hate you/want you situation I’m in and know she is as well, is sealed forever.

Two days, three tops, and I will see her in person to work out the issue she has created within me. This feeling of hopelessness and hope. The one of pain and pleasure. The one that has incited the worst kind of jealousy I have ever experienced. The desire to once again believe that maybe all women are not weak and so needy that they will drain you and destroy anyone around them for their own personal gain.

Of all women, it had to be her.

But, the chest wants what the chest wants. And her chest, her tits, I want them in my fucking mouth again.

* * *

After signing the paperwork, I am starting the engine of my sixty-two-foot, black and silver Predator 62. My dream boat. My retirement plan. My home with no boundaries.

I am in awe of her. She is number seven. For seven years, I have bought and paid for a boat, then traded it in and upgraded. This one is it, though. She will not be upgraded.

* * *

Three days later, I am docked at Arnesen Marina and walking down the worn wooden planks toward the building where I will pay to keep my beauty until I no longer need to.

I see a tall man. He’s blond and, as he approaches, I see he has the same blue eyes as Paige. Through research, I know it’s Pace Arnesen, Paige’s brother. Had I not already known, the resemblance would have given it away.

“What can we do for you?” he asks, wiping his hands on a towel.

“I’d like to dock here,” I tell him.

“You sure about that?” He smiles at my boat. “There’re a few places that she won’t stick out like a sore thumb around here.”

“I’m fine here,” I tell him.

“Well, we have a month until new ownership takes over. So, I guess a week is fine, if you’re sure about that.”

I nod. “I’m sure.”

“Well, you’ll have to give me some time to figure out who the payment goes to.”

“I give you my word, I won’t skip out on you.”

His phone rings, and he pulls it out of his pocket and groans, “Dammit.” Then he looks up at me and sighs. “Give me a couple minutes. I have an angry woman to deal with. Then I’ll get you the paperwork and try to figure this all out.”

I nod as he answers, “Hello?” He holds the phone away from his ear as the woman on the other line curses and yells.

Oddly, I think I know the voice.

He turns his back and begins walking toward the building that reads: Arnesen Family Charter Service.

“Not a damn thing we can do about it, Pea.”

I follow him as he continues.

“No, don’t come over. You get … Well, great. I’ll see you inside.” He ends the call with a, “Fuck.”

He looks back and sighs. “I want to apologize for whatever comes out of her mouth.”

“No worries.” I hide a smile, knowing I am right. It’s her.

Walking into the building, I immediately notice how clean it is. I certainly wouldn’t have expected it to be from the outside.

Pace waves his hand toward a seating area with a coffee machine. “Help yourself to some shitty coffee.”

“Thank you.”

“Pace!”

I turn my back when I see a door open, wishing I had waited outside.

“I’m gonna kill him. I swear to you, I’m going to …” She stops and gasps.

“Pea, this man is going to be docking with us. I’m sorry … I didn’t catch your name.”

I turn around to see Paige slap her hand over her mouth.

“My name is Vincent. Hello, Paige.”

“Pea? You okay?” Pace laughs.

She points at me. “What …? What are you …? What are you doing here?”

I scratch my head, unsure of where to begin, but I start with, “I was in the neighborhood.”

“You know each other?” Pace asks.

When she doesn’t respond, I answer for her. “Yes, I worked for her friend, Valentina.”

She places her hands over her stomach then dashes into a room.

“For God’s sake,” Pace grumbles then looks at me. “You sure you don’t want to dock somewhere else?”

Just then, Paige walks back into the room.

“You need to go.”

Not the welcome I was looking for.

“Jesus, Pea. Manners,” her brother scolds her.

“Mind yours,” she snaps back at him as she quickly walks toward me. She grabs my arm and drags me toward the door. “Which ones yours?” she asks as we step outside. “Oh, my God, Vincent, that thing’s huge.”

“That’s what she said.” I chuckle.

She clearly doesn’t think it’s funny.

“You need to get on your ship—”

“It’s a boat,” I correct.

“No, Vincent, that’s a boat.” She points to an old fishing boat that has clearly been well-maintained.

“A fishing boat.” I point to mine. “That’s a boat, as well.”

Clearly flustered, she stammers, “Well, you need to get on it and go far, far away. This place is toxic.”

I don’t say anything. I just look at her. God, she looks beautiful.

“Come with me.”

“Is this about my ass? Because, right now is not the time for ass talk.” She pokes me in the chest.

“Well …” I sigh, “I suppose I’ll have to stick around until you’re ready to talk ass.”

“Don’t you have a job?” she asks, palming her face.

I pull her hand away and see her smiling.

“Let’s try this again, without the yelling, the running away, or trying to ignore the fact that your asshole is puckering in fear that I’m only here to fuck it. Let’s start over, Paige. Hello.”

Her face falls into a frown before she whispers, “Hi.”

“You’re tired again.” I tug at her braided pigtail.

“I’m exhausted, and I really don’t want you here right now.”

Now my smile falls and turns into a frown … momentarily.

“Things are so … embarrassing right now. So humiliating. I just—”

“More humiliating than a finger in the ass by a woman you’ve stroked it to for years?”

“You loved it,” she jokes.

“I loved your pussy on my face. I want your pussy on my face again. I want to eat you for days, not a fucking hour. I want you to get on my boat right now, unhook those … those …” I scratch my head, trying to figure out what the hell she’s wearing.

“Overalls.” She smiles, running her thumbs beneath the thick denim straps, somehow making them sexy.

“Let them drop to the floor.” I reach out and rub my thumb just under them, immediately feeling the effect I have on her. Nipples hard as stone. “This time, I’ll tie you up and eat your cunt until my face and my bed are so soaked with your cum and you’ve passed out from so many fucking orgasms.”

Her back arches, pushing her tit against my thumb, so I turn my hand and pinch her sexy as fuck nipple.

“That’s a long way to come to eat a pussy,” she moans out.

“Your pussy. To eat your pussy, Paige.”

“And fuck my ass?”

This time when my cock in her ass is mentioned, it isn’t with disdain or fear; it’s like she wants it. Fuck if I will deny her.

I nod and step closer, licking my lips. Then I bend in to kiss her when I hear a crazed woman screaming in a language I have never fucking heard.

Paige jumps back and turns, nearly falling off the dock. I grab her arms, and then she looks up at me with pleading eyes.

“Please, just go.”

When she turns and runs down the dock, I don’t just go. I follow her, hard-on and all.

“Babička!” she yells. “He’s not worth it!”

He?

Now my steps speed up, and as I get closer, I see an old woman swinging a big black bag while screaming at a man.

“Just get the fuck out of here,” I hear Pace say as he pulls the woman back, holding her like a football player holds a ball as he runs toward the end zone.

“Babička, calm down or you’ll be next to Dad in that hospital.”

“I want to kill him,” she says in English now.

“Trust me; I know the feeling,” Paige sputters.

I see another woman, standing back and crying. She has dark hair and is smaller than Paige, but the resemblance is there. I know it’s her mother.

Not wanting to overstep—yet anyway—I walk over and wrap my arm around her. When she looks up at me, she looks shocked. She’s not alone. I am certainly shocked at my behavior, as well.

The fucking Paige effect, I tell myself.

“Mrs. Arnesen?” I ask.

She nods.

“I’m a friend of Paige’s. Let’s get you inside so you can have a seat.”

“I’m so sorry. I’m never—”

“You’re fine,” I assure her.

“Your name?”

“Vincent. I worked for Valentina Segretti.”

She smiles and nods.

“I want you to get the fuck out of here before I let her go at you, you son of a bitch.”

“Oh God.” Mrs. Arnesen covers her eyes. “My mother is going to jail.”

“The feisty one?” I ask, and she nods. “Can I try to get her in here with you?”

She nods again. “Please.”

“Her name?” I ask, hoping to arm myself with something familiar. On my boat, I listened to a few audiobooks about dementia. I knew Paige’s grandmother had it, since I overheard talk.

“Babička works best.” She pulls a hanky out of her overall pocket and blots her tears.

“Then Babička it is.”

“I don’t know what you people don’t understand about twenty-four hours. You should be thanking me that I found an owner who gave you thirty days. And if you’d hear me out, you’d know he has no interest in running it. He’d like to hire you on.”

I look at the fucker and know it’s Warren Black. My blood boils as I get closer.

When I take Babička’s hand, she looks up at me. “Stephan?”

Paige and Pace look at me, shocked, and then Paige nods her head furiously.

“Yes?” I respond.

“Who is this man? And why are we here?”

“You’re just out for a stroll, Babička,” Pace tells her.

She reaches up and cups my cheek. “You haven’t aged at all.”

Paige puts her hand on her chest, and a silent sob heaves beneath them.

“Let’s get you inside so I can help your grandchildren.”

She giggles. “Ours, Stephan, ours.”

I nod as I lead her inside, grateful there is no fighting distracting me from taking it easy and not hurrying the old gal.

When she looks at Paige’s mother—her daughter, I assume—she smiles brightly.

“Coffee, Mom?”

Babička nods as she sits down.

Paige’s mother mouths, “thank you,” and then I hurry my ass back to where Warren fucking Black is standing too close to Paige for my liking. I wouldn’t have left her had her brother not been there.

When I walk out, Paige’s back is to me.

Warren glances up at me then back at her. “As promised, I am bringing you a copy of the contract you requested. It’s perfectly legal, but feel free to spend money you clearly don’t have to investigate.”

“Do you think for one minute”—Paige pokes him in the chest hard—“that I would believe a word you say!”

He holds his hands in the air. “I’ve never lied to you, Paige.”

She pokes him harder now. “You agreed to give me twenty-four hours if I agreed to sit with you through a dinner.”

“You?” he huffs.

“You’re pathetic.” She pokes him again, and he steps back. “A liar.” Again, she pokes him, and he steps back again. He’s dangerously close to the edge of the dock.

I look at her brother who notices the same thing and shrugs at me.

She pokes him again. “Insecure.” Poke. “Unaccomplished.”

“Unaccomplished? Your family can’t even hang on to a measly two fishing boat operation on a tourist island!”

Having had enough, I nudge him with my hip as I walk around him to face her.

She snatches the file before he falls off the dock and into the water below.

Paige’s angry glare changes to wild amusement. I can’t help loving that I did that to her.

“You’ll pay for that!”

I turn around and squat,  looking at the fool. “It was an accident.”

“Who the fuck is this?” Warren yells, pulling seaweed off his suit.

Pace chuckles. “My new best friend.”

I hold my hand out. “Again, it was an accident.”

He goes to reach for my hand, when I pull it back and stand.

“Asshole,” he sputters.

As I follow Paige and her brother inside, Pace glances back at me. “I’ll get you that paperwork.”

“For what?” Paige asks, sitting down at the table, nose in the file.

“For the docking fee,” Pace tells her.

“Why charge him so some asshole can make money after he stole our family’s company?”

“He didn’t steal it. He bought it,” Mrs. Arnesen says, walking over to the table and sitting down next to her.

Paige looks back and sighs when she sees her grandmother sleeping. “I should cut his nuts off and feed them to the sharks,” she grumbles.

“Paige,” her mother hushes, “we have company.”

She looks at her mother then at me.

“It’s fine, Mrs. Arnesen. I’ve known Paige for years and have come to expect certain things,” I tell her, looking back at Paige. “Maybe your mother is right. Maybe the new owner simply saw a business opportunity, looked into your family, and thought maybe it could be a win-win situation.”

Pace takes the folder from Paige as she shoots daggers at me.

I hold her stare, counting inside my head to see how long it takes for her to stop being annoyed with me. When I get to fifty, I realize I may have misjudged the effect I have on her.

“He’s offering benefits, retirement, bonuses based on business, vacation where he’ll hire temporary employees to fill in, and …” Pace pauses. “Well, shit.”

“See? Not everything is as good as it sounds,” Paige says, looking away from me at seventy-eight seconds.

“If we agree to stay on for two years, the house will be signed over to you.” Pace looks at his sister as he pushes the file toward her.

“Me?” she gasps. “Why me?”