Page 72 of Taming Scarlet

“And before you ask… guys not in the general vicinity of the way I was raised… they tend to be really insecure about it. You learn that it’s just easier to be alone. Or have friends who know what it’s like.”

Or, I added silently, to find a man who didn’t base his worth on his income, and wasn’t intimidated by a woman who was never going to need him financially. Because he knew his worth was in what he provided emotionally.

I would show her that.

In time.

For now, it seemed, I had to help keep her regulated while we were all trapped on this yacht together.

“We can avoid them as much as possible,” I suggested.

“My father likes to spend a lot of time in his cigar lounge. Where he knows I won’t step foot. I hate cigars,” she added, wrinkling her nose.

Given her words a moment ago, I figured that was because the smell reminded her of these men who treated her and her friends poorly.

“But would he want me there, is the question,” I said.

“Well, I was thinking…”

“Always dangerous,” I said, getting a smile out of her.

“You could sort of… play the part of an influencer boyfriend. I mean… not that you’re my boyfriend. It’s just what the saying is.”

“Don’t care what title you want to give me, pet. I know what I am to you,” I said, running my fingers over her thigh. “What does an influencer boyfriend do?”

“Take pictures, mostly,” she said, smirking. “Lots and lots of pictures. And if my father asks, I can say it’s an agreement we have. So I don’t try to run you off like all the others.”

Taking pictures of Scarlet wouldn’t be a hardship.

“I’m in.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Scarlet

The trip would be no issue if my father hadn’t brought Stephen. My father would still have found occasions to make his little jabs, but without someone else to feed into it, he would have let it go.

Sure, Julian and I tried to stay busy “curating content for my socials,” but we were forced to share meals with my father and Stephen. Long meals, unfortunately.

And if it weren’t for the little fantasies I played in my mind about going back to my room and feeling Julian spank me, edge me, and go down on me, I wasn’t sure I’d have gotten through those damn meals.

We were only two days into the trip when I heard my father’s footsteps making their way toward where I was cuddled up in a thick robe on a chaise after taking freezing cold bikini pictures on the deck.

Gorgeous photos.

But fake.

All fake.

It looked like it was the middle of the summer in the warm Mediterranean waters. Instead of still really cold while crossing the Atlantic.

“Everything alright?” Julian asked from where he was perched—because he’d quickly moved off the foot of my chaise—across from me.

To that, my father sighed hard.

To be good at business, you had to be good at hiding your emotions. But I knew him well enough to see the tension in his shoulders and jaw.

“I just spoke to the captain. We are taking it up to thirty knots.”

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