Page 5 of Hooked on a Feeling

John stilled. “Wait. You’re Harold Young’s granddaughter?” No. This was not what he wanted. He sure as fuck didn’t want to be attracted to this woman. Christ. Even when she was starting to get fired up, he couldn’t help but think how cute she was. But this? He shook his head. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Why did you think we’d never want to do anything with the property? Was that your hope that it would just sit here and die a slow death? The community around the harbor is small. I would think you would want all businesses to succeed.”

“No. It’s not that. I own one of the most well-known businesses inside this harbor. My company is internationally known. That isn’t what’s bothering me.”

“What is then?” Her tone was still snappy, and he could understand her irritation. The Young family had a long history of fighting with other business owners.

Mainly the Davenports.

“What’s bothering me is that I’ve been raised to think of the Young family as our enemy. My entire life I’ve been stuck between a long-standing feud between my grandfather and your grandfather.” He folded his arms across his bare chest. “It’s like a family heirloom, if you will, that has gotten passed down from generation to generation.”

Her cute pink lips formed an O, letting him know that she, too, was familiar with the decades-old family feud. “You’re a Davenport.” It was a statement.

He nodded. “I am. Soon to be CEO of Blue Horizon Yachts. John Davenport.”

Chapter Three

For five minutes there, Starr thought she had met someone who was a bit promising on the dating front—meaning maybe they could hang out a night or two while she was in town. And then he turned out to be a part of the family from the wrong side of the bay. Just her luck. She did believe in fate, though, so what was the universe telling her by setting up this chance meeting with John?

“There are hundreds of people out here. Literally, at least a hundred.” She gestured toward the beach and shopping district. “And my very first day here, I meet you?” Her mind raced with anything she’d done lately that had put her on the bad road with the universe. She couldn’t think of anything right away, but surely there was something she’d gone and fucked up.

“From where I’m standing, that would mean it was our lucky day,” he said.

“Hmm. I wouldn’t say that meeting you, the grandson of the man who ruined my grandfather’s life, is lucky.” Perhaps this was his karma and not hers. Maybe he’d done something bad and the universe put her in his path to teach him a lesson. “Did you do something wrong lately? You know, karma is a bitch, and I’m just wondering what you may have done recently that she sent me on your path.”

John scoffed. “I doubt it. I don’t believe in that crap anyway. But no, to answer your question. I’ve done nothing untoward to the universe or anyone else for that matter.”

“Well, I sure as heck haven’t. In fact, I’m here doing a good deed.” Like her parents cared about her doing it. She was doing a good deed for her grandfather’s memory. He was probably cringing at the sight of his beloved Emerald Port Marina and Yacht Club. Even the entrance sign along the highway was getting beat by the sun and feeling the loss of a caretaker’s touch to keep it vibrant and shiny. Welcoming.

“Right. Fixing this up,” he said. “Let me ask you, what are you going to do with this place? Sell it? You know I’d love to buy it.”

She rolled her eyes and turned away from him. “I’d never sell my grandfather’s legacy to the Davenports. Ever.” She had better things to do than stand out here talking to him. Her grandfather and parents had made it clear that the Davenports were not good businesspeople to deal with, and she was sure that carried over into their personal lives too. No matter how handsome this one was. Or the way his chest was practically begging her to reach out and touch it or to trace the lines of his tribal art. She couldn’t risk her heart to another dirtbag. “It was lovely meeting you. I have a lot of work to do.”

John walked behind her, and when she bent over to roll up her yoga mat, she got the distinct impression that he was checking her out. Could she see him? No. But it was in the air. The tension. It was thick and all-encompassing, caressing her skin in all the right places. She swung the mat over her shoulder. Oh no, that was humidity, not sexual tension. Duh. She gave the man a fake smile. “Goodbye, John. Enjoy those multimillion-dollar yachts you put out into the world every year. Have you ever heard of that saying, ‘Think green, keep it clean?’”

He kept up with her, following closely behind. Why wasn’t he just leaving her alone? “For your information, the yachts we produce are in a class of their own, being one of the top five carbon-neutral vessels. You could read all about it in a Yacht Times article published two months ago.”

She reached the door to the house and turned toward him. He was too close, and their bodies collided. “Umph,” she said as she stepped back and made contact with the door.

“Oh. Sorry. I was trying to figure out if my phone still worked after my swim to show you the article.” John kept her pinned against the door for a moment, blinking a few times as if he was seeing her for the first time in his life.

Starr sucked her top lip into her mouth, trying to quell the speed of her heartbeat and the unwelcome feelings shooting through her belly. His eyes were blue, like the sky behind him, and she couldn’t deny how good his body felt against hers. “Aside from carbon emissions, boats still mess with wildlife and water quality, including sometimes ruining reefs and natural vegetation in the sea,” she whispered. It was her conviction that bad boats ruined the environment, but the whispering made it sound like she didn’t care that much at all. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” She put her hands to his naked chest, pushing him back a step.

“Yachts,” he said. “Not boats.”

“Huh?” She blinked the haze of sexual tension from her eyes.

“I build yachts, not boats.”

“You build something that harms the environment.”

“I build something that turns a person into their best self. There’s nothing like being on the water. And my clients trust me to give them their very best life.” He raised his eyebrows. “Some might even call me a man of many talents, with all the ways I give them pleasure.”

She didn’t have to touch her cheeks or her chest to know that his words had made her blush. Why did he have to make that sound so sexual, and how had she gone this long without caring about having sex to thinking about it three times already? “Goodbye, John.”

She undid the key tied to her shoelace and unlocked the door. She slipped inside the house and quietly shut the door behind her. She had a lot of work to do, and she couldn’t afford to be distracted by the enemy, no matter how appealing he’d been on first impression. Starr laughed out loud, thinking of him falling into the water. She wouldn’t admit it to him, but it made her stand up a little prouder that he had found the sight of her on the dock intriguing enough it had caused him to fall into the water.

She wasn’t in the house longer than five minutes before there was a knock on her front door. Was it him? She peered through the peephole to see Lyle standing with a Styrofoam container in his hand. Her stomach growled.

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