Page 3 of His to Bedevil

As Alejandro draws closer and closer, I take the opportunity to assess him andhiscrew. See what I’ll be working with. One of his men who seems to be more than just one of his guards must be Alberto Rodriguez, his loyal dog. Not quite a made man, but an asset to the don.

The other three goons are just that: goons with guns and muscles. And the arm candy? She makes me want to gag. Hanging on his arm, chomping loudly on some gum, twirling her long dark hair on her fingernail with a long fake claw at the end. She’s petite but still bigger than me, and her boobs are bigger than my head. I scoff inside.They’re probably fake. Although, Alejandro doesn’t look like the type of man who would go for fake breasts when he can find a woman with real ones. He could probably pick a model out of a magazine and order her and she’d come willingly. I’m sure he’s a man who knows exactly how to please a woman, with his large hands and broad shoulders, his nicely trimmed facial hair leaving a woman’s thighs red for days and…Oh, shit. He’s now right in front of me.

Keeping my gaze forward, I curl my lips into an innocent smile and offer him a glass of champagne, wordlessly. He doesn’t move as he towers over me, and my eyes are straining to keep from rolling up to peer into his beautiful ones. I bet they’re even more beautiful up close.

I have no clue how much time passes, but he’s not moving and I’m beginning to sweat. Beads of it trickle down my spine, and condensation forms on my upper lip. I can’t take it anymore. My equanimity slips, and my eyes boldly snap up to meet his. His eyes are definitely even more alluring in person. They’re the most beautiful color of copper, surrounded by dark and thick eyelashes. I don’t understand what the fuss is about with blue eyes or green eyes when you could have shimmering brown ones like his. I’m suddenly finding a new fascination with the color. I know I’ll never look at a shiny new penny the same way ever again.

Still standing there with him intensely staring into my eyes, I lift the tray a little more and open my mouth. “Champagne,señor?” My voice is surprisingly steady and confident. A contrast to the storm of nerves raging inside of me.

“Yes, please,” his heavily accented arm candy snipes, and I can’t seem to tear my eyes away from his. Neither can he, apparently. Without taking his eyes off of mine, he plucks a glass off of my tray and hands it to her. And just like that, the moment is over, and he moves down the line, severing the connection.

I swallow around the huge knot in my throat, and I have to lock my shaky knees to keep myself upright. I cannot wait till I have a moment to digest what the hell just happened. Or did anything happen? Maybe it was all in my head. I mean, I’ve been around plenty of beautiful men. I’vebeenwith plenty of beautiful men. Why is this guy having such an exorbitant effect on me? It has to be because of Matches’s neuroses. That’s it. That’s all this is. For once, I’m a little anxious about this job. But I can’t be. I need to get my shit together and fast. Fear leads to mistakes.

Apparently, we have to be accompanied by a guard when we enter any of the guest cabins. So, right now I have one of the guards breathing down my neck as I unpack Alejandro’s and his plaything’s belongings in their cabin. It takes all of me not to curl my lip up in disdain when I pull out all the girl’s raunchy and tasteless bikinis and lingerie. Even her dresses are made up of tiny little pieces of stretchy fabric. How the hell does she even fit into these things?

The watchdog keeps checking out my ass every time I bend over or turn my back, but I feign innocence and keep purposely doing it right in his direction. Who knows? I might have to hook and reel in one of Alejandro’s soldiers to get what I need. And this guy isn’t too bad looking. I wouldn’t even mind sleeping with him. Like the other men, he looks Hispanic, most likely Cuban as well. Tall, muscular, nice face, cute smile.

The tight black minidress that is our uniform rides up on my thighs some, and I don’t bother pulling it down. I bend over to pick up half of the pile of clothing that needs to be ironed or steamed and turn toward the guard, who is practically drooling now. “I need to make another trip.” I begin walking toward him, and I slap on a pretty smile and bat my eyelashes. “Unless you could help me?” I ask in a cloying voice.

The guard smiles back and licks his lips as he glances down my body. Evidently he didn’t get his fill of checking me out for the past fifteen minutes. “Si, mami.” He grins and goes to retrieve the other half of the clothing and then follows me down to the laundry room.

I put the first pile down then take the other pile from him. Giving him a flirtatious smile, I bite down on my bottom lip for emphasis. “Thank you so much.”

With a somewhat adorable smirk, he dips his chin and leaves me. I wait a few moments to let out a big breath and groan when I realize I have to actually do all this laundry. I better get the chance to get Alejandro’s laptop very soon. Manual labor and I don’t exactly agree with one another. But I need to suck it up because this payoff will be tremendous. It would officially set me up for life if I wanted it to. I don’t think I’ll ever retire from this though. It’s way too much fun.

The head stewardess pops her head into the laundry room about an hour later. “Amy, how’s the laundry coming along?”

Blowing the hair out of my face, I place the final garment on a hanger then hang it on the clothes rack. “Just finished.” I plaster on a cheerful smile. My alias, Amy, is a nice girl from upstate New York who has worked on two yachts before this. She’s twenty years old and has dreams of traveling the world. The rest I just make up as I go along. I only need to know what it says on my license and what someone would find if they did a background check on me.

“Great.” She beams, obviously pleased with my work. “I’ll take care of putting it back in their rooms. I need you now up on service.”

Does this mean she is allowed access to their cabins without a guard? Because I’m not seeing one with her. “Are you sure? I don’t mind doing it,” I try to offer without sounding desperate. She shakes her head and starts rolling the rack away. “Or I can help so that we get it done much faster,” I try again.

“I need you on service. Now!” she shouts over her shoulder, and disappears down the hallway, heading for the lift.

My shoulders sag in defeat.Oh, well.I’ll find myself an opportunity at some point.

Before heading upstairs, I pop inside my tiny cabin and check myself out quickly in the mirror. Making sure my wig is on straight and securely and that my nose is still holding strong. I reapply a little powder around the fake nose and slap on a little lip gloss. I’m not really sure why, just a sudden urge I had. I’m not wearing any other makeup, so maybe that’s the reason for feeling a little insecure. Ironing down my dress with my hands, I head out and up to hop onto service with the others.

When I head to the upper deck, I find Miss Giant Tits laying out in the sun and Alejandro still dressed in his overpriced suit, sitting in the shade talking to someone on his phone. His voice is low, and he’s speaking in what sounds like an Asian language, but I can’t make it out.Shit, I should’ve read up more on him.I’m sure Matches knows every language he speaks.

As I was heading up, I noticed two of the guards patrolling the boat, and Alberto is here with Alejandro. Just as I’m about to approach him, the sedentary hag calls for me, lifting her empty glass. “I’d like a refill!” she shouts, without even looking to see if anyone is there to hear her. I’m so tempted to ignore her, but I can feel eyes on me. I feel like it’s Alejandro looking at me, just a guess, so I put on a polite smile and walk over to the impertinent bitch, gently taking the empty glass from her when I really want to yank it out of her hand and jam it down her throat.Whoa. Where did that come from?

“Would you like the same thing, Mrs. Martinez?” I’m goading. I know she’s not Alejandro’s wife. She’s not even his girlfriend, I’m sure. I’m being petty, which is unlike me. Andveryunlike Amy.

Fake Tits snaps up into a sitting position and whips her head around to give me an indignant glare. I can’t see her eyes through her sunglasses, but I can sure feel the heat from them. “It’s Ms. Lopez,” she sneers.Oops.Touched a nerve there.My bad.

I widen my eyes and let my mouth fall open in mock shock. “Oh my goodness, ma’am. I am so sorry about that. I just thought, well, with the way he looks at you, I just assumed you two were married.” My voice is so sweet I feel my teeth decaying.

The conciliation seems to work because she grins triumphantly. “We aren’t married… yet.”

I smile back and nod my head. “Well, it’s very easy to see that he is a man in love.” Gag. “Another champagne?”

After she dismisses me with a swat of her hand, I spin on my heels, and I almost stumble over my own feet when I’m ensnared by Alejandro’s intense stare. There’s no way he could’ve heard me, right? He’s several feet away from us, and with the wind blowing and the boat cutting through the water, it would have been impossible to hear our little conversation.

With my spine straight and an amicable smile on my face, I head over to Alejandro and reach for his empty glass. He snatches my wrist in a firm grasp, making me flinch. It feels like his skin is burning mine, but not in an uncomfortable way. More like a feverish way. I meet his eyes once again, and it’s patently clear that he did hear what I said to his… whatever she is.

“Señor?” I let my voice tremble a little because that’s what any normal female would sound like right now. Scared and weak under his scrutiny.

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