Page 9 of Below Deck Billionaire
She liked the way he said her name. Just a hint of an accent in his otherwise polished English. She’d invited him to shorten it but instead he stretched the double f like he was savouring it, rolling it around his mouth and enjoying the taste.
‘Good then. Me being here shouldn’t be an issue.’
‘No issue,’ he muttered as he fingered a tress of her loose chestnut hair.
Tiffany went deathly still as Theo’s gaze homed in on it and he twined the lock around his finger. It might as well have been a loop of her intestine the way her gut clenched at the intimacy. ‘How’syourself-control?’ he asked, glancing from his finger to her face, his voice so rough it was like the scrape of sandpaper along her bare arms.
‘Rest assured, Theo, I’m not here to tempt you.’
Which was not what he’d asked, but Tiffany wasn’t sure she could answer honestly without passing over a lot of power. And Theo Callisthenes was already powerful enough.
‘I’m here to do a job. That’s it. You need a croupier, and I’m very good at what I do.’
As he tugged his finger free, Tiffany’s hair unspooled into a perfect curl. ‘Isn’t this boat a little small for you?’
Tiffany almost rolled her eyes. Why were men always so obsessed with size? She shrugged instead with as much nonchalance as was possible given their closeness and the way his cologne reminded her of how it had clung to her skin as she’d crept out of his hotel bed.
‘I’m after something a little different,’ she said.
‘I thought you loved working on the big ships.’
She had. And had told him so at the wedding. And then suddenly, she hadn’t. ‘I’ve been doing it a long time and I just feel…’ She shook her head, her hair ruffling around her face. ‘Restless, I suppose.’
‘Yeah.’ His blue eyes met her hazel. ‘I know the feeling.’ Another long pause followed, their gazes fully locked. ‘Dare aside, Tiffany, I don’t screw the crew.’
Was it wrong to be a little turned on by that phrase? Did that make her a terrible person? ‘Excellent.’ She nodded. ‘Because I don’t screw the boss.’
Not twice anyway.
‘Okay then.’ He held out his hand. ‘Welcome aboard theNerida.’
Tiffany shook perfunctorily, the zap of warmth up her arm warning her it might not all be calm sailing ahead…
4
Theo was still kicking his ass the next morning as he strode out onto the main deck aft where the crew were seated enjoying their breakfast. They had their own dining area below deck but Theo was more than happy for his live-in staff to have full run of the boat when no guests were on board, which meant he usually ate with them too.
Not yesterday though. He’d eaten his lunch in the wheelhouse and gone into Hydra to dine at a taverna for his evening meal, trying to forget the fact that he’d been goaded into letting the goddamn devil herself stay on board.
He’d called Ari as soon as he was clear of theNerida. His brother was apparently surprised by the news too but also utterly delighted, laughing his ass off.
Malakas.
‘This is perfect,’ Ari had said between peals of laughter. ‘You’ve had your tongue hanging out for her the moment you laid eyes on her in that blue bridesmaid’s dress. And then you slept with her even though I warned you not to. You know what this is?’ His brother had laughed again. ‘This is karma. Because there’s no way you’ll be able to resist Tiff walking around the boat, especially after two months of celibacy, and then you lose.’
And that, along with Tiffany questioning his self-control, had made him even more determined to stay the course. Even if his balls were bluer than the fucking Aegean right now.
It seemed Ari and Tiffany wouldn’t be happy until he’d blown a nut, but he couldn’t hide away forever and he needed to go over the plans for the next few days with the crew. Also, Maria’s lobster benedict was one of the best things he’d ever put in his mouth.
One of the other things was sitting at the table, all sparkly fresh, her hair pulled back into a low ponytail cinched at the nape, her navy Nerida T-shirt pulled taut across her generous chest.
Perfect. Just fucking perfect.
At least she was in the same uniform as everyone else, which was a very visual reminder that Tiffany wasstaff. Crew. And he was on a goddamn fucking sexual hiatus thanks to his annoyingly arrogant brother.
He pulled out a chair next to Simon as the crew greeted him, including Tiffany, who echoed their ‘Morning, boss’ demure AF, and Theo’s stomach lurched at the wordboss.
In line with everybody else, she’d started calling him that yesterday – when she called him anything at all – and he wondered if she knew how crazily his body reacted to the term. It felt ridiculous calling him that given their deep carnal knowledge of each other, and he wanted to tell her to stop. But another much darker part wanted to hear her say it when she was naked on her knees in front of him.
