Page 52 of The Grumpy Billionaire
The delights of this new experience, coupled with the pleasure of leaning into the solid warmth of Reid’s body, filled me with conflicting emotions—a sense of joy, even peace, but also a disturbing yearning.
Once again, I had the irrational wish that this experience would never end, just as I had yesterday at the kite festival.
Before I’d run into Reid last week, when had I last felt like that?
SEVENTEEN
A Few Too Many
Mara
I pulled away from Reid’s side and left the railing long before I actually wanted to.
The answer to my own question was not something I wanted to think about—the last time I’d wished a moment would never end was graduation night, the first and only time Reid and I had made love.
My heart squeezed painfully at just the tiny sliver of memory I allowed to cross through my mind.
“Had enough whale-watching for today?” Reid asked, following me back to our deck seats and glancing over me with an appraising eye. “Not feeling sick, are you?”
I shook my head, trying to keep my expression blank. “No, I’m fine. That was… amazing. Thank you. My parents took me on a whale-watching ferry trip once when I was little, but the ocean was so choppy and I got so violently ill, I couldn’t even lift my head to see them.”
“I think I remember that story.” He grinned. “You want to go in? The wind’s picking up out here. If I know you, you’re starting to get chilly.”
And of course he was right, because hedidknow me. I nodded and stood, accepting the hand he offered to guide me across the deck toward the door to the interior rooms.
“Sunsets are great out here on the water, but it’s clouding over today anyway, so it probably won’t be a great one to watch,” Reid said. “That’s okay. There will be plenty of other—”
He stopped himself. “Let’s see what Vincenzo has planned for supper.”
Reid pointed out the bathroom—the ‘head,’ he called it—and went to check with the chef and speak to the captain about turning back for shore.
It felt different inside the boat. I was more aware of the motion of the sea rolling beneath us than I had been up on deck. Extracting the small bottle of pills from my pocket, I shook out a couple, swallowing them with water from the sink, just to be safe.
Whatever Vincenzo had prepared, I didn’t want to risk it coming back up after dinner.
I washed up and looked myself over in the mirror—windblown, of course, but there wasn’t much I could do about that here. Running my hands through my hair a few times, I decided it was silly to even worry about my appearance. I was here as a reporter, not as Reid’s date.
It wasn’t important for him to find me attractive. Best if he didn’t actually.
I left the head and found Reid in the cozy dining room. The table had already been set for us. Low candles burned in the center, warming up the dimly lit room. He’d changed into a pair of jeans with his sweater, bowing to the cooling night air.
“Are you warm enough?” he asked as he waited for me to sit then took his own seat. “I could turn up the heat.”
Shaking my head, I said, “No. I’m comfortable. Though I do feel a little underdressed.”
I motioned to the beautiful place settings on the table. They were more appropriate for a meal at the Cliffhouse than for a wild-haired girl in jeans and sneakers.
“You look perfect,” Reid assured me. At my wide-eyed glance he added, “Speaking in strictly professional terms, of course.”
Vincenzo served our meals, beautifully presented sea bass filets topped with small, cold-water shrimp and capers, creamy artichoke risotto, and the best grilled asparagus I’d ever tasted.
“He cooked all this here on the boat?” I asked after the chef had left the room. “This is better than anything I’ve ever had in a restaurant.”
Reid smiled. “He could make fantastic meals with one pan and a camp stove, but the boat is well-equipped. The kitchen is probably close to one you’d find in a 4-star restaurant. I doubt I’d be able to keep a chef like Vincenzo without spoiling him with all the necessary tools of his trade.”
I nodded and finished chewing another mouth-watering bite. Toward the end of our amazing meal, I told Reid, “It’s official. You should definitely give Vincenzo whatever he wants.”
He sipped his wine and laughed, nodding in agreement.
