Page 18 of The Flirtation
Chapter 6
Luke
After responding to some emails,I took a quick, bracing, cool shower. It did almost nothing to extinguish my growing desire to take a warm professional business shower with Avery. I dressed in a blue button-down shirt and tan trousers, reviewed my notes for Bucket’s debriefing on my laptop, then noticed it was five-thirty and that the sun was starting to set, so I made my way out onto thepatio.
Millionaire world champion surfer slash entrepreneur Buck Reynolds was already on the patio, blending some kind of drink at the outdoor bar. We had met in person twice before, in London, and I’d immediately developed a sort of professional man crush on the fellow. His easy-going nature was so very not British, but he was such a shrewd businessman, the combination of these personality traits was nothing less than delightful to watch in action. If he were in this situation with someone like Avery—in a hypothetical scenario wherein she did not have a boyfriend—surely his attitude would be: “Hey man, we get along, we work well together, we’re here together now, why shouldn’t we enjoy this opportunity while we can? Let’s trust that the universe has brought us together for a reason.” And then he’d take her hang gliding and make love to her in a cave on the beach orsomething.
When he saw me approaching, Bucket turned off the blender and smiled. “Duuuuude!” he said, in the way that anyone would expect him to greet you, given his shoulder-length hair, laid-back golden boy surfer good looks and the fact that he’s called “Bucket.” I had once asked Avery why he was nicknamed Bucket, and she immediately replied: “Because he makes buckets and buckets of money! No not really, it’s some kind of surfer term, like about making buckets of water splash off the end of the board when they do a certain kind of move or something? Honestly, he’s so cool he could be named Asshat and you’d still want to hang out with him.” She wasright.
He stepped out from behind the bar to pull me in for a warm handshake and partial hug. “So glad you could make it! Sorry for the long journey, hope it’s not cramping your style toomuch.”
“Anything for you, Mr. Reynolds, anything foryou.”
“You get a chance to tour the compound yet? Walk thebeach?”
“Uh no, actually, just had enough time to catch up on a bit of work,really.”
“Really looking forward to hearing your perspective on the merger, but seriously—enjoy yourself while you’re here,okay?”
“I shall do my best,sir.”
“You do that!” he laughed and patted me on the back. “And there she is,” he said in a sing-songvoice.
I followed his gaze back towards the building and saw Avery walking towards us. She was walking rather slowly, in strappy high-heeled sandals, wearing a heavy cardigan over her dress. Clearly she hadn’t realized how warm it would be here when she packed. Or more likely, it was a layer of armor. She looked decidedly languid, compared to her brisk nervous energy after arriving here, due to the dampness of her skin and hair, following ashower.
Bucket took three long strides towards her, deftly placed one hand on the small of her back while grasping her right hand, dipped her, lifted her back up and spun her around. She squealed with delight, laughed, and pushed him away, playfully. It wasn’t flirtatious so much as playful sibling behavior, or so I toldmyself.
“You dork!” shesaid.
“I’m the dork, says the lady in her nana’s cardigan. Take this thing off right now, you’re ridiculous.” He reached for her sweater and she swatted himaway.
“Okay okay, I’ll do it. Doesn’t it get cold when the sun goes downhere?”
“There are heat lamps on theyacht.”
“Yacht?!” she said, mildlyterrified.
“We’re having dinner on the yacht tonight, didn’t Samson tellyou?”
“Um no, he failed to mention. Good evening, Luke,” she said, glancing over at me while she pulled off her cardigan, revealing the top part of her lovely red dress, her toned bare arms, long neck, enticing clavicles, just a hint of cleavage, and dear God Almighty—the outline of her nipples under the thin fabric. She looked effortlessly stunning. It was almost cruel ofher.
Good thing I didn’t make an actual promise to maintain a professional distance from her while we’re here, or I’ll probably break it before the end of the night. I’d hate to break a promise to Avery, of allpeople.
“That’s more like it,” said Bucket. “I’m making us Bahama Mamas.” He returned to thebar.
“Make mine virgin,” she insisted, as she joined him. “I’m working tonight. I can’t speak for Mr. Mason.” She glanced back at me,grinning.
“I prefer to work drunk, I’m glad you hadn’tnoticed.”
Bucket pointed at me. “That’s what I’m talking about. You need to loosen up, Blondie. If you can’t manage my wealth while consuming an umbrella drink then you’ve got no businesshere.”
I couldn’t help but admire her while she chatted with Bucket, as though they were old friends. It wasn’t ogling, I was genuinely admiring her. I’ve had the good fortune of being with a number of exceptionally beautiful women, but there was something about Avery Davis that gently took my breath away and moved me in ways that were quite unfamiliar. It might have had something to do with the way she looked at me when we’d Skyped, the way she tilted her head, as though she were really listening to me and contemplating everything I said, yet still not taking me too seriously. She did keep me on my toes, this one, and I liked it. Of course—since we’d arrived on the island she had barely looked at me. We were in an awkward place, and it was not where I wanted to be with her. She was no doubt feeling ill at ease because of her relationship status, and I respected her decision to voice her concern about our flirtation—which was meaningless at best, and seemed inappropriate now that we were here in person, if there was to be no follow-through.
Still… I’d been fond of Avery ever since the first time we Skyped, and she was one of the few people on Earth that I truly enjoyed talking to, but nothing had prepared me for the experience of actually being in her presence. Instead of making her seem stressed-out, her buzzy energy animated her and I couldn’t help but want to be…inside all of that energy…to make her so overcome that she couldn’t move for a moment, and then induce her to writhe and thrash about uncontrollably so that she couldn’t even think for once. It was an unprofessional thought on my part, to say theleast.
But alas, it was what I wanted to do, it was not what I planned to do. As long as she had a boyfriend, I would behave honorably. It’s not usually a difficult thing for me, being honorable, but I had a terrible feeling the next few days were going to be a throbbing, achingchallenge.
Bucket handed us our Bahama Mama drinks and we all clinked glasses. “To beach business,” hesaid.
