Page 40 of Devoured By You

I kicked her under the table. “Addison! He did not blow me off. There was no formal arrangement.”

“Jilly, he spent Saturday night fawning over you like a neglected lapdog, and then yesterday, nada.”

“Like I said. We hadn’t arranged to meet.” I kicked her again for good measure. She shifted her legs out of my reach and stuck out her tongue.

“He had a security issue to attend to. It took him all day, and then he had meetings with the family for most of last night.” She put her hand over mine. “He likes you. Trust me.”

Butterflies took flight in my chest. “He’s a busy man. I’m on holiday. He isn’t.”

Addison opened her mouth. I silenced her with one of my resting-bitch-face glares and changed the subject, but my mood improved drastically. Blay hadn’t avoided me. He’d had urgent priorities to attend to. That was all.

Today was going to be a magnificent day.

* * *

Famous last words. Today might have been magnificent if I hadn’t decided to gut up and tackle this disaster of a manuscript. Armed with a red pen in one hand and the book in the other, I got to work. There was so much red ink that it resembled the literary version of a bloodbath.

Angling the parasol to shade me from the sun before I turned into crispy bacon, I scrawled through another pitiful sentence.

“I know you’ll refuse, but I am happy to take a look if you want.” Kelsey lowered her wide-brimmed sun hat and flipped the top on a bottle of sunscreen. “Just a couple of chapters. Three, tops. You might be seeing things that aren’t there.”

“I don’t know, Kels…” Addison caught my eye and waved from the jacuzzi where she and Raya had spent the last half an hour giggling with a couple of guys and drinking copious amounts of champagne. Thankfully, their companions were not the guys at the party the other night. With any luck, they weren’t VIP guests and therefore couldn’t access the exclusive sundeck.

“As a friend, not as an editor. I’ll be gentle, promise.”

I was about to take her up on her offer when a loud, booming voice on my left drew my attention. I turned to see who was making the racket. So far, the VIP deck had been an oasis of tranquility.

Standing at the bar, wearing a dressing gown and a captain’s hat, was an old guy in his midseventies at least. Maybe eighty. Snow-white hair, leathery skin that had seen too much sun, and a well-fed, rounded stomach. He had his arms around two gorgeous, leggy brunettes young enough to be his granddaughters.

“It’s Hugh Hefner reincarnated,” Kelsey half whispered, half giggled.

I nudged her even though the same thing had occurred to me.

“—not happy with the rules on this ship, young man.”

I tuned in to his complaint. The guy gave me the creeps, but if a paying customer wasn’t happy, I’d rather know, so I could tell Blay—if I ever saw him again.

Shut up. You’ll see him again.

“In what way, sir?” the bartender queried.

“It’s too strict,” he boomed. “No topless bathing. No bottomless bathing. All these beautiful women are far too covered up for my liking.” He leered at his companions.

Nausea flooded my stomach. What a fucking creep! I looked over at Kelsey. Her jaw hung open. Good thing Addison was out of earshot. If she’d heard this dude, she’d probably slam his face into the marble bar.

The bartender muttered a reply, but it was too low for me to catch what he said. Whatever it was, the old guy guffawed and wandered away with the two women in tow. I turned to Kelsey.

“What the fuck?”

“I know. Oh my God. Dirty old bastard.”

“Who’s a dirty old bastard?” Addison flopped down beside me, peppering me with drops of water.

I relayed the conversation we’d overheard. Addison’s jaw dropped farther than Kelsey’s had, and her eyes widened until I could see the whites all the way around.

“Ugh.” Addison’s gaze locked on the old man in the jacuzzi on the other side of the sundeck. “I should go over there and drown the fucker. Do the world a favor. In fact…”

She half rose from her seat. I dragged her back down. “You can’t do that.”

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