Page 4 of The Wedding Proposal
He found everything about Elle sexy. Her walk, the liquid grace of her body, the noises she made when—
He clattered the beer bottle down on the table as if to shock his mind onto a safer track, just as she swept back into the cabin.
For an instant, anxiety flashed across her face. Then the spark returned to her eyes. ‘I get that you’re angry. I’m angry, too. But remember that your tantrums don’t work on me.’
He swallowed a sudden bubble of laughter. She still knew how to push his buttons, knew that he’d consider anything as petty as a tantrum beneath him. Righteous anger, that was another matter. He could do righteous anger. Right was his constant companion.
He made his voice sweetly reasonable. ‘What’s the situation with Simon?’
She dropped down on the seat, sighing her exasperation. ‘Faux surprise that us sharing the boat might be a problem. Enough sheepishness to make it obvious that he’s bullshitting. But he says that there are two cabins, so we ought to be able to make it work.’
Lucas could envisage Simon over in California, safely out of the line of fire as he made mischief. ‘Did you tell him that we recognised his half-arsed plan as inept meddling?’
‘That’s about when he began to say that the call was breaking up.’ Folding her arms, she glared out of the window towards the cars nosing over the bridge to Manoel Island.
Lucas sipped from his bottle. ‘Have a beer while you decide where you’re going to go.’
The eyes she turned on him were both ice and fire. ‘Nowhere! I don’t have the income to find somewhere else and I don’t have a house to go back to. But you can go.’
Eyes locking on hers, he managed, just, not to let her fury detonate an answering explosion in himself. ‘Just out of bloody-mindedness I wouldn’t, even if I did have a chance of finding somewhere for rock bottom rent now the season’s started.’ He waited a beat before adding, ‘And I’m expecting a visitor, soon. A woman.’
Chapter Two
Elle felt as if something was slowly dragging its way through the pit of her stomach. But she managed to say, ‘W-we’ll have to make sure we spare her any embarrassment.’ She hoped he would have forgotten that she only ever stuttered with emotion. There was no logic to her feeling so shocked by his revelation. He was hardly the kind of man to be celibate for four years. Before they’d met, Lucas had been a bit of a lad.
And Elle had been married.
There had been men for her since Lucas, of course. All right, only two, but that was ‘men’.
‘I have a personal code,’ he said.
‘You don’t have to remind me.’ She smiled, bitterly. ‘Few people are as decent, straight and honest as Lucas Rose. Ask anyone. Certainly ask Lucas Rose. That’s the way he is, the way he wants to be, and the way he no doubt has every intention of always being.’
His voice was expressionless. ‘It’s a good way.’
She sighed. ‘How about you point out which is my room, so I can get unpacked?’
‘It’s called your cabin.’
‘Thank you, Lucas. Yes, a room is a cabin. And the kitchen is the galley, the toilet is the head, the pointy end is the bow, the back is the stern and the upstairs is the flybridge. The gazebo thing over the flybridge is the bimini. I can read and remember the glossary of nautical terms on Wikipedia as well as the next person. Got it. Just tell me where I sleep and wash.’
He pointed with his beer bottle to the steps beside the helm. ‘First door to the right—’
‘Starboard,’ she put in, before he could.
‘It’s the guest cabin. I’ve already occupied the master cabin. But I suppose we ought to toss a coin for it,’ he added, fairly.
She wasn’t in the mood to be grateful. ‘I’m sure it will be fine.’
Down the steps, she opened the narrow door and stepped down into the guest cabin. It contained two single beds, a narrow wardrobe and not a whole lot of anything else.
‘You can shove the beds together to make a double, if you want,’ he called after her. ‘The boat’s water tank has to be kept topped up so it would be good if you could keep your showers to under seven minutes. Regarding the loo, usual procedure is to use the toilet block on shore as much as possible.’
‘Simon explained all that. I think I’m capable of living on a safely moored boat with all modern comforts.’
She went back out to the cockpit to fetch the first suitcase, and returned carefully down the steps and through the cabin door so as not to scratch anything. The Shady Lady wasn’t even three years old and she’d cost Simon megabucks. Or megaeuros, as he’d bought her in Malta.
Once she’d fetched all of the cases there was absolutely no floor space. Ah. She hadn’t expected space to be the issue it had turned out to be. But two of her cases contained all she’d need for now, so, pretending not to be conscious of Lucas watching her from the saloon, she began back up the steps with one of the others.
