Page 37

Cherry

I wake the next morning convinced it had all been a wonderful dream. There’s no way the Nicolai Dimitrios was kissing me like that last night. Kissing me like he’d die if he couldn’t kiss me.

My lips tingle and I sigh down to my tippy toes, reminding myself that it was all true. It all happened. There’s no way my imagination is that good; even my most vivid fantasies weren’t as mind-blowing as those kisses.

The day ahead with Nicky beckons me and I hurry to get dressed. Being in this cabin with its expensive blackout blinds, I could’ve slept in for hours, but I didn’t want to waste even a minute of my time with the man staying across the hall from me.

“Good morning,” Rachel pops up next to me as I step onto the upper deck and I startle. She moves so quietly; I didn’t hear her approach.

“Hi!” My cheeks flush as I imagine what she may be thinking of me. Thinking of me and Nicky and all the kissing.

“Mr Dimitrios is waiting over there. Would you like a coffee?”

Ah, coffee. My first true love .

“Yes, please.” I smile as she disappears down the stairs and take in a steadying breath. It was all good in the moment, kissing Nicky like that. But now in the light of day, I’m not sure how to act around him.

Like, what do I do with my hands?

“Cherry.” Nicky’s voice is deep and as yummy as the rest of him. He’s sitting at the table which is set for breakfast, dressed in a pair of beige shorts and a white linen shirt.

I have to swallow down a pool of drool before I can speak to him.

“Good morning.” I pretend to be someone else, someone less awkward, and slide along the bench seat until I’m next to him. He smiles and wraps an arm around my waist to pull me closer, so my thigh is touching his.

Okay then.

“How did you sleep?” He asks as Rachel delivers me my heaven in a cup. I smile at her and take my first sip.

It’s almost as delicious as the man sitting next to me.

“Good.” My eyes dart around the place, avoiding the gaze I feel fixed on me.

“Cherry.” He turns my head to face his with a gentle finger under my chin. “Talk to me.”

I drown in his brown eyes, filled with sincerity and concern. Does he think I may regret that we crossed that line last night?

“I’m awkward and weird,” I blurt out, proving that I am in fact awkward and weird.

His laughter crinkles his eyes and I curl my hands into a fist to stop from grabbing at him.

“I know.”

“And,” I continue, ignoring his quiet chuckles, “I want us to be normal today.”

His face drops. “You want to go back to normal?”

Come on, Cherry. You need to be better at this.

“No!” I grab his face and plant a soft kiss on his lips. His response is immediate, crushing me to him and turning my gesture into something more.

“I want all of that,” I wave to his lips, feeling woozy and breathless from that kiss. “And for us to still be us.”

His body relaxes next to mine. “Well, that’s easy. I wasn’t planning on being anyone else with you.”

Fidgeting with the hem of my frayed shorts, I hesitate, not wanting to bring this up but knowing I have to. “I do think we need to talk about a few things…” I whisper.

He frowns and leans towards me. “Like?”

I wring my fingers and he stops me by taking my hands in his. “It’s just that, you’re still my boss and now we’re kissing…”

He nods, his expression now serious. “You’re worried about the power imbalance?”

Nate’s words come rushing back to me. With Nicky, you have all the power .

I shake my head. “No, not really.”

“Because really, Serena is more your boss than I am.”

This is true. He has no input in what I do and don’t do.

“I guess…”

“Do you want to stop?”

Gosh, no!

“No! It’s just something for us to consider.”

He drops my hands, placing his on either side of my face. “Cherry, whatever you decide, I’ll follow your lead.”

I stare into his eyes, knowing him being my boss is going to be an issue only to outsiders looking in. That there’s no world in which he would use his position to exert any sort of control over me.

“It will be fine,” I say, reaching over and pressing my lips on his. It’s been five long minutes since we’ve kissed and it feels too long. He kisses me back like he agrees and we settle into it like we’ve been doing this forever.

Leaning back with a sigh, I point to the moving horizon. “Where are we going today?”

“Captain Alex proposed we cruise towards St Tropez, stopping along the way at some of the little towns along the Rivera.”

It all sounds so fanciful, like something out of a movie, and I pinch my thigh under the table to make sure I’m awake and not in some elaborate dream where all my wishes come true.

“That sounds amazing.”

Nicky’s grin is wide and joyful. “Great. How about we have some breakfast and then we can drop anchor and go for a swim?”

I can only nod in response, because what he’s just described? Spending a day cruising on a yacht and kissing him whenever I want? It really is a dream come true.

· · · · ·

For the next week, every day is almost a rinse and repeat of the first. Nicky and I share breakfast together on the top deck, followed by a warm ocean swim wherever the captain can find a place to drop anchor.

We spend some afternoons docking at various ports along the way, exploring the most stunning towns and villages, sampling the local food and lying on the uncomfortable pebbled beaches.

On the days we don’t go into port, we spend that time lounging in the sun, soaking up the serenity and the rays with a refreshing ocean breeze keeping us comfortable.

And in the evenings, we experience all the wonders our chef offers, our tastebuds delighting in fresh seafood and perfectly crafted French cuisine.

And during it all, Nicky’s hands were on me.

If he wasn’t holding me close while we ate, he was holding me close while we swam. His hand held mine while we played tourists and explored all the port-side towns, and whenever we were standing still, he was standing beside me with one of his brawny arms holding me close to him.

“I can’t get enough of these lips,” he groans now. We’ve just jumped from the yacht into the crystal-clear waters below and the minute that he emerged, his lips were fused on mine.

Totally not complaining.

“Hmmm,” I mutter. Words lose all meaning when he’s kissing me this way.

“These.” Kiss . “Lips.” Kiss . “Have.” Kiss . “Been.” Kiss. “Torturing.” Kiss. “Me.”

The sensation of the hard kiss he punctuates each word with combines with his cold, wet body pressed against mine, giving me all the feelings.

“These old things,” I tease, pointing to the lips I know are swollen from all the lovely kissing we’ve been doing.

True to his vow, Nicky has kept things very chaste between us, allowing us to indulge in only kissing. A lot of kissing. A lot of intense kissing.

He laughs and pulls me close to him when I pretend to swim away. I wrap my legs around his waist as he treads water to keep us afloat, my arms around his neck bringing my face in line with his.

His perfect, sun-kissed face. With ruby red lips and salt-water curled hair.

“This has been the perfect week,” I tell him, even though perfect feels too tame a word to describe how amazing the last seven days have been.

I’d always known he would be an easy person to be around, but after this week together, I see him in a different light.

When he’s relaxed like this, being with him is as natural as breathing.

“For me too,” he replies, pushing a handful of my hair off my shoulder and planting a soft kiss in its place.

We float together in the warm Mediterranean Sea, lost in each other’s eyes. I revel in running my hands through his hair, soaking in every soft moan I illicit from him as I do.

“Is that your stomach?” he laughs now, looking down at my noisy belly pressed against his.

I glare down at the offending organ. Doesn’t it know we’re having a moment?

“Apparently, yachting Cherry needs feeding every couple of hours.”

He grins, letting go of me and swimming back to the boat. I follow along after him, doing backstroke to conserve some energy. Turns out yachting Cherry is also lazy as well.

“Let’s get you fed,” he says as he wraps a large towel around me. It’s been out in the morning sun and is toasty warm against my skin. I let out a contented sigh and rest my head against his chest. He holds me close and seems just as happy to stay like this as I am.

Gurgle.

“Seriously,” I chide my stomach, my cheeks heating with embarrassment. At this minute he thinks this is cute and all, but it’s feeling like he can’t take me anywhere, without some bodily function making itself known.

“Come on, you!”

He hoists me over his shoulder, firefighter style, and carries me up two flights of stairs and then back down another two. I hang on for dear life, giggling at the absurdity of it all .

“Nicky, put me down,” I protest so weakly we both ignore me.

“Almost there,” he grunts, lowering me from his shoulder to the ground once we reach my cabin.

“I could have walked,” I point out, smoothing down my hair I just know resembles a bird’s nest right about now. In between the salt water and Nicky’s insistent hands, my hair has been in knots all week.

“What’s the fun in that?” He winks at me. I’m wearing my sexy white bikini again and from the way he’s drinking me in with eyes blazing, I can tell he likes what he sees.

I decide to press my advantage. Standing on my tippy toes, I place my lips on his, brushing his mouth ever so softly with mine. He groans and I move in closer, brushing my body ever so gently against his, in time with my lips.

“Cherry.” He sounds pained.

I flutter my eyelashes as I peer up at him. “Yes?”

His eyes narrow, his hands stroking up and down my back. I shudder.

“You know what you’re doing.”