Page 48 of Tainted Love

And speak of the devil…

I see him standing at the bow, hands in the pockets of his shorts and looking out. All mine. I never knew I was possessive before now.

At the sound of my bare feet on the deck, he turns, welcoming me into his arms. ‘Have fun?’

I slip my arms around his waist. ‘I did. I like your boat.’

‘Ourboat. It does have your name on it.’

Pulling back, I smile up at him. ‘Yes, it does. I like that something is ours. But maybe next time, we could share something like a case of wine. A yacht seems a tad extreme. We’re in prenup territory.’

His happy mood dissolves in a nano-second. ‘Prenups are for people who intend to break, Scarlett. Nothing is going to break us. Do you hear me? I won’t let it. Everything I have will be yours.Everything.’ He takes my hand and places it across his chest. ‘You already have the one thing I thought I’d never give away. If you break it, I don’t think I’ll survive.’

‘That makes two of us.’

He drowns me in a slow, tender kiss.

‘Sir, a drink for sail away?’

Gregory keeps me tucked to his side as we accept champagne from Bertie.

‘Pol Rodger Sir Winston Churchill 2002, like you asked.’

‘Thank you, Bertie.’

‘Would you like lunch when we’re asail, sir?’

Gregory nods. ‘Yes, thank you.’

‘After lunch, I’d like to talk you quickly through the plans forBlack Diamonds,’ I say. ‘As in the game, not the stones on my finger.’

‘All right. Not too long, though; I want you to have a break. You need one.’

‘Yes,sir.’

Williams crosses the deck to us, his free arm loosely resting on Amanda’s shoulder. ‘All right, you two, a toast. To finally getting your shit together.’

‘Heartfelt, Williams, thanks,’ I tell him, smirking as we clink glasses.

Bertie serves up chicken Caesar salad and cool Semillon-Sauvignon. We eat in the shade, a welcome break from the stifling heat. Everything seems right somehow. Williams and Amanda are happy. Gregory and Amanda have gone forty-five minutes without a jibe passing between them. My perfect man is eating with his left hand as his right strokes the fourth finger of my left.

Yet, I have the same lingering feeling I’ve had since Katrina Martin showed up in Dubai. This is just a hiatus. Somewhere, she’ll be thinking up her next move.

‘All right, lady. Shall we talk aboutBlack Diamonds?’

‘Oh, hell, I’m off if you’re talking work.’ Amanda is out of her seat quicker than she’d hit Harrods in a flash sale.

‘Mind if I hang around?’ Williams asks.

‘Not at all.’ Gregory pushes his seat back from the table, his elbow resting on the red tablecloth, his index finger and thumb pinching his chin.

‘I just want to bring you up to date with the plan. I get that you want to takeBlack Diamondsoff the market to protect theJail Runprofits but just buying the game doesn’t stop somebody else from coming out with a replica or the actual game if they somehow got their hands on the source code. Now, it can be tricky to register intellectual property in gaming software, particularly app-based games. Well, I don’t need to tell you that; look at the hitJail Runis taking thanks toBlack Diamondsbeing a similar concept.Butwe do need to get you some registered intellectual property rights to give us a starter for ten if someone tries to rip off the game. Otherwise, you’re right back to paying seven hundred and fifty thousand and employing a new software developer.’

‘I have a feeling he’ll come good,’ Gregory says, more to Williams than me.

‘I agree,’ I admit. ‘But the point is valid.’

‘And accepted.’