trying to balance three books atop my head in a bikini?”
I couldn’t resist a grin of amusement as the books tumbled from Delaney’s head again. She cursed as she wobbled unsteadily while bending to retrieve them.
“Listen,” I explained oh so patiently (as is my oh so generous way) as Delaney bobbed this way and that trying to balance the stack, “as far as I see it, Benson and I here went out of our way—”
“Terribly out of our way,” Benson echoed as he plucked the strawberry garnish from the lip of his tall strawberry daiquiri glass.
I nodded in agreement toward Benson and continued, “We gents went terribly out of our way to give you the best deportment lesson in all the land.”
“Or on sea,” Benson added, adjusting his oversized sunglasses.
I snapped my fingers and said, “Excellent point, my fine Benson. Ms Evans, we are providing you with the best deportment lesson in all the land and sea.”
The yacht rocked on a particularly choppy wave and Delaney stumbled on her long legs to collapse against the railing, clinging to it as the boat pitched this way and that.
“Oh, how terrible!” I cried. “Benson, your sunscreen fell off the little table there.”
“Pity,” Benson replied, obviously not giving a single fuck as he stretched out with a lazy yawn.
“Delaney, darling,” I said, waving a hand, “fetch Benson’s sunscreen, would you?”
Delaney glared at me as she struggled to get her ridiculously tall heels underneath her, slipping and sliding like a new-born fawn on a winter ice rink.
“I fail to see what this has to do with learning how to become a part of high society,” she said through gritted teeth.
The yacht pitched forward and Delaney’s skin turned a shade of green.
“Woah,” I said, clutching the sides of my luxury lounge chair. “That was a big one.”
“Fuck—” Delaney had to stop to slap a hand over her mouth.
“Me?” I supplied with a beaming smile.
Delaney groaned miserably and pushed herself back up almost upright. She gripped the railing tightly.
“Your books went that way, I think,” I said. “Is that port? Stern?”
“Starboard, sir,” Benson mumbled with his eyes closed, soaking up the sun like a lizard.
I smiled at Delaney and said, “Your books went starboard.”
“Do you think this shitty fucking shit is funny?” she asked irritably.
I swatted enthusiastically at my oldest friend. “Benson, Benson, new curse alert. Did you hear, Benson? Benson? Benson?”
Benson’s only reply came in the form of a low rumble of a snore. I drummed my fingers in slight disappointment against my sun-warmed abs and then turned to Delaney with a shrug.
“It’s okay. I’ll just tell him later,” I said. “Shoulders back, Ms Evans.”
Delaney’s ankles quivered as she struggled to find her balance with her hand hovering above the railing.
“I hate this,” she complained as she folded forward and then arched back like she was about to fall off a balance beam.
I tsked her as I stretched my arm sneakily across Benson’s sun reflector with the intention of nabbing his poor neglected strawberry daiquiri. I wrongly assumed he was asleep and was punished with a quick slap across my knuckles. Nursing my stinging hand, I sank back against my lounge chair and eyed the wobbling and teetering Delaney.
“We’re all making sacrifices here, love,” I told her.
Delaney managed to straighten out completely only for another wave to send her crumbling like a rag doll to her ass. She slapped the deck in frustration and I quite liked what that did to her tits in her black bikini top.
“Really?” she said. “Really? You’re making sacrifices?”
“Why, yes,” I replied, thumbing over at Benson, who was snoring again. “Do you know how many hookers Benson here normally brings along out on the yacht when a lady in training such as yourself isn’t present?”
“I’m just here for the strawberry daiquiris, Ms Evans,” Benson said.
I glanced over at him. “Still not asleep, eh, pal?”
Delaney gave up trying to get back up onto her stiletto heels and instead flopped backward, long arms and legs extended in a star shape like she was on a field of white about to make a snow angel. I sighed and sat up.
“Ms Evans, if a deer wobbles in front of the lion, the lions eats the deer.”
“You just wanted to see me in a bikini,” Delaney groaned. “Because I have nice fucking tits.”
I grinned. “Well, nobody is denying that. But deportment is an important part of your high society education.”
Delaney pushed herself up onto her elbows. The wind caught strands of her long dark hair