The Billionaire Op - Lori Ryan Page 0,21

The other was in a small bay where guests could snorkel and go out in kayaks.

Chad and Jennie were over in the bay, sitting on the edge of the dock as they put on snorkels and masks. They’d decided to skip the flippered feet and just swim around leisurely close to the beach.

“Twenty-seven kayaks,” Jennie said absently as she fidgeted with her mask.

“What?” Chad asked.

Jennie shrugged a shoulder. “I was counting the slots for kayaks,” she said, pointing to the racks that held the kayaks on the side of the bay. “Looks like all but five are out right now, assuming they actually fill all of the slots. I suppose they may have fewer kayaks than the number of slots for kayaks, though.”

Chad let her talk. He was used to this. She just catalogued sometimes. They were both observant, which made them really good at their jobs. But they each observed different things.

Chad watched people. Their movements and body language. Facial expressions, ticks, and tells. He watched their surroundings, always knowing how to get them out of a situation if he needed to.

Not that they needed that in the work they did now. They didn’t do anything dangerous for Sutton. In fact, their version of ‘undercover’ was using their real names, and pretending to be less intelligent than they were.

Chad’s situational awareness was a habit left over from his military tours. He doubted it was something he would ever have to use again. It was something that was so ingrained at this point, it was simply a part of who he was. He had noted the small motor boat tied to the dock because it was a means to escape the area.

Jennie was different. She counted things and noticed details he didn’t. She could tell you if someone wore fake designer clothes or if they were the real deal. She could tell you who designed a person’s shoes and, sometimes, whether their jewelry was real or paste. And, for some unknown reason, things like the number of kayaks caught her eye.

Actually, if he thought about it, he could guess why she’d noticed the kayaks. Their bright colors. Jennie surrounded herself with bright, happy colors.

The outside of her house was a light cheerful yellow. He hadn’t been inside her house, though he’d dropped her off or picked her up a few times. But he would guess the inside would be filled with color as well.

The kayaks were bright red and orange. She would like those colors.

“Come on,” Chad grinned at her. She looked adorable with goggles covering almost half her face. “Let’s go see some fish.”

They jumped in the water and lowered masked faces into the bay.

Before Chad knew what hit him, he heard a shriek and had an armful of sputtering Jennie. She quite literally climbed up him and was clinging to his shoulders, legs and arms clamped around him as high up as she could go. It would be funny to anyone watching.

Chad grinned, trying to ignore his body’s immediate response to her. He refused to acknowledge the fact that at that moment, the string bikini she wore was giving him access to parts of Jennie’s body he’d only ever dreamed of touching. His arms were under her ass, holding her up. The sensations produced by their wet skin were wreaking havoc on his senses, but she didn’t seem to be aware of that at all.

“Problem, Jen?”

She bit her lip and nodded her head.

“And that would be...?” Damn, she’s cute. On any other woman, this would seem like a coy ploy for his attention. With Jennie, it was real. She was well and truly freaked by something and he was more than happy to be her knight in shining armor. Especially when she wrapped her body around that armor.

“The fish,” Jennie said, eyes wide. “A fish touched my legs. It went right between my legs!”

He let a slow smile form. “I need to protect you from the fish?”

She nodded. “They’re huge. And scary. And kind of gross.”

They were pretty big. Some of them were one-and-a-half feet long and about as wide around the middle as Chad’s forearm. He had expected smaller fish, too. But seeing her so freaked out was pretty damned cute.

And holding her was pretty sexy. Really, really damned sexy, as a matter of fact. Chad lifted her up to the dock, then let his hands skim down to her thighs—pretending to be Jennie’s concerned husband did have its perks.

“Want me to hold you in the water