Jinx's Fantasy - Pepper Winters Page 0,11

craft is swift and one of the fastest we’ve designed, but she isn’t suitable for long journeys out to sea. If there were a storm between here and there, I fear she might not weather well.”

Sully narrowed his eyes. “And this boat will?”

“Calypso is fitted with automatic stabilisers, top-of-the-line ballasts, and onboard levellers to prevent seasickness. Her autopilots and numerous engines prevent capsizing better than any other vessel in high winds and waves.” Elder took Tasmin’s hand, subtly and smooth, keeping their linked hands hidden behind his back. The fact that he’d had to touch her, even while doing business, made me smile.

I hadn’t been able to decipher Elder all that well. His stern face and unreadable black eyes gave nothing away about who he was, but he couldn’t hide the protective possessiveness he felt toward the quiet, quick-to-jump-but-fast-to-smile woman who’d captured his heart.

“Pim and I endured a storm ourselves.” He cracked a rare smile. “A tropical typhoon caught us while we were out to sea. It was...an experience.”

“Pim?” I asked.

Elder’s jaw clenched. “Slip of the tongue. Tasmin.”

“Pim is...” Tasmin spoke up in her husky voice. “I guess it’s a nickname. Pimlico—like the train station in England.” She braced herself, standing taller as if shoving away past memories.

I narrowed my eyes at the history in her tone. Had something happened at that train station?

Tasmin caught my stare, and her guarded fierceness that I’d seen a few times on the tour blazed in her green eyes. “The storm was ferocious.” She laughed lightly, dispelling whatever had brewed inside her. “I didn’t have enough respect for the ocean back then. I was new to the sea and decided the best place to ride out a storm with waves bigger than us was on the balcony.”

“Oh, my God.” I gasped. “I’m surprised you didn’t fall overboard.”

“She would have if I hadn’t strapped both of us to the railing.” Elder’s black gaze smoked with other things that’d happened that night, not just wild weather.

I smiled and nodded politely. “I’m sure she was grateful you kept her safe.”

“I’m grateful every day,” Tasmin murmured, her body curling closer to Elder’s.

Elder cleared his throat and gave her a look before his face slipped back into indifference, and he resumed his attention on the contract Sully had just finished reading.

“Everything in order, Sinclair?”

Cal had been reading over Sully’s shoulder, and he answered on Sully’s behalf. “And the warranty is fifteen years?”

“If something breaks in twenty years, I’d be suspicious you weren’t the cause.” Elder scowled. “My builders are meticulous, and our products are high end. The warranty is merely a formality. I give you my word that this yacht is built to the highest of standards and will last long after you are dead.”

Cal pursed his lips as if to argue, but Sully nodded. Placing the contract back onto the bar, he said, “It all looks satisfactory. Apart from one minor detail.”

“What detail?” Elder frowned.

Sully looked up, catching my stare before his attention swept over the gorgeous sun-drenched lounge and out the windows to his islands beyond.

Large ones, small ones, all of them cradling us with their palm trees and reef breaks, housing so many rescues and rehabilitation centres.

He was ready to go home.

Me too.

Smiling gently in my direction, Sully muttered, “It’s not me who needs to sign.” Holding up the expensive-looking pen Elder had given him, he motioned me closer. “Eleanor.”

I padded to his side, hiding the flutter in my belly as my skin kissed his when he passed me the pen. Electricity sparked in our fingers as it always did when we touched. “You sign. Rapture is your baby, and this yacht officially belongs to that company.”

“But we’re both directors of that company.”

“But you’re the managing shareholder.” He smiled, wrapping my hand around the pen and pressing the nib to the contract. “Rapture’s success is all down to your innovation and ideas. Calypso is yours.”

I looked across the bar where Tasmin watched me carefully. Her eyes had widened at Sully’s abdication of authority to me, as if she wasn’t used to men being nice to women.

Our gazes caught.

They held.

Then she smiled and nodded, her shoulders relaxed and her head tipped to lean on Elder’s shoulder. I didn’t know what’d happened to her, but everything seemed like a shock to her system, followed by swift acceptance. Almost as though she’d been denied basic kindness and now found the very hint of it absolutely shocking, followed by a reminder that simple sweetness shouldn’t be a rarity but common.

Sully