"His family doesn't know, so his cousin asked me to play his date while he's here," she admitted quietly.
"Ah." He nodded. "Good to know."
"Why?" she asked at once.
"It means you're still on the market," he said lightly and grinned at her.
Carolyn shook her head and settled back in her seat, her gaze sliding over the two dozen passengers. Every single person was part of a couple, of course, except for herself and the crew. How depressing was that?
"So is it always honeymoon central here?" she asked abruptly.
Captain Jack shrugged. "It's that time of year. From Valentine's till June we usually have a lot of honeymooners."
He took in her expression, and then stepped back from the helm and held out his hand. "Come here. The mascot gets to steer the boat for a while on these cruises.
It's in the rules."
Carolyn hesitated, but then decided, why not? It was better than sitting there staring at the couples billing and cooing around her.
"Here come the shuttles for the tour."
Christian followed the driver's gaze to three minibuses trundling toward them. After a night filled with incredibly erotic, but frustratingly interrupted dreams, Christian had gotten up and stood watching at the windows until he'd seen Carolyn and Bethany leave their villa to board one of the resort vans. He'd turned away then and gone into the bathroom to splash water on his face and brush his teeth, and had been coming back out ten minutes later when he saw the van pull up in front of the villa down the hill again. Frowning, he'd paused, watching with surprise as Bethany had gotten out and rushed inside.
Christian had wondered briefly why the woman wasn't on the cruise, and where Carolyn was, and then had found himself throwing on clothes and hurrying down to the main building.
He'd found Genie almost at once and learned that Bethany had returned on her own, leaving Carolyn alone on the boat. When she'd then offered to transfer Bethany's ticket to him, and arrange for a car to take him to Soufriere to meet up with the tour, he'd immediately agreed.
"And there is the boat," the driver said now, drawing Christian's attention to a large boat with a crowd of people on it. It was still a distance away, but he thanked his driver, tipped him, and slid out to walk to where the boat would dock. It took him a moment to spot Carolyn, mostly because he'd started out looking for her among the passengers. Not finding her there, he turned his attention to the helm. His eyes widened and then narrowed as he spotted her at the wheel, laughing at something a shaggy-haired mortal was saying.
Christian scowled when the shaggy-haired guy stepped up behind Carolyn, his arms enclosing her as he clasped the wheel around her body. Christian's mood and expression didn't improve much when Carolyn laughed and ducked out from under the man's arm to escape the intimate hold. She didn't move far away, just to a seat next to him and she seemed to be having far too good a time.
Christian didn't like the appreciative way shaggy was eyeing her either.
A growl caught his ear, and Christian actually glanced around before he realized there was no one nearby and that the sound had come from his own throat. Forcing himself to relax, he tried for a casual smile as he waited for the boat to dock.
* * *
"Isn't that band boy?"
Carolyn lowered her water bottle to glance around to where Captain Jack was peering, her eyes widening when she spotted Christian onshore.
"He doesn't look happy."
"He plays in a band, I doubt he's a morning person," Carolyn murmured as she noted that while Christian was smiling, it was more a baring of teeth, and tension was in every line of his body. "I wonder what he's doing here."
"Joining the tour would be my guess," Jack said. "He must have missed the boat. That's one of the resort cars leaving."
Carolyn glanced toward the car now trundling away from the dock, noting the resort logo.
"Well, at least I know you'll have a girlfriend to keep you company on the land side of the tour," Jack commented.
Carolyn turned to scowl at him. "That's just mean."
"No." He grinned. "That's relief because I don't have to worry about competition from a younger man who's built like a fricking male model."
Carolyn just shook her head, not taking him seriously.
The man really was a flirt, and he was just doing as Genie had asked and making sure she enjoyed herself, she thought as her gaze slid back to Christian.