days were spent running that grueling hamster wheel to nowhere, wishing I could fall off and find true happiness in my career, the hospital sucking everything out of me. But I trusted my gut more than anything; therefore, I knew there was a reason this man was sitting across from me, and I knew it was time to give my heart to someone other than Boston.
He rose from the table and came over to my side, helping me stand. He hauled me against his muscular frame, an intense power holding us together, nothing capable of invading. Tingles erupted through me as his tongue slowly slid over mine, his mouth owning each of my movements.
When he pulled away, I could still feel him.
“Come on. Let’s go for a drive.”
He linked his fingers through my grip and led us around the pool and down to the grass. Just as I was about to ask why we weren’t headed out front, I realized he was referring to the boat. I’d been admiring the vessel since we had arrived. The shiny black exterior and white seats were so sleek and modern, extremely masculine and sexy, just like Caleb.
“The Office,” I read as we reached the back, the name printed in large letters.
“Fitting, isn’t it? Fun, naughty, and very creative.”
I laughed. “You need to elaborate; I’m lost.”
He stepped on first, holding out his hand for me to grab, and I carefully crossed the open space and entered.
“People assume my job is nothing more than a formula, plugging numbers into the computer, watching my clients’ money rise and fall. Some of that is true, but managing wealth takes creativity and balls and a hell of a lot of self-confidence. You have to learn to trust yourself, like you’re on the water, in the roughest winds and the highest seas.”
He turned on the engine, and a humming vibrated through the floor. Blue lights filled the interior and illuminated the ocean around us.
He sat behind the wheel, and I chose the seat across from his, taking in the scents and sights from down here. There was something about being in the waves that made me feel closer to the sky.
As music began to play through the speakers, I looked at him and said, “Explain to me where the naughty fits in.”
He laughed. “I have seven hundred and fifty horsepower on the back of this baby.” He drove away from the dock, going slow as we moved across the channel.
“I have no idea what that means.”
“You will once you see how fast this goes.”
Even with all the beauty around us, I couldn’t stop focusing on Caleb, at his concentration while he steered us, at the way the breeze flowed through his hair, revealing all the angles of his face.
My breath halted when our eyes connected; he’d caught me staring at him.
A smile crossed his charming lips, and he said, “Whitney, it’s time to hold on.”
I grabbed the handlebar on my left side, my arm braced around the back of the chair, and within only a second, it felt like the wind was taking me away.
Twenty-Five
When Caleb finally slowed down the boat, there wasn’t a part of me that wasn’t windblown. My hair had turned wild, and my laughter was out of control, my smile reaching all the way to my ears. Aside from being in an airplane, I’d never felt speed like that before, and I was beginning to understand his love for adrenaline. Whether I was in the air, parasailing; or in his car, rushing down the New Hampshire interstate; or hauling across the ocean, it brought me to a place where nothing mattered aside from having fun. Where everything around me melted away.
Except for him.
The sky had darkened, the blue interior lights showing the glow of his fingers as they reached across my thigh. “What do you think?”
“Oh, I just fell in love with boating. Hard.”
He laughed. “My girl.”
He took us toward an inlet that was surrounded by tall trees, ending with a small strip of sand. We didn’t go as far as the beach, stopping quite a distance before. The boat idled as he opened a compartment, taking out a large anchor that he dropped overboard.
“I found this spot last year when the boys and I were down here, vacationing. It’s a perfect place to watch the sunset.”
“It’s too bad we missed it.”
He came closer, lifting the bottom of his shirt, tossing it on one of the seats. He slid out of his flip-flops and shorts,