Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
The corner of Theo’s lips tilted. “My father taught me a lot of things when I was younger, especially when I first started Envizion. And one thing that always stuck with me was that you should treat every employee, regardless of position, like a guest in your home.”
“That’s a really kind and generous way of looking at things.”
Theo shrugged. “He always said running a business should be similar to being the head of the family. You work hard as a team, you go through hardships as a team, and you celebrate as a team. You have each other’s backs — always.”
“It sounds like you two are close.”
Theo swallowed, busying his hands with one of the bottles behind the bar. “He’s my role model. Always has been.”
I felt the urge to inquire more, to ask question after question until he told me everything about himself. But before I could, Theo’s eyes found mine, and this time, the intensity with which he watched me walk in with was back.
“You know, you aren’t the only one surprised tonight.”
I cocked my head.
He gestured to where I was hiding behind the corner of the bar. “You look radiant.”
Theo’s words were soft, subtle, his eyes genuine where they watched me. I looked away on a blush, smiling and shaking my head in disagreement. “It’s just the makeup. And the suit. Neither of which are mine.”
“I disagree.”
I rolled my eyes, turning to face him, but when I saw the way he was watching me, my attempt at playfulness slipped.
“It’s you,” he said. “No matter what you wear.”
I swallowed, my neck burning like a hot iron.
He made his way over to me, leaning his elbows on the bar until his face was just inches from mine. He lowered his voice, the bass of it echoing through my chest like a kick drum.
“However, if you were mine?” His eyes traced their way over my collarbones, down the line of my cleavage, to my waist, my hips, my thighs, and back up again. “You wouldn’t have even made it to that top stair before I was dragging you back to the room for my eyes only.”
My lips parted of their own accord, shock buzzing low in my stomach at his forwardness. “Theo…”
“Don’t say my name like that, Aspen,” he warned, his eyes flicking to where I’d pinned my bottom lip with my teeth. “Not unless you want to unleash a part of me you haven’t seen yet.” His jaw tensed. “A part of me I can’t tame once it’s loose.”
All those warning bells I’d silenced over the last few weeks rang in tandem, dinging and screaming inside my mind as I tried to convince myself he couldn’t have possibly just said what I thought he did.
But before I could respond or digest it further, Joel called my name, and then a chorus of Aspen, Aspen rang out, and I had no choice but to follow the coax.
Theo leaned back with a grin, tipping an imaginary hat toward me like we’d just been having a casual, light conversation.
And with my water in hand, I joined the rest of the crew at the pool just as the sun set, ushering in a hellish night that would change everything.
The later it got, the more the alcohol flowed.
And the more the alcohol flowed, the more I wished I’d never left the stateroom.
What started out as nice cocktails by the pool turned quickly into lines of shots. The crew went from lounging around and chatting to cannonballing into the pool and playing drinking games that seemed so ridiculously out of place on a multi-million-dollar yacht that my lip visibly curled at the sight.
Theo had taken leave of his offer to serve us, but he sat at the bar, watching the antics with a curious smile permanently on his face. Every now and then, he’d even indulge the crew in taking a shot with them. Somewhere around eleven, he excused himself with Wayland to go check on Captain Chuck, who was the only one of us still working, and the crew partied on in their absence.
I’d asked Joel if we could head out over an hour ago, but he’d pretended like he didn’t even hear me at all. And I wanted him to have fun, I did — but I knew him well enough to know he was teetering on the edge of cute drunk and messy drunk, and I did not want to deal with the latter.
Contrary to the fact that I wanted to leave now, I had been enjoying myself. It was fun, being in a pool on the top deck of a yacht in the Tyrrhenian Sea. I got to chat with Emma more, hear stories about Wayland’s time growing up in Jamaica, and Joel was being flirty and cute and fun.
The problem was — he wasn’t being flirty and cute and fun with only me.