The Ruthless Gentleman Read online Louise Bay

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I headed toward the stairs, my heart thumping. It wasn’t as if I was doing anything wrong—the captain had asked me to check things over.

Even if I didn’t find anything, I might get a clue as to why someone wealthy enough to charter a boat like this would happily drink tap water and didn’t bother to tell us his food or drink preferences. How someone that good looking could be in this Mediterranean paradise alone. Even if he was working, didn’t he want to have dinner with someone? I’d never come across rich men who didn’t have attractive girls happy to spend time with them.

I grabbed a couple of clean towels and some cleaning wipes from the laundry room. As I got to the bottom floor I held my breath and listened up the stairs to see if anyone was coming. The distant sound of the dryers in the laundry room was the only thing I could make out.

I pulled out my keys and unlocked the door to the master suite. I glanced around and couldn’t see anything out of place. It looked like it had when I’d shown him into the room. Except, where was all his stuff? I opened the drawers by his bed. There were a couple of notebooks in the top and some old-fashioned manila files and a tablet in the bottom drawer. I shut the drawer and headed toward the closet. He’d unpacked and hung everything up neatly, including the suit he’d arrived in. I straightened out the hangers, an earthy, masculine smell winding itself around me. He seemed to have yacht-appropriate clothes, so I had no idea why he might have arrived in a suit, even if it did fit him as well as it did. Maybe he’d had a really early breakfast meeting? I checked the drawers and found nothing but his underwear. I lifted the suitcases that were stacked to one side but they seemed empty. After checking the bathroom and seeing nothing that would concern the captain, I swapped out the hand towels, wiped the sink and did a final scan of the room. There was a book by his bed. It wasn’t any request from Captain Moss that made me look closer. The Martian. An old photograph being used as a bookmark peeked out from the top. Intrigued, I slid my finger through the pages to reveal the entire picture, peering closer. It was a smiling family lined up with their arms around each other’s shoulders with some trees in the background. Two teenagers at one end of the picture then their parents. One of the boys was Hayden, his hair slightly floppier than he wore it now, his body a little less filled out but still handsome. He must have been eighteen or nineteen. The boy next to him, who must be his brother from the chin and the nose, wore a crew cut. I couldn’t help but smile at the happy scene. There was nothing cold or mysterious about the younger Hayden. Nothing private in his huge smile.

I snapped my head around at a creak from the staircase and held my breath. August and Skylar knew they shouldn’t come down here. I replaced the book and scurried to the door to listen.

It must have just been an odd sound of the boat.

I reached out for the door handle so I could leave before I got caught but froze at the sound of a man clearing his throat on the other side of the bedroom door. Shit. We were only a few hours into this charter, and our guest might be about to leave. I glanced over my shoulder. For a second I considered hiding in the closet but that would just get me into more trouble. The jangle of the keys on the other side of the walnut divide meant there was no going back.

I pulled open the door and came face-to-face with Hayden Wolf.

Six

Hayden

I hadn’t been on this boat a full hour and already things weren’t working out. I’d given specific instructions that these rooms down here were to remain locked and that I should have the only keys. “What are you doing down here?” I snapped at Avery, trying to stay calm, but my fingernails were digging into my palms.

Avery swallowed and bowed her head in a gesture that in any other situation I might have found arousing, but right now, I wanted answers. “I’m sorry. I was just checking you had everything you needed. Providing fresh towels, freshening up your room. That’s all.” She lifted her arms to show me the hand towel I’d used once that she was grasping.

“Everything I needed? What I need is privacy—people keeping out of my business.” Should I just pack my bags and leave? I glanced behind her at my room. What had she been doing in there? I’d taken so many precautions. “Why are you snooping?”

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