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Rows and rows of impressive, shiny boats are lined up ahead of us, and I breathe deeply, inhaling the familiar briny smell of the water as Thorn paces impatiently, obviously ready to get going. Kip reaches for my hand again, but Gulliver drapes his arm across my shoulders and smiles down at me. “You ready?”
I nod, and he guides me forward and away from the car until we reach a metal gangplank that leads from the dock up onto the huge yacht.
Thorn leads the way, rushing up onto the boat and grinning widely as he greets an older man dressed in a white uniform. “Mr. Benedict, she’s all ready. As soon as your guests are all aboard, we can get going. Would you like to helm out of the docks, or shall I go ahead and get us into clear water?”
“Matthew, you already know Gulliver, Davis, and Kip, but let me introduce you to Izabella Rhodes,” Thorn says, his voice polite as he gestures to me.
“Good morning, Miss Rhodes. Welcome aboard The Escape,” Matthew says.
“Thank you.”
“I’ll helm, thanks, Matthew, and I know the guys want to crew, so if you could let control know that we’re ready, we’ll get going,” Thorn tells him confidently.
“Yes, sir,” Matthew says, nodding efficiently before disappearing inside the boat.
“Let’s get this motherfucking show on the road!” Thorn shouts gleefully, and all the guys cheer in response as I watch in confusion.
“We’re all going to crew, so you can either sit out here while we get into clear water or inside; your choice,” Gulliver says, dropping his arm from my shoulders and spinning me around to face him.
“I’ll stay out here, if that’s okay?” I ask.
“Cool, go with Thorn. There are some seats up by the wheel,” Gulliver says, turning and striding purposefully toward some kind of device that he starts to wind with a handle. I’m frozen for a moment, my eyes riveted on the way the muscles in his arms flex and bulge as he works.
Clearing his throat, Thorn smirks and gestures for me to follow him. His smile is wider than I’ve seen on him so far, and it’s obvious that this boat, or maybe just sailing, is his happy place.
“You can sit over there,” he says, pointing to a leather seating area off to the side, and I immediately lower myself into the seat and watch as the guys bustle around doing things with ropes and shouting things back and forth in a way that says they’ve done this all a hundred times before.
Matthew appears, speaks to Thorn, then crosses to where we boarded and unties the ropes holding the walkway to the boat, passing it off to a man I hadn’t noticed standing on the dock.
Several moments of busy action pass as I watch the guys maneuver the huge yacht away from the dock and out of the marina into open water. The wind whips against my face, and my hair blows behind me as the boat effortlessly eats up the water, moving quickly, until the marina and all of the boats are nothing more than dots in the distance.
When I’m sure I won’t be in the way, I stand up and move closer to the roped-off edge of the yacht, looking down into the dark-blue water beneath us and the waves hitting the boat as we glide along.
“What do you think?” Thorn asks.
“I love it,” I answer honestly.
“Do you want to steer?” he asks.
“Really?”
“Yeah, come here,” he says, laughing at my very obvious enthusiasm.
Carefully, I walk over to him, and he talks me through how to steer and how to see which direction we’re heading in. The boat’s wheel is huge, and I grip it tightly, then experimentally turn it one way, watching in surprise as the huge yacht responds to my command.
“You’re a natural,” Thorn praises, dropping into the seat I was in before and stretching out his legs, his head tipped back as he basks in the warm sun and cool wind.
“Hey, I don’t really know what I’m doing,” I tell him when he actually closes his eyes.
His laugh is carefree and light. “We’re in the middle of the ocean without another boat in sight. You’ll be fine.”
A giggle falls from my lips, and I turn to look ahead, my own smile almost as big as his. He takes over steering after a while, and I carefully make my way to the front of the boat and find Gulliver and Kip standing, watching the water and chatting.
“Hey,” Gulliver calls when he sees me approaching.
“Hey.”
“You having fun?” he asks.
