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‘And I needed to leave the party,’ she added. ‘Is that enough of an explanation for you?’ she finished, but the stubborn tilt of her chin and the direct stare totally ruined the almost contrite effect.
‘Not hardly,’ he replied. It had to be the oldest cliché in the book, but when her back straightened, and those huge eyesnarrowed, he had to admit, she was even more attractive when she was staring daggers at him. ‘I’ll need a much more specific explanation of why you climbed aboard my boat and tried to pinch it,’ he added.
She looked so mad, she couldn’t speak—and he was actually starting to enjoy himself, more than a little.
Although he wasn’t sure what was more satisfying, having a Cade family member at his mercy, or the way her face looked even more stunning when she glared.
‘That is,’ he continued, ‘if you don’t want me to have you arrested.’
She hissed something under her breath that sounded like ‘rich people’ and not in a complimentary way.
‘Fine, arrest me!’ She threw up her arms in exasperation. ‘But you’ll end up getting charged yourself with wasting police time when it turns out this was all a massive misunderstanding.’
‘Perhaps I’ll settle for slapping you with an enormous lawsuit instead, then.’ He rubbed his sore backside, pointedly. ‘Fifty grand for every bruise ought to make you think twice beforeborrowinganyone else’s boat without their permission.’
‘Sue me, too, then.’ The daggers became broadswords as the last of her fake regret went up in smoke. ‘But I have a grand total of one hundred and sixty-two euros in my account. So a ten-second call to your lawyer will cost you more than you’ll g-get out of m-me.’
The threat would have been more convincing if her teeth hadn’t chattered right at the end.
‘A pauper who wears designer couture and is Brandon Cade’s sister?’ he scoffed. ‘I think I’ll take my chances.’
He knew what poverty looked like—because he and his mother had lived on the thin edge of it during most of his childhood—and she wasn’t it...
‘This dress isn’t mine,’ she said. ‘I borrowed it from Lacey. And I’m not Brandon’s sister, I’m his sister-in-law and I’m certainly not his responsibility. If you sue me, you’ll be suing complete nobody Milly Devlin, who is about as far from being worth suing as you are from being an ugly humble pauper without a gargantuan ego.’
He had to bite his lip to stop from chuckling at her outrage. And her back-handed compliment. So, she didn’t think he was ugly. Good to know. He’d take the hit about his gargantuan ego, because she wasn’t wrong about that. Yes, he had a very healthy ego—which he had nurtured from a young age, to see him through the deprivations and humiliations of his childhood.
Her comment about Cade was also illuminating. It seemed she was not one of the man’s acolytes and didn’t enjoy his largesse. But he knew enough about Cade to know he was fiercely protective of anyone he thought ‘belonged’ to his family, and his wife’s sister would no doubt qualify. Even if she didn’t seem to think so.
She shivered again, dramatically. And he sighed.
‘Here...’ He dragged off his jacket and dumped it onto her shoulders—no point in having her freeze to death before he’d got any useful information out of her.
‘I didn’t ask you for your j-jacket,’ she said, still shivering.
Her fierce expression made it impossible for him to contain his amusement any longer.
‘What are you smiling at?’ she asked indignantly, which only made his smile widen. Her snarky attitude was actually rather refreshing. Who knew?
‘You,’ he said. ‘You’re incredibly ungrateful for a boat thief.’
‘For the last time, I’m not a boat thief, I’m a boatborrower.’
‘Whatever...’ He stepped to the console and fired up the boat’s engine. He wasn’t ready to let her go yet, but he also did not want to give her pneumonia, which left only one option.
She grabbed the console when he wheeled the boat around and headed towards Isola Estiva—the coastal island he had bought two summers ago, but had rarely had the time to use, until now.
‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked, gazing longingly at the lights of Sorrento, which were disappearing in the distance at a rate of knots as he drove past Capri and out into the Gulf.
He gave her a quick once-over. ‘To my private island, where I plan to sleep on what the hell to do with you. Because I’m too tired to decide a suitable punishment tonight...’ Which was not untrue. A decent night’s sleep had eluded him for months now, as he pushed himself and his business to the limit. And he hadn’t taken a proper break in over a decade—which was precisely why he’d been so deeply asleep when she’d woken him up.
‘But you can’t! That’s kidnapping!’ she shouted over the wind and the slap of the waves on the boat’s hull.
‘Kidnapping, huh? That’s rich, coming from a boat thief...’
‘I’m not a flipping...’ she yelled back then swore as she was forced to grab the console again. ‘Oh, for Pete’s sake, I give up.’
‘Sit back and relax,’ he said, enjoying her exasperation, almost as much as the sight of her body draped in his jacket. She was a petite little thing, the jacket reaching almost to her knees.
