I’m not kidding when I say I need you. As my assistant. We’re setting sail first thing tomorrow so—”
Gina snapped her head up. “Setting sail? For where?”
“For Catalina island. You should have been briefed during the first interview with Helen in Personnel. It was a stipulation of the job.”
Wade seemed full of surprises. First he stunned her with that incredible kiss and now this unexpected announcement of an island trip. “I wasn’t informed about a trip.”
“You knew about the latest project the company plans to bid on. It could be the biggest contract in Triple B’s history and I intend to get it. It’s right there in the file I gave you to review.”
“Yes, but I didn’t think—”
“It’s the reason for the big bonus, Gina,” he interrupted to clarify.
“But that’s what I don’t understand. That’s a great deal of money for a trip to Catalina. It’s only a few hours away. Surely, one day isn’t worth such a large sum of money.”
“One day? Gina, we’ll be on that island for a minimum of one week and I guarantee you’ll be working long hours.”
Gina slumped her shoulders. “One week?”
He nodded. “Seven days, including the weekend. So are you in or am I going it alone tomorrow?”
Gina slammed her eyes shut. She hated her own cowardice. She hadn’t been on the water in any capacity since the boat accident that claimed her parents’ lives. She’d dealt with the guilt at being the sole survivor, but she hadn’t been forced to face her fear—until now. And she was ready. She’d been praying to find a way to conquer her anxiety and now she had the opportunity. If she didn’t face her fears, she’d not only lose the revenue to rebuild her future, she’d lose part of herself all over again.
Gina made a split-second decision. She needed this job for more than one reason. But she would accept the position under one condition, and one condition only. “I’m in. Under one condition.”
Wade narrowed his eyes. “I don’t usually—”
“We keep it strictly business.” Gina had allowed personal feelings to get the better of her in business once before and that had landed her with a pile of bills, slimy pawnshop receipts and creditors pounding on her door. She couldn’t let that happen again to her pocketbook or her heart. “Agreed?”
Wade’s lips thinned.
She stood her ground and kept her focus on his unflinching face.
Finally Wade nodded. “I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do. Now, let’s go over those files. I don’t want to get you home late. We’ll be setting sail at eight sharp.”
Gina drew in a deep breath wondering how she would fare spending her days and nights with the only man who could anger her, confuse her and make her ache desperately for his touch.
I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do.
Great, she thought ruefully. She’d just realized that Wade hadn’t agreed to her terms at all, but instead, issued her a challenge.
She felt herself slowly sinking and she had to paddle fast to keep from going under. Which was saying something for a woman who had a dire fear of water.
Three
The next morning, Wade watched Gina make her way down the ramp that led to his docking slip at Marina del Rey. He’d told her to dress comfortably for the trip over to the island but as he watched her descend the steps he was almost sorry he’d given her that instruction. Her flowery sundress hugged her body perfectly and the tight white jacket she wore only accentuated her full breasts and slender waistline. July breezes lifted the hem enough to show her shapely legs as she strolled toward him. She’d pinned her hair in that knot again, but the breezy weather wouldn’t allow it and those chestnut tresses fanned out in tempting disarray. The vision she created of simple elegance and unquestionable beauty turned heads at the marina. Wade winced as he caught men stop what they were doing on their boats to watch her walk by.
Wade muttered a curse and told himself this was a business trip where he needed to keep his focus. He’d never let a woman get in the way of what was important to the company. Yet, when Gina approached his yacht he had a hard time remembering that. He peered up from the stern of the boat to greet her. “Morning,” he said, none too pleasantly.
“Good morning,” she said, but her eyes weren’t on him, or his yacht. They focused off in the distance, to the ocean that lay beyond the calm marina.
“You’re right on time.”
She took her eyes off the ocean long enough to answer, “Thanks to the driver you sent to pick me up.” She bit down on her lip and stood there looking quite businesslike, her chin at an unapproachable tilt and her stance slightly rigid. But that dress…that dress could make a man forget his own name.
“Come aboard,” he said, putting a hand out to help her.
She scanned the length of the boat and drew a deep breath as if steadying her nerves.
“You haven’t changed your mind, have you?” he asked.
She gazed once more at the ocean beyond the marina and shook her head, but her soft tentative answer left room for doubt. “No.”
Wade gestured with his outstretched hand. “Come on, Gina. We have to set sail soon.”
From the minute he’d seen it, Wade had known he had to own this fifty-two-foot Jeanneau sloop. It hadn’t mattered that he didn’t know how to sail. He’d made it a hobby and a far-reaching goal to master the craft when he’d first arrived in California. And he’d never been sorry.
Gina’s gaze scanned the deck and the steps leading to the quarters below. “I don’t see the crew? Are they late?”
“You’re looking at the crew.”
Gina’s dark almond-shaped eyes opened wide. “You?”
“Sam’s the pilot in the family and I’m the sailor.”
He stepped from the boat onto the ramp and grabbed the suitcase from her hand. “Come aboard and I’ll show you around.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Gina accepted his help and he guided her down onto his boat, releasing her the moment her feet hit the deck.
“I had no idea this was how we would arrive in Catalina.”
Wade had purposely left that detail out. He didn’t know how she would’ve reacted to his sailing them across to the island. Some people got jittery when they realized only one man had full charge of the boat. But that was what appealed to him most about sailing—the solitude and the challenge of being at the helm. And since he’d had a hard enough time convincing Gina to take the job last night, he’d thought it best to leave their travel arrangements out of the conversation.
His old man once told him that timing was everything. Wade believed him. He knew that after that kiss last night and then the untimely
