Ellie, on the other hand...
He headed towards the promenade, moving past little groups sitting at wooden tables, dining out in the sunshine.
He was running late, which was a pain in the neck, but he could rely on Ellie doing everything that needed to be done—from pouring glasses of whatever had been provided by the five-star caterers supplied by the hotel, to taming the young men, and adroitly introducing them to what their roles would be once the company became his. For they would retain some shareholding, with his blessing.
Right now, she would be toeing just the right line between chatty and polite and professional and efficient. He wondered which of her‘dressed for a normal working day’suits she would be wearing, and found himself absently toying with the fascinating notion that she might have leapt out of her comfort zone straight into something that wasn’t grey or blue.
In contrast to Naomi, he realised, Ellie, with her quietly unostentatious clothes and neat appearance,didn’tjar.
Up ahead, he spotted the Catamaran, which he had rented for the day, with a hold on it in case he needed it again. It was in a league of its own, gleaming black, its massive twin hulls holding bedrooms, a dining area and somewhere to relax away from the blistering sun.
Maybe, he mused idly, he should take a break from the high-maintenance woman with all her tiresome needs, and demands which always ended up surfacing sooner or later. Maybe he should opt forsoothing.He worked all the hours God made and his life was high octane, high stress and high risk. Maybe soothing would work for him. Were there any soothing women in his proverbial little black book? None that he could think of.
Disgruntled mood disappearing with every step closer to the Catamaran, James was in high spirits as he boarded the waiting yacht. No one was on deck, which meant that work was probably under way in the cool, below-deck room which he had specified had to multi-function as a conference area.
He heard voices as he nimbly hopped onto one of the hulls, steadying himself on the railing.
Voices and laughter.
He had no idea what he’d been expecting, but whatever it had been certainly wasn’t what greeted him when he ducked down into the spacious living area, with its in-built cherry-wood seating and the matching sideboard groaning under the weight of food and drink, courtesy of the very capable catering staff at the hotel.
The businessmen were there but business didn’t appear to be under discussion. Bottles of beer nestled in hands and used plates told a tale of lunch already having been taken. Unless the business in question involved the uproarious telling of jokes, this was a social gathering, not the work situation he had envisaged.
And Ellie...
He wasn’t sure what shocked him more—the fact that she was wearing a colourful sarong and a vest top that advertised a body that had largely been invisible in all the time she’d worked for him, or the fact that she was drinking a bottle of beer.
What the hell was going on here?
Why was she drinking? Of course he’d seen her drink before. But always wine. A civilised glass of premium Sancerre at one of the company get-togethers. He’d never had her down as a beer girl!
And where was the tidy skirt? The neat blouse, top two buttons daringly undone because of the searing heat? Where were the sensible shoes?
And she waslaughing!
James was taken aback by the depth of his shock when, taken individually, none of the things were in themselves shocking. People wore small clothes in hot weather. People drank beer. People laughed. What was the big deal?
Furthermore, hadn’t he encouraged her to dress for the weather? Hadn’t he been guilty of gently teasing her about her prim outfits, his tone of voice encouraging her to dare to break the mould?
Well, she had broken the mould,and then some.This was adifferentEllie. This Ellie was confident and assured, and her covert sexuality was out in the open big time.This Ellie was a woman he had not glimpsed before. She was positively modest in her dress compared to the women he dated and yet she still had the irresistible appeal of a siren. He had to drag his eyes away from her and kill a jealous suspicion that he was probably not the only one appreciating the assets on view. He didn’t do jealousy—never had, never would!
From where she was sitting, relaxed but still fully in charge of the three high-spirited young men who were so much like the guys at the office, Ellie was aware of her boss before he even appeared at the door.
Maybe, Ellie thought, she’d been waiting for him, her attention riveted to that door, her body laced with tension underneath the chat and the laughter.
Yes, this was work, but not as she had ever known it. She had ditched the uniform with a surge of confidence, spurred on by the fact that all her boss’s remarks had somehow made her feel dull and unexciting.
She had felt a thrill of pleasure earlier when she had stood in front of the hotel mirror and inspected the reflection staring back at her. Indeed, she had had trouble recognising herself. Had all those years of heavy responsibility really made her forget how young she still was? She had had to grow up fast to deal with the fallout from her father’s premature death. Had she somehow gone from teenager to middle-aged woman, skipping all the fun bits in between?
The brightly coloured sarong and the small turquoise top were hardly risqué, but she’dfeltrisqué in front of that mirror. She’dfeltwhat she was—a twenty-something girl with every right to have fun.
Now, as James’s eyes swept over her, she refused to be cowed into thinking that she should have dressed as he’d no doubt expected.
Antony, Victor and Sol raised their beer bottles in welcome as Ellie gracefully rose to her feet, bottle in her own hand, and made the introductions.
She moved towards James as he moved towards her, tentatively, to accommodate the faint rocking of the boat as it bobbed on the water.
‘Not quite what I was expecting to find,’ he murmured truthfully, just low enough for her to hear, but his words spoken in passing because he was already beginning to engage with the young men.
