Hawaiian Affair (Part 1 of 4) (Hawaiian Affair - 30 days to sign the deal - and stay out of love) Read Free Page A

smartly.
    ‘A
reason…? Ohhhh I’ve got it! You’re here for Mario’s birthday aren’t you! But I
thought we ordered a policewoman.’
    ‘I
am not a stripper-gram!’ she said.
    ‘I
was teasing…’
    ‘Oh.’
    ‘…his
birthday’s not till Friday.’
    Much
as she didn’t want to – Sadie had to smile. He’d caught her.
    A
very smart Alec.
    ‘So,
what are you doing here? You don’t look like the usual posh yacht
people.’
    ‘You
saying I don’t belong? Huh! So says you , with the heavy London accent,’ she
said. Got him.   She could hear a little chuckle. ‘ Well what,
exactly, do the usual posh yacht people look like then?’ Sadie asked.
     ‘Oh,
I don’t know,’ he replied, ‘stuffy, stuck up, boring as hell and seriously,
seriously unattractive. You’re none of those.’
    Okay,
this man is the devil. He
had to be. Every time she was about to get angry with him, he took the wind
right out of her sails.
    ‘Really?’
she almost cooed like a teenager. ‘So you think I’m…’
    ‘…not
stuffy. Yes.’ Trampling right over her moment of glory - and he knew it. ‘And anyway,’
he added, ‘you didn’t answer my question. What’re you here for?’
    Sadie
looked up at him – and for a brief moment she wondered, yes, what AM I doing
here exactly?  Making a right royal mess-up of being away on my own, that’s
what.
    Sadie
winced as she remembered her plane journey – feeling stupid for thinking you
have to travel smart in Club Class. No one else had – scruffy-chic was more the
order of the day. And the real reason why she was right here right now - the
kind women who’d given Sadie the ticket. Plus they’d clearly felt sorry for her
and took her under their wing when she was still standing at the luggage
carousel long after everyone else had collected their cases and gone. She
couldn’t help but accept their offer of a lift to the quay after all that
kerfuffle at the airport. It was their fault she’d become curious enough to go
party-crashing. And her own fault for doing it.
    And
now she’d been sucked into a surreal conversation with some strange deckhand
who obviously thought she was a bit of an idiot. Perhaps he was right.
     ‘Actually,
I think I’m just lost,’ she said.
    ‘In
life? Or just today?’
    He
stepped down the gangplank towards her.
    Sadie’s
usual laser-sharp retort evaporated on her lips at the sight that came into
focus before her.
    He
was tall – tall and lean.
    Attractive
in a rugged sort of way - if you like them rough and ready. And Sadie did. The
problem was, her pounding heart forgot she was on a ‘Man-Ban’.
      He was wearing shorts. Just shorts. All that stood between them was a pair of oily cut-offs and a spanner.
    ‘UH-ohhh,’ she murmured. She
wished she hadn’t, but it happened all of its own accord. Uh-ohhh. There
it was again.
    This
man was gorgeous. She fanned herself faster with the brochure. He spotted it.
    ‘Ahh,
I see you’re viewing today? Well you’re not very lost at all – this is
the Nomad . The Nomusa is a few berths down.’ He wiped his hands
on a dirty cloth hanging from his pocket and smiled. By now, Sadie was in a
complete trance.
    Hot
Boat Guy waited for her answer, but it didn’t come, so he smiled a bigger
smile.
    ‘Oh,’
she replied eventually, ‘you mean the blue boat down there. Yes, I’ve
just been round it, actually.’ He waited as if wanting her to say more. ‘ Nomusa  means merciful you know,’ she added.
    ‘And…’
 
    ‘And?’
She had no clue what he was asking.
    ‘…and
what did you think of it? The “blue boat”?’
    Oh
God is he seriously going to quiz me on it? I can’t say I wasn’t supposed to be
there, I just wanted a nose-round and a free glass of champagne.
    ‘ Actually, it’s ...not quite what I was
looking for,’ blagging as if her life depended on it.
    ‘Not
big enough?’ he purred.
    The
corner of his mouth curled and Sadie felt like a rabbit in the headlights. Her
blush