Lingerie. Much more interesting.
He leaned in for it and winked Emma’s way cheekily, damn sure he was getting an eyeful of that baby.
He held up a corset type thing, all lace and structure, and really wanted to not be picturing it on her
right now, but his mind was making a good go of it. She whipped it out of his hands almost immediately
and threw it off behind him toward a tall glass set of drawers with a hint of a blush. Not that he minded;
his thoughts had definitely gone down the gutter, and that wasn’t a good thing.
“Most of it still has tags, Jake, she should return them.” She sounded childlike and almost hopeless.
Lifting clothes up in frustration at him. Jake raised an eyebrow her way at the cuteness of that
statement. The money he had Donna spend on clothes for Emma was nothing in the grand scheme of
things.
“Just give them away, Emma, they’re already paid for.” He shrugged nonchalantly, sometimes he forgot
that she didn’t come from his world. She fitted in so effortlessly, so graceful, and never balked around
grandeur. She really was fucking perfect.
“Jake, there’s thousands of dollars’ worth of stuff here.” She sounded frustrated with him, but it only
made him smile. She had no idea how cute she could be; one second all seductive and irresistible and
the next childish and endearingly sweet, so much so it gave him the urge to squish her. Adorable was
the only word he could conjure up for her sometimes. He had never been one to think any girl was that,
but Emma sure was.
“And?” He just shrugged, he honestly didn’t care. It was just money.
“So, I should just donate it? … What I don’t need?” She asked sardonically, eyeing him up in her
haughty PA way. She tried this look on him a hundred times a day, but it had zero effect. He found it
entertaining that she could close down anyone in the building with a glare, yet to him, it was just
amusingly cute as fuck.
“They’re your clothes, mio amore.” He shifted on the floor picking up another dress, this time having a
closer look at it and looking at her as he tried to picture her in it. She threw him a disdainful look and
started throwing items to the door for donating, a look on her face that almost said it was painful for her.
Emma would need to get used to money if she was going to stick with him, he had no intention of
seeing her live a life without it, even if she never saw him as anything more than a friend. He would
always take care of her.
“You’ve never worn this?” He raised an eyebrow at her questioningly. It was pretty; somehow her. He
wanted to see her wear it; red and floaty and short. Not too clingy yet romantic and something he had
never seen her try.
“Nope.” Blunt and to the point, she barely looked its way, but he was determined now. She would look
good in red, she had the fair hair and porcelain skin to pull it off. Her blue eyes would make it
perfection.
“Why not? It’s nice, kind of cute, but sexy.” He held it up to get a better idea of the style and really tried
to picture her in it.
“Where would I wear it?” She smiled his way a little unsure.
“Take it with us on our trip. Parade around on deck for me in it.” He put the dress on the bed to make
sure it got kept with the clothes she was keeping, he wanted to see her in it more than anything. He
wanted to see Emma dressed all girly and floaty and carefree. More than he wanted to see her in her
underwear, which completely confused him.
Was Carrero losing his edge? Libido wavering? Turning into a fucking woman?
“Just the two of us?” she asked him nervously and it distracted him, he couldn’t help but feel the
sunken weight at how nervous she seemed to be with that thought.
“Not if that makes you uncomfortable … I have friends we could invite; my father’s boat has six double
cabins if you want a crowd.” He tried to focus on the clothes on the floor rather than let her see that it
disappointed him—he wanted her alone. Just the two of them, but he knew how disastrous that would
be.
“Who would you invite?” She looked his way with a furrowed brow, cuteness personified, and he had to
fight the urge to smooth it out with his thumb.
“Daniel, a couple of the guys I sometimes take trips with, and whoever they want with them … I was
thinking Leila Huntsberger, that way you could meet Sophie’s new sister.” He tried for nonchalant and
seemed to pull it off, picking names right from the top of his head. Leila would like her, he could see
them gelling and that made him happy. He wanted his friends to like her. Daniel had finally stopped
leering her way whenever they crossed paths after more than a dozen death threats from him.
“So, they’re going to be couples?” She looked scared suddenly and that familiar gut kick hit him.
Fuck. Always a reminder of what they would never be.
“Really, Emma?” He sighed in irritation at the reality of this situation, annoyed and being an asshole.
She hadn’t done anything wrong. “What do you think I’m going to do? Try to seduce my PA because
we’re surrounded by couples and I’m incapable of abstaining from sex? I may always be trying to chat
you up but I’m not an idiot. I know where the boundaries are, bambino.”
Yeah, sure he did … He just chose to fucking forget them frequently.
Asshole.
“No, it’s just … it will be awkward.” She looked at the clothes and started pulling through them,
obviously avoiding his eye. He sighed at making her feel this way. Softening his tone and trying to stop
being a dickhead.
“Why?” he said softly.
“They might think we’re …” She hesitated and caught his eye. Jake tried to relax back and look
completely blank. More than anything in the world he wanted her trust, but that spike of irritation still
lingered inside of him though, peeking out.
“Who cares what they think? I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks, Emma … I need a break and so do
you. Stop overthinking and just agree. Besides, they’re my friends, they’ll know right away that we’re
not screwing.” He slid his hands behind his head, frowning at his own snarkiness and tried to shrug it
off. It wasn’t fair on her, his little mood swings because of his feelings for her. She never asked him to
get hung up on her, and she sure as hell hadn’t encouraged it in any way. He needed to stop and take
a step back. Be friends, because if that’s all she was offering then he wanted it. It was better than not
knowing her at all. Life without Emma wasn’t a life worth knowing.
“Okay, for God’s sake.” She put her hands up in defeat, then looked shyly his way with the hint of a
smile. “Don’t laugh, Jake, but I don’t own anything I could wear on a beach or a boat.”
He couldn’t help but smile back at her, at the irony.
She really was beautiful.
* * *
Jake had pulled out all the stops to get the trip together in record time; once he had the idea in his head
and knew she wanted it to happen he was all over it. A few calls here and there and a few nudges and
everything was set. He had steam- rolled over her doubts, refusing to let her back down, and they had
got there without any more arguments. His mind was set to seeing her in a bikini, not that he would be
able to do anything about it, but still. It was a sight he wasn’t passing up. That tense ache in his groin
had only reminded him how badly he needed sex lately. He wasn’t a guy who had ever gone extended
periods without and now here he was, starting to doubt his ability to relax. She would be walking
around semi-naked and he was almost spring loaded like this.
Fuck, he should have gone out in a glory of drink and fucking before this trip.
* * *
She seemed completely in awe of his dad’s cruiser. Jake had seen it a million times, so to him, it was
nothing special. A long yacht, white like every other and sat in an idyllic port surrounded by blue sea
and white sands. Just being surrounded by sun, friends, and her was enough to lift his mood tenfold. If
he could push the lustful thoughts aside, they could have a really good time here.
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