Page 33 of Captain's Orders
"Jordan," Dani interrupted her. "You don't have to sell it to me. I just want to see you. And yes, I'd love to stay."
Jordan smiled and pulled her back down against her chest. She pressed her mouth into Dani's hair and let out a sigh of contentment. "Great," she murmured. "I'm looking forward to having some real private time with you."
"In daylight," Dani said with a chuckle.
"Mm. You might not like me in daylight."
"I doubt that very much."
Jordan's hand drifted low on Dani's back, fingers spreading across her skin. The simple caress was the kind of thing that should not, after the night they'd had, still send heat through her, but it did. Her breath stuttered and a small low pulse started up between her thighs. She shifted against her with a quiet moan, and Jordan's thigh slid between hers in answer. She'd lost any pretense of being subtle about Captain Jordan Hayes.
22
JORDAN
Jordan was in such a stupidly good mood she almost didn't trust it. She'd been on the bridge since six, watching the eastern horizon turn from gray to the soft pink it did about an hour before sunrise on a calm sea, and it had never looked so beautiful as it did today.
The Whitfields were having breakfast and by midday they'd be off the boat. Since she couldn't seem to stop smiling, she was about to do something she hadn't done in years of running charters, which was amble down to the aft deck and personally greet the guests over coffee.
She handed the watch over to Zoe. Zoe gave her a long look on the way past and decided, visibly, not to ask what she was so cheerful about.
The aft deck was laid out for breakfast. Lindsay had produced a serious spread of fresh pastries, a tray of poached eggs, smoked salmon with capers and crème fraîche, sliced avocado, crispy bacon, a charcuterie board, fresh fruit, two kinds of yogurt with toasted granola and seeds, four kinds of juice, a French press of coffee, and a small silver pot of hot chocolate for the children. Dani was refilling coffee and juice, too busy to notice her.
"Good morning," Jordan said to the table at large.
The Whitfields looked up and Gerald lifted his coffee in a salute.
"Captain," he said. "Joining us this morning?"
"Just popping down to say hello. We'll be docking in about two hours."
"Two hours." Sarah glanced at her watch. "Goodness. This charter has gone fast."
"It has," Patricia said warmly. "Far too fast."
Dani pulled out a chair and set a coffee down for her without asking. Jordan thanked her but didn't look up. She couldn't be trusted to look at Dani Ellis right now.
"How's it been?" she asked the table. "We hope you've had a good week."
A chorus. Gerald said it had been wonderful. Patricia said the staff had been fantastic. Caroline said the food had been the best she'd eaten in years. David told her the snorkeling at Allen's Cay had been the highlight of his year, and Mark, beside Sarah, raised his coffee and nodded.
"You really do have a wonderful crew," Patricia said. "All of them."
"Thank you. I'm—yes, I'm very lucky."
Jordan did, this time, glance up at Dani, whose lips pulled into a smile.
Bea, still in her nightdress, was leaning against Sarah and not eating. Jack was poking at his pastry. Emma was staring at her plate with her bottom lip jutted out.
"Are we really going home today?" she said quietly.
"Yes, sweetheart," Caroline said. “You have to be back at school on Monday.”
"But I don't want to go home."
"Oh, Em."
Emma's eyes filled up. "I don't want to."
