Free The Lust Boat by Roz Lee Page B

desire, but it simmered below the surface of his kiss, warming Candace to her toes. For the first time, she questioned her decision not to sleep with him this early in their relationship.
    * * * *
    Richard was waiting for him when he returned to his stateroom. “Did you forget we have a ship to run?”
    “No. I didn’t forget. Whatever needs my attention, will get it tonight. I doubt I’ll be able to sleep with this boner.” He’d been semi-erect since the minute he laid eyes on Candace, and he didn’t know how much more he would be able to take.
    “I brought up the purchase orders and the kitchen inventories for you. We need to take on a few more provisions at our next port.” He dropped a stack of file folders on Ryan’s desk. “So when are you going to fuck her?”
    “Don’t talk about her that way.” Ryan picked up the top folder and pretended to read the papers inside. “She’s not like the others.”
    “How so? She has all the same parts as the others. How is she any different?”
    “She just is.”
    “That was helpful. I completely understand now.”
    Ryan threw the file across his desk. “Leave it alone, Richard. I don’t want to discuss Candace with you.”
    “Okay. Let’s discuss the ship, then. Are you going to stay on after this cruise?” Richard stretched his legs out in front and sank lower in the chair with his fingers woven together across his stomach.
    Ryan turned his back on his friend and gazed, unseeing, at his reflection in the dark windows. “I don’t know. You know I haven’t been happy for a long time. This life isn’t for me, Richard. I thought it was what I wanted when we came up with the idea, but it wasn’t. It never has been. I want to settle down on dry land, with a good woman, and raise a bunch of kids. I want to coach baseball and mow the yard.”
    “And you think Candace is the ‘good woman’ you’re going to do all this with?”
    Ryan deflated, his shoulders slumped, and his head dropped between his shoulders. He turned to his friend, his eyes shadowed and vulnerable. “I don’t know. I want her to be. She’s everything I’ve been looking for, and more. She’s sweet. She’s intelligent. She’s beautiful and sexy, and passionate and innocent too. She teaches English to junior high kids who probably know more about sex than she does.”
    Richard planted both feet on the floor and rested his elbows on his thighs, lacing his fingers together between his knees. “I hope you’re right, friend.” The room grew quiet as both men contemplated the changes coming in their lives. Richard spoke first. “When we sold R & R for that ridiculous amount of money, and suddenly we could buy anything we wanted, the best clothes, cars, dinner at expensive restaurants, I thought we had it all. What more could we want? The women came out of the woodwork, practically begging to be with us. Not that either one of us did so bad in that area before, but you know what I mean. All of a sudden, we were the hottest things on two legs. Every power hungry, money hungry, desperate woman in the world came knocking at our doors. It was every man’s dream come true, or so I thought.”
    “Are you saying you aren’t happy either?”
    Richard looked up at Ryan. “Yeah. That’s what I’m saying.” Ryan opened his mouth, a million questions on the tip of his tongue, but Richard cut him off. “I’m tired of this too, but I don’t know how to stop the merry-go-round so I can get off. You were able to hole up in here and wait for someone special to come along, but I can’t do that. Someone has to run this ship, be the public persona.”
    Ryan dropped into the chair next to Richard and mirrored his friend’s defeated posture. “I didn’t know. Why didn’t you say something? We can hire a new cruise director. There must be someone out there who can do the job. If we advertised, we’d probably have to rent the Superdome to hold the interviews. Every red-blooded male on the planet