Bring the Heat by Margot Radcliffe (13 ebook reader .txt) 📕

“Imagine only having this for years. Every woman my parents tried to set me up with and I was more content with just having this, as unsatisfying and unfulfilling as it was. Because all that time it wasn’t you, but hell if just the little I had wasn’t enough.”

Then the blindfold was gone, the vibe was removed, and he was breaching her, his wide head finally giving her that stretch she’d been desperate for. They came together then. He unhooked her hands so she could hold him against her as he used her body, as she did the same to him, and she knew she had all of him and she gave him all of her.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

OLIVER WOKE UP to an empty bed, which he hated after such an epic night with Molly. After that shitty phone call with his parents yesterday he’d been so enraged that he was surprised he’d pulled it together to speak at all, let alone have a coherent conversation that had ended in the hottest sex of his life.

A smile on his face, he went through his morning routine, knowing that Molly was somewhere on his yacht taking care of things. He suspected she was in the engine room as she normally was in the morning to make sure everything was functioning properly. She’d also do a run-through of the entire yacht, from the kitchen appliances, toilets, sinks, faucets, lights. He loved her thoroughness, loved watching her work. Loved her, really, which felt weird to admit to himself and not to her this morning.

But he knew he did. It had taken that conversation with his parents to realize it, to crystallize all the feelings he felt for her into one bright, beautiful thing. But if this lush lightness and simultaneous rich fullness that opened up inside him when he thought of her wasn’t love, he didn’t care to experience it because this was perfection enough.

Throwing on a pair of board shorts and a T-shirt, he was looking forward to today when they’d sail away from Grand Bahama Island, the chef now safely on board, for Nassau, one of his favorite places in the Caribbean.

When she wasn’t in the engine room, Oliver went to the kitchen, where he found her with her head inside one of the ovens and giving directions to the wiry British chef who’d come highly recommended.

A metallic bang sounded before she popped out, grinning when she caught sight of Oliver. “The oven had low power, apparently, but I fixed it,” she said, twirling a wrench in her hand. “The power from the main box was frayed so I replaced the wire. You should be good to go.”

Liam, the chef, regarded Molly with stars in his eyes. “You are a genius,” he beamed, and Oliver hated the stupid flip of the man’s abundant brown hair. And disliked it even more when the chef turned to him. “She has already fixed the blender and the can opener. A true marvel of engineering.”

“Well, she builds rockets,” Oliver informed him, “so I don’t think the can opener stood a chance.”

And then at the error in Oliver’s judgment that had been meant to communicate that he knew Molly better than the chef and didn’t need the man to educate him on what a genius she was, Liam fell deeper into his effusive compliments before asking, “You build rockets?!”

“Build is a strong word,” Molly laughed, “but I’m on the team that creates the plans for them, yes.”

“Darling,” Liam said, laying a hand on her arm that Oliver wanted to throw off and use to flip him over with. “What are you doing fixing ovens on a boat? You are not meant for such work.”

Oliver wanted to roll his eyes. Maybe he would have been fine cooking for himself for the rest of this trip if he knew he was going to be subjected to his guy mooning over Molly the entire time.

“I’m on a sabbatical from work,” Molly told him. “I’m just helping Oliver out and taking an extended vacation.”

Liam’s eyebrows rose. “You two are friends?”

Oliver took that moment to pull Molly into his side. “More than friends.”

“But you are working on the boat, too?”

“I’m also working on the boat as captain,” Oliver reminded him, his irritation growing.

“Working for my stay was really the only way I would agree to come aboard for such a long time,” Molly explained. “I couldn’t accept a trip of that magnitude from Oliver without giving him something in return.”

Liam seemed to consider this.

“But the salient point here,” Oliver clarified, “is that we are a couple, I own the boat, and Molly is a guest so she’ll be treated as such.”

She sent him a bland look, but as Liam looked between them both and understanding dawned, Oliver didn’t much care what the consequences were, but if he found Liam flirting with her again now that he knew Molly was with him, Oliver wouldn’t think twice about throwing him overboard.

“So I do not call you if I have an electrical problem?” Liam asked, worried now that he’d made a mistake.

Molly reached out to put a hand on his arm but Oliver’s body stiffened, so she drew back at the last moment, frowning deeply at him. And yes, that had probably been too much, but in his defense, he hadn’t even known he was doing it. It had been a purely visceral and involuntary animalistic reaction that he had no control over.

“Of course you call me,” Molly assured him, a bright smile on her face. “Oliver just meant to say that you’ll always be cooking for two. It’s just that because he’s an ass those weren’t the words he used.”

Oliver snorted and took her hands in his. “I apologize, Liam, if I was rude,” Oliver told him, not in the habit of being surly to anyone let alone the person who was responsible for feeding him and could therefore choose to poison him at any moment. “Molly’s very special to me and