Ivorie's Surprise [Golden Dolphin] (Siren Publishing Classic) (2 page)

She had always seemed a little timid but resolute, and she did not usually seem to be easily flustered. It took a lot to bring the glimmer of tears to her long, dark eyelashes. She was a beautiful young woman with thick golden hair, a creamy complexion, and caramel-brown, doe-like eyes. She was curvy, just shy of voluptuous. The elegant lines of her body and the natural rhythm of her hips had caught his eye the first time he had seen her. He was really glad Ivorie was to accompany him instead of that paragon of virtue, Ms. Winthrop, whom he had inherited from his father. He couldn’t imagine the austere Martha Winthrop on a BDSM cruise. That thought strained the bounds of credulity. He had intended to take his ex-fiancée, Eugenia Cartwright, on this trip, but they had an unexpected parting of the ways when he had finally figured out that she loved his bank statements more than she loved him.

Ivorie James must have been shocked when she realized just exactly what kind of cruise this was. He grinned to himself as he watched her hips sway. He hadn’t decided if he would introduce her to his BDSM world or not. She might spend the trip in their temporary office, or she might spend it cuffed to his bed. He thought he would just play it by ear. He had been assured that there were several attractive and willing subs among the crew, as well as a couple of single female passengers who were interested in sub training. But he was really tempted to see just how far he could take Ms. Ivorie James.

Ivorie followed Drew into the Master Suite aboard the
Golden Dolphin
. She was nervous and didn’t know exactly what was expected of her.

“Have a seat, Ms. James. Why don’t we dispense with formalities for this trip? You can call me Drew, and I’ll call you Ivorie.” He smiled his devastating smile at her, but she wasn’t falling for it. She had seen him turn at the blink of an eye from charming to demon over a typo.

“Thank you, sir,” she said with a formal tone to her voice that she had learned from Ms. Winthrop. Despite his invitation to sit, she remained standing. He frowned but said nothing. “If you don’t need anything at the moment, sir, I’ll go down to the office and check on things.” She was anxious to get out of the suite and away from him. A pleasant and smiling Drew Blessingame was an unnatural phenomenon not to be trusted in her book—sort of like the quiet before the storm.

“Fine, Ivorie. I’ll see you at seven o’clock in the main dining room for dinner.” He smiled again, flashing his dimples.

“Well, sir, I have been eating with the crew…”

“Well, you’re not eating with the crew any longer. I’ll see you at seven.” His voice had hardened to the tone she was more familiar with. He turned abruptly away from her and walked toward the door to the deck.

“That would be fine, Mr. Blessingame, ah, sir, I mean Drew.” This was totally unexpected and most unwelcome.

* * * *

Drew frowned at his reflection in the glass of the door leading out to the deck.
Am I that much of an ogre that my assistant can’t get out the room fast enough and doesn’t want to eat dinner with me?
He thought back to his limited interactions with Ivorie James and had to admit to himself that maybe he was. He knew he’d jumped down her throat over a couple of things that might not have been completely her fault. Phone calls from his ex, for one thing. He knew that Eugenia was not to be denied by an employee when she wanted to get through to him. Those reprimands might not have been completely fair. Then there were a couple of draft letters with typos…He realized that he might need to make a little more of an effort to be pleasant if he expected to overcome Ivorie’s reticence to be in his company. He had planned to take this trip with Eugenia before their blowup. Jamie Devereau, an old friend and his roommate from Harvard days and the owner of the
Golden Dolphin
through one of the family subsidiaries, Devereau Shipping, had encouraged him not to cancel or postpone the trip despite his breakup with Eugenia. He was probably right. Sitting in the office brooding about his lack of good judgment where she was concerned would not be nearly as much fun as chasing down and subduing the impenetrable Ms. Ivorie James. Drew had been on a business trip in Europe and had been very disappointed to miss Jamie and Anne’s wedding, which was held on the
Golden Dolphin
’s Key West to Yucatan shakedown cruise the previous month.

Captain Constantine Cortelis, the thirty-eight year old Greek master of the
Golden Dolphin
, stood back from the console on the bridge overlooking the array of navigation screens. “John, let me know when you’ve input the way points in the navigation computer and rechecked the latitude and longitude on the paper charts,” he told his navigator, John Donato.

“Yes, sir. Programming is almost complete. Pending weather updates, etcetera, we should be set to depart on schedule Sunday evening, cross the Gulfstream out into the Atlantic with our first port of call Gustavia, St. Bart’s, arriving on Wednesday morning at 10:00 a.m. That’s if we make good all of our way points and stay on course and speed. I don’t anticipate a problem.”

Con had gone over the charts and the proposed course for the twenty-four-day roundtrip cruise from Key West to Manaus, Brazil and back with his navigator and the chief mate and second-in-command in detail, and he had signed off. The ship would be departing Key West at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow after the remaining passengers had boarded. Except for some training runs and the shakedown cruise with the owner and his wedding party, this was the first cruise of the
Golden Dolphin
under Con’s command.

The chief mate, Alexander Dragados, and the chief engineer, Edward Cervantes, joined Con on the bridge. “We’ve reinspected the RO units and the generators, and everything is online and operating at full capacity. The fresh water tanks are full, the fuel tanks have been topped off, and we’re ready to go from an engineering standpoint,” Alex said as they came through the door and onto the bridge.

“Navigation’s online as well,” John Donato reported.

“Where’s Saltydawg?” Con asked Alex about the short, squatty, mud-brown English bulldog who was the unofficial mascot of the crew. “I haven’t seen him today.”

“He’s visiting his head on the stern.” Alex had built a small, portable, waterproof rectangle that he had lined with sand and sod squares and placed on the lowest stern deck off the crew’s dining room for Saltydawg’s comfort station. Saltydawg had been traveling with them since he was a puppy, and he had shipboard protocol and the procedure down pat. He even had his own GPS chip embedded in the navy-blue rubber collar he wore. On the rare occasions that it wasn’t convenient to have a dog aboard, he was left with Alex’s mother in Miami. Con knew the dog enjoyed being spoiled by the older woman, as well as running and chasing squirrels in her large grassy yard, not to mention playing with the score of grandchildren she usually had visiting. That being the case, they never felt guilty abandoning him to Abuela Maria. There were precious few squirrels on board the ship, although Saltydawg never seemed to tire of the hunt.

“Casey reported this morning that all of the stewards and ABs are aboard.” Alex smiled. Casey Campbell was an eyeful. Con knew that both he and Alex certainly found the curvy, redheaded chief steward and purser very tempting. The fact that she was a submissive without a Master at the current time only added to her appeal.

“Excellent. We’ll have clean water and light for our illustrious passengers.” Con turned to smile at his men. Con and Alex had worked together before and had recruited all of the senior crew themselves. They had left the second-tier stewards and able-bodied seamen, or ABs, to Casey and Eddie. “Alex, has Casey scheduled all of the shore leave for the crew?”

“Yes, the rotating schedule is posted in the crew’s dining room. We won’t be short staffed before we leave. She’s apparently got it under control.”

“What about housekeeping and the galley? Are all supplies and food aboard? Has the safety officer confirmed the crew’s training status, reviewed everyone’s STCW ratings, CPR, and first aid credentials? Since this is a new crew and we don’t know everyone personally yet, I want to be sure they’ve all been checked and double checked.”

Gregory Dempsey, the safety officer and head of security, stepped onto the bridge. “Yes, sir. I’ve personally reviewed the crew’s safety and seafarer ratings and TWIC credentials. We’ve run two complete safety drills, deployed lifeboats, and checked all safety equipment including life jackets. I’ve had several security meetings with the stewards and ABs on my special security detail. As you know, the members of the special crew are all ex-military, and we’ve test fired, cleaned, and secured all weapons in the weapons locker below. Once all of the passengers are on board, Natasha and I will conduct a lifeboat and life jacket drill. All crew that are already aboard are wearing the blue rubber identification and GPS bracelets. Once all passengers are on board and have been introduced to the bracelets, no one will be able to get on or off the ship without one. They are fairly unobtrusive, and I don’t think anyone will object to wearing one once they know the reasoning behind them. We’ll be able to monitor the location of all crew and passengers once we boot up the system. We’ll go over that with everyone at the lifeboat drill.”

“Good. Everything appears to be shipshape. I’m going ashore for dinner and drinks tonight. Alex, you have the bridge. See you in the morning.”

Ivorie sat at her desk checking e-mails after putting the finishing touches on her refitted office. Casey, the chief steward, had been very helpful in obtaining the desks and office furniture she needed to set up a fully functioning office at sea. She had shipped all of the computers, office equipment, and supplies to Key West from their main office in New York. It all looked very professional. Now all she had to do was keep it that way.
What was that all about? Call me Drew? As infrequently as possible, thanks very much
.

At thirty-seven years old, Drew Blessingame was one of the most handsome men she had ever seen, models and movie stars
not
excepted. He was also one of the most difficult.
Talk about high maintenance. He is the definition of the term.
And now she had to have dinner with him. What else was he expecting? She knew he had recently parted ways with his fiancée, Eugenia, and wasn’t that sad? Now there was a first-class bitch—that was for sure. Ivorie had had to deal with Eugenia too many times while she and Mr. Blessingame were still together to feel any sympathy for her. She had made Ivorie’s job a nightmare. She was spoiled, selfish, and demanding, and totally without a care for anyone else’s problems. Eugenia had been the direct cause of more than one stinging set down when, at her insistence, Ivorie had interrupted His Highness during an inopportune moment. Ivorie had finally toughened up and totally refused to put her calls through. The last time had resulted in Eugenia coming into the office at full steam to ream her out and burst into Blessingame’s office unannounced. She had interrupted an important meeting with some Japanese businessmen, who, to say the least, had been horrified. Ivorie wasn’t sure, but she thought that last instance had lit the fuse that resulted in their explosive breakup. She was sure she was not still on Ms. Cartwright’s Christmas card list!
Ha! As though a lower level employee had ever been on it
.

Ivorie finished up the few remaining office tasks, forwarded several important e-mails to Mr. Blessingame’s iPhone, and prepared to return to her cabin to rest and get ready for dinner with
Drew
.

Just as she was shutting down the computers, Drew stuck his head into the office and smiled at her. “Would you prefer to have dinner ashore tonight or eat on board? We’ll be at sea for a couple of days before we get to St. Bart’s.”

Her stomach did a nervous dance.
Is he actually being thoughtful and considerate? Nah, not possible
. “Whatever you would prefer, sir.”

“Ms. James, when I ask for your opinion or for your preference, I want it. If I don’t ask, assume that I don’t. Now, what would you prefer?”

“Aboard will be just fine, sir.” That way maybe she could find a way to cut the evening short.

“I believe I asked you to call me Drew.”

“Aboard will be just fine, Drew.” Her stomach quivered.

“Much better, Ivorie. I’ll see you at seven in the lounge. We can have a drink before dinner, maybe watch the sun go down.” He ducked back out of the doorway and closed the door behind him.

Ivorie collapsed back into her chair and took a few deep breaths. When she thought her legs would hold her, she returned to her cabin through the connecting door, changed into a pair of shorts and a halter top, and went outside. Even though her cabin was far smaller than even the smallest suites, it was still really quite large and comfortable. It boasted a cozy sitting area, a very luxurious bathroom, and its own private deck. She intended to make use of the private deck as often as possible, starting right now. She sank down onto the double lounge, stretched her legs out, and breathed a deep sigh. The sun sparkling off the turquoise blue water was stunning. She thought about what to wear that evening and decided on a simple but flattering little black silk dress and strappy heels. It wasn’t too short or overly sexy, and she surely didn’t want to give off come-hither signals to Mr. Blessingame. Her choices were limited in any event. She had tried to pack for every eventuality, but with casual and beach clothes, office clothes, and evening clothes for over three weeks, she had had to draw the line somewhere. She hoped that she would be able to carry on an intelligent conversation and keep her dinner down at the same time. Ivorie was uncertain what her duties were to encompass and what her hours would be. She certainly hoped she would not be at his beck and call twenty-four-seven. This was looking like it could turn into a nightmare.