Page 30 of Out of Reach
“No, I’m afraid I don’t.”
“That’s too bad. It’s a very relaxing sport.”
Jude gave Hawk a small smile before taking his next bite, and Hawk wondered what he was thinking. Was he encouraging him? Trying to appear like a boyfriend? Amused that Prescott had asked him about fishing? He wasn’t sure.
Hawk was disappointed that he hadn’t been able to find anything of note in Prescott’s office, but he wasn’t going to linger on it. They’d be leaving the next morning, and a day spent on a yacht didn’t sound so bad. Especially with Jude there beside him wearing a bathing suit.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Jude
Jude rubbed a generous amount of sunblock into the skin of Hawk’s broad, muscular back until the lotion was completely absorbed.
“Thanks,” Hawk said into the towel under his head. His eyes were closed, and he looked relaxed and at ease.
Realizing that maybe he’d been rubbing lotion into Hawk’s skin for a little too long, Jude stood from the deck chair and wiped his hands on a towel.
At the bow, Sam stood helping Eliza cast her fishing line over the railing. Jude was relieved that Sam had someone else and wasn’t going to be pursuing him. They’d had a nice talk as they’d watched the sun rise that morning, and Jude felt better about the end of their relationship than he had when he’d arrived. He supposed that in itself was reward enough for the trip. Idly watching them, he wondered if Eliza knew what she had gotten herself into. Was she content being with a man with so many secrets? Sam had been in a good mood all afternoon, joking and being charming with his guests—well, maybe not with Hawk. But that was Sam’s pride talking, and Jude couldn’t exactly blame him. Sam’s chef had served them a delicious lunch in the dining room of the yacht. The afternoon had been leisurely after the debauchery of the night before—something Jude had been happy to miss. He’d never been into that kind of stuff.
With a sigh, he stretched out in the lounge chair next to where Hawk lay on his stomach soaking up the sun and tried not to stare at the man’s perfect ass in those navy swim trunks.
“What’s wrong?” Hawk murmured, turning over onto his back.
“Nothing. Why do you ask?”
Hawk slipped on a pair of mirrored sunglasses. “Bullshit.”
Jude couldn’t help but smile. Hawk always had been able to tell when something was bothering him.
“I was wondering if you were getting a sunburn, that’s all,” he lied.
“You’re worried about me?”
“I just don’t want to hear you whining about it later.” The boat rocked beneath them. Jude watched a flock of seagulls diving for fish, their cries breaking the quiet of the afternoon.
“Are you looking forward to going back home?” he asked Hawk after a few moments.
Hawk sighed. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean? Don’t you like your job?”
“Sure, I like it fine.”
Jude watched Sam throw back his head and let out a booming laugh at something Eliza said.
“You’re not much of a conversationalist, you know that?” he said.
Hawk sat up, adjusting the back of his chair so he could face Jude. “What do you want to talk about?” he asked.
Eying him suspiciously, Jude considered. “Tell me about your job.”
“It pays well. Sometimes it’s exciting and other times really boring. I like the people I work with.”
“What’s the most fun you’ve had on a case?” Jude asked.
Hawk seemed to consider. “Probably when I had to entertain a rich Egyptian heiress in LA while her father went to business engagements. I took her clubbing. She loved that. Evidently, she never had any fun when at home.”
“I’llbetyou liked that,” Jude said wryly.