The Millionaire's Tainted Legacy

Temptation

Sharing a berth with Caylee? This was not a good plan, Tito thought as he watched her teaching one of the younger boys - Diego - some sailing techniques. The kid had good hands, and a willingness to learn.

Of course, with Caylee as his teacher, it was no wonder he was catching on. She had a way about her that made you forget her mother came from a long line of generational wealth in the Northeast, and her father was connected, however tenuously, to British royalty.

She stood up, stretched, the thin white shirt she'd put on over her bikini  to protect from the sun billowing out in the breeze, looking out over the sparkling water toward the horizon, her hand shielding her eyes from the brightness. Then she turned, suddenly, and looked right at him, and smiled. Tito felt the air whoosh out of his lungs and could only stare back as his heart plummeted helplessly. This thing between them. It wasn't supposed to be serious. It wasn't supposed to be real.

Now, what the hell was he going to do?

He went below deck, telling himself he just needed to check his phone for any messages from his assistant Ella. But when he got to the small cabin he just stood there staring the berth. It was large enough for two, just barely.

His concern about wanting privacy instead of a boat full of people nearby the first time they had sex had been replaced by a new concern. Getting deeper into a relationship with Caylee would be a mistake. He didn't fit in her world. If he touched her tonight - the way he was feeling right now - would he ever be able to let her go?

* * *

Why was she nervous? Caylee wasn't sure which worried her more - that Tito would reject her tonight, or that he wouldn't.

This trip was the first time she'd had a chance to observe him up close and personal working with the kids, and he was impressive. He managed to maintain the perfect balance between friendship and discipline. He could joke around with them but he never lost his authority. This program was going to be a success, giving these kids a new chance in life, and Tito was the reason.

Spending two nights in a cottage in Bimini with wild sex and blindfolds and whatever other crazy ideas Tito had in mind was going to be so much fun. But she was starting to think that sharing a berth with him in the small cabin had the potential to be a lot more intimate. And she wasn't sure exactly how she felt about that. Tito was so sure that their very different backgrounds meant there could never be anything serious between them. What he didn't seem to be able to understand was that she didn't give a crap about all that society and lineage and proper breeding stuff that dictated how her mother lived her life.

Just look at her sort of cousin Jack. He was now happily married to the caretaker's granddaughter, and his mother Catherine had grudgingly accepted Bailey. Not that it made one bit of difference to Jack. He cared what Catherine thought just about as much as Caylee cared what her own mother thought - which was not at all. The last little thread of her that had wanted to live up to her mother's expectations had snapped when her mother hadn't taken seriously the fact that Gregory was stalking her. All her mother had cared about was what it looked like at the club for a Chandler to have taken out a restraining order against a Van Haverton. Instead of being frightened for her, Caylee's mother had been embarrassed by her.

And if her snooty family's opinion didn't matter to her, then why should it matter to Tito?

Not that Caylee was thinking about marriage or anything like that.

It was just that the more time she spent with Tito, the more she realized she didn't want this to be just a fling. His bad boy image was sexy, but his heart was solid gold.

She couldn't help smiling at him as they all sat on deck at the end of the day, the kids eating as if they'd been starved for 10 hours instead of having had a huge lunch of you-peel-'em shrimp when they'd moored the boat and taken the tender to a dockside restaurant near Key Biscayne.