My work schedule had trained my mind years ago that by five in the morning—no matter how late I stayed up—it was time to get up. For an hour, I enjoyed the peacefulness of Ash, sound asleep in my arms, her head resting on my bicep as it did the two nights she’d stayed over at the beach house.
Having her with me last night meant more than I thought it would. The guys sensed it, and I knew that with the way they behaved. Ash was a safeguard to the flack I would’ve gotten from the guys if she weren’t there.
The guests at my nearly-forgotten birthday party were a reminder of the life I was gladly leaving behind, and the only thing that had me unsettled now was my dumbass proclamation of love to Ash in the pool. I had a feeling she was learning more about my impulsive self and crazy ways of doing things. From the first moment our eyes met in that coffee shop, she wrapped a spell around my soul with her eyes and flushed cheeks, and as fate would have it, it would all be confirmed that this woman was the one to change me forever by ensuring our paths crossed again. I enjoyed the breath of fresh air she offered me, and in my heart of hearts, I allowed myself to absorb whatever was happening with both of us without reservation.
She was still reserved, and I knew she was protecting herself from the monster that she’d been seeing on television or reading about. I had to hope that she’d eventually see me for who I’d become because of her. It would take time, but to keep her? I’d wait. Thank God for the career I’d chosen because patience was ingrained into my nature. If I could stand over a patient in my OR for fourteen hours performing tedious surgery, I think I could wait for as long as Ash needed to feel comfortable to have me as her own.
I’d been awake for an hour and a half, relishing in our fantastic sex throughout the night. I didn’t want to leave this state, but I was getting restless, and though I’d love to wake her up to another glorious round of sex, her restful breathing prompted me to leave her to her peaceful state.
After speaking with my captain over a cup of coffee, I walked out of the wheelhouse to my favorite part of the yacht. I had the designers of the vessel create an area where I could recline in solitude on the bow. It overlooked another pool location where we had retreated to for the small party last evening. The area was beneath the wheelhouse’s large windows, but it was set perfectly out of view from there or the lower deck on the bow.
Just as the stars were being erased from the black sky and replaced by the stunning magenta of the fresh summer morning sky, Ash walked out, looking like the angel I knew her to be since our first night together.
“So, this is where you hide on this boat, eh?” she asked, crawling up to where my open arms pulled her onto my lap.
I tugged on her topknot. “You look like some impressive man had his way with you last night.”
She rested her head against my chest as she found comfort stretching out at my side. She ran her fingertips over the hooded sweatshirt I wore. “I don’t know how he felt, but I sorta feel like I had my own way with him last night.”
“Really?” I smiled. “I’m sure he enjoyed that.”
“I have no idea. I woke up, and he was gone.”
“What a douchebag,” I said.
“Yeah, imagine the horror I suffered after having my way with him all night long, then he disappears on me.”
“Sucks for him; sounds like you weren’t finished with him.”
She leaned up and kissed my lips. “I was only taking a nap, and when I woke up to give him the best blow job of his life.” She ran her fingers over my hard cock that was threatening to bust through the Velcro of the board shorts I wore. “He was gone.”
“What a fucking dumbass,” I said, growing more uncomfortable with my hardened cock as I imagined her brown glazed eyes while she sucked my cock like it was hers and drank my cum with a hunger that always made me explode.
She giggled. “It’s too bad you left the room.”
“No, shit.” I sucked in a ragged breath, wishing I knew for sure this area on my bow was concealed from any and everybody. “Fuck me.” I blew out a sigh and ran my hand over her hair, seeing those same eyes from last night. “Goddamn, you’re not lying, are you?”
“It’s too bad you’re sitting out here for some media chopper to break their morning news on you getting a blow job on your billion-dollar yacht.” She laughed.
“You’re a tease, and I’m going to fuck that little pussy so hard just to punish you for torturing me like this.”
“Punish me? I’d enjoy that.”
“All right, little miss artist,” I said, forcing the subject change, “as badly as I want to clear the wheelhouse of the boat and fuck you while you hold on to the wheel of the ship, this part of the day I don’t want you to miss.”
“Oh my God,” she said softly, sitting up with me. “I hate to admit this, but this is more beautiful out on the open sea than at your beach house.”
I smiled at her as she marveled at the sun’s rays shooting up from the other side of the horizon. “This is the bay, angel, but you will see a sunrise in the open sea when we bring this vessel to Cabo.”
We sat quietly as I let Ashley absorb the beautiful sights of the shoreline to our right and the endless shoreline to our left as the captains engaged the yacht to follow the course that we agreed on last night, and I re-approved this morning. The wind picked up as the yacht smoothly proceeded in moving forward toward Carmel and the Monterey Peninsula.
“The weather says the marine layer will lift, and it will be a fantastic day to view the sea life in Monterey Bay this afternoon. One of the whale excursion boats noted the migrating blue whales were in the area last week. I’m hopeful we’ll experience something majestic today.”
She turned back to me, her eyes wide with excitement. “And the rest of the people on the boat?”
I smiled. “They’ll all be hungover and mostly staying toward the back at the party decks. I’ve ordered the staff to have plenty of entertainment for them while I keep you to myself.”
“I feel like they’re already going to eat me alive—”
I held my finger up to her plump lips. “Those women are like hyenas and hunt in packs, but I watched you handle them when they were too drunk to think, and you did great. Furthermore, I couldn’t possibly give a shit about what they think. They’re on the boat so they can take their pictures and plaster them all over social media, pretending they’re living the high life, I suppose. The only difference is, this time my ugly mug won’t be in their pictures.”
“So, they’re not going to get all butt-hurt that you’re not around?”
“God, no.” He rolled his eyes. “So long as I keep the booze, food, and music going? They’ll be the happiest party girls on the planet.”
“Funny to imagine you hanging out with them.” She bit her bottom lip. “Shit, that came out rudely. I’m sorry. I’m sure they’re not horrible people. They’re just not my crowd.”
I pulled her back into my arms and brought my lips to hers. “You’re damn right they’re not your crowd, and after this boat gets back to port and they disembark, they’ll realize it was their last voyage with the guy who was dumb enough to have wasted so many years around them.”
“Do you feel like you’re being a little abrupt with all of these life changes and saying you love me?”
“Is it frightening you?” I asked, wondering if I was coming on too strong and too fast.
“No,” she said, seemingly shocked she’d said it. “I just worry about you. We are moving really fast, Jacob Mitchell.”
I smiled. “When I want something, I go after it, and I won’t let it go.” Our eyes locked in the way that always reassured me that this woman was the other part of my soul. “Ash, I was not careless with my words when I told you I was in love with you. Those people you met? That’s part of the life the media is using to attempt to destroy my career. I was uncontrolled and vain, but they were my only outlet. They are toxic people. I see that now.”
“Well, let’s enjoy our time alone then,” she said. “Your friends and brother, they can—”
“They’ll make sure they’re hiding along with us. The only place they will not follow us is to our room.”
“Have they had a sudden life change along with you, too?” She laughed.
“No,” I answered her. “They’re just highly intrigued by getting to know the woman who calmed my crazy ass down.”
She arched her eyebrow, and damn it, she was going to get fucked before breakfast now. “I highly doubt I calmed you down.”
I rose, helped her down, and rushed her through the wheelhouse, “As I have mentioned multiple times, when you raise your eyebrow at me like that, your ass is mine.”
Our lips crashed into each other’s as I carried her in my arms, rushing our asses to the closest empty cabin on the boat. “Where are we?” she giggled.
“In the room where I’m about to fuck you into a frenzy.” I worked to strip her out of her clothes. “I let you have all the control last night; today, I get all of it.” I reached down to find her as wet as my cock was hard. “Fuck me, we’re making up new positions today, angel.”
It had been two weeks since the weekend on the yacht with Ash. We vowed to stay away from the media after a helicopter decided to gain interest in the boat that I was either going to have to sell or paint a new color. This shit was driving me insane. Vick gave Ash more than enough bitch glances, and I had a feeling that the woman would become a problem if I didn’t talk her down. Just to see her face on the boat and anywhere near Ash made me nauseous. I thought Lillian was a problem for my brother, but Vick was the head of the goddamn snake. She was pure venom, and if I didn’t handle her in the best way I believed was possible the day I dropped Ash off, I knew she’d fuck my life over, but not before destroying or hurting Ashley.
The woman seemed to relax, stating she’d moved on from being the piece of ass she’d known she’d been to me. The worst part of it was, she fucking used my ass for sex too. She honestly had nothing on me, but I was the rich fucking dick, and the minute she found herself outside of these circles, she’d try to sink me. She would always be a problem until she truly did move the fuck on.
I used this weekend of being on call to go over the details for the trip to Cabo. Since our yacht trip and my declaration of love toward Ash, I’d spent my evening after work going to her place, or if she weren’t tired, we’d meet in the middle and relive those first nights together in a hotel.
We spent the weekend at the beach house. Her love for the ocean was apparent, and that’s mostly the reason she still hadn’t been to my home in Hollywood Hills. That and I didn’t want her in that bachelor pad, but I wasn’t going bat-shit crazy just yet and selling the place.
While charting out the points of interest I wanted to bring Ash to on vacation, my OR paged me to a resuscitated cardiac arrest from the ER.
My heart sank when I called for the charts and saw the name. The RN handed the paperwork to me: John Brooks, male, age seventy-one. The words glared at me like I was looking into the sun.
I instantly disconnected from my best friend’s dad, who was hanging on for his life in my OR. I scrubbed in, letting each brisk movement cleanse my mind and detach any personal feelings. There was a reason I wouldn’t put this man under my steel. He wasn’t a candidate for heart surgery, and now I was up against all the odds in saving his life.
“Jake.” I barely heard my voice being called as I ignored all the machines around me, “Jacob,” Dr. Samson called again. “Dr. Mitchell.” I finally looked up at my attending physician.
“I need blood pressures,” I said, knowing it was futile to continue.
“Jacob,” the white-haired physician somberly called my name, “you need to call it. He’s expired. There’s nothing more we can do.”
I glanced up at the heart monitor. All eyes had been on me for the last three hours before renal failure complicated the progress on John’s strained heart. No! No! No! Fuck. I’d lost him. His labs had shown a stroke had triggered this bomb that was begging to go off for years, but my God, I had him. He was stable. Now, he was gone.
Stop it, Jacob! I ordered myself amongst the silence of the room. I was under the eye of my attending physician, my OR staff, and interns. I had to pull it together. I looked up at the clock, “Calling time of death, two thirty-three a.m.,” I said. “Nurse Andrews.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
“Work with the staff to prepare the body for the family.”
“Yes, Doctor. The family is in the ICU waiting room.”
“I’ll need you, Dr. Samson, and two nurses with me,” I said, turning to have an OR staff member remove my headgear while I worked to dump my bloodied protective gear in the trash.
I maintained supreme focus as I walked toward the waiting room to give the news to my best friend and Marilyn, John’s wife, who I knew were waiting for those doors of horror to open and deliver a verdict.
I couldn’t.
When I walked in, Collin was still in his scrubs, which was not like him. I instantly went to Marilyn after Collin nodded in understanding that I wasn’t here to bring the news they’d hoped for.
I took Marilyn’s hand and sat down. “John’s stroke forced him into renal failure. His heart could not be revived, and despite my greatest efforts to keep him with us, he wasn’t able to pull through.” This was not how we talked to families, mostly, but this was mine and Jim’s other family, and as I spoke to Marilyn, Collin called Jim to give him the news.
Marilyn crumbled in my arms, and I held her as close as I could while keeping my strong front. “Thank you, Jacob,” she sobbed while Collin pulled her into his arms.
“I’ll bring you all back to him when you’re ready.”
“Hey, man,” Collin said, his voice cracking and eyes filling with tears. “You did everything you could do.”
I nodded in understanding as Collin looked at me somberly. My best friend knew me well enough to understand this was going to spin me out the moment I allowed that part of me take over.
Fuck me to hell. I lost John despite everything I could do.
“Jim’s on his way down,” Collin said, bringing me back to the present.
“Dr. Mitchell to OR four,” I heard my name called out. “Dr. Jacob Mitchell to OR four.”
What the hell, was it a full moon? I’d lost my other fucking dad, and now I had to perform another emergency surgery?
I needed to pull my shit together and now. What I’d learned in losing John on my table less than an hour ago might serve to save my next patient’s life. I heard my name called again and looked to Collin. “A nurse will be out to escort you to John,” I said.
“Go,” Collin said, knowing another patient’s life depended on me getting my shit together. “We’ll talk to you later.”
I cleared my throat and my mind. While it wasn’t uncommon to have busy nights like this, it wasn’t typical either, but I was grateful I managed to muscle through it and join Dr. Samson as his attending. We saved a thirty-five-year-old woman’s life by clearing a blockage with a stint.
Walking out to the ICU waiting room to find her husband and parents helped ease the pain of losing the man I had no choice but to grieve for later.
