and back then work was everything to me. Of course I fucked every woman I found the least bit attractive as well, but I was careful, always. We’ll talk more about that on the boat. I’m just saying don’t turn away from us and be sorry later that you did.”
“Boat,” she said, “what boat?”
“My boat, we’re going out on it, we’ll spend the night on the ocean, it’s the best sleep you’ll ever have. The rocking of the boat is hypnotic. It’ll be just us in our own little world.”
“I didn’t bring any clothes. I don’t have a swim suit.”
He pointed to the back seat which was covered with bags from Saks and Neiman Marcus.
“You went shopping?”
“Well, I was lucky, I knew a busy lawyer would have a personal shopper at Saks or Neiman’s, and of course you do.”
Charlotte smiled in spite of herself, clever man .
The ‘boat’ was huge of course, a yacht without question, but why should that have surprised her?
He told her there would only be a crew of five so they would have more privacy and she laughed at that.
“Five people to wait on two people, isn’t that more than enough?” She asked.
There was the captain, the cook, the valet, a maid and a security guard. That was roughing it as far as Alexander Bly was concerned.
They were served Blue Crab bisque and lobster rolls and champagne at an elegantly set table on deck as the two hundred and thirty foot yacht cut through the water toward the open sea.
She felt relaxed and content with the wind on her face and they sat under a large canvas canopy to protect her ‘porcelain skin’ as he called it. She was tipsy right away and she knelt beside him and pulled his cheek to hers and whispered in his ear that she wanted him to make love to her only once, and she wanted him to do it right that minute.
He led her into the main salon, sat her down, moved to the other end of the butter-soft leather sofa and said they needed to discuss some things. The valet brought them ice water to help clear her head and Bly told him they needed complete privacy for a while. When he turned back to Charlotte his face was serious and he asked her to please not freak out as he handed her a prescription bottle. It was a refill of her birth control pills.
“What, where, how?” Was all she could manage.
“Charlotte, many things are possible for a man in my position, I’m sure you know that. We need these because I’m going to make love to you without a condom and I think we should use birth control in the beginning, at least.”
Charlotte looked at him as if he were speaking another language, what the hell did that mean? They might want to use birth control in the beginning ? Was he kidnapping her and she wasn’t aware of it? Did he expect to keep her barefoot and pregnant on the opulent yacht he called a boat for the rest of her life?
She stood up and began to pace the room, “you’re right, I’m a little freaked out right now, hurry Bly, help me understand before I jump overboard.”
“I will,” he said, “but take one of the pills first, the pharmacist explained that they could be started on any day of the week and would be completely effective by day three. Please don’t look at me like that, hear me out but swallow the pill, what can it hurt?”
It really pissed her off that he had taken control over her reproductive cycle, but she did need sex. In fact, the only reason she’d stopped taking the pills was