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Love on the High Seas
Yasmin Y. Sullivan
Unlucky at love, Professor Angelina Lewis is resigned that she is more of an intellectual than a romantic. She is in the habit of satisfying the yearnings in her heart with academic pursuits.This all changes when her sister talks her into taking her place on a singles’ cruise. On the high seas, red-hot desire ignites when she meets Jeremy Bell. Frolicking in the Caribbean with the sensual doctor is making Angelina believe in the power of passion. But what happens once they sail into port? Will her shipboard romance get hit with a reality check? Jeremy doesn’t want the passionate music he and Angelina make to ever stop. From the exotic island of Puerto Rico to the sun-kissed beaches of Miami, he’s pursuing the woman of his dreams. But Jeremy will lose Angelina unless he can prove to her that they share something special–a rare love they’ll never find again on land or sea…
Voyage into love
Unlucky at love, Professor Angelina Lewis is resigned that she is more of an intellectual than a romantic. She is in the habit of satisfying the yearnings in her heart with academic pursuits. This all changes when her sister talks her into taking her place on a singles’ cruise. On the high seas, red-hot desire ignites when she meets Jeremy Bell. Frolicking in the Caribbean with the sensual doctor is making Angelina believe in the power of passion. But what happens once they sail into port? Will her shipboard romance get hit with a reality check?
Jeremy doesn’t want the passionate music he and Angelina make to ever stop. From the exotic island of Puerto Rico to the sun-kissed beaches of Miami, he’s pursuing the woman of his dreams. But Jeremy will lose Angelina unless he can prove to her that they share something special—a rare love they’ll never find again on land or sea….
Angelina woke up wrapped in Jeremy’s arms, weak from the pleasures of the previous night. She looked at her watch and closed her eyes again. They only had two more full days together—today and tomorrow. What would happen then?
She tried to move from within his arms without disturbing him, but as she shifted away from him, he shifted closer, holding her tighter. She tried again, and the same thing happened. On the third try, low grumbling laughter came from deep in his chest.
“Are you trying to get away?” he asked.
“Yes, I am. And you’re wide-awake.”
“It’s early, and I like holding you.”
“Well I have a day planned.”
He opened his eyes, “Are you going ashore?”
“We could later, but I have a spa appointment this morning.”
“I see. And you were trying to sneak away.”
He chuckled, grabbing her firmly by the hips and pulling her against the length of his body.
YASMIN SULLIVAN
grew up in upstate New York and St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, from which her family hails. She moved to Washington, D.C., to attend college and has earned degrees from Howard University and Yale University. As an academic writer, she has published works on by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou and Ed Bullins, as well as the writing of the Negritude Movement and historical fiction treating emancipation in the Danish West Indies/United States Virgin Islands. She currently lives in Washington, D.C., where she teaches with a focus on African-American and Caribbean literatures. When she isn’t teaching, she does creative writing and works on mosaics.
Love
On the
High Seas
Yasmin
Sullivan
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Dear Reader,
A poet once said that there’s nothing better than having someone with whom to dream. Our dreams then seem more possible, more viable, more workable, more real. Sharing a good romance novel does the same thing. It allows us to dream together, making us kindred spirits, so that love becomes more possible, more viable, more real in our own lives.
I hope that this novel connects us across such a dream. It is the story of Angelina Lewis and Jeremy Bell, whose story is about learning to embrace the possibility of love and accepting the thrill of the sensual side that lives in each of us.
I am already at work on my next romance project, and I would love to hear your thoughts on this book. Please write me at yasminhu@aol.com.
Warm wishes,
Yasmin
For my mother, father, brother and grandmother,
who have given me the richness of the human heart;
for Jennie and Tanya, who have been my sister-friends;
for Madeline, Freddie and William, who have shaped my vision of love;
and for Vionette and Lois, who have inspired the romantic in me.
Contents
Chapter 1 (#ue7ea6b6e-7f9d-552e-bbe7-4fc5cfdbd8fe)
Chapter 2 (#uae3ee155-b84b-5653-be93-8109429d9195)
Chapter 3 (#u4825f300-9f7e-5b70-a2fa-c0ca34710694)
Chapter 4 (#u01275df9-7f04-53e4-aa59-c5d69f46e1ca)
Chapter 5 (#u3281677d-892c-53ab-8f30-35114bd80762)
Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 1
Angelina Lewis fidgeted on the gangway, stuck in line with the horde of other passengers boarding the Palace of the Seas, one of the largest cruise ships on the Atlantic. It was an hour before departure, when the throng had arrived, but the line was moving along quickly.
She might even have found a way to enjoy the short wait if she wasn’t sure that at least one more person would measure her against the passport she carried. Instead, the suspense of potential exposure was unnerving her. She couldn’t believe that she’d let her sister talk her into this.
Safire had shown up with a suitcase, a ticket and her usual chipper mood, and before Angelina knew what was what, they were in her room packing.
Safire’s calm, elliptical eyes followed Angelina as she flew back and forth across the room. Her sister still wore her usual blazer and matching miniskirt—her work attire. She tugged down the skirt as she adjusted herself on the bed, letting her long curls fall across the pillow. Safire’s plump cheeks puckered from her smile—one caused by mere amusement or by some thought that was more salacious. Angelina couldn’t tell.
“I can’t do this.” Angelina tore through her closet furiously. “I have work to do. Who’ll look after Philly?”
“You have to, or it’ll go to waste. I told you. One of my bosses went into labor early, so I can’t take off now. You can bring your work with you.” Safire sprawled over Angelina’s bed observing her distraught search. “Alex and I can take care of Philly and Rose. It’s all paid for. Live a little. Please.”
Safire flipped open the suitcase she had placed on the bed. “Look, you don’t even have to pack. I was all ready to go. It has everything you need, except some shoes, some undies and your toiletries.”
“There’s barely anything in there.”
“You won’t need a lot, especially not if you find a sexy man.”
Safire winked at her, and Angelina gaped.
“I can’t be like you, running around in skimpy nothings.” Angelina knew her sister well and could imagine what she’d packed. “No, no. I can’t do this. It’s a singles cruise. What am I going to do there?”
“Mingle. Get a life. Get you some. Or just lounge, swim in the pool, see the sights. You don’t have to do the singles events. It’s a regular cruise.”
“Okay, let’s say I do this. I have to get to the bank, pack my work, pack the suitcase, situate Philly, call the neighbors—”
“It doesn’t leave until four o’clock tomorrow. All of that is doable,” Safire said. “Here. Take my passport. Put it with the ticket and the cruise information.”
“I can’t take your passport. We’ll just change the passenger information.”
“I checked. It’s too late to do that. Just use my passport. You’re my sister.”
“No,” said Angelina. “I can’t get away with being you.”
“Of course you can. Here. Now no more about it.”
Angelina shook her head. She’d be calling the cruise line herself in the morning. There would be a fee, but she would just pay it. Her sister had gotten everything else, so she could pay for that.
Now she stood on board the ship just inside the boarding ramp. One of the crew members looked toward her, and she began to hand over the passport once more. It had been too late to change the passenger manifest, so she was Safire Lewis for the next nine days.
“No, ma’am, I don’t need your passport. I wanted to give you directions. Do you have your stateroom key?”
“Yes,” Angelina answered, “but I wanted to go on deck first to see the departure. Can I do that?”
“Of course. Just follow the left line to the elevators. Six floors up you’ll find the least crowded deck right now.”
“Thank you.”
Angelina shifted her purse and her laptop carry-on from one shoulder to the other and kept step with the line. She looked ahead of her in the line to see how much farther she had to go and found a pair of simmering brown eyes peering back at her. They belonged to a handsome chestnut-brown face that was wearing an intense expression of interest—so intense that she felt naked under the sly perusal.
Angelina flushed, and her cheeks grew hot. Her hand sprang to the buttons lining the front of her dress, checking in case one had come undone. She wasn’t sure how long she held his gaze; it seemed an hour but couldn’t have been for more than a minute.
A woman behind her bumped against her, and Angelina was startled out of her reverie. She turned briefly to the woman, and by the time she turned back, the man had gone around a corner.
She could have just imagined it. He could have been looking beyond her, or he could have simply seen that she was one of the few other African-Americans there. But perhaps that also made it clear that she was alone. She might need to be a bit more careful, more aware of her surroundings.
“You need to have some fun for a change,” Safire had said.
“A singles mixer isn’t my idea of fun right now. I have a semester starting soon. I have an article I haven’t finished. I have—”
“You have to get a life is what,” Safire said and then laughed. “When was the last time you had nookie?”
“Now, listen here. I might need to talk to you about—”
“Oh, no. Don’t start in on me. I have a life. And I enjoy it just fine. This is about you. Relax a little. Meet some people. See some places.”
Angelina could tell that her younger sister was treading gently to spare her sensibilities, and it was just as well. Her sister had a mouth on her that could make a sailor blush. She envied her sister’s freedom, but for Angelina herself, a bit of reading next to the ocean would be a wonderful break. And with the passport fiasco, laying low seemed like a good idea.
When she stepped off the elevator six stories up, the line was gone. People were relaxing in lounge chairs and looking over the railing at the Port of Miami. She found a spot on the banister for the departure, wondering if she’d feel the ship move or if it was simply too large.
Being on deck made what was happening real. She—Angelina Lewis—was actually on a cruise ship going somewhere.
When the horn sounded the departure call, Angelina was exhilarated. She didn’t feel the push off, but she could see the landscape begin to shift as they pulled out of the harbor. She held on to the rail and leaned over, gauging their movement from the receding pier and leaving behind the workaday world as a dark blue expanse opened before her.
For a moment, she forgot about her lists and her obligations. For a moment, she let it all sink in and felt herself enjoy the rush.
She stepped down from the rail and lifted her laptop bag to her shoulder again. She was already smiling when she turned around and found herself again locked in the distant gaze of sensuous brown eyes.
He was across the deck with a small group of other Black men, and he was staring at her, trapping her against the rail. Under his gaze, Angelina felt goose bumps run up her back. Her nipples tightened against her bra, and butterflies began to churn in her stomach. His eyes were trained on her, sensual ebony ovals above angular cheekbones and a rugged jawline. He smiled in her direction with thick, lush lips.
Angelina’s hand fluttered to her chest, and she took a deep breath. Was he looking at her? She glanced to each side. On one there was a family of five still looking toward the shoreline; on the other was a group of teenagers making a lively ruckus. She turned back. It must be her. She felt a tingle in the pit of her stomach and had to stop herself from turning away and fleeing.
He was leaning on the railing with his foot cocked up on one of the lounge chairs in self-assured ease. His elbows rested at his sides atop the rail, and like everything about his pose, his cool confidence suggested that he was out of her league.
