Yasmin Sullivan - Love on the High Seas

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

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

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

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.”