The Surly Harbour Master Snippet #1

 Here is an early chapter in the book where Saffron meets Tobin when she shows her knickers to all of Fastlemere port

Saffron

Spring was finishing, and summer was beginning, my favourite time of year. Long gone were the dark mornings. The sun was high in the sky, up and awake by the time I reached the locks. Walking over the bridges to get to the café on the other side was the highlight of my day. I wondered if he ever saw me each morning as anything more than a stranger walking past that he loved to infuriate. Whenever I saw him in the café, he was mute, not making eye contact with me.

My company had been fined more times than I can remember since he became the harbour master six months ago. A week wouldn’t go by without a brown envelope with a handwritten address and my father’s name on it landing on my desk. I wouldn’t mind so much, but my father had died ten years ago. Why that man insisted on addressing my company’s shortcomings to my late father was beyond me.

He was the harbour master ruler of King’s Dockyard, the quietest port on the south coast of England, and everything that sailed into her, like my ships carrying timber for my company.

My best mate, Rochelle, only had good words for him. Fit, stunningly handsome, and every girl’s wet dream. Strong arms stretched a t-shirt in all the right places. All I saw was a pain in my neck.

He came into Rochelle’s café every day for his late afternoon coffee. He always appeared indifferent to me whenever we talked. He was curt, bordering on rudeness. I tried to make small talk with him but only ever got one-word answers. After a few weeks, I gave up, and that’s when the fines started, along with minor by-laws that hadn’t seen the light of day in a hundred years.

Wondering why he was so distant, I squinted my eyes at him in his glass box that observed everything that went on in the port’s land. I silently demanded to know. The café staff had always said he was chatty, but I never saw this side of him.

As I took my time walking along the narrow walkways, passing through the open gates at each section, I glanced up at the control cabin that housed Tobin Clark. He had a name, of course, but I rarely used it. Expletives always came to mind when I thought of him. I could see him up there talking into a phone with his back to me. I dragged my gaze slowly down from his broad shoulders to his slim waist, willing my mind to hate every part of him.

I failed.

Tobin was wearing a white t-shirt that looked like it was moulded to his body. I had such an urge to throw a bucket of water over him to see how it stuck the hard contours of his muscles underneath. The mere vision of him soaking wet made me horny as hell.

I stood still, looking through the railings at the calm water below, daydreaming that he wasn’t the mean shit that sent me letters of warnings. I tried not to think of removing his t-shirt and kissing my way down his chest when I felt a pair of eyes on me. Spinning around on the spot, I looked at the small tug boats tied up to see who was looking at me. When I couldn’t see anyone, I returned to gaze at my object of desire to discover it was him looking at me. I couldn’t move, stuck to the spot. His stare was intense, paralysing. My heart stopped for a second and then accelerated at full speed in my chest.

Hearing the alarm for the gates squeal loudly, I jumped to attention. They were announcing their impending closure. I knew I could get stuck at the lock gates for up to half an hour, depending on the ships going out for the day. I had to get to the office and couldn’t risk getting caught. My daydreaming had delayed me once again. The waist-high gate was almost closed, and I had to run to jump over it.

I made it just in time.

The gate hit my backside as I landed on the other side. I was grateful for the running shoes on my feet. The physical exertion sucked the air from my lungs, and I needed to stay still to catch my breath before moving on.

Turning and looking up at Tobin, horror filled my heart, cold dread running through my veins that made my heart beat faster.

“No, no, fucking hell, no,” I muttered quietly, frantically thinking what the hell I was going to do.

I couldn’t move. The hem of the skirt of my dress was caught on the top spike of the gate. The gate was starting to rise to stop people like me from jumping over the barrier. I watched, incredulous at what was about to happen. My dress was going to start to pull up with a gate. I might have been safe from the disappearing bridge on the other side, but I was still trapped. I was too slow to react, and the hem was already out of reach. I wished I was taller. Any second now, I was about to show my knickers to all of the port. I chanced a look up at the harbour master’s cabin and saw him laughing heartily. As I concentrated on looking at him with my evil eyes, I saw him laugh harder, lean back with his hand on his heart. The dress was being pulled higher and higher, and still, I watched him. He bent forwards, hands on his knees, laughing, and then he stood back upright, wiping away the tears from his face.

No doubt I would get a fine for this, too, some ancient by-law that I can’t show my knickers on port land.

Trying to work out how the hell I was going to get out of this mess, I did the only thing I could think of. I gestured frantically, like an Englishman abroad who couldn’t speak the language. Arms flailing in the air, I mimed at him for the gate to open. It just made him laugh harder still. He shook his head, shrugged, and walked away from the window. Pointing at the massive ship pulling into the lock, he turned around and grinned at me. For a moment, I was delighted that he was smiling. I had never seen him smile, and then I remembered he was a bastard, and I went back to scowling at him.

My dress hem was high up, way over my head. Anyone looking would see that my stocking-clad legs, as were my frilly cream knickers, were on full show. I was mortified. Why did I get myself into these predicaments? I tried to tug at the dress to cover my modesty, which only resulted in tearing the hem.

Giving up trying and accepting my utter embarrassment, I looked back up at the cabin. He wasn’t there. This filled me with more dread. One of two things was about to happen. I was either going to be released by the automatic gate, or he was on his way.

I got my answer the next second.

“Hello, sweetheart. Have you got yourself into a situation here?” The deep voice, full of laughter, said behind me.

I died a little bit inside. He was there. The man I hated but still invaded my fantasies was there, standing a few feet away. My back was to him. I hadn’t moved from trying to free my hem. I blushed all over at the thought of him staring at my thighs, my stockings, and my knickers.

If I was stuck, I might try brazening it out. My hands were around the metal railings, clutching on like I wanted to escape a jail cell. Resting my forehead against the cold metal, I counted to ten to help calm down.

I couldn’t speak, unable to answer him. I didn’t know what to say. I was caught red-handed jumping over the gate when I should have waited, and now I was effectively strung up.

“Are you going to ignore me?” Tobin asked.

“I am trying my very best to ignore you,” I replied.

Chuckling, he stepped closer, standing directly behind me. He bent to whisper in my ear.

“Have you any idea how sexy you look standing here?” Tobin said.

I withheld the whimper that I wanted to let out. His sexy talk was making me consider liking him.

“I have always wanted to know if you wore stockings. You are the best part of my day,” he said.

“Will you release me from these gates, please?” I asked, not acknowledging his compliment.

I was astounded that he felt anything other than impatience for me.

“Do you want me to release your dress? I would call you by your name, but I don’t know it. Even though I have seen you in the café, spoken to you and at busy times, you’ve made me the best latte I’ve ever tasted. Don’t tell Rochelle I said that. She’ll never serve me again. At no point did you introduce yourself. Some would say that is bad manners,” he replied, smirking at me.

“Are you giving me a lesson on manners? You, who won’t say more than one-word answers and send me warning letters like they’re confetti?”

He had a valid point, but I was fucked if I was going to debate my lack of social graces at the same time as flashing my underwear to any mariner that cared to look.

I was just as bad as he was, but did he realise he came across as aloof and distant? I was too nervous to ask anything about him when he asked for his usual coffee order. He was abrupt and barked out his request each time.

“I’m sorry I have never introduced myself. You never seemed interested in talking, so I kept the chitchat to a minimum. When you first started coming in, I tried to initiate a conversation, but you didn’t answer any of my questions.” I said.

Tobin stepped up flush behind me and wrapped one arm around my waist. I looked down and saw the tanned forearm snake around me and wondered what he was going to do next. Bending down, he hooked his other arm under my knees and then lifted me up.

“Reach up and unhook your dress, sweetheart,” he said quietly into my ear.

I tried not to concentrate on his arms wrapped around me or the hard chest muscles pressing into my back. I instead dragged my fantasy away from his hard body and concentrated on unhooking the hem of the dress. Pulling it off the spike of the gate top, I examined the hole that had been torn in the dress. I loved this dress and was sad to see it damaged.

“Are you done there? Can I put you down?” he asked me.

Shit, I was enjoying being in his arms a little too much.

“Yes.”

He gently dropped my legs and held onto my waist a moment longer. I felt like a weightless doll in his arms. My feet didn’t touch the floor, and he was holding me with one arm. He squeezed his arm tightly around my body, and I couldn’t resist placing my arm on top of his. I wanted to feel his skin on mine. Dropping my neck back, I absorbed all the comfort he was giving me. I could feel his warm breath on my neck, and I wanted him to kiss it. Forgetting, I hated him.

“Are you going to thank your rescuer? It’s only good manners after all,” he said.

For a man who only ever said single-word answers, he was Mr Chatty now.

He had dropped me to my feet, and I tugged at the material of the dress and straightened it. Taking a deep breath and exhaling it slowly, I turned around. I stared into his beautiful hazel eyes. Being this close to him, I could see flecks of fiery amber in them. They were stunning and captivated me into silence. I could not say anything, so instead, I stood on tiptoe and kissed his lips quickly.

“Thanks,” I said.

He smiled down at me, a serene, almost shy smile. It showed a deep dimple on his left cheek.

“I quite like your version of thank you,” he said, grinning. “I will see you later for my coffee. I’ll be your last customer of the day, so make yourself one. I think it’s time I got to know you a little better. I know the colour of your knickers now, so everything else should be straightforward,” he said.

He was talking to me like I worked at the café. I didn’t correct him.

“Unlikely. I have several meetings today that involve fending off unwanted advances.”

“Does that happen often? Rebuffing men and their charms?”

“Every day, it seems at the moment.”

“Shame,” Tobin said, tipping his finger to his temple in a half salute and wandering away through the gate opening that ate my dress.

While he was rescuing me, the boat sailed through the lock and docked at the concrete plant that was next to the steelworks along the port from the timber merchants I owned.

We were both free to get on with our days.

His rule following had caused major delays in my latest delivery, giving my opponent every opportunity to swoop in and save the day for my customer. It didn’t stop the lust and hate of having a full-on battle in my head over Tobin Clark.

“Will you tell me your name, at least?” Tobin called out to me over the trio of gates.

“Saffron,” I answered.

He gave me a killer smile before climbing the stairs to his glass observation box.