”Hey,” she said coolly as she approached them.

Hi, the guy replied, as he turned, only to meet a cold stare from Bette.

Picking up on Bette’s disapproval, he raised her hands to protest, ”Hey no offense. I was just checking in on the VIP table…. wait, are you Bette Porter? Wow! Monsieur Gaillot said you were beautiful, but damn, I think he was only half right!”

Tina had to smirk at the backhanded compliment.  Bette turned from him to give Tina her drink, and asked ”Gin and tonic okay, T?”

“It’s perfect, thanks.”

The man touched Bette gently on her elbows, ”I’m Ric. I was wondering if I could I talk to you for a second… you know, about the arrangements?”

He turned to Tina, offering his hand, ”Hi, I’m Ric. Okay with you if I steal her away for a bit?  And really, I’m sorry if I offended you. Please allow me to comp your visit with us tonight.”

He whistled out to a waiter by the bar, and whispered instructions into his ear when he came up.

Turning again to Tina, he said, “He’s coming back with a surprise for the table.  Please tell him whether there’s anything that you’d like to eat or drink.  He’ll take care of you.”

He smiled quickly at Tina, “I hope you enjoy, and my apologies, again. I will take her right back to you.”

He bowed gallantly, quickly swiping Tina’s hand to kiss her fingers, gently released it, and then turned to lead Bette to the walkway leading out of the party boat.  It all happened so quickly neither one of them had time to react.

Bette shrugged, and allowed him to lead her out, but turned to Tina first and winked, while blowing her a kiss.

When they got to the landing, Ric turned to Bette and apologized again, in case there was any lingering misunderstanding.

”Apology accepted,” Bette smiled.

They discussed Bette’s further plans for the evening, then he handed her a small flip-phone for her to use, whenever she needed to call people at the next attraction Bette had asked Ric’s help to arrange for her and Tina to go to that evening.

“I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening, and that we can be friends and do business together in the future,” he said, as he swiped Bette’s hand to press a quick kiss on her fingers.

Bette smiled warmly in response, and pulled him to her for a quick hug. He was going to make some adjustments to the rest of Bette’s plans that night, to make it even more romantic than the brunette had originally planned.  Needless to say, the man was smitten, and flustered by the quick hug, his nostrils picking up on Bette’s intoxicating scent. When she released him, he was starry-eyed.

Tina had been observing them, and smiled when she saw the man’s reaction to being hugged by Bette, noticing his eyes continued to trail in the sexy brunette’s wake as she turned to walk away. Ric shook his head and drew a long breath in, then blew a slow breath out as his followed Bette walk back into the boat and into the crowd, as if trying to calm himself.

The blonde eyed Bette as she approached, smiling at the brunette with a new-found appreciation for Bette’s powers of seduction.   She realized Bette hadn’t seen or may not have been aware of the man’s reaction towards her.  She smiled inwardly, deciding to file the whole episode away for use later, when she could tease Bette about it.

She shifted in her seat to give Bette space to sit, when the brunette made her way to their table. She saw Bette had a twinkle in her eye, as if bursting with excitement about something.  She smiled at her curiously, wondering about what Bette had up her sleeve. She laid her glass down, and waited for Bette to finish drinking from hers.

When Bette set her own glass down, Tina leaned over to give her a kiss. Slow, at first, fluttery kisses on those pillow-soft lips. She trailed her tongue sensuously across the brunette’s lips, before moving to seal Bette’s mouth with a hot kiss.  Then tried to tease her mouth open, increasingly impatient.  Bette was smiling, and was refusing Tina’s tongue entry into her mouth. There’ll be time for a lot of that later, she thought.