Page 37 of Prisoner of War
Chapter Nine
“It’s so quiet!” Calli breathed as Nick led her inside the big, airy house.
“There’s no one else here,” Nick assured her. He took her hand and drew her over to the stairs.
“It’s eerie. I’m already used to dozens of people everywhere, sleeping where they can, tripping over each other...”
He led her up the stairs.
“Where did you put them?” she asked, drawing the tight sheathof silk up her hips enough to let her climb the stairs properly.
“I found hotel rooms for them all. It was a chance for them to be by themselves, in private.”
“Of course, you had absolutely no self-interest in making such arrangements,” she teased.
“It is the only reason I did it,mi dama fuerte,” he assured her. He scooped her up into his arms, climbed the rest of the flight of stairs twoat a time and shouldered his way through the big double-doored main bedroom suite, which took up the top floor of the house. Until now they had not used the room. It had been given over to a family of nine people at Nick’s insistence.
Now he put her on her feet in the middle of the grand room and she looked around, her breath catching in delight.
One entire wall was made of old-fashioned Frenchdoors with shutters and these doors now stood open to catch any stray evening breeze. The fresh wind moved the white, sheer curtains. Calli could hear the sea far below them, pounding the rocks at the foot of the mountain. Moonlight—weak now, for the moon was in its last quarter—filtered through the curtains, bathing the highly-polished floorboards with a luminescent glow.
Before her was a hugeold bed with a hand-carved teak headboard. It was such an immense size that the family of nine could have comfortably shared the bed between them.
Nick’s arms came around her waist from behind and his lips seared their imprint on her neck. “Now I have you alone and there is nothing to keep us apart.”
“How much my world has turned upside down,” she said soberly. “I still can’t quite believe it’sreal. I still feel like someone will come along and tell me it’s all a mistake, that they have to put me back in Montana.”
He chuckled. “It will feel real enough when we have our first fight.”
“That’s a charming thought for our wedding night,” she protested.
He moved around to stand in front of her and touched her lips with his fingers. “We will fight aplenty, you and I,mi dama fuerte, forwe are both passionate and stubborn and know what we want. So we will fight with passion and make up with passion and our love will be stronger than ever because of it, because you will not allow me to engulf your life with my own. I will need that,mi amor, for where we are going, you are the only one I can allow to be stronger than I.”
She considered this for a moment. “I love you, NicolásEscobedo and you’re scaring the shit out of me.”
He smiled and kissed her, long and hard.
He didn’t tell her not to be afraid, though.
* * * * *
Minnie stared at the boat riding low in the water, at the light spilling from the long, narrow cabin windows and swore under her breath. Tonight, the entire population of Vistarians in Acapulco was at Nick and Calli’s wedding. She had counted on Nick’sboat being empty and unattended.
The dock she stood on was higher than the boat’s main deck by a good six feet. If she climbed down the ladder, she would have to step onto the wheelhouse deck and that was where a long rectangle of light spilled from the open door leading down to the cabins. She would be seen straight away.
Raucous male laughter billowed from the cabin and there was a light tinkleof feminine amusement, too. Minnie wrinkled her nose. That was the sort of twitter a woman made when she was trying to flatter a man into thinking he was funnier than Dara Ó Briain.
She walked the length of the long yacht to the bow, her high heels clicking softly. On the elegant front of the boat a covered hatch nestled between the gleaming steel rails that swooped around the nose. The railsstood about two feet high. If she hung from the jetty...
Before she could question her own sanity, Minnie kicked off her heels and lay down on the boards. The surface of the jetty was washed-out, salt-dried and gave off the faint odor of rotting fish. She didn’t want to think what the smell and the old planking would do to her new evening gown.
She held her breath and wriggled out over the edgeuntil her legs dangled down. Then, inch by inch, she eased her body off the planking, hanging on with her arms. She waved her feet until they collided with the railing and she could find her footing. Thankfully, she transferred her weight to her feet and clung to the edge of the jetty with her fingers as she lowered herself down onto the surface of the prow.
She pulled her gown back into placeand glanced up at the jetty. Her satin shoes sat gleaming softly in the moonlight. She would never reach them from here. With a shrug, she padded to the hatch, eased the rubber handles out of their locked positions and carefully pulled the hatch up.
Warmth fanned her face as trapped heat escaped. She realized that cool air would replace it and perhaps warn the people in the cabin that the hatchhad been opened, so she quickly dropped down onto the coils of anchor chain beneath and let the hatch fall back into place above her.
She remained still, listening.
