by Riona Kelly
“We’d have a separate room,” Lindy managed to sputter out in defense of the suggestion.
The girl gazed at her from over the counter. “No. This little trip isn’t something I want to be involved in. You go ahead with Colin and have a great time. I’ll stay here. We have the suite until the weekend, so why shouldn’t I just use it while you’re gone?”
“That’s not an acceptable option,” Lindy replied.
“Oh, sure. I can go along being miserable and feeling out of place while the two of you are a couple. Colin doesn’t want a teenager tagging along, Aunt Lindy. He wants to spend the time with you. I think you should go and have a good time. Don’t worry about me. I’m old enough to take care of myself. I won’t do anything outrageous while you’re gone. I’ll be perfectly safe. There are other teenagers here who may or may not have parents attached, and they are all fine.”
Lindy’s brow wrinkled into a worried frown as she considered her niece’s words. She was right; she was old enough to be on her own for a day and a half. Even chaperoned in Paris, Lindy had been mostly on her own for all the good the accompanying adult did. If her brother hadn’t been so paranoid about this trip, they probably wouldn’t even be having this conversation.
With a reluctant sigh, she said, “All right, Michelle. I do want to go with Colin to Morocco, and while I would probably be more comfortable on one level if you came along, I do realize it is an awkward situation for all of us. So, you may stay here. But I want you to check in with me several times during the day, even if it’s only a text saying you’re fine. You are to stay here at the hotel at night, not go running off with Roberto. You may go into Marbella during the day. Please, please be careful. The world is sometimes wicked.”
“I promise I will be careful.” Michelle hugged her. “I will be safe here. There’s no need to worry.”
As Lindy sent her too-happy niece off to bed, she worried if she was doing the right thing. Was she putting her niece at risk to indulge her own happiness? She decided she would put it to the test while she was off with Colin in the Malaga area, then she headed to bed herself.
Chapter 7
After a late breakfast in the hotel cafe, Michelle lingered to watch as her aunt and Colin set off in the rental BMW for their excursion to Malaga. She waved one last goodbye as if they were going away for days instead of merely the one day of scouting, then called Roberto.
“I have the whole day to spend with you,” she told him, excitement in her voice. “When should I meet you at the Plaza?”
While he was pleased, he told her he couldn’t close up the shop before one, so he would head to the Plaza de los Naranjos once he was done, and would see her by one-thirty. He instructed her to go to the Naranjos de Jardin Cafe across from the city hall and get an outdoor table where he could find her quickly.
A bit disappointed, she returned to the room and dressed in a sleeveless buttercup-yellow dress, a choice she thought would photograph well. She also packed a pair of jeans and a girl-cut t-shirt in her small backpack along with a pale green scarf. She hoped it would suffice for their plan. Excited to be doing this, she hurried out the door, checking to be sure it locked and headed to the hotel lobby where a string of taxis just outside waited for potential fares.
Taking a cab to the plaza, Michelle wandered through the nearby streets, browsing in several shops on the road behind the square to kill time. At one, she found a cute yet practical leather purse that would work well for school in the fall. The pockets looked large enough to carry all her items, except her books, but a just-big-enough side pocket with a zipper would hold her tablet. The price seemed reasonable for leather, and she liked the soft tan color of it. When she spotted a stylish leather wallet, she decided her father would love it and added that to the items she hand-carried. Happy with these purchases, she paid and slipped the shopping bag she’d also bought over her arm before moving on to the next shop.
This one displayed a huge selection of beautiful silk scarves in all colors and designs. She spotted a gorgeous silk blouse in pale green and rose colors and fell in love with it. Long ties at the side crossed to the waist, cinching it in. Michelle couldn’t resist and bought it even though it was pricier than she liked. But it would be fantastic for the photos, she was sure. Then she decided to buy a matching long pale green skirt.
By the time she returned to the plaza at almost one-thirty, she had to hunt to find a table near the walkway through the square where Roberto might easily spot her. She spotted one, located just on the edge of the shop’s area, and begged the host at the restaurant to let her have it. Settling in, she sent Roberto a text message to let him know she was waiting, then sat back to order an iced tea. She gazed up at the sky, enjoying the high strings of white clouds scattered across it. A light breeze cooled the day a little. She loved it here on the coast, where every day felt like a holiday. She was dreaming about how wonderful it would be to live in Marbella when Roberto walked up behind her.
“Tan bonito,” he said in a low, sexy voice, and a grin spread across her face.
She turned, springing from her chair to throw her arms around his neck as he kissed her briefly.
Once they sat, the waiter brought menus for them, and they chatted as they made their choices. Since she wasn’t too hungry after a large breakfast, she ordered a small salad while Roberto went for a sandwich. Then she showed him the blouse she’d just bought.
“Is this perfect?” she asked. “I just fell in love with it as soon as I spotted it. What do you think?”
“The color is splendid,” he said as he felt the material. “Fine quality as well. I wish for you to wear it in the pictures. Will you?”
She grinned. “I knew you would. I got the skirt as well.”
“We can take several with you in this as well as what you’re wearing now. Did you bring jeans also?” He eyed her backpack.
“I did.”
“Excellent. There is a garden near here where I would like to take a few shots of you, then we can go up into the hills for more photos. I have a couple of places in my mind. So you put the jeans on when we go on my bike.”
She nodded. “I like the plan.”
As she ate, she kept glancing at his face, seeing those movie-star good looks and wondering why he wasn’t someone’s steady boyfriend at the very least. He was young, yes, but it would seem he could have his pick of the local girls. “So, have you gone out with many tourists?” Michelle knew it sounded like she was fishing, which she was, but she was curious.
“No. A couple now and then have caught my eye, but I do not go looking for them. I liked you when I first talked to you. If you had not intrigued me then, I would not have come looking for you. But I think you are different from most of the girls who come here for the summer.”
She laughed. “Oh, I came looking for sun, sea, and fun like all the rest. But I was saddled with my aunt, and that put a damper on the plan.”
“But you don’t come here like the spoiled American girl or the diva who expects people to jump to her command. We get a lot of those. And I don’t like a girl who throws herself at me. You’re a little, how do you say, bashful?” As he said it, she blushed a shade, proving his point, and he grinned.
A few blocks from the Plaza, a small, private garden, lush with beautiful flowers and flowing water fountains, hid behind a tall wall. The owners of the house knew Roberto and welcomed them both as friends when they arrived to do the pictures. The lady, who Roberto introduced as Señora Navarro, showed Michelle to the bathroom to freshen her makeup and hair before she went out to the garden where Roberto had already chosen several spots to stage the photos.
Michelle admired a stunning wrought-iron bench set among some birds-of-paradise plants. Situated where the decorative stucco wall with elegant arches in the background met the edge of a surrounding hillside, the area imbued an air of solitude. Roberto showed her where he wanted her to sit and encouraged her to strike a few different poses and expressions.
Taking a deep breath, she pretended it was a fashion photoshoot, moving her neck to a sexy angle, then turning her head a different direction and swinging her hair around. Roberto took photo after photo as she changed positions, then he came over and sat beside her.
“Michelle, let’s try for more emotion in this. I want you to look like your lover has just left you for another woman. I want to see the sorrow and loss in your face.”
She thought about it for a moment, then had the inspiration for it as she imagined saying goodbye to Roberto after a night of passion fulfilled all her fantasies, knowing she would never see him again. Her eyes held the wistful pain of separation as her mouth remembered the last touch of his lips. She carried the emotions through several changes while Roberto shouted encouragement as he took many photos.
Then he suggested she change into the green and rose blouse and matching skirt, so she retreated to the dressing room. Slipping out of the yellow dress, she pulled on the green skirt, then paused to put her hair up. She liked the look with just three hairpins holding her long hair in a sophisticated twist, so she left it up and pulled on her blouse, leaving the top button open and tying the ends into a sexy square knot at the left hip. She adjusted her makeup to bring out her eyes a little more.
As she returned to the garden, Roberto stared at her, taking in the more sophisticated look. “Que bonita. You are gorgeous. So elegant. A man would be a fool to leave you.”
She glowed with the praise, barely whispering, “Thank you.”
Within the garden, sat an exquisite gazebo—Roberto called it a mirador—in the middle of a mirror lake surrounded by gardens. The view created pure enchantment. Kneeling, the skirt flowing around her, she gazed into the water where her reflection showed. Across from her, Roberto took pictures, moving around for different views as she changed her position slowly. He came into the gazebo and took more photos as she shifted her poses even more.
After she’d exhausted nearly every pose she could manage and pulled a variety of expressions, he asked her to remove just one hairpin letting part of her hair fall in a wave over her shoulder, then he took those photos. At his request, she released the rest of her hair and shook it out, and he continued to photograph her. They moved to other parts of the garden where he took even more photos. She figured he must have taken over a hundred at this point.
“Enough,” he said. “I think I have inspiration for many more paintings from here. Change into your jeans, and we’ll go up above the city.” He gave her a quick hug as she went back to the house to change. This had been amazing, and if she was lucky, he might give her a few shots to add to her portfolio.
As she came back, she saw their hostess had brought out a pitcher of lemonade. Roberto sat under a canopy sipping a glass while he thumbed through the images on his camera.
“Por favor, for you, enjoy a limonada,” Señora Navarro said as she offered a glass. “You have been working hard. You need a break.”
Roberto didn’t seem to be in a hurry, so she accepted it and sat next to him to try to peer over his shoulder to glimpse the photos. The angle wasn’t clear enough for her to see the detail and colors, but he seemed to be pleased with the results.
“Can I see them?” she asked.
He looked up. “Of course, but they aren’t very big on the screen. Once I can put them on a computer, you will see the detail better.”
She nodded and took the offered camera. He showed her which button to push to advance the displayed images. She worked her way through photo after photo of herself in so many poses with shots ranging from full length to mid-length to close-up. She made mental notes of her preferred shots.
As she handed the camera back, she said, “They look fabulous. Might I have copies of some of them?”
“Naturally, I thought you would want copies, so I will copy the best ones for you and put them on a thumb drive. Okay?”
“Perfect.”
She beamed with a radiant smile, so he lifted the camera up to grab another quick photo. Then he indicated they needed to get going. It was almost four o’clock already, and he wanted to get into the hills before it got too late. Sunset occurred around nine at this time of year, but too many shadows would be more challenging to photograph around, he explained.
In many ways, the hills and mountains of Marbella were comparable to those of the Los Angeles area, except more vegetation seemed to grow naturally in the dry ground. Even though it was mid-summer, many plants and shrubs spread across the hillsides like multi-colored throw rugs. As the winding roads snaked above the town, they cascaded through condominiums, houses, and elegant residential areas. The higher up the hillside, the better the view and the finer the houses. Likewise, Michelle felt sure the price tags ascended equally. They went by a palatial-looking villa with its generous balconies facing the Mediterranean Sea. Purported to be a family residence, it resembled a grand hotel it was so enormous
Maybe someday I’ll be a multi-million-dollar movie star and be able to afford one of these places overlooking the world, Michelle thought. It would be a wild fantasy come to fruition if it were to happen. Even if the odds were stacked against it, fate never concerned itself with statistics. She kept telling herself that, and with the right connections, she might have a better than average chance.
Roberto leaned left to swing the bike around another corner, and ahead of them, a small grated road branched off and left the houses behind as it climbed up the hillside toward a particularly green-looking gully area. As they neared it, he pulled the motorcycle to a stop and kicked the stand down, then climbed off.
Michelle slid off the back, her eyes tracking down toward the sea. Below them, the whole of the Marbella to Gibraltar coastline shone in the afternoon light. Houses, in uneven rows and circles, and blocks of white and tan buildings marched down to the coastal road where the resorts and clubs took over. In various areas, little patches of green and color splashes stood out as the parks, gardens, and squares.
Roberto caught her arm and led her to a trail leading down into the gully area. She paused, hearing the gurgle of running water as it leaped from level to level down the hill.
“A stream?” she asked.
“Si. A little creek runs most of the summer as the snowfall from the highest elevations melts. In the spring, it is fuller and rushes down to a reservoir above the city. Now it just makes a slow journey, and these plants in this gully benefit from the water.”
The further into the crevice they went, the lusher the vegetation. Even gorgeous wildflowers bloomed. Lavender grew in patches of sun, and Michelle could detect the scent mixed with the sweetness of rosemary plants. Tall bushes of all sorts, including a few wild olive trees, grew in abundance. Bright yellow flowers stood out on bushes of hardy broom. When they reached the stream, Roberto pulled her along toward a place where there was a break in the tall trees, and a splash of light burst through, giving it an otherworldly look.
“Here,” he said. “I want you to pose here.”
Nearby, a bird-of-paradise flower bloomed, and Michelle decided to play with it for a photo. She got nose to beak with it, so to speak, and Roberto took the pictures from several angles. Using a small opening between bushes as a dressing room, she slipped out of her tee-shirt and put the green blouse and skirt back on, twisted her hair to a side bun, and posed with it again for a different look.
Roberto pulled some of the purple lavender flowers and laced them in her hair, then got photos of her caressing the bush that had donated the ornaments. She stood in the stream in her bare feet, lifting the skirt to keep it from getting wet. Roberto teased her, calling her a Spanish diva, and they laughed.
In no time it seemed, three hours had fled while they chased the sunlight and took photos. As they finished, Roberto joined her for a shot, squeezing up against her and wrapping his free arm around her waist while she turned to lay her head against his shoulder, and he snapped the picture with a remote.
When Michelle gazed at the photo, it looked incredibl
y beautiful and romantic. She felt like a different person with him, like a wild, exotic butterfly flirting with a dynamic dragonfly. As he looked over her shoulder, he turned her face toward him and kissed her, his lips sweet with the taste of lemons and sugar still. She turned into his arms, and they drank deeply of each other’s lips.
He reluctantly pulled away, looking at the darkening sky and told her to change clothes so they could get down to the town before dark. After she hurriedly changed into her jeans, he began to pick their way back to his motorcycle.
“Are you hungry?” he asked, stepping over some succulent plants carpeting the ground.
“Famished,” she answered.
“Then we’ll go to the best seafood place in the area.”
Michelle got her third text message of the day from Lindy as she and Roberto were going into a little café near Roberto’s studio. She paused to read the note with an update from her aunt. They were stopping for dinner, then they would be on their way back to Marbella, arriving in about two hours. She sent a quick acknowledgment, telling them to take their time. She knew this was a test and wanted to reassure her aunt she would be fine if she went to Tangier with Colin the next day.
Roberto raised a questioning eyebrow as she replied and tucked her phone back in her pocket. “My aunt is just checking on me. She may go on an overnight trip with Colin tomorrow, and I asked to stay here, so she’s deciding still. It’s not like I haven’t been anywhere on my own before. My mom and dad aren’t as protective as Aunt Lindy.”
He nodded as they followed a waiter to the table. “She just feels responsible. Has she had any children of her own?”
“No. She never married, and she’s led a pretty independent life. She’s like an Auntie Mame character, a bit wild and eccentric. But I think she’s afraid of my father.”