The Christmas Surprise

by R. R. Banks

  The song changed and Snow turned to Noah.

  “I love this song,” she said.

  “Then we should be dancing to it,” he said. He looked between me and Hunter. “Why don’t the two of you join us?”

  I was surprised when Hunter put down the jewel-topped pick and offered his hand to me. I rested my hand in his, feeling a spark as soon as our skin touched. He guided me out to the dancefloor and turned me gracefully so that I settled into his arms. Our bodies moved together effortlessly, the music itself seeming to transport us away. Hunter wouldn’t make eye contact with me, but occasionally his gaze flickered past mine. His dance moves were measured and precise, but somewhat creaky as though he had been trained in these dances, but it was some time in the past and he hadn’t had much chance to use it.

  The music changed and Hunter started to pull away from me, but I tightened my hand over his.

  “Another one?” I asked.

  He looked at me, for the first time letting our eyes lock together for more than a moment, and nodded. The attraction that I had immediately felt for the man grew the longer we danced and by the time that Snow and Noah cut the cake, I was nearly breathless with need for him. This wasn’t something that I had ever experienced, and I was relishing every second of it.

  The new couple had swept out of the reception under a flurry of flower petals and bubbles when I turned to Hunter.

  “Are you staying in the hotel tonight?” I asked.

  He shook his head.

  “No.”

  “Well, I have a suite,” I told him. “Could I interest you in a nightcap? Toast Snow and Noah?”

  Hunter nodded.

  “Sure,” he said. “They asked me to take the guest book, though, so I’ll have to wait until everyone has kind of made their way out.”

  I smiled.

  “That’s fine,” I said. “I’ll just open up a bottle of champagne. Maybe I’ll order a little snack from room service. The sugar rush was a bit much for me.”

  I slipped him a key to my suite, enjoying the tremble in my belly as I did so, and swept out of the room. As soon as I got into my suite, I rushed into the bathroom to freshen up. After a fast bath, I changed into a slinky nightgown that could almost pass as a dress and shook my hair down. I refreshed my makeup and was just pouring glasses of champagne when I heard the door open. I turned toward the door and saw Hunter step in. His eyes locked on me and I saw a flash in their green depths. Without thinking, I crossed the room to him and wrapped my arms around his neck, bringing my mouth to his.

  Hunter seemed to welcome the kiss. His hands came to my waist, settling on my lower back and pressing me up against him. Our mouths played across each other for a few moments before I started to guide him back toward the sofa in the center of the room. I could have brought him to the bedroom but it was up a narrow winding staircase at the far end of the suite and, frankly, I didn’t have the patience to go that far. I wanted him right then, and it didn’t matter where we were.

  When we reached the sofa I toppled backwards, pulling him down with me. His weight pressed down on me and I lifted my leg to hook over his hip, drawing him closer. One hand came to my thigh, moving my nightgown out of the way so that his fingertips could press into my skin. Suddenly his mouth broke away from mine and he pulled back. Hunter looked down at me, his eyes flickering over my face. I could see questions in his gaze and my hands tightened on his back, knowing what he was thinking. It didn’t matter though. He pushed back away from me, jumping to his feet.

  “I’m sorry,” he muttered, starting to the door.

  I swung my legs around and sat up, my cheeks burning as I tried to cover myself.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  Hunter glanced back at me, but then shook his head and rushed out of the room, closing the door firmly behind him.

  When I was over the humiliating shock enough that I was able to move, I got up and walked over to the table where I was pouring the glasses of champagne when Hunter arrived. I downed both glasses in quick succession before grabbing the bottle and carrying it off to the bedroom so that I could tuck myself into bed and nurse the rejection.

  I was still feeling the fog of the bottle of champagne and the good cry that came from a truly simpering romantic movie the next morning when I dragged myself out of bed. I would have loved to have called down to the front desk to arrange for a late checkout and continued to sleep, but when my alarm went off I remembered that I didn’t have the time for that. I needed to get up, pack, and call for my car so that I could get to the cruise ship on time. I had arranged for a celebratory cruise for several people from the wedding as a special gift for Noah and Snow, and I couldn’t really be a good hostess from a hungover stupor in a hotel bed, no matter how luxurious that bed might be.

  I dressed in my pink linen travel suit, topped it with a large-brimmed hat and huge dark sunglasses that thankfully looked sophisticated as they did their level best to conceal dark bags and worn skin that even the best of makeup couldn’t combat, and headed down to the lobby. My driver was already waiting for me and I breezed past the desk and into the idling car, waiting until the door was closed behind me to sag back against the seat and reach for one of the chilled sodas I kept tucked in a cooler. I pressed the can against my chest, hoping the cold would perk me up a bit, then popped open the can and guzzled down the almost painfully bubbly, sweet drink.

  Feeling slightly refreshed, I looked out the window as the car pulled away from the hotel and toward the marina. I intended to arrive to the boat early so that I could ensure that all of the cabins were properly prepared for the guests, but it would be a long enough drive that it would give me more time than I wanted to contemplate what had happened after the wedding. If I had my way, I would just erase that memory from my mind and continue on with my life without ever having to think about it again.

  I must have drifted off into a mercifully dreamless sleep at some point during the drive because suddenly I felt the car stop and heard the driver close his door. I scrambled to sit upright, wiping my face and straightening my hair. Dylan might have been driving me for longer than Hunter had been alive and seen me at virtually all stages of my life, but that didn’t mean that he needed to witness me drooling on myself in the backseat because I was still riding a little bit of a buzz and a whole lot of self-loathing.

  The sun was absurdly bright as I stepped out the car and looked at the ship. Seeing it gave me a bit of a boost. This was exactly what I needed. Some time away and the chance to have fun while also hosting some of the people who meant the most to Noah and Snow. I knew that my brother wasn’t going to be there. I had extended an invitation to him, but he was far too busy with all of his work to take time out just to take a cruise to celebrate his son’s wedding. It wasn’t intentional neglect. He wouldn’t purposely hurt Noah. He was just so far invested in the empire that our father had handed down to him, afraid every day that he would somehow lose it and our only remaining link to the man we both loved so much, that it was sometimes hard for him to think of anything else.

  I took a breath and started toward the ship. I would get in touch with the director and ensure that all of the arrangements that I had made for my guests had been handled, then I would settle into my cabin, take in a show, and be ready for a formal dinner that evening. The water surged as I stepped onto the boat and I pressed my hand to my suddenly swimming head as the deck swayed beneath my feet.

  Maybe I would dine in for the evening.

  Chapter Three

  Gavin

  “It’s about time,” I muttered to myself.

  I could finally see the cruise ship in the distance and let out a long sigh of relief, but also of dread knowing that even though I saw the ship ahead my work for the night was far from over. In fact, seeing the ship was just the signal that the real effort was about to start, and it wasn’t going to be fun. It felt like I had been traveling through the open water aimlessly trying to follow the convoluted directions that ha
d been given to me. At this point I couldn’t tell if the instructions were really that horrible, or if the cruise liner was just that far off schedule. Either way, I was already exhausted and didn’t feel like going through with this anymore. Now that the moon was high and illuminating the top of the water, and I could see the imposing silhouette of the ship against the sky, it was a relief and I felt a little boost of motivation to get this over with and collect my pay. Now all I had to do was wait.

  The boat drifted slightly closer to the ship and I killed the engine so that anyone who might be on the deck wouldn’t hear it and alert any of the crew to my presence. That was really the last thing that I needed. I hadn’t come up with a story to explain why I was there, and if the situation arose that I was going to have to, I didn’t really see myself coming up with anything particularly convincing. My eyes scanned the rail as I looked for any indication that the time for action had come. The ship seemed surprisingly calm. I hadn’t ever been on a cruise, but when I imagined it, what came to mind was images of couples strolling together along the decks, singles on the prowl hoping to land that night’s conquest, and possibly the occasional child screaming, confirming to the others that they wanted to stay childless for the rest of their lives. What I was looking at, though, was a ship that seemed largely empty. The hulking vessel seemed quiet and still. There were lights glowing in the windows so I knew that it hadn’t been abandoned, but I didn’t see or hear any of the signs of a lively cruise that I had anticipated.

  Suddenly I saw two dark figures appear at the rail of one of the lower decks. I tightened my grip on the wheel and straightened, keeping my eyes locked on the people who were moving swiftly along the side of the ship as if at once trying to get away from something and trying to figure out what they were going to do next. The figures paused and they seemed locked in an argument for a brief moment before the larger of the two reached down and released one of the lifeboats from the side of the ship. Another shadowy form appeared several yards away and started running toward them, confirming to me that their speed was because they were trying to escape pursuit. I couldn’t tell who it was that might have been chasing them. They looked pretty frantic to get away, but for all I knew they could have smuggled the pistachios and a couple tiny bottles of liquor out of a room refrigerator and be trying to duck security.

  I watched as the larger of the first two figures released the other side of the lifeboat so that it fell into the water below, then scooped the smaller figure up and tossed it over the rail into the water. The scream that I heard told him that the person flailing down toward the water was a woman and she was less than pleased about how this course of events was unfolding.

  That was most certainly not the action of someone who didn’t want to pony up for their cabin snacks.

  The larger person jumped down after her and they both scrambled to get into the lifeboat as the third figure leaned over the rail above them, shouting something indiscernible. The lifeboat started moving and I realized that it was moving directly toward me. A few moments later it bumped into my boat and I heard the soft metallic clang as the two people clambered up the ladder hanging from the side. I ran to the other end of the boat and watched as a small woman caught her foot on the top of the ladder and stumbled onto the deck. A man followed seconds later, catching her before she fell.

  "What the fuck just happened?!" I asked, dumbfounded. “Who the hell are you?”

  "We need to get away from this ship. Now!" the man demanded.

  I shook my head looking, between the two. This wasn’t happening. I didn’t have time for this shit. I had somebody to find and I wasn’t going to be able to do it if I was playing Junior Coast Guard with these two. The longer that I looked at them, though, the more I knew that I couldn’t just pitch them off of the deck into the cold water and go about my business. The woman's wet clothing clung to her and her hair stuck wildly over her face and her arms. She was barefoot and her makeup was running, but by the look on her face I was sure it was more than just the unintended swim that had caused her to be so disheveled. Despite all of that, it was evident that she was one of those women who only got better with age and now that she had tipped the calendar over into her forties, she had a confident, well-polished beauty about her. At least, she would when she wasn’t dripping saltwater onto the ground around her. She was obviously going through something difficult and I had the immediate human compulsion to help her in any way that I could. I’d figure out what to do about the job later.

  I turned back to the angry-looking man who accompanied her. He had looked much larger than the woman when he tossed her over the rail into the water, but now that I was seeing him this close, I realized that he was an average-sized man. Glasses had somehow miraculously remained perched on his nose during the ordeal and he glared at me through them with an intensity that looked as though he somehow thought that I was responsible for the other man who had been chasing them on the cruise ship.

  "Who are you?" I asked again. "What are you doing on my boat?"

  I heard the muttering of voices that were dulled by the wind around us and looked back up at the ship. I saw that several more people had gathered at the railing, one with a large light that they were trying to set up so that they could shine it down on the water, and a shot of panic went through me. I couldn't risk someone seeing me and possibly being able to recognize me later.

  "I'm Hunter," the man in glasses said as if it were some kind of password that would instantly make me willing to help him. "Now get us out of here."

  I didn't move and Hunter took two long strides toward me, shoving past me toward the wheel.

  "Get the fuck out of my way," he said, "I'll do it myself."

  I followed, grabbing at Hunter's shirt as he started the engine again and forced the boat in a sharp turn away from the ship. The turn went smoothly, but I had the distinct impression that he was not well-versed in the ways of steering a ship. Considering we were far away from shore and the only other vessel that I had seen capable of providing us with any type of assistance should he capsize us or destroy the equipment was the very ship that he had just escaped from, this didn’t bode well for any of us aboard.

  "What do you think you're doing?" I asked, stepping up to him.

  Hunter reared back to shove me away from him and accelerated the boat even faster. I grabbed at him again and he turned to me, reaching out and grabbing me by the front of my shirt with a ferocity that I wouldn’t have expected to come from someone who looked like him. This man should be in an office somewhere or hunched behind a desk in a library, not jumping into the ocean off of a cruise ship and playing Pirates of the Caribbean stealing other people’s boats.

  "This woman is about two minutes away from becoming the topic of a Dateline Special Edition about mysterious disappearances at sea. If you don’t cooperate with this, they’re going to be rolling credits on you, too, and some struggling actor who looks nothing like you is going to be playing your corpse. If you don’t want that to happen, I suggest you get off of me and let me get us away from that ship."

  I felt like someone had punched me in the chest. I turned away from Hunter and toward the woman, who was now sitting on the deck, her knees pulled up and her head rested against them. I crossed to her and crouched down beside her.

  "What's your name?" I asked.

  She looked up at me.

  "Eleanor," she said softly, her voice sounding weak and exhausted.

  Shit. Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit.

  I drew in a breath. I didn't know what to do. I had no idea who the man now driving my boat was or why he was here, but I did know who this terrified woman was – and that she was the one I was after.

  Chapter Four

  Hunter

  I looked back over my shoulder to see how far we had gotten from the cruise ship, but what caught my attention was the man who had been driving the ship now crouched down talking to Eleanor. She looked tiny and vulnerable curled against the side of the boat, her e
yes darting around her as though she would rather jump overboard and take her chances in the water again than continue to listen to the two of them argue. It was a look that I would never have expected to see on this woman’s face. There was something about her that had struck me as strong and powerful from the first moment that I encountered her at Noah and Snow’s wedding, and it was disconcerting to see her suddenly looking so fragile. I could see the sheer terror in her expression and the thought of what must have happened to her during her marriage to not only instill that fear in her, but also to make it linger even after the marriage ended made my stomach turn.

  My mind wandered to that first night at the wedding and how our encounter had gone downhill so drastically and so rapidly. Then my thoughts went to earlier that evening when I grabbed her and kissed her to distract the men who were chasing her. It had been an impulse, something that I hadn’t though all the way through before I did it. I had no idea why those men would be pursuing her the way that they were and what type of danger they might pose to her, and I wanted to do anything that I could to protect her, even for the next few seconds. Of course, that had meant getting us into much the same uncomfortable situation that we had been the last time that we saw each other, and as soon as our lips touched I felt a flicker of regret at my decision. I couldn’t deny the attraction that I felt for Eleanor, but the same reservations that I had had at the wedding were there and I couldn’t put them behind me. Whatever was happening with her, I wanted to help her, but that had to be it.

  Suddenly the boat lurched, startling me out of my thoughts. The engine fell silent and I felt my heart sink into my stomach.

  That can’t be good. Boats aren’t supposed to just turn themselves off on a whim.

  The other man appeared beside me and shoved me out of the way unceremoniously. Unfortunately, that wasn’t something that I was entirely unfamiliar with. High school had not been particularly kind to me. Being less than athletic and needing glasses just to breathe had not endeared me to the football players or even the slackers. I was kind of an island in and of myself. Working out and trading out my hand-me-downs for clothing that actually fit in the years after graduation had helped give me some confidence, but most of the time I still felt like that skinny, outcast nerd navigating the hallways like I was running the gauntlet just to get to chemistry class. The way that this man was treating me was bringing those memories back with a vengeance and I suddenly felt like I could commiserate more with Eleanor. I wondered who was still living inside of that beautiful, polished shell and how that person was still affecting her.