by Connie Cox
Turning, she skated backwards and instructed, “Just lean forward and bend your knees, like you’re a superhero if you have to exaggerate it, until you get your balance.”
Niko’s black hair fell forward into his eyes, making Annalise think about how he could be her Clark Kent any day. Just not today. Too much, too soon.
Then again, this trip wasn’t going to last forever.
Niko closed his eyes and took a breath, apparently finding his balance because when he opened them he said, “I’m ready.”
And then he skated like he’d been born on the ice, taking long, sure strides and handling the corners with no problems for several laps.
He ran into the wall of the rink to stop.
He looked back over his shoulder at her. “Not graceful but effective.”
Showing off a little, she demonstrated a hockey-style stop.
He raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t there an easier way?”
“See the cleats on the blade? Drag your toe. They’ll catch and slow you down until you stop.”
He tried stopping a few times and then said, “Now I’m ready to do that thing you did when you turned around to skate backwards.”
“Okay. Changing direction is best done while you’re moving, not standing still.”
She skated away from him, then crossed her feet and executed a smooth turn so that she faced him, skating backwards. It had taken her many hours of practice to be able to change direction so smoothly.
“Be patient with yourself if you don’t get it right the first time.”
“I’m not big on patience.”
She skated towards him, turning again when she drew even with him. “I’ve sensed that about you.”
Niko took a couple of strides, then crossed his feet, doing a complete circle instead of a half-one.
“It takes practice.” Annalise turned back and forth a half dozen times in as many strides, enjoying what she was doing as much as flaunting her skills.
Niko frowned down at her feet, then nodded and gave it a try. Of course, he picked up the technique on the second pass. Was there anything this man couldn’t do?
He dragged a toe, ending up a few inches from her, close enough she could see the golden flecks in his eyes. “Now that I’ve done it, I don’t understand the appeal of going round in circles. Maybe speed skating or doing those dangerous moves and jumps they do on television would make it more exciting.” He skated backwards to Annalise’s forwards.
“Always the extremes for you, isn’t it, Niko?”
He looked sad. “It’s when I feel most alive.”
But that wasn’t precisely true. Not anymore. He felt the same thrilling awareness of existence whenever he was with Annalise.
It wasn’t a revelation he was happy to discover.
But he couldn’t make a clean break of it. Finding an excuse to prolong this, he scratched at his thigh through his shorts. “No office hours today, huh?”
“Impatient man.” Her smile was strained as she sat on the bench to unlace her skates.
Niko sat next to her, though not as close as he had before. Was there something more behind her bantering exasperation? He shouldn’t want there to be more.
“Come by tomorrow morning and I’ll take a look.”
Tomorrow morning. Niko wanted to ask about tonight.
“Maybe I could just borrow a pair of scissors and tweezers.” He gave her a practiced grin as he kicked off his skate. “I’m ready to try the water slides.”
“You can always stop in and visit my P.A.”
Niko thought about that, thought about how that was a very sound solution, then thought about how he yearned to feel Annalise’s warm hand on his leg, gently tending to him. He decided he could put off the water slides until tomorrow.
He lined up his skates, one next to the other, and slipped into his tennis shoes, wiggling his toes at the familiar comfortable fit.
“See you then—if not tonight?”
“Tomorrow, for sure. Tonight?” She bent to unlace her second skate, effectively hiding her face behind her hair. “Maybe.”
He wanted to ask what he could to do convince her, to insist. To make her commit.
Which would call for commitment on his part, too.
He checked his watch. “Family calls. I need to check on Sophie.”
“Okay.”
“See you then,” Niko said again, restraining himself from clearing up the ambiguity. These things happened in their own time. If only he had that much time.
He grabbed both pairs of skates and headed for the counter to turn them in.
He couldn’t help watching her as she walked away, her bottom perfectly defined in those form-fitting yoga pants beneath that huge sweatshirt. He’d bet each of those perfect butt cheeks would fit perfectly in his hands. How wise was he to want to prove himself right?
* * *
After filling the rest of her morning with grueling, hot yoga then a long swim in the pool after lunch, along with a trip to the video arcade to play a big-screen version of tennis, and a couple of miles on the treadmill instead of supper, Annalise should have been dropping from exhaustion. Instead, she found herself climbing the three sets of stairs to the top deck, a cup of hot decaf tea in her hand, anticipation in her heart.
The deck was deserted.
Annalise almost turned around and left but stopped herself in mid-step. What was she doing? A cup of tea on the top deck had been her habit ever since she’d started sailing on this ship. After all the cruises she’d worked, why would she let one man on one cruise change a tradition that gave her so much pleasure?
Hazy memories of the pleasures her dream lover had almost given her had her sloshing tea over the rim of her cup. It was a dream she would welcome again.
As she would welcome the man behind the dream?
Today, for the first time since she’d signed her first contract, the huge ship seemed too small. Like her P.A. had said, Annalise was a legend in the cruise line’s history for her longevity of employment. Most people got tired of running from whatever it was, or found what they were running towards, after a few seasons of ship work. But she’d always been slow to make a change, hanging onto stability, to security.
Her yoga instructor would say that without change there was no growth. And without growth, death. At least in spirit.
Wasn’t that what had happened to her own mother so many years ago?
Annalise was not like her mother. But, then, flirting with a man didn’t mean selling her soul to him. That’s not what a relationship, or even a casual encounter, had to be.
She had established her professional life on her own terms. She could certainly establish her love life on her own terms, too.
Right before the sun made its nightly plunge into the ocean, she heard Niko running up the steps.
“I didn’t miss it, did I?”
“Even the sunset waits on Niko Christopoulos.”
She’d expected that to elicit a smile or even a laugh from him. Instead, he settled down next to her, twisted the top off one of the two beers he held and saluted the pink and yellow horizon.
“To peace of mind.” Although the strangle hold he had on the neck of his beer bottle told a different story.
She raised her tea cup in solidarity. “To peace of mind.”
Niko lay back on the lounger with the last of the sun’s rays casting shadows over his face, making him look tired.
She wanted to make it all better but they didn’t have that kind of relationship. Silence was the best she could do.
As they lay within arm’s reach of each other, attraction snapping between them like heat lightning, Annalise wondered how this would end.
CHAPTER EIGHT
NIKO WAS THE first one in
her office. It was easy to do since he’d been up since before dawn. In fact, he wasn’t sure he’d slept at all.
Annalise had been too much on his mind.
He hadn’t spent a sleepless night over a woman in...in longer than he could remember.
Annalise bit her bottom lip, a worried line appearing between her eyebrows. “That knife could have sliced across your throat as easily as it cut into your thigh.”
“Lots of things could happen that never do.”
“You’re one of the lucky ones. You have a family that cares. You could have died and they wouldn’t have even known why. Closure heals a lot of hurts.”
But acknowledging that something fatal could happen meant dealing with the emotions associated with that nebulous something. He didn’t do family drama very well. “I’m going to tell them as soon as the time is right.”
Niko felt Annalise’s hand burning on his thigh. Her touch set him on fire. He couldn’t deny it.
Just as he couldn’t deny that he was a man of flesh and blood. If this had been more serious, if he had died, his family would never have understood. He would never have had the opportunity to explain. He owed them more than that.
Annalise was right. Soon. As soon as the opportunity presented itself.
Like that was ever going to happen.
Niko pushed that thought away, determined to squeeze every ounce of enjoyment out of this trip. He had almost two weeks left and he would make the most of them.
After Annalise confirmed that Niko’s knife wound was healing well enough, he sat on the exam table and picked out his own stitches, using the tweezers and scissors Annalise lent him as she stood, propped against the wall, watching him.
She’d offered. He could have accepted. But her hand on his thigh would have led to an embarrassing situation that his baggy board shorts couldn’t have hidden.
He looked up at her from under thick, dark lashes. “Are you as good at climbing the rock wall as you are at ice skating?”
She arched a brow at him. “Better.”
“As soon as I’m done here, then, want to race?”
“I don’t know. I might be taking unfair advantage.” Annalise frowned as Niko tugged on one of the stitches to get it loose. “Living on this ship, I’ve climbed that wall a thousand times at least. And I’ve scaled real rocks, too.”
“Yeah? When?”
“Before I was hired by the cruise line, I signed up for the emergency medicine residency swap program. So I gave New Mexico’s emergency medicine program a try. I learned to climb there.”
“You’re just full of surprises.”
She shrugged. “In New Orleans, I’d always lived around three feet below sea level in the inner city. I thought I’d try different terrain for a while.”
“What did you think of it?” Field medicine wasn’t for most doctors.
“I loved everything about it. The mountains. The desert. It was like the elements dared me and I was determined to win.”
“Sweet Annalise in those rugged conditions. I’ve noticed you’ve got a competitive edge.” The need to beat the odds was the attitude it took to be a good field doctor. More and more, he was learning there was more to Annalise than he’d thought at first glance. Although the first glance had been rather thrilling, too.
“You’re doing it again.” She rubbed at her cheek. “You’re staring at me like I’ve got something on my face.”
“Sorry. I must be losing my touch. That’s supposed to be my intensely interested look. Obviously, I need to work on it.”
“Honesty?”
“Honesty.” He crossed his heart and held up his fingers like a scout. “When you smile like that, I can’t help but stare.”
She laughed, shaking her head at his compliment, not taking him seriously. “You and your flattery.”
While he’d totally meant the compliment, he liked it that she wasn’t too taken in by it. Annalise definitely stood on her own two feet.
“But a beautiful woman deserves beautiful compliments.”
“Pretty is as pretty does.” She gave him a sideways look. “You’re good looking. Does that make you a better person?”
Her question, delivered quick and solid, caught Niko by surprise. “Of course not.”
“Remember that next time you’re throwing around random compliments.”
Niko thought of the sinking feeling he always got when he thought a woman was more interested in his appeal as an arm ornament than as a person. “Yes, ma’am, I will.”
He flexed his leg, watching the healed skin hold true. “If you were in the emergency response residency program, I’m guessing you specialized in emergency medicine. So how did you end up here?”
“I applied for a couple of positions that would have set me up for emergency rescue work.” She swept her arm around the exam room. “I was seduced by the glamour of all this.”
He looked around in appreciation, catching a glimpse of the ocean out the high transom window. “It’s a nice gig.”
“I’ve had it for a while. And it puts me in the position of being an excellent rock-wall climber. Ready to lose to a girl?”
“Winner gets a back rub!” Niko didn’t know why he’d said that. When he saw the shocked look in Annalise’s eyes, he almost awkwardly retracted the prize.
But then she blinked and said, “You’re on,” and he was glad after all. Regardless of who made it to the top first, he was a winner.
* * *
And that’s exactly what he was feeling, clinging to the wall as he looked up and over at Annalise’s ankle, up to her calf, to her thigh and her wonderfully perfect butt.
“Hey, Uncle Niko, are you going to let a girl beat you?”
Why had he thought he was going to do this without an audience of family members?
The harness straps cut him in places where he’d rather not feel that kind of pain. To get some relief, Niko found the next toehold and pushed upwards. Because he was taller than she was, now he was even with her.
She looked over and met his eyes. “You haven’t won yet, Christopoulos.”
His fingers touched a plastic thing bolted onto the fake rock and he dug the tips of his fingers around the edge to pull himself up.
At the same time Annalise reached for the same plastic thing, covering his hand with hers.
“Oh!” She jerked her hand back. So he wasn’t the only one that felt the heat when they touched.
Her eyes went wide as she swung her arm wildly, off balance. Then down she went on her guide rope. She fell at least halfway before the rope latch stopped her.
By the surprised but happy grin on her face she was fine.
Niko thought for a moment. He could slide down now, too, but that would mean no winner. And no winner would mean no back rub.
He gave her a wry look. “I like my massages with warm oil,” he said, just loud enough for her to hear.
“You haven’t made it yet.” She swung back to face the wall, scrambled for a plastic thing and began climbing much faster than she’d climbed earlier, making him realize she’d been holding back and pacing herself to him.
The competitive spirit kicked in full force. Niko felt around with his foot, reached outside his comfort zone and found the toehold he was looking for. His healing leg quivered from fatigue as he willed muscle and sinew to lift.
It was a stretch but he could almost reach the next—
And then he was falling, falling, with his stomach flipping until the harness jerked him to a halt.
“Ow.” The harness did unkind things to him. Good thing he hadn’t planned on having kids.
Annalise paused her climb to look down at him as he dangled a few feet from the floor.
“You okay?”
“Just singing soprano no
w.”
She gave him a wink then covered the last four feet of wall as if she were a spider. With great aplomb she rang the bell at the top.
“For form’s sake,” she called down to him as she planted her feet and descended in graceful hops as if she’d been born on the mountains instead of on the flat, soggy soil of New Orleans.
Niko worked at setting his own feet and pushing against the wall, descending until he finally touched the deck.
Annalise was only two hops ahead of him. By the time he’d unbuckled his harness, she had hers off, too.
Before the Christopoulos clan could totally engulf them, he leaned over close. With any other woman, he would be suggesting his room, but that didn’t feel right with Annalise. She needed more finesse. And he was pleased to be the one to give her what she needed. Instead, he asked, “Tonight on deck?”
She nodded, adding, “I like my oil to smell like lavender.”
And then she was gone, wading through his brothers and nephews and sisters-in-law and nieces as they gathered around to snap pictures and pat him on the back and tease him as only a brother could about his loss to a girl.
As he anticipated the evening activities, he couldn’t help but grin. This was no loss. In fact, it was a pretty big win in his book.
* * *
Annalise made her way up to the top deck with equal parts of anticipation and trepidation. Maybe she should have let him win? Then she would have been more in control, touching him instead of him touching her.
Stop it, Annalise. It’s just a back rub in public.
She wore her swimsuit underneath her shirt and shorts. She’d thought long and hard about what to wear, giving it much more consideration than the situation merited.
Should he really go through the trouble of finding lavender oil, the modest one-piece exposed her shoulders and back and was easily washable.
If this back-rub thing started to become more than fun and games... Every time she imagined how his hands would feel, her mind skittered away.
As she rounded the corner, she saw he was already there on his favorite chair.
“Hey.” His voice reached that place deep within her that her mind had been avoiding thinking about.