by Shari Low
‘Excuse me, I really don’t mean to be rude, but I think you’ll find that bed was already taken.’
Shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand, she glanced up to see a dark-haired, incredibly buff, Mediterranean-looking guy, standing dripping wet in a pair of D&G shorts. She recognized them as this season’s collection. If he hadn’t just accused her of hijacking his sunlounger, she might actually be enjoying the spectacle.
‘I don’t think so,’ she replied. How dare he? How bloody rude.
‘Ah, but I do. If you look under that pillow you’ll see a wallet, a watch and a room key, and if you look just behind your head there you’ll see the towel I left on the bed, that has obviously been blown back into the cabana.
Something in his voice gave her the horrible feeling that he hadn’t made a mistake after all. She gingerly put her hand under the pillow and pulled out a leather wallet, then a Tag Heuer watch, top of the range model. She craned her head right around… yep, there was a white towel nestling in the folds of the cabana.
Bugger.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t realise. I’ll move,’ she said sharply.
‘No, don’t! I insist! I’ll find another bed.’
He leaned over to collect his wallet and Mona was treated to a close-up of a rippling six-pack.
‘There’s really no need, I’ll move,’ she said, all antagonism blown away by the combination of his abdominal perfection and top class accessories. In fact she almost purred the words, giving the stranger cause to pause.
‘I tell you what,’ he suggested, as she knew he would. The voice always did it. Yes, she had far more important things to be focussing on today, but old habits die hard and what was a bit of harmless fun? God knows her ego could do with a boost. ‘Why don’t you take that end, and I’ll take this end and maybe I could buy you a drink?’
‘I have a drink,’ she replied, holding up her glass. She watched as his face fell slightly before swooping in to make his day. ‘But I’m happy to share my bed if you are.’
Grinning, he wrapped the towel around his waist and asked a passing Anders, Norway for a Jack Daniel’s and Coke.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t even introduce myself. I’m Blane Collins.’
‘Blane Collins from New York,’ she added. ‘I’d say Connecticut.’
‘Milford,’ he nodded. ‘You’re good.’
‘Yes, I am,’ she concurred flirtatiously, enjoying this immensely. It had been a whole six days since she had a fine specimen to toy with.
‘And I’d say you were in either sports or property.’
‘Property,’ he acknowledged, clearly even more impressed. ‘How did you know that?’
‘D&G shorts, this season, so you’re up on fashion, suggesting a city dweller who cares about style and appearances. Tommy Hilfiger wallet – not too expensive, so I’m guessing you use this during the day when it could get battered around in some kind of manual environment. But you’ve got a Tag Heuer Grand Carrera Calibre 36 watch. Expensive. Slick. But incredibly sturdy, suggesting that you don’t sit behind a desk all day and need a watch that can handle a few knocks.’
‘Shit, you’re brilliant. That’s like the most impressive superpower ever.’
He sat down on the bed beside her, leaving a respectful distance. Friendly but not presumptuous – she liked that.
‘At the risk of sounding really cheesy, why is a girl like you up here on your own?’
‘I was bored in my suite,’ she said, ‘so I thought I’d come join the real world. What about you?’
‘You mean you can’t guess that?’
She laughed. ‘Nope, there are limits to my superpowers.’
‘I’m here with some buddies on a stag cruise. They’ve all gone into Naples, but man, I’ve had enough of the sightseeing stuff. Time for some sun and chilling. I’m more about taking it easy than taking in culture.’
He lost a couple of points for an answer that came straight out of the Little Book Of Naff Flirting. He got them back when he smiled at her and she realized just how gorgeous he was. Around thirty, she guessed. A little old for her toyboy phase, but good-looking enough for her to make an exception.
They indulged in seriously heavy, sexually suggestive flirting for the next hour. She was beginning to enjoy herself way too much, when her pragmatic side kicked in. Time to go. Things to do. Man to see. Reluctantly, she pushed herself up from the bed and announced that she had to leave. He was crestfallen.
‘Sorry, prior engagement. But this has been fun.’
‘It has,’ he said, tracing a line down the inside of her forearm from the crevice of her elbow to her wrist, a motion that sent such a delectable tingle directly to every one of her erogenous zones that she was almost tempted to toy with him a little longer and take things to their natural, energetic conclusion.
‘It was good meeting you Mona… and listen, any time you want to continue this discussion, I’m in suite 8210. Call by.’ The implication and invitation couldn’t have been clearer if he’d written them on his abs with suntan cream.
‘I might just do that,’ she told him – but not if things went her way in the next couple of hours.
Her nerve ending were still tingling as she strutted off, making sure she did her best catwalk sway to give him plenty to look at as she left.
Next stop, Drew’s suite. She mentally worked out the best way to go. All the way along this deck, past the two adult pools and the kids’ pool to the front of the ship, then down two floors. She decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator, because that would pump up the gluteus maximus and make her arse look even better.
‘Mona! Mona, over here!’ She was almost at the elevator bank when she heard the voice. Penny. And there was John and the kids too. Damn, she couldn’t get away without speaking to them now. Her gluteus maximus would have to wait. ‘Hi there!’ she sang as she breezed over to them.
She was almost at the edge of the kids’ pool where Lawrence and Lavinia were splashing furiously, when she realized who they were actually playing with. Drew burst up from under the water, making them shriek so loudly they could crack glass.
‘Hi, Mona!’ he greeted her. She just hoped the shock didn’t show in her face. Or the disappointment. Didn’t he realize she had a bloody game plan to adhere to? Obviously he didn’t because here he was playing grandad of the bloody year.
‘Want to join us?’ Penny asked. ‘We’re going to hang out here for the rest of the afternoon.’
Only if the other choice was having her toenails removed by a great white shark.
‘Thanks, Penny, but I was just on my way to do something. Got a couple of things I need to see to.’
She waved them all goodbye and didn’t even care if they wondered why she headed back in exactly the direction she’d come from.
Back at Seclusion, Blane was still there, lying on the bed, his lazy smile suggesting he’d been half expecting her. She didn’t mess around.
‘Suite 8210, did you say? I was planning on trying out some of my other superpowers there today.’
Sarah
For years Sarah had been reading novels that featured glorious scenes of romance and passion set against the intoxicating backdrop of Sorrento, and now that she was here it was everything she had ever dreamt it would be. Cars and scooters whizzed around the winding streets, there were fruit trees branching out over cream walls that surrounded houses that looked like they’d been built hundreds of years ago. In the shopping streets, designer boutiques sat beside tiny cafes with elderly women dressed completely in black sitting outside them. She loved it. Absolutely loved it. And she loved the company, too. Piers had been a revelation, one of the main reasons that she’d had such a good time, and she’d grown incredibly fond of him. Now, they teased each other like an old married couple as they wandered in and out of shops. She found gorgeous little T-shirts for Lawrence and Lavinia and then couldn’t resist the pull of a jewellery shop with a glass frontage and glistening white marble pillars out
side.
In the window was a silver-coloured chain with a simple emerald teardrop falling from it. Before she could stop herself, she was pushing the door open. It wouldn’t do any harm to have a wee look. Didn’t Patsy always say that window shopping was good for the soul?
‘Not another bloody shop,’ Piers blustered good-naturedly.
‘Oh, shut up and come on. You can buy something for Mona. It might straighten her face.’
Inside the cool, air-conditioned shop, a beautiful, graceful woman in her forties, with the most incredible bone structure Sarah had ever seen, greeted them and then nodded when Sarah asked to see the piece from the window. A few seconds later she was staring at her reflection in an oval mirror, admiring the simple, elegant beauty of the necklace. It was breathtaking. Utterly breathtaking. She was scared to ask the price and burst the bubble, because she knew for sure that she couldn’t afford it.
‘Can you tell me how much it is please?’ OK, get it over with. Go on. A girl can dream.
‘One thousand, three hundred euros. The chain is white gold and the stone is emerald.’
‘One thousand, three hundred euros,’ her brain repeated in a scandalized screech. That was a whole lot of tit cakes.
She gently removed it from her neck and handed it back, with a grateful, ‘Thank you, I’ll think about it.’
‘Let me buy it for you,’ Piers said quietly.
‘What?’
‘Let me buy it for you,’ he repeated.
‘No. You already bought me that ring in Alghero.’ Back in that little shop, where the owner had mistaken Piers for her husband, she’d been rifling in her purse for the money when Piers beat her to it. “It’s the least a man can do for his wife,” he’d beamed, sending them both into hysterics.
‘Sarah, that was five euros. It’s made of tin.’
‘I don’t care, I love it,’ she argued. ‘You’re not buying me this, that’s ridiculous. Why would you do that?’
The shop assistant had very discreetly backed away to allow them to argue in privacy.
‘Because I want to and because… because you deserve it, OK?’ he told her, getting more adamant with every word.
‘Why?’
‘Because.’
‘Oh, very mature,’ she said bluntly.
‘Because if it wasn’t for you and Max on this cruise I’d have gone bloody crazy. I like you. You’re amazing. I’m starting to miss you when you’re not around and I’m having really strong feelings for you and I want to buy you the bloody necklace.’
The stunned silence lasted for what seemed like several minutes, before Sarah recovered her voice. ‘Are you saying that you want us to be more than just friends, Piers?’
‘Yes!’ he blurted.
She recoiled like she’d been slapped. ‘No,’ she whispered, astonishment stealing her words again. Where the hell had this come from? It couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t. How dare he introduce this kind of drama into their lives? Did he think she was some kind of desperate tart he could just pick up with a few smooth words? A violent swirl of anger and shock consumed her and she fought to maintain some kind of balance.
‘Thank you,’ she repeated to the assistant, before calmly, with as much dignity as she could muster, walking out of the shop.
Piers followed her and as soon as they got outside, reverted to ‘blurt mode’. ‘Sarah, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.’
‘No, you bloody shouldn’t have,’ she thundered. ‘What in bollocks’ name was that all about? You’re married to Mona! And you’re telling me that you miss me when I’m not around? What kind of crap is that?’
He grabbed the ‘astonished’ baton. ‘Look, I said sorry! And I have to say that isn’t the usual reaction I get when I say nice things to a lady. Is it my aftershave?’
It was supposed to be a self-deprecating joke to lighten the situation, but it had completely the opposite effect.
‘ARE YOU INSANE!’ she roared, not caring that two old women outside a nearby cafe had stopped speaking and were now watching them with open mouths.
‘You are married to the woman who had an affair with my husband and then took him away from me and my children without a bloody care in the world. The whole world knew they were having an affair except me. THE WHOLE FUCKING WORLD! Don’t you think that might have made me just a tad disgusted by people who think that adultery is just a peachy way to pass the time?’
With that she stormed off down the street, passing the two old women. One of them gave her a round of applause and the other shouted what sounded like some kind of rousing chorus of female solidarity.
Much later, she had no idea how long, he found her sitting in the square.
‘Sarah, I’m sorry. I really am. I’m a total cock. I think I’m just so used to going for what I want in life that sometimes I overstep the mark. I meant what I said, though,’ he finished softly.
She got up, not even looking in his direction. She wasn’t sure what upset her the most. The fact that he’d spoiled what she thought was a wonderful new friendship, or the fact that he’d spoiled Sorrento.
Without even checking to see if he was behind her, she retraced her steps back to the dinghy. She didn’t care if he was there or not. She could row the bloody thing herself.
‘I’ll get those,’ came his voice from behind her, before he passed her and picked up the oars.
Why would he do this? She’d had such an amazing time with him and now he’d completely spoiled everything. She just wanted to get back to the ship and think. One trip in a dinghy alone with him, that’s all she had to get through.
They rowed in silence until they were about fifty yards away from the yacht and she saw Max and Tess burst into applause.
‘We were about to give up on you two,’ Max joked. ‘Hurry it up, Dad – we’ve only got about half an hour to get back to the ship.’
Sarah’s heart began to race and her stomach clenched with anxiety. Bugger! She’d lost all track of time. She checked her watch. Thirty-five minutes. Leo would have to put his foot down to get them there. The sooner the better. She wanted away from Piers before Tess and Max picked up on the incontrovertible fact that she wanted to kill him.
As soon as the two vessels touched, Sarah stood up and reached for Max’s outstretched hand for support as she climbed the steps on to the boat.
Piers moved to the bottom step, and then with Max’s help they hauled the dinghy up and clipped it to its moorings on the side.
‘OK, let’s rock and roll,’ Leo announced jovially, clearly very proud of his English lingo. He ceremoniously prodded the button next to the wheel. Then he did it again. And again.
By the fifth time, Piers, Sarah, Tess and Max were watching him with expressions varying from astonished to horrified.
On each press of the button there was not a sound. The engine was silent. He tried it one more time, all of them holding their breath, willing it to work.
It didn’t.
‘Signore Piers,’ he eventually conceded, shaking his head. ‘I don’t think we get you back to the ship on time.’
13.
Troubled Waters
Mona
Mona ignored the phone. Luxuriating in a bubble bath infused with coconut oils, it was much more fun to lie there contemplating the reasons that her muscles felt like they’d done a double session at a spin class. Blane had been a tad self-indulgent, but deft enough to make the afternoon she’d spent with him worthwhile. What the young ones didn’t have in expertise, they made up for with energy.
Bless him, he’d been positively sullen when she had refused to give him her number or arrange another hook-up. What was the point? He had been a very nice distraction, but now it was time to focus one hundred per cent on the game plan.
The thought made her restless. Patience wasn’t her strong point and it was time to start making progress. She pushed herself out of the water, dried off in front of the bathroom mirror, examining her reflection for flaws as she did
so. Satisfied, that every bit of her was smooth and evenly coloured, she reached for her ivory silk robe. It had been bought during a huge blowout in Agent Provocateur after one of Piers’ illicit little sojourns with Mistress Tart Emily of the Cheap Shoes. Despite the fact that she’d spent more than the cost of a small car, he didn’t query the charge on his credit card. She almost wished that he had dared to, but… damn, why did that phone keep ringing? Irritated, she snatched up the handset that lay on the marble vanity unit.
‘Hello?’ she snapped.
‘Darling, it’s me.’
‘Yes, I can hear that.’ It struck her that the man could be annoying even when he wasn’t here.
‘Oh. OK. Mona, we’ve got a bit of a situation here…’
He sounded odd. Very odd. If he was pissed again she’d kill him. They had a group dinner planned for the evening and she wasn’t going to spend it trying to stop him from collapsing in his lobster bisque. It seemed like every time he was let loose with Tess and Sarah he ended up in a senseless state. No doubt he was bored rigid in their company and drinking to make it all more interesting. Or perhaps he was trying to show off to impress Max. Either way he had midlife bloody crisis written all over him.
‘Piers, are you calling me from the bar? Because if you’re pis… oh bloody hell, hang on – the cabin phone is ringing.’
She took her mobile away from her ear and picked up the phone on the bathroom wall.