by Lynsay Sands
Jess nodded. She even managed a smile this time as she told herself it would just be a couple more minutes.
Those minutes felt like hours and Jess spent the entire time glancing nervously around and then up and then around again as the luggage was passed down to Santo, and then dropped to Raffaele. There were three suitcases. One for each man. The bags of clothing that Zanipolo and Santo had brought back for her had been put in Raffaele’s suitcase rather than being left to be dragged around.
“Let’s go.”
Jess gave a start and glanced around, surprised to find Santo and Zanipolo standing next to them. Raffaele had just caught the last suitcase. How had the other two men got down so quickly? She didn’t get the chance to wonder over that long. Taking his suitcase in one hand, Raffaele clasped her elbow with his other and began to urge her quickly through the pool area to the steps leading up to the lobby and reception area.
“You don’t think they’ll be able to see us on the stairs, do you?” she asked nervously as they started up.
“No,” Raffaele said reassuringly, and pointed out, “The buildings with the rooms are taller than the main building.”
“Oh. Right,” she murmured, but couldn’t shake the feeling someone was watching them as they mounted the steps. The feeling made her move a little quicker and then quicker still until she was nearly running up the steps. The men didn’t say anything. They merely kept pace with her and followed her inside.
“Stay with Santo. I’ll be right back.”
Jess glanced around at that, and watched Raffaele approach the reception desk.
“Why don’t we wait closer to the front doors?” Zanipolo said, peering around the lobby with a frown. It was a large cavernous room full of couches and chairs arranged in conversation groups, and there were a lot of people present at the moment. Some were checking out to catch late flights, others simply waiting for whatever that night’s entertainment would be in the open area at the back of the lobby.
Jess glanced around nervously, half-afraid one of her relatives, or another guest from the wedding party, might spot her and approach to find out what was going on. She didn’t know what she’d say if they did. She’d called Krista and told her she’d run into some old friends and was joining them for a short trip to La Romana. She hadn’t wanted to mention Santo Domingo in case Vasco or one of his men realized she was no longer in Raffaele’s hotel room, and read Krista’s mind in an effort to figure out where she’d gone. At least this way, they’d be looking in the wrong place if that happened.
“The car’s already waiting out front,” Raffaele announced, catching up to them as they headed for the front doors. Taking Jess’s arm again, he urged them to move a little more quickly as they approached the front doors. “They gave me the keys.”
“The keys?” she asked with surprise. “I thought we were taking a hotel car into town and getting a rental there?”
“While you were napping, I arranged for a rental over the phone, and had it brought out here,” he explained as he ushered her out of the lobby with Santo and Zanipolo following close behind. “We were already leaving much later than expected. I didn’t want it to be midnight before we got to the hotel.”
“Oh.” Jess nodded and supposed it was good they could head right out without delay. It wasn’t going to get them to the embassy today or anything; it was already closed. But she’d known they wouldn’t be able to go there today when she’d decided they should wait for dark to leave. It had seemed to her that waiting and slipping away under the cover of darkness was safer than leaving during daylight and risking Vasco following and somehow stopping her from getting to the embassy and getting a replacement passport.
“Nice car,” Zanipolo commented as Raffaele led them toward a luxury SUV.
“The windows are treated with SPF protection,” Raffaele said as if that should mean something. Apparently, it did to Zanipolo and Santo. Both of them grunted with approval. It seemed they were worried about skin cancer.
Jess expected Raffaele to drive since he’d rented the car. Instead, he handed the keys to Zanipolo and got in the back with her. When he smiled at her, she smiled tensely back and then turned to peer out the window toward the hotel doors. There were people milling everywhere, coming and going, some with luggage, some without. She didn’t spot anyone she recognized, and there were no pirates that she could see. But she still didn’t feel safe. Jess was beginning to think she wouldn’t feel safe again until she was out of the Dominican, and wasn’t absolutely sure she would even then.
She was sure that she would be sorry to leave Raffaele, though. The man was something special, and it wasn’t just the mind-blowing sex. That was just gravy on top of a very tasty meal to her mind. Jess liked Raffaele. She thought he was smart, and funny, and she liked that he was so considerate and caring. He was also a rock, like her father had been, calm and steadfast in the face of a crisis. She really would have liked to get to know him better. But it looked like that just wasn’t meant to be and all they were going to be was a holiday romance. If things went as planned, she’d be at the embassy first thing tomorrow morning, and hopefully at the airport by dinner with a replacement passport. Meanwhile, Raff and his cousins would continue on with their vacation and then fly home to Italy. Her living in the U.S. and him being in Italy kind of made dating impossible. It wasn’t like he’d leave his job and family and move to Montana to date a woman he’d only known a couple of days. And she certainly couldn’t leave Montana until she finished her education. Nope. They’d both go home and she’d just become a memory of “that chick they once helped out in Punta Cana.”
Finding the thought terribly depressing, Jess leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes on a sigh.
“Here we are.”
Jess nodded mildly at Raffaele’s words as he ushered her through the door Santo had just unlocked and opened. A glance back showed Zanipolo and Santo following with the luggage. Reassured by that, she turned her attention to the room as Raffaele led her out of the entry hall and into their suite. She’d thought the hotel room at the resort was nice, but this was several steps up from nice, she noted as her gaze slid over the huge living room/kitchen that was at the center of the three-bedroom suite.
The wall in front of her was all glass, high sliding glass doors in the middle, with equally tall windows running floor to ceiling on either side of them. The curtains were open to reveal a stunning view of the ocean and the starry night sky above it.
Jess’s breath left her on a soft sigh as she took it in, and then she turned her attention to the room itself. A living-room-type area took up the left side of the large open room. It held a cream-colored couch and two matching chairs along with end tables, coffee tables, and a large television. The other side of the room was taken up by a dining table and a small kitchenette with a bar fridge, microwave, coffeepot, teapot, and cupboards, which she guessed probably held coffee cups and whatnot.
There was a small hallway off the left of the living room side with three doors off of it that Santo and Zanipolo were now checking out. She caught a glimpse of a bathroom through the middle door when Santo opened it, and then he turned to open the door on the right, revealing a bedroom even as Zanipolo opened the door on the left to another bedroom. Jess was just frowning at the fact that their three-bedroom suite apparently only had two bedrooms when Raffaele moved to a door on the right-hand side of the room, just past the dining table. When he opened that door, she saw that it too led to a bedroom. A huge one from the looks of it.
“You can have this room,” Raffaele announced, returning to grab his suitcase. Carrying it into the room, he set it on a suitcase holder, and then headed for the door again. “Go ahead and unpack and shower or bathe if you like. I’m going to take a look at the room service menu and see if they’re still serving.”
Jess watched the door close behind him and then turned back to the room and simply stared around. It was a lovely room with a large bed, white side tables, and a
white shelving unit across from the bed holding drawers on the bottom and then a television, and small colorful vases and artworks in the shelves above. Like the living room/dining area, the outer wall here was made up of a sliding glass door and large windows that looked out over the ocean too, and there was a table and two chairs in front of it.
Jess turned to the door on the opposite wall and opened it to find a bathroom that was almost as big as her living room at home. Eyes wide she peered at the huge Jacuzzi tub, the shower big enough to hold five people comfortably, the two-sink counter, and the open door to a walk-in closet and then shook her head and tried the only closed door in the room. Relief slid through her when she saw it led to a smaller room, almost a closet, with a toilet and bidet inside.
Stepping inside, she flicked the light switch on and used the facilities. It had been a long trip and she’d spent the last half of it wishing for a bathroom. After finishing, Jess stepped into the bathroom proper and washed her hands. She then turned to consider the tub and the shower. Which did she want? A quick invigorating shower? Or a nice long relaxing bath to ease away the tension that had been clenching her muscles almost nonstop since her cousin had dragged her onto what turned out to be a ship of vampires?
Deciding on a bath, she moved to the tub and started it running. Jess was back in the bedroom, removing her bags from Raffaele’s suitcase while the water ran, when a light tap at the door made her pause and turn toward it. “Yes?”
Raffaele opened the door and stuck his head in. “Are you hungry?”
Jess nodded, and asked, “Is room service still on?”
Raffaele grimaced. “Yes. But the menu is pretty restricted at this hour. Santo and Zanipolo were thinking of going out to eat.”
Jess bit her lip and glanced to the bathroom door.
“You’re running a bath,” he guessed, and smiled faintly. “It’s all right. They can bring us back something.”
Jess shook her head. Now that food had been brought up, she was hungry. “I’ll just turn off the tub and change quickly . . . if they don’t mind waiting a minute?”
“No, that’s fine.” He hesitated, and then slid into the room and paused next to her. “I’d like to change too if you—”
“Oh, yes!” She removed the last bag from the suitcase and stepped back as he quickly closed and flipped the latch to secure it.
“Is fifteen minutes enough time?” he asked as he headed for the door.
“Fine,” she assured him, but thought she would probably be ready in five as she watched him leave. She moved to the bathroom then to turn off the taps, surprised to find the huge tub already full. The water pressure here was something to be envied, she decided. It took forever to fill her bath back home, and it was just a normal-sized tub.
She bent, intending to push the button that would drain the tub, and then paused, feeling bad about the waste of water. After a brief hesitation, Jess quickly stripped and stepped into it. He’d given her fifteen minutes. That was enough time for her to take a quick bath and dress.
Raffaele carried his suitcase into the room he would share with Zanipolo and raised his eyebrows when he saw the man had his laptop open and was turning it on.
“I’m going to find out our options for someplace to eat around here,” Zanipolo murmured, concentrating on getting onto the hotel’s internet.
“Wouldn’t it be easier just to ask the concierge when we get downstairs?” Raffaele asked as he set his suitcase on the end of one of the beds and opened it to consider what clean clothes he had. He settled on a pair of dress pants and a short-sleeved, button-up white linen shirt.
“I’ll do that too, but this way I get to see what kind of ambience they have.”
“Ambience, huh?” he asked with amusement.
“And whether they’re close to a dance club,” Zanipolo added, ignoring his teasing.
Raffaele raised his eyebrows at the last claim, and considered it briefly. He then carried his clothes with him into the bathroom. He’d told Jess fifteen minutes. That was more than enough time for a quick shower.
“Mmm, this sea bass is delicious. You guys should have tried it.”
Raffaele glanced up from his tenderloin at Zanipolo’s comment. He was in time to see Jess wrinkle her nose with distaste and shake her head.
“Sorry, not a fish person. Never have been,” she announced, and then added, “Although I don’t mind shrimp with lots of that hot red sauce. But everything else from the sea should just stay there as far as I’m concerned.”
“Yeah?” Zanipolo asked with interest and then glanced to him. “It seems to me you once mentioned never caring for seafood either, Raffaele. Didn’t you?”
Raffaele raised an eyebrow. What he’d said was he couldn’t bear the smell of seafood when Zani was eating it, and he’d refused to accompany him if he was having it for his meal. But he had never cared much for seafood when he had eaten either, so he nodded now. “I’m with Jess. Seafood should stay in the sea.”
“And she’s studying to teach history, while you used to teach it,” Zani commented. “It’s like you were meant to be.”
Raffaele’s eyes widened with alarm at the words. Zani was telling the truth. He had taught history in the past. Like three hundred years ago. He could hardly—
“Did you?” Jess asked, her eyes wide with surprise as she peered at him.
“Sì,” Zanipolo answered for him when Raffaele turned a glare his way. “He taught Early History at the University of Urbino.”
“And you gave it up to be an architect?” Jess asked now with a frown. “Did you not like it?”
“I loved it,” Raffaele assured her, offering her a forced smile. He had loved it, but the academic community was a small one and his not aging had become a problem. Eventually, he’d had to leave to do something else. He’d become a hunter for a while, and then a concert pianist with some modest success, which had been a problem. Too much fame was not a good thing for someone trying not to attract attention, so he’d moved on to studying law, and done that for decades, before allowing his creative side reign again and studying and then working as an architect. Little of which he could tell Jess. She thought he was only in his late twenties or early thirties.
“If you loved it, why did you quit and become an architect?” Jess asked now.
Raffaele opened his mouth, closed it again, and then shrugged helplessly. He didn’t have a clue what excuse to give for switching careers. He certainly couldn’t tell her the truth. Fortunately, Zanipolo saved him again.
“The women.”
“What?” Jess gasped even as Raffaele did and they both turned to Zani with amazement. Fortunately, Jess was apparently so shocked she didn’t appear to notice his.
“Well, look at him,” Zanipolo said with a shrug. “He might not have your typical GQ-type looks, but he has an animal magnetism the girls just couldn’t resist.”
Raffaele snapped his gaping mouth closed and sat up straight when Jess turned back to look at him. He had no idea what GQ was, but Jess was nodding with agreement, hopefully about the animal magnetism part at least.
“The female students were always hanging all over him and trying to seduce him,” Zanipolo continued. “Raffaele quickly grew tired of having to fend them off and decided to switch to architecture.”
That was utter bollocks. Women hadn’t been allowed in university yet when he’d taught there, but Raffaele supposed Zani’s excuse was as good as any. At least Jess was relaxing and smiling crookedly with understanding rather than looking horrified that he’d trained to be a professor and then just dumped it.
“Yeah. I can see how the girls would have been attracted to you,” Jess said now, smiling faintly. “And from some of the nonsense I’ve seen on campus, I suppose they could be pretty aggressive about it.” Expression turning teasing, she added, “Still, it’s a shame you had to quit teaching to protect your manly virtue.”
Raffaele just shook his head and shoveled food into his mouth to discourage fu
rther questions on the subject. But he was thinking it was damned inconvenient that she didn’t know about their being immortal and what it meant. It made discussing his past hard. He was having to keep a lot of himself back, things he would have liked to share with her.
“Actually, I’m surprised a quality guy like you hasn’t already been snapped up,” Jess said now. “What’s wrong with the girls in Italy? No taste?”
“Raff’s always been particular. He doesn’t just date women for dating’s sake,” Zanipolo said now. “I was beginning to think he’d never find the right woman, so I was glad when he found you.”
Raffaele noted the way Jess’s eyes widened at that, and then the uncertainty that crossed her face as she glanced from Zani to him, and suspected she’d been thinking this just a vacation romance. He was guessing that Zani had read that from her thoughts and was trying to give him an opening to let her know he planned for their relationship to continue beyond Punta Cana. Before he could do so, though, Jess quickly changed the subject.
“Wow! Well, this is really good. But it’s also filling. I was kind of eyeing that tiramisu with Amaretto sauce on the menu, but I don’t think I’ll have the room,” she said with a good cheer that was obviously forced.
“We could always get it to go and have it in the room as a midnight snack,” Raffaele said quietly, letting her off the hook. He’d have to make his intentions clear later. Either tonight, or in the morning. Definitely before she flew home.
“Or we could stop in later on the way back to the hotel if they’re still open. You don’t want to be dragging a doggie bag around with you when we go dancing,” Zanipolo protested with a frown.
“Dancing?” Jess asked with confusion.
“Sì. There is supposed to be a great dance club not too far from here. I thought we could go dancing and work off some of this meal,” Zanipolo explained, smiling cheerfully.
“Oh.” Jess frowned, and then shook her head. “I think you guys will have to go without me. It’s been a stressful couple of days and I’d just rather go back to the hotel.”