Constantinou's Mistress (14 page)

‘So you mean that all these people here think…think…?'

‘Probably,' he agreed drily. ‘And I suggest we allow them to think that. The alternative, without them knowing the true reason we are here, is a seedy liaison.'

‘But the staff know,' Lucy protested.

‘And the staff here are trained enough never to indulge in personal conversation with the guests.' He could feel the stirrings of a plan in his head and a spurt of excitement raced through him like a sudden injection of adrenaline. ‘Now, you go and chat to the old dears. I can see them peering over here at us,' he bent to murmur in her ear. ‘They are of a generation that still believes in romance. Is that not uplifting in this day and age of sex without strings and relationships without commitment?'

‘That's rich, coming from you,' Lucy gritted, but any further sarcasm was forestalled when he dipped his head
lower to cover her mouth with his, pulling her towards him so that she could not struggle. God, but her lips tasted sweet. His tongue greedily explored the silky wetness of her mouth and he pulled her a little closer until he could feel the push of her breasts against his chest. When he drew back it was with great reluctance. ‘See you later, darling.'

‘I'll…'

‘Be waiting for me?' he quipped, standing back, then he grinned again and vanished out of the door, leaving her trembling like a leaf.

Lucy had to plaster a smile to her face when she returned to the sisters and their benevolent approval of all things traditional. If they only knew the half of it! She weathered their politely inquisitive remarks, deflecting as much as she could with a semblance of shyness, and she was almost relieved when a sudden gust of wind uprooted one of the shrubs just outside the window and sent it hurtling away into the distance.

A little flutter of panic brought perspiration to her face. Nick had now been gone the better part of forty-five minutes and there was still no sight of him. What if something had happened out there? She felt sick at the thought of that, but the truth was that the landscape was changing into one that was hostile and threatening.

She moved towards one of the windows, as had a number of the guests, whose conversations had finally dwindled into silence, and stared at the black skies outside. It could have been nightfall rather than mid-morning.

‘I hope your young man is all right, my dear,' Edie said, coming to stand next to her. ‘I must say, I don't care for the look of this at all. It
is
going to be all right, isn't it?'

‘Of course it is.' Lucy strained her eyes in every direction to see if there was any sign of Nick. The wind was now strong enough to force them to virtually shout if they wanted to be heard, and the coconut trees were no longer swaying gracefully, they were bending almost horizontally along the ground and seemed on the verge of uprooting themselves and taking flight. More plants were being pulled away from the ground.

‘This is par for the course!' she shouted back to Edie. ‘It seems very dramatic but it's nothing compared to what we would be experiencing if we were in the thick of things, I promise you!'

There was an ear-splitting crack of thunder and then lightning that illuminated the grounds for an instant, throwing everything into terrifying focus. Couples had found each other and several were clutching hands.

‘Quite exciting really, Edie!' her sister shouted, and they nodded in appreciation of the elements raging outside. ‘We old fools need something like this now and again to bring a little excitement into our lives!'

In the midst of this grand display of nature's supremacy, the rain began. Not a few polite drops, making way for the eventual downpour, but a savage lashing that made it almost impossible to see what was going on outside. And just when Lucy was beginning to contemplate going outside to see where the hell Nick could be the door was flung open and he strode in, soaking wet, unbuttoning his shirt, which clung to his body like an unpleasant second skin.

‘She was worried sick about you, the poor thing!' Gracie bellowed as Nick approached them, his shirt fully off at this point.

‘Were you, darling?'

‘I just wondered where you were!'

‘There's nothing more we can do now. We'll just have to sit it out. I'm going to change! Coming?' His dark eyes gleamed wickedly as rosy colour spread along her cheekbones.

‘Of course she's going to come with you!' Edie cackled. ‘Look at the state of her! White as a sheet!'

‘I'd be better served here.' How on earth was she supposed to sound coolly contained when she had to shout just to make herself heard?

‘OK!' In an intrusive and intimate gesture, against which she could do nothing without raising unwanted suspicions, he turned to stroke the side of her face before running his thumb along her mouth. ‘Sure, now?'

‘Sure!'

‘All right! Now, tell me, sweetheart, where did you put my favourite pair of boxer shorts? You know the ones—black with red hearts.'

‘Oh, I'm so sorry,
darling,
but that particular pair was shredded by the dog before we left England!' Which, her expression informed him, was precisely what she felt like doing to him.

‘You'll have to buy me another pair, in that case!' He turned to the two old ladies with a smile of utter charm. ‘She is such an incurable romantic! Loves to surprise me with little gestures to show how much she cares!'

This was taking it all too far, she thought helplessly. She could understand his reasoning about not wanting his guests to know why they were there. The hotel business was a notoriously fickle one, with new corners of the world opening up daily in an attempt to entice tourists, and he couldn't run the risk of his own hotel coming under any public scrutiny unnecessarily, but surely he didn't have to overdo the phoney husband-wife connection?

She knew that she was probably overreacting, and that he would run a mile if he had any idea how much his slightest look or touch or, worse, empty endearment sent her imagination into overdrive and just fuelled her own unwanted cravings. Still, it took a lot for her to banish thoughts of him from her head and instead concentrate on what was going on outside.

In the far-off distance, between the wildly cavorting coconut trees, the sea was just about visible, a churning mass of angry black water thundering against the sand, desperately trying to crawl up the beach and take its onslaught to the hotel.

It was eerily comforting when Nick returned to feel his arms around her shoulders; they were the very epitome of the loving couple as they stared out of the window together, mesmerised by the sheer power of the wind and rain.

In extreme situations, he informed her, violent spirals of air could lift cars and houses and certainly whip roofs off some of the less sturdily built dwellings. Lucy shivered and his arms tightened around her. Instead of objecting, however, she allowed herself to soften into his embrace, welcoming its warmth.

Lunch was a subdued business. The steady roaring of the wind made conversation sporadic and a fair number of the guests seemed reluctant to retire to their rooms, preferring the security of numbers.

In an attempt to alleviate the atmosphere, which had gone from panicked to plucky to depressingly aware that they were prisoners of a force over which they had no control and which showed no signs of abating, Lucy unearthed a cupboard full of games. Most were new, having been supplied to cater for children, who were not regular visitors to the resort.

‘You go ahead,' Nick shouted when she showed him the selection. ‘I'm going to catch up with some work.'

‘Oh, no, you most certainly are not, my beloved little cabbage!' she yelled, to the delight of most of the guests, who seemed enamoured at the sight of young love. ‘We can form into groups for those who want to play!' She distributed games and packs of cards. ‘And you,' she said to him, ‘can join Edie, Gracie and me in a game of Monopoly!'

‘I hate board games!'

‘Don't be such a spoilsport!' Lucy looked to her two companions for support and received it. Yes, it was a small triumph to see him cave in simply because he had no choice, given the lovey-dovey situation he had engendered, but it was a triumph well worth having, especially when it became apparent that he was on the road to losing.

‘These dice are loaded against me!' he complained when he had landed on Park Lane, her property, for the fifth time in a row.

‘I hope you're not going to be a sore loser!' She grinned, quietly pleased with herself. While the wind continued to howl outside, she had at least managed to divert the gathering gloom of the occupants. No one was moaning or imagining the worst. They were joining in with enthusiasm and, from the looks of it, most of them hadn't been near a game for decades.

She should have won. She had by far the most hotels. He should have lost comprehensively. As it turned out, she couldn't find out because there was a flash of brilliant lightning, the electricity went and the place was plunged into immediate darkness.

Amidst the sudden confusion, Nick clapped his hands loudly and announced that they would have to retire to
their rooms. It was unlikely that the electricity would return in the foreseeable future. He knew, he said in a psychologically skilful manoeuvre, that he could depend on them to deal with the situation with the same level of cool-headedness with which they had dealt with the hurricane.

Several of the guests puffed themselves up with pride at the compliment.

He informed them that he would see to the staff, make sure that they were all OK, and then he, too, would be retiring to bed.

It was hard not to feel utterly safe with him in charge, Lucy thought dreamily, until she heard him say, in closing, ‘And Lucy and I will be in the Toucan room! If any of you should feel alarmed during the night, for whatever reason, feel free to knock on our door!'

Her head snapped up in alarm and she leant forward in her chair, trying to decipher an expression on his face and failing miserably.

‘Now, please remain here until I bring torches for everyone. No candles, please! And try to conserve the batteries in the torches, just in case…'

Just in case they were cooped up for another few nights? In which event, the cosily married couple would still be sharing the same harmonious marital chamber, ever alert to any alarmed guests?

She could feel her heart thumping by the time he reappeared with a handful of torches, distributing them and answering questions about when they could expect some of the weather to subside and how long before electricity would be reinstated.

By the time he got to her and flicked on their torch she had a whole host of questions of her own, none of which included anything to do with the hurricane.

‘I've decided that Edie and Gracie can have the room next to ours,' he informed her. ‘It has already been cleared out and prepared for them. I thought they would feel…safer…being a bit closer to us…'

On cue, the two ladies twittered their agreement and Lucy stifled a groan of impotent dismay.

‘Cleared out?'

‘Oh, yes,
cleared out
.' His voice was thick with meaning, and just in case she was still in the dark he draped his arm over her shoulder and whispered into her ear, ‘Your things are now in my room. I told Maisie and Janette just to leave them on the bed. Thought you might want to sort them out yourself.'

‘This is ridiculous!'

‘Shh! Keep your voice down! Don't forget, we are the steady rocks. We have to maintain a united front.'

‘But this wasn't the arrangement.' Lucy heaved a sigh that bordered on a sob.

‘Nor was being struck by the tail-end of a hurricane,' Nick pointed out. ‘Sometimes we just have to play things by ear.'

Gracie and Edie followed them to their new room, inspected it by torchlight, pronounced that they were satisfied and then thanked them for being thoughtful enough to know that they would have felt very nervous had they remained in their original rooms at the furthest end of the hotel complex.

‘We chose them because we wanted peace and quiet!' Edie raised her voice to explain.

‘Little did we know!'

Little indeed, Lucy thought grimly the minute she stepped into Nick's room, which mirrored the layout of her own.

‘This is a farce!' She faced him belligerently with her
hands on her hips, but her aggressive stance was lost in the darkness, which was broken only by the limited circle of light radiating from the torch.

‘What could I do?' He headed towards the bedroom, taking the torch with him, and Lucy followed, fuming, in his wake.

‘You could have put them into a room closer to someone else!'

‘They would not have felt as safe. They like you! They are old! Old and frightened, however chipper they appear to be!'

Lucy looked away and down to the king-sized bed with growing horror.

‘And where am I going to sleep? Huh?'

‘On the bed, of course. Where else would you expect to sleep? Here, you keep the torch so that you can put your stuff away. I'll have to leave the bathroom door open, though, so that I can see what I'm doing when I shower.'

‘You can't
leave the door open
!' Lucy spluttered.

‘How else will I get any light?' He turned away, oblivious to her simmering away in front of the bed, on which her clothes lay in neat bundles, and presently there was the sound of the shower, at which her mind reared up and she raced through the process of sticking her clothes in whatever free drawers she could find.

By the time he emerged with a towel around his waist everything had been disposed of and she was ready to take up her protests exactly where she had left them.

‘And before you ask,' he told her, ‘I have no intention of sleeping on a chair overnight. Like it or not, we are going to share this bed. I am going to open some of the small shutters in the bathroom and above the doors there so that we can have some kind of ventilation. Might be
noisy with the sound of the rain, but if we don't we'll end up sweating. And we will have to sleep under the netting. Now, off you go with the torch and have your shower. By the time you get back I will be safely ensconced under the blanket and tucked away on one side so that there is no chance of our bodies touching.'