Ivorie's Surprise [Golden Dolphin] (Siren Publishing Classic) (11 page)

The AB tending the Riva stepped up. “Sir, this lady wanted to board the
Dolphin
. She said she was on the passenger list, but since she didn’t have a bracelet, I told her I would have to wait for orders from the bridge. No one boards without a bracelet.”

Drew looked at the name on his uniform. “Thanks, Sam. That’s exactly right. Ms. Cartwright is not a passenger on the
Golden Dolphin
, and she is not to board under any circumstances.” He turned to Ivorie and saw that she had backed off. She looked extremely embarrassed to have been called a slut in front of everyone on the dock. She obviously didn’t want a confrontation with Eugenia, and who could blame her. Eugenia at full throttle was a frightening sight. Her blue eyes shot icy daggers at Ivorie.

Eugenia looked ready to throw a full-blown fit. He felt he should make an effort to stop the tirade before it got started. “Eugenia, I thought you understood that we’re done. I don’t want to hurt you, but I have no desire to patch things up. Those feelings have nothing to do with Ivorie. She’s here as my assistant and nothing more. She had absolutely nothing to do with our breakup. I don’t know how I didn’t see you for who you really are sooner, but I have now. Please just leave and don’t make this situation worse by making a scene.”

Eugenia looked shocked and hurt, but Drew knew just what a good actress she was. If any of the feelings shining from her eyes were genuine, he’d eat a boat shoe for dinner. As far as he could see, she didn’t have a genuine feeling in her entire body. He turned away to board the Riva and left her standing on the dock with her mouth hanging open.

When Drew turned to find Ivorie, he saw that Sam had helped her to board, and she was sitting in the front of the tender with her handbag and shopping bags arranged around her. It was obvious by the placement of her belongings and the hurt look in her expressive caramel-brown eyes that she did not want him sitting next to her at the moment. He decided to let things settle down on the trip back to the
Dolphin
. He would talk to her when they got back and had some privacy. The conversation they needed to have couldn’t be had in public in any event.

When the Riva tied up to the
Dolphin,
Sam helped Ivorie gather her packages and board the ship. She hurried away before Drew could stop her. All she wanted to do was get away from him, get to her cabin, and lock the door behind her. Her heart had a major crack running right down the middle, but she was damned if she would let him see how his comments to Eugenia had hurt her.
What did I expect? This is Mr. Blessingame after all. Nothing has changed. The last few days were an aberration
.
He’s just shown his true colors
. She had temporarily lost her mind. She shouldn’t be surprised by his callous remarks. She was just an office fixture after all. He had needed a playmate, and she had been convenient.

Ivorie unlocked the door and slipped into her cabin, dropped her bags on a chair, and collapsed on her bed—the same bed she had not slept in since Saturday night. The steward must be getting a big kick out of that little factoid. What had she been thinking? What the capital H, capital E, capital double hockey sticks had she been thinking? She deserved this for sheer stupidity. It wasn’t like she didn’t know exactly what he was like. It wasn’t like he hadn’t brought her to tears before. She had cried in the ladies’ room at the office more than once.

As she lay on her bed, the tears began to leak from the corners of her eyes and slide down the sides of her face.
I’m not crying. I’m not!
Slowly, she rolled over and curled into a ball and began to sob. The pain was physical, not just emotional. She had been stupid enough to fall in love with him.
Oh, God. It hurt
.

* * * *

Drew stalked into the Master Suite and slammed the door. It was obvious by her quick escape that Ivorie did not want to talk to him. He could tell that her feelings were hurt by what he’d said to Eugenia, but he hadn’t wanted to put Ivorie in that bitch’s crosshairs by admitting that they were in a relationship.
Is that what this is? A relationship? Shit!
It had snuck up on him, but he guessed that was indeed what it was. She had to talk to him. She had to. He wouldn’t accept anything else. He would fix this. He couldn’t stand the thought of her hurting because of something he’d said to Eugenia, who meant absolutely nothing to him.

He paced around the suite for a few minutes more while he tried to put his thoughts in order. He poured a short brandy into a crystal snifter and took a deep swallow. It burned on the way down, but in a minute the warmth began to circulate through his system. Liquid courage. That’s what he definitely needed to face Ivorie. He walked out the door, down one flight of the central staircase, and down the corridor to the door of Ivorie’s cabin. He knocked. Waited. Knocked again. He just knew she was in there. “Ivorie, open the door. Please.” When he got complete silence for an answer, he lowered his voice to the “Dom” register that usually got a response double-quick and repeated the command. “Ivorie, open this door. Now.” Still nothing.

Drew walked over to the next cabin, which was serving as their office, slid his security card into the lock, and opened the door. She wasn’t in the office. He walked quietly to the connecting door, hoping against hope that she had not locked it from the other side. He was in luck. He breathed a sigh of relief as the door opened, and he walked through into Ivorie’s cabin.

He saw her immediately, curled up on the bed, facing away from him. She was so still he thought she was asleep. He walked quietly to the bed and carefully lay down beside her. She tried to roll away, but he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back against his chest. “Ivorie, please listen to me. I didn’t mean what I said to Eugenia. I just didn’t want her to turn on you like the viper she is. Please listen to me, baby.” He felt her body stiffen in his arms.

“Mr. Blessingame, this is totally inappropriate. I am not your ‘baby.’ Please leave my cabin immediately and don’t come in here again unless I invite you. I know I’m just your assistant, oh, excuse me—just your
second
assistant—but even I have the right to some privacy in my own room.”

He kept his tight hold on her stiff body. “Please, Ivorie. You have to listen to me. It’s not what you’re thinking.”

“It’s exactly what I’m thinking. I’m just embarrassed that I was taken in by your suddenly affable demeanor. I knew it was too good to be true. Why I should have fallen for that, I cannot possibly explain, even to myself. I should have known better. What an idiot! I let you use me, and that’s my fault. I won’t be making that mistake again, sir. Please leave. I will be in the office at nine o’clock tomorrow and will attend to all necessary business. But our
friendship
is over. I will eat in my cabin from now on and will try to be pleasant and professional during office hours. That will be our only contact.”

He pulled her closer, buried his face in her hair, and breathed in deeply. He loved her scent. This was going to kill him. He felt sick. When she didn’t unbend even a little, he said, “If that’s what you want, I’ll give you some time to think about this. It’s not what I want, but maybe we both need some time to think. This has all happened so quickly.” Ivorie made another unsuccessful effort to escape his tight hold. “Believe me, Ivorie, we are not done. And, furthermore, I had no idea Eugenia would show up here. I definitely broke our engagement. It was on
Page Six
of the
New York Post
for crap’s sake. How much more official can a broken engagement be?”

She remained quiet and still and waited for him to leave. Finally, he got up off the bed and headed for the door. “I’ll see you in the office tomorrow morning, Ms. James.”

Carl Gustaf Hotel and Spa, Gustavia, St. Barthelemy Island, October 9, 2013—Wednesday Evening

Eugenia was livid. She had been pacing the suite for hours.
That bastard, Drew, and his little slut assistant, have another think coming if they think they can push me aside like yesterday’s news
. She had related the whole scene to Frank, who had strangely little to say about the whole episode.

“How dare he move that little bitch into my suite, into what is supposed to be my vacation and my bed. I just know if I could get her out of the way, I could get him back.”

“Eugenia, it doesn’t sound…”

“How do you know? You weren’t there. He said he didn’t want to hurt me. She’s trying to take over my place in Drew’s life. I won’t have it, I tell you. I just won’t have it. We have to figure something out.”

“When you do that, you let me know. I’m going down to the hotel bar for a drink and some dinner. Do you want to come? Or do you just want to stay here and rant and rave?”

“You go. I’m going to think. We’ll talk when you come back.”

When Frank got back from dinner, Eugenia was ready for him with an idea, and she jumped right in. “I’ve got it. If we can catch Ivorie alone, you can detain her while I use her bracelet to get on board. If I can get Drew alone, I know I can talk him out of this breakup business.”

“Are you nuts? You want to kidnap a foreign tourist from a bazillion-dollar boat, board the boat, and fuck some guy’s brains out? Baby, you’re losing it.”

“Frank, wait. Just think a minute. This can work. The next port of call for the
Golden Dolphin
is tomorrow in Castries, St. Lucia. That’s too soon for us to get into position and locate a safe hiding place for Ivorie until the boat leaves port again. But by next Tuesday they will be in Santarém, Brazil and some other small Amazon River towns. There are several Brazilian ports of call, and I bet we can find just the right place. We have time to get there ahead of them and set something up.”

“I still think it’s nuts, but I guess we can go there and scope it out.”

* * * *

Frank couldn’t believe that Eugenia, rather than calming down, had revved up even more while he was out to dinner. She was definitely on a tear, and it was scary. She was losing touch with reality. Frank, a veteran of the New York streets, wished he’d never come down here and gotten involved in this nonsense. He’d thought it would be good for a few good lays, a free vacation, and a few bucks. Now, he thought it might be good for a few years in a South American prison. He’d play along for a while and see if her plan was feasible. But it better damn well be a great plan because he wasn’t risking his neck for Eugenia.

The
Golden Dolphin
—Castries, St. Lucia Harbor, October 10, 2013—Thursday Morning, Day Five of the Cruise

The
Golden Dolphin
had anchored off St. Lucia on schedule, the captain had presented passports and credentials to the port authorities, and most of the passengers were going ashore for the day. Drew had a cup of coffee in his suite to give Ivorie time to get into the office. He wasn’t in the mood to eat, and he certainly wasn’t in the mood for a shore excursion. He’d been awake most of the night thinking. He had worried that she might have another nightmare, and he wouldn’t be there. This spat was a wake-up call. He realized that he had been so immersed in his own emotional problems and in business matters for such a long time that he hadn’t seen what his sour attitude was doing to other people. That wasn’t the leadership ethic his father had tried to teach him, and he was ashamed of himself. All the money he had made aside, his dad would not have been proud of his performance. His dad had been someone who cared a great deal about the people who worked for him and had always been there for them. That was one thing that he was going to change about himself when he got back from this trip. His parents’ deaths had just been the final straw in the change of his personality. He wanted to be the person he had been before 9/11, when the responsibility for the businesses fell on his shoulders. He also wanted to be the person he was when he was with Ivorie.

While this thing with Eugenia at the dock wasn’t completely his fault as far as he was concerned, Ivorie’s expectations of him were entirely his fault. He wished he had considered what his spur-of-the-moment words to Eugenia would do to Ivorie, but he had just spit them out without thinking of the consequences. He realized that she had learned from bitter and long experience what to expect from him, and it made him sick. It broke his heart.

Drew went down to the office and opened the door. Ivorie was at her desk just as she’d said she would be. He’d known she wouldn’t hide in her cabin and sulk. That just wasn’t Ivorie, regardless of how hurt, upset, or angry she was with him.

“Good morning, sir. I hope you slept well.” He could see from her saccharine expression that that was the last thing she hoped. The woman did have spine, and it looked like it wasn’t going to bend.

“Yes, Ms. James. I slept very well.” He stopped, shook his head, and said, “Ivorie, you know damn well that I didn’t sleep at all. Can we please talk?” He was ready to beg if he had to, but he sure hoped she’d had enough time to see reason.

“There’s nothing to talk about, unless you’re referring to business matters. There were a few e-mails that need your attention. I forwarded them to you.”