Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire? (15 page)

       “What do
you want to do tonight?” Nina asked. 

       “Well, I
was thinking maybe after all that exhilaration, it might be nice to just hang
out in the hot tub.  What do you think?”

       “As long
as we eat something first!  How about some ceviche?”

Chapter Twenty Four

       Some
candle lanterns burned around the hot tub, and Daniel held Nina’s hand as she
stepped in.  She was wearing her swimsuit with the anchors and looked adorable,
Daniel thought, although he couldn’t remember ever being in a hot tub with
people wearing swimsuits.  He slid in after.

       “Mmmm.” 
Nina’s hair spread out around her in the water.

       “Use your
words Nina,” Daniel joked.

       “Feels
fantastic.  What a good idea after airplane seats and bumping around in the
jeep.”

       “So how
are
you
doing?  I mean, with everything going on?”

       “Well,
it’s a lot easier to be your fiancé without the paparazzi and all that.  When
we’re having fun like today, it just feels like a vacation with a good friend.”

       Good
friend?  That wasn’t exactly the reaction for which Daniel was hoping.  “So I’m
not such a bad guy?”

       “No,
you’re a great guy.  I mean that.”

       Daniel
floated over and sat next to Nina, slipping an arm around her shoulders.  “You
don’t know how happy it makes me to hear you say that because I think you’re an
amazing girl.”

Unconsciously,
Daniel stroked the back of Nina’s head with his hand.  “You know, it doesn’t
all have to be a con job.  There are some very real things going on.”

       Nina’s
phone rang.  She smiled at Daniel, and grabbed it from the edge of the hot
tub.  “I better get this just in case something crazy is going on with my crazy
family.”

       “Sure, of
course.”  He stood up, “You know, I need to make a call too.  Enjoy the hot
tub, I’ll be back in a bit.”

       Daniel
paced as he listened to the phone ring, “Come on…pick up.”   Then there was a
click as the connection went through. 

       “Elsa! 
You are there.  Do you have a few minutes?” 

       A half
hour later, Daniel found Nina perched on the edge of the hot tub, with her feet
dangling in the water.  She was still on the phone, and held up a finger to
Daniel to signal that she’d only be another moment. 

       “I know
it feels terrible now, but you’ll bounce back. Better to find out sooner rather
than later, right?  Go get a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey and call me
tomorrow…bye sweetie, feel better.”  Nina clicked the phone off and sighed.

       “Can’t be
good if Dr. Alves is prescribing ice cream, what’s going on?”

       “Kennedy
has already caught her cellist in a compromising position with an oboe player.”

       “I’m
sorry.  Guys can be dogs, what can I say?”

       Nina
splashed her feet in the water, “He really seemed like a good person.  I guess
you can never know the truth about someone.”

       “You
ready to head back to the cabaña?”

       “Yeah, I
guess.  It’s getting late.”

       “And
tomorrow I’m taking you to see some waterfalls, so you better get rested up.” 
Daniel smiled, but Kennedy’s call had caused a shift in Nina’s mood.  She
seemed distant, and Daniel began to worry a bit.  They had to keep things
together for the next couple of days.

       Back at
the cabaña, Nina dug through her bag, trying to figure out what to wear to bed
with a gorgeous man who happened to be her fake fiancé.  Finally she settled on
a t-shirt and some cotton pajama pants.  After changing in the bathroom and
brushing her teeth, Nina ran to the bed as fast as she could, pulling the
covers over her and up to her chin.  She was as far to one side as she could be
without falling out of the bed.  A few minutes later, she could hear Daniel
gargling, then the lights in the other room shut off, and Daniel wandered
nonchalantly into the bedroom.  He was shirtless, but to Nina’s relief, he was
wearing some loose fitting, lightweight knit sweat pants.  They had no fly,
which was fine with Nina, because that would prevent any untoward surprises. 
She rolled on her side, hugging the edge, and pulled the covers over her face
to keep from staring at Daniel’s bare torso. 

       “There’s
plenty of room, you know.  I’ll keep my hands to myself, I promise.”  Daniel
slid into bed and turned off the lamp on the nightstand.  “Nina—are you okay?”

       “Yes I’m
fine.”  The covers muffled Nina’s voice, “Goodnight.”  She wasn’t close to
fine—she wanted to jump Daniel DeVere’s bones.

       After an
hour of Nina tossing and turning, Daniel clicked the light back on.  “Nina…”
She suddenly got still and tried to play ‘possum.’  He poked her shoulder with
a finger, “I’m not stupid.  I know you’re awake.  Talk to me.”

       Two eyes
appeared over the top of the sheets.  She looked dolefully at Daniel, “I’m
sorry I’m keeping you awake, I can’t seem to sleep.  Maybe I should go to the other
room and read or something.”

       “Put your
feet in my lap,” Daniel commanded.

       “What?”

       “Do you
have to question everything?” he said with a sigh.

       Dutifully,
Nina extricated herself from the covers and put her feet in Daniel’s lap as she
leaned against the headboard of the bed.  He began to massage them slowly and
carefully.  In imperceptible increments, Nina began to relax.  “Wow.  Where did
you learn to do that?”

       “You
don’t want to know.”

       “I
don’t?”

       “No, you
don’t.  Shut up, close your eyes, and concentrate on your feet.”

       “Ohhhh.
That’s…”

       Daniel
clamped a hand over her mouth.  “You’re not concentrating.”

       It didn’t
take long for Nina to feel boneless.  The sensations in her feet seemed to
travel through her entire body.  She breathed deeply and regularly.

       “Nina,
sometimes you need to let other people do things for you for no other reason
than they want to do it.  You don’t have to always be the one taking care of
everyone else—and that includes me.”

       She
nodded, but didn’t say anything.

       “You’re
absolutely speechless.  That’s got to be a first.  My work here is done.” 
Daniel gently picked Nina’s feet up out of his lap, and then reached over and
pulled her head to his chest.  He wrapped his arms around her, and she snuggled
against him, and in moments she was fast asleep.

Chapter Twenty Five

       When Nina
woke up, she felt something heavy resting on her side and realized that
Daniel’s arm was slung over her.  He was spooned against her back, and the
smell of frangipani filled the air.  Part of her wanted to freak out, but more
of her wanted to enjoy the feel of Daniel nuzzled against her back.  She pushed
the questions out of her mind and lay there listening to Daniel breathing
slowly by her ear.  It was, she thought, a magical sound.

       Daniel
stirred, and then yawned as he reached for her hand, holding it against her
chest as his sleepy voice whispered, “Good morning.  Welcome to Paradise.”

       She
smiled and kissed his hand, “Is that a place or a state of mind?”

       “Right
now, both I think.  See what happens when you just shut up and do what I tell
you?  Everyone gets an excellent night’s rest.”

       “Mango?”
Nina asked.

       “Is that
some kind of code…or maybe it’s your safe word?”  Daniel started to tickle her,
and Nina found herself screaming, “Mango, mango, mango!” as she ran laughing
into the other room.  Daniel chased her and grabbed her, and said, “Coffee,
coffee, coffee” into her ear.

       The tour
of the coffee plantation was fascinating, Nina thought, and the fresh roasted
coffee was amazingly delicious.  Daniel, of course, bought pounds of it to take
back to everyone.  He listed off everyone as he put bags of coffee into Nina’s
outstretched arms, “Mom & Dad, Kennedy, Boris, your mom, Reuben, Rita.  Who
am I missing?”  Nina wanted to play nice, “What about Elsa?”

       “Oh, I’ll
get her some when she gets here tomorrow.”

       Nina’s
heart fell.  “Elsa’s coming to Panama?  Since when?”

       “I talked
to her last night, and she said she had to come do a site survey for one of the
DeVere Foundation projects.”

       That
seemed suspicious to Nina, “Normally, she lets the field coordinators do that.”

       Daniel
shrugged, “You know, Elsa gets her ideas.  Let’s go pay for the coffee.  Aren’t
you getting hungry? I think it’s time to have a little picnic by some tropical
waterfalls.”

       The hike
to the falls was beautiful, and Nina quickly forgot about Elsa.  She and Daniel
had crossed some kind of threshold, and she once again began to believe that
maybe they could have a real relationship; maybe after they finished the deal,
they could give being a couple a chance.  The rest of the day went quickly as
they played in the water, sunned themselves, and talked.  Boston, her family, the
deal with Arturo—all of it seemed so very far away.  She could believe it was
just the two of them.

       When they
got back to the resort, Daniel held Nina, “Tonight, you are going to learn El
Tamborito.”

       “Is that
contagious?”

       “I hope
so.”  He led her into the bedroom.  There was a gorgeous traditional Panamanian
dress laid out on the bed: it had a full, heavily pleated skirt, a ruffled top,
and amazing embroidery threaded through it.  It was white with red designs. 
“There’s a festival in town, and we’re going.”

       “If I
wear that, people will think that I can really dance.”

       “And you
will,” there was a knock on the door, “that’s Luisa, and she’s going to teach
you.”

       “What
about you?”

       Daniel
looked at her slyly, “Oh, I can dance.”  He gave her a peck on the cheek. 
“Have fun, I’ll be back in two hours to get you.”

       Luisa,
the dance instructor, joined Nina.  “Hola!  I’m Luisa, Nina.  I’m going to put
on a CD.”  She popped a CD into the cabaña’s little stereo.  “First, listen for
a couple of minutes.”  The rhythms were wonderful, Nina thought, there were
drums, and clapping, and a female singer.  “What’s she singing about?”

       “Ah,”
Luisa said knowingly, “She sings about the attraction between men and women,
about…the tension between men and women when they want to do more than dance!”

       Maybe,
Nina thought, El Tamborito wasn’t such a good idea.

       The time
passed quickly, though, and dancing turned out to be a lot of fun.  It wasn’t
as hard as Nina thought it might be.  For a girl who grew up in New England,
she took to it all very quickly.  Once she had some of the basic moves down,
Luisa helped her into her dress, and showed her how to hold the hem in her
hands and fan it to look beautiful as she danced, and then Luisa pinned some
flowers in her hair.

       Daniel
came back dressed in simple black pants and a white collarless shirt worn
un-tucked.  He whistled when he saw Nina in her dress.

       “You look
so pretty Señorita!”  He grabbed her by the hand, “Let’s go, we have a real car
and driver tonight to take us into town.  They way we can have a drink at the
festival.”

       In the
town’s plaza, they joined the circle of people clapping as some very skilled
dancers performed in the center of the group; people looked happy—entire
families were there, grandparents, little kids, teenagers, and adult couples,
and everyone either sang, danced or clapped.  When the star performers
finished, Daniel pulled Nina out on the plaza with all the ordinary couples,
and they danced and laughed the night away.  The dancing made them thirsty, and
Daniel would appear from time to time with fruity rum drinks that went down a
little too easily, and after tossing one back, they’d go dance some more, until
a rather copious amount of rum punch had been consumed. 

       Finally,
the festival started winding down, and Daniel and Nina weaved their way back to
the car and driver waiting for them.  Nina carried her shoes in one hand, and
Daniel had an arm around her as they giggled and stumbled.  They fell into the
backseat of the car, and Daniel began to kiss Nina.  She pushed him off
playfully and tilted her head toward the driver, “Wait until we get back to our
room, I’m shy!”  Daniel laughed, but kept unsuccessfully trying to find his way
up her voluminous skirts with a hand.

       They
managed to lurch their way back to the cabaña, and Daniel gave Nina a proper
kiss.  “I love…being with you.”  He caressed her face, and then pulled her into
the bedroom.  Pieces of clothing starting hitting the floor, and Nina surrendered
to the moment with abandon.  They laughed and kissed and undressed each other,
overtaken by the events of the evening and the passion that had steadily been
building over the weeks.

Chapter Twenty Six

       Nina
clutched the sheet to her chest when she realized that she was naked.  She
looked at Daniel sprawled sideways in the bed on his stomach, an arm wrapped
around her thigh.  He was definitely naked too.  Not that it was an unpleasant
sight, but she couldn’t quite piece together the end of their night.  Rubbing
her head, she strained to think.  She remembered them drinking a lot of rum
punch as they danced, and then their driver bringing them back to the resort. 
Daniel had kissed her and then there was a fuzzy recollection of a very good
reason for both of them to be naked.  And as far as Nina could recall, Paulina
Pruitt was
very
wrong about her evaluation of Daniel’s skills.  Nina sat
there absorbing the realization of what had transpired.   They had certainly
crossed a threshold; she only hoped that for Daniel, it was more than a boozy
fling.  She noticed a condom wrapper on the nightstand, so at least they hadn’t
been completely stupid.