Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 70574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“Maybe so,” he said, softly, his eyes searching my face. “Did you…uh…did you have a good time last night?”
“The best! This cruise was a great idea, wasn’t it?”
“Well, I…”
“I don’t remember much about it though, I have to admit. Not once the Bellinis started flowing anyway.”
“Oh.”
“But hey, since we’re here in Nassau, let’s go have some fun.”
“Whatever you want.”
That wasn’t exactly the ringing endorsement I was looking for, but I figured he was a little hungover too, and once we got outside in the beautiful sunshine, he’d snap right back. I finished my breakfast in record time and rushed him through his so we could get going.
“I heard they have carriage rides—like sightseeing trips through the old part of town. Can we do that?” I asked, smiling at him as I walked backward down the ramp.
“Turn around before you fall, Ari,” he said, finally smiling at me the way I was becoming used to again and shaking his head. “And yes, we can take a carriage ride. Anything you like, beautiful.”
I clapped my hands together and we stepped off the ramp onto the dock, and immediately we were besieged by ladies wanting to braid my hair and guys holding up trinkets for us to buy and trying to sell us on the benefits of taking a fishing trip in their boats, or letting them be our tour guides. And that’s when it happened.
One minute I was laughing as Eli was trying to extricate himself from a pretty girl who wanted to braid his way-too-short for it hair, and the next thing I knew, some huge guy had hold of my arm and was dragging me down the dock.
“Hey!” I cried out and wrenched my arm away. “What the fuck, man?”
“You’re coming with us,” he said, looking determined as another goon stepped up beside him to take my other arm.
“The hell he is!”
I heard the shout before I saw him coming, but it was Eli, of course, plowing through the crowd and jumping on top of the guys, slamming them down like a two for one special at happy hour. He knocked out one of the guys right away as he fell back on the docks and hit his head. He stopped moving right away, but the other one was stupid enough to pull a knife on Eli, who kicked it like a quarterback, so hard I heard the snap of those broken bones in the guy’s hand all the way over where I was.
Things got a little interesting for a while there, with some people from the boat wearing uniforms running down to the dock with a lot of yelling. The police were called too, and then Eli and I were kept busy showing credentials and IDs and it was a real mess. Back at the police station, after Eli called Seth and Samantha, and I heard Seth yelling over the phone at the Nassau police captain until I began to get scared they’d arrest us, they finally arrested the two goons instead for attempting to kidnap me—again, They still refused to talk about why me. Even though Eli was allowed to spend a few minutes with them in the interrogation room. Anyway, after all that, the day was pretty much over.
The upshot of the whole thing was that I never got to see much of Nassau after all, and by that afternoon, we were on our way to the airport, with a police escort, no less. My cruising days, it seemed, were well and truly over until the agency found out who was behind these attempts and how they knew to meet our ship. As we flew out over the docks on the way back home that afternoon, I looked down at the boat, and blew it a little kiss goodbye. I guessed that leaving the cruise ship meant that our deal was over. Eli had specifically said that we would forget all about our past and enjoy the five days on the cruise. After that, we could go back to hating one another…or at least me hating him. Which was a lie. I didn’t hate Eli. I loved him. I’d always loved him. I always would love him. Spending the last few days together had only been a forceful reminder of how much he meant to me. Could I allow him to walk away from me again? Could I survive it? It sure as hell didn’t seem possible to me at this moment. His arm was wrapped around me and my head rested on his shoulder. It was my own personal slice of heaven.
“What are you thinking, angel? I can practically hear the wheels turning inside your head. Are you worried about the kidnappers?” He squeezed me tighter. “Because don’t be; I’ll protect you from anybody that tries to take what’s mine. They’ll never take you from me. Never.”