Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 99607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Thank God I’d done this and not kept myself cooped up on the boat, pouring over documents. My muscles began to unknot, and I smiled. Taking a deep breath, I tried to commit this picture to memory, wanting to press the history and beauty into my soul somehow.
“Beautiful view, right?” a familiar voice said from beside me.
I turned to see Avery Walker, looking out and sharing the same picture I was drinking in, and now she was the only view I was interested in.
Twenty-One
Avery
When faced with the sweeping vista from the top of Taormina, the only thing I wanted to do was share it with someone. Hayden being there hadn’t shocked me. It was as if it was meant to happen because the moment was perfect and he made it more so.
“Hey,” he said.
I kept my gaze forward, unwilling to tear myself away from the most perfect view I’d ever seen . . . though Hayden Wolf’s sugar-brown skin against his white shirt might be a strong contender to the sight of Mount Etna rising out of the landscape.
“Is it everything you hoped it would be?” he asked.
So he hadn’t forgotten I’d wanted to come here.
“More,” I said softly.
We stayed gazing out in silence for a while.
“Where’s the rest of the crew?” he asked.
“The boys are in an Irish pub just off the piazza and the girls are on the beach.”
He didn’t respond.
“I got a guide,” he said, holding up a pocket-sized booklet with a picture of the amphitheater.
I laughed. Hayden didn’t strike me as a man who’d pour over guide books. “Did you read it?”
He shook his head and pushed his hands into his pockets. “I was waiting for you so you could explain it all to me.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You were waiting for me?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
It felt as if we were talking in code, but I didn’t have the decryption key.
“Well, the place was built in the third century BC. They don’t actually know if it’s Greek or Roman because the brick suggests Roman but the way it’s laid out—”
Hayden turned to me and placed his hand on my arm. “Stop. I’m not really expecting you to be my guide. You’re off duty.”
I tried to ignore the press of his fingers. “I just want you to enjoy it.”
He held my gaze and slipped his hand from my arm and down my back. It was the act of a lover, a boyfriend, a husband. “Now you’re here, I couldn’t like it more,” he said, then turned back to the view.
Despite the heat, I had to repress a shiver.
A few minutes later a cloud passed over the sun, breaking the spell this place had trapped us in. “What’s next?” he asked, turning to me.
“Next?”
“Where do we go now?”
The corners of my mouth quivered. “We? I thought I wasn’t on duty.”
He cupped my face and swept his thumb over my lips. “You’re not. Where do we go now?” His tone was matter-of-fact, as if he always touched me as though he owned me, as if I shouldn’t be shocked he had his hand on the small of my back as he guided me down the steps.
I should have made my excuses and left. I should’ve done a lot of things. But being there, in that beautiful place I’d wanted to visit for so long, I just wanted to enjoy it. And I knew I’d enjoy it just a little more with Hayden. We’d run into each other by accident, after all, and if any of the rest of the crew spotted us, I could legitimately say that I’d found him and ended up walking around the island with him. I didn’t have to tell them if I enjoyed it, though I knew I would.
I puffed out a stream of breath. “Let’s walk around, get lost a little.”
“Really?” he asked, smiling at me. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
“Maybe it’s the me that you don’t know so well.” It was my day off. Today I wasn’t a yacht stewardess and Hayden Wolf wasn’t a customer.
He nodded. “Then that sounds like an irresistible proposition.”
We headed right when we got out of the theater and made our way down the hill. The streets were perfectly uneven, part slate-gray cobble, part asphalt, shaded by the buildings either side of the narrow streets. We had to dodge the scooters as they raced up the hill in the opposite direction and children as they ran past us. It was difficult not to get distracted by the potted flowers tumbling from balconies above us and the noise of the rambunctious Italians as they went about their every day.
I stopped outside a shop window crammed with colored pots and plates, so bright it was as if the colors of the Mediterranean originated from this store.
“You want to go in?” he asked. Was Hayden Wolf about to go shopping with me? This titan of industry who was always so focused and serious was about to browse homewares? Perhaps I didn’t know all of him yet either, but despite myself I wanted to.