That awkwardness could have been prevented if he'd stayed naked and in bed with her. Then they would have had a level playing field. But that wasn't how things had turned out, and now she had to figure out her next move. She didn't want to end up looking dorky.
She had a bad feeling she'd behaved like a wild woman last night. Her hormones must have been in full flood. He'd taken off his clothes, and she'd gone ballistic over his sexual accoutrements. Why would a guy think he had to be romantic when a woman had spent the whole night worshiping his guy stuff?
"Hey, Gillian," he said softly. Crouching down, he crawled toward her. "I don't know what's bothering you, but I'll help if I can. Maybe you'd like to unwind yourself from that bedspread. Pretend you're Cleopatra, rolling out of that rug in front of Caesar."
That made her smile. It wasn't every man who would come up with an image like that. "How'd you do in Roman history?"
"Aced it."
"Me, too."
He pulled the bedspread aside so he could give her a soft kiss on the mouth. "You know the amazing thing about the Romans?"
"They could really throw a party?"
"That, too. But they had bathrooms that actually worked. It was very civilized." He paused. "Unlike this stateroom at the moment."
"I see your point. If you'll go stand over by the window, I'll move off the mattress so we can get the room back in order."
He laughed. "Gillian, it's not like I haven't seen you naked."
"But not in daylight." Because he was a guy, and an Aries besides, she wondered if he'd understand the difference. Probably not. "Please go stand over by the window."
"You're going to deny me the pleasure of watching you walk around with no clothes on?"
"Um . . . well." That was a little better. A compliment like that tended to put more sparkle in the day.
He smoothed his hand down the bedspread that was rolled so tightly around her that she was beginning to feel a little claustrophobic. "You'll be like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon," he said.
"I'll be like a gopher crawling out of a hole." But she was cheered by the butterfly comment. That was definitely on the romantic side.
"Come on." He started unwrapping the bedspread. "Give me a little eye candy to start the day."
"Now you're being silly." But she let him peel the bedspread away. His approach had improved greatly from his first comment of the morning. Of course, he was a smart guy. And no doubt he expected that what they'd had last night would recur if he could keep her happy.
"Ah, Gillian." He gazed down at her. "Now that's what I call sunny-side up." Leaning down, he nuzzled her breast and took her nipple into his mouth.
She tried to stay uninvolved, but soon she was moaning and combing her fingers through his hair. He knew exactly how to roll her nipple with his tongue to get maximum effect. The rough scratch of his beard against her skin made the contact that much more excellent.
Slowly he raised his head. "If I didn't have to pee so bad, I would talk you into using that second condom."
She looked into his eyes and saw the laughter there. She couldn't help smiling. "That's about the most romantic thing anyone's ever said to me."
"I knew you'd be impressed." Grinning, he levered himself off the mattress, caught her hands and pulled her up with him. Then he stood back to look at her. "Then again, maybe I can hold it."
"No, no. We need to move this thing. It's a great security measure, but it severely—"
A walkie-talkie buzzed.
"That's mine." Lex walked over to the dresser and picked it up. "Lex." He listened intently for a few seconds. "We'll be right there. I'm sure she's in the professor's room. Right. See you soon. Over."
"What?" Gillian fought rising panic. It was becoming far too familiar a feeling.
"Dante woke up to find Cora gone. No note, no nothing. He tried to reach her on her walkie-talkie, but no answer."
Gillian's mind raced through a dozen horrible possibilities. "She's probably fine." But she turned immediately to the mattress and tried to pull it out of the entryway.
"Here. Let me."
"We'll both pull. I'm sure Cora's fine." "I'm sure she is."
"But she's eighty-two." Gillian pulled hard on the mattress. They'd wedged it in tight with all their shenanigans.
"Yeah." Lex gave a mighty heave and the mattress came free. They both almost lost their balance. "But she's been taking care of herself for a long time," he said.
"Nobody would be after her, would they?"
"I can't think why." He put down his corner of the mattress. "Let it go. I'll get behind it and lift it from that end.'*
"Lex." Gillian tried to shut out the ghastly thought, but it wouldn't go away. "What if someone kidnapped her and plans to use her to get to me?"
"I think that's highly unlikely.""
"Do you?"
He looked at her. "I hope to God it is. Let's leave this mattress in the middle of the floor and just get going."
moments later, lex hurried out the door of the stateroom, Gillian by his side. He hadn't shaved, and neither of them had showered. They'd thrown on clothes, not caring how they looked. It wasn't important. He'd barely remembered to grab his nerd glasses, but at the last minute he'd remembered to put them on. He clicked on his walkie-talkie. "Dante, where are you?"
The walkie-talkie crackled. "I've checked the dining room and the terrace where they're serving the continental breakfast. She's not there. I tried to find out where the professor's room is, but they won't give out that information. Listen, what do we know about him, anyway? Over."
"Only what's in the brochure," Lex said. He didn't say that the professor could be a serial killer, but it was what his out-of-control brain was suggesting. The good professor could be a person who preyed on sweet old ladies. "Did you try calling his room? Over."
"Shit! That's so obvious! I panicked when she wasn't there and started chasing around the ship. There's a house phone right here where I am. Let me try that and get back to you. Over and out."
Gillian tugged on Lex's arm. "I have an idea."
"Let's hear it."
"These two people are old, right? They get up early. What if they went for a walk on deck, and—" "Fell over? Oh, my God."
"I hadn't thought of that!" She clutched his arm. "Maybe we should tell them to stop the ship."
"Wait. What were you about to say?"
"But if they could have fallen overboard, then—"
"I shouldn't have jumped to that conclusion." He caught her by the shoulders. "You had an idea. What was it?"
"That they might have found a secluded spot to watch the sunrise."
"Then why didn't Cora answer her walkie-talkie?"
"Between the sound of the engines and the water churning past, and taking into account her hearing, she might have missed the signal."
Lex nodded. "Sounds logical. I hope you're right." His walkie-talkie buzzed again and he answered it. He listened for a moment. "Hey, Dante, thanks for checking it out. Gillian thinks they might have found a private spot on deck to watch the sunrise. You take A and B, and we'll take C and D. Keep in touch. Over and out."
"They didn't answer the room phone?"
Lex clipped the walkie-talkie to his belt. "No. So keep your fingers crossed they're relaxing on a deck chair somewhere on this ship." He grabbed her hand and headed inside to the elevators.
Three guys and two women waited by the elevator, each of them watching the flashing numbers. None of them were paired up, and Gillian had to admit they all fit the geek stereotype—smudged glasses, mismatched clothes, and bed-head. Judging from their relaxed stance, they were totally unconcerned about how they looked.
"Like, beam me up, Scotty," said one guy who held up his hand, middle two fingers spread in the Star Trek Dr. Spock greeting. "Somebody needs to reprogram the system that runs these elevators."
"Or put booster rockets on them," said his friend.
"I knew a guy who did that," said a girl who was w
earing glasses with the earpiece taped on. "Sent the elevator through the roof."
"Really?" The Star Trek fan moved in her direction. "Cool! Uh, what's your name?"
Gillian didn't hear any of the rest of the conversation, because the elevator arrived heading down, which was the direction she and Lex wanted to go. All five nerds groaned. They obviously were headed up to the continental breakfast on A Deck. As Gillian stepped into the empty elevator with Lex, she hoped the Star Trek guy and the taped-earpiece girl got together.
Just as the elevator door started to close, she saw a man in a luau shirt hurry toward it. Her first reaction was to reach for the button to hold the door.
"Don't," Lex said.
Then she recognized the man who'd just missed the elevator, and her blood chilled. "It was him. The guy from the karaoke bar."
"Yeah. I didn't want to scare you, but he's been shadowing us for a while."
She turned to him, her heart thumping. "And he tried to get on the elevator with us. Do you ... do you think he's armed?"
"I don't know how someone would smuggle a gun on board."
"In pieces, that's how! They disassemble it so on the X-ray it doesn't look like a gun."
Lex shook his head. "With the kind of security we have these days, I'd be amazed if even that worked. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it would be chancy, and if he's who we think, he wouldn't want to risk getting picked up."
"So how's he going to do it?"
Lex gazed at her. "Look, we don't know that he's Mafia. He might be a nerd with an Italian name who's looking for the love of his life."
"But you think he might have been following us."
"It's possible." The elevator clunked to a stop at D Deck and Lex took her hand again. "Come on. Let's go look for Cora."
"But if he doesn't have a gun, how's he going to do it? I mean, suppose he trapped us in the elevator, or trapped us anywhere, for that matter. He still has to deal with both of us."
"Exactly. He could be hoping for a time when you're by yourself. That's why you need to stay right by me." He pushed through the double doors onto the open deck.
As a blast of warm, salty air engulfed them, she thought of how great this would be if she weren't thinking she'd be murdered any minute. She clutched Lex's hand tighter. "You really think he's the hit man, don't you?"
"I don't know. But we're not going to give him a chance to prove it, one way or the other."
"I appreciate that." She took a deep breath. The ocean and salt air were supposed to have a calming effect, but she wasn't feeling the bliss. "Man, I hope we find Cora soon. Between the Mafia guy and Cora going missing, my in-sides are churning like a washing machine on spin cycle."
"Yeah, I'm not all that cool, myself." Lex paused to glance up and down the covered deck area. The chairs lined up there were all empty. "Damn."
"When we find her, I'm going to give her such a talking-to."
"You and me both." He gazed upward at the row of lifeboats hanging there, each covered in a bright orange tarp. "Omigod. You don't suppose she and Little Ben are having a Titanic moment."
"Lex! The guy in the Titanic stood on the prow of the ship! Please tell me that isn't what you meant."
"No. Look at that lifeboat."
"Which lifeboat?" She saw a bunch of them hanging there above their heads, right over the railing and ready to be launched if necessary. In general, Gillian didn't like to spend too much time looking at lifeboats, especially in a discussion that had recently included Titanic.
"See the one that's rocking?"
She looked more closely, and sure enough, one of the lifeboats in the middle of the row was swaying slightly. "It could be the motion of the ship doing that." She didn't really want to think about any other possibility.
"Then they'd all be swaying. They're not. Just that one. Let's go closer." Before he started toward it, though, he glanced over his shoulder. "Shit."
"The man in the luau shirt?"
"Yeah. He's sitting in a deck chair pretending to read a newspaper."
"Maybe he's not pretending." Gillian wanted desperately to believe that. "Maybe he's really reading it."
"You keep an eye on him while we walk down and investigate that lifeboat. See if he changes his position."
As they walked, Gillian kept glancing back. The man didn't move except to turn the pages of his newspaper. "He's just reading it. That's all."
"I just thought of why that's so strange."
"Lex, there's nothing strange about it. People do it all the time."
"Not on board a cruise ship. They don't sell a metropolitan daily here. Think about it. Is a helicopter going to fly over and drop a load of newspapers on deck?"
"So he brought it with him to read."
"Or he brought it as a prop, but he's not up on cruises and didn't realize it would stand out like a sore thumb."
Gillian moaned. "You are scaring me to death."
"Sorry." He gave her hand a squeeze. "Don't worry. I'm right here." Then he lowered his voice. "See where the orange tarp has been unlaced?"
Gillian looked, and sure enough, the cover had been loosened. "How would someone do that?"
"Stand on a deck chair, maybe. Or I suppose a person could climb on the railing and manage it. Sheesh, talk about crazy."
"Cora wouldn't have done that."
"I don't know. She keeps in shape."
"Yes, but I can't picture her swinging up from the railing in order to get in there." Gillian really didn't want Cora to be in that lifeboat.
"Maybe she didn't, but someone did. Be very quiet and listen. Tell me what you hear coming from that lifeboat."
Gillian was still thinking about the guy with the newspaper, so she found it tough to listen carefully while her heart was pounding so loud. But eventually she made out a rhythmic slapping noise, combined with what could very well be heavy breathing. The whimpers and groans only added to the obvious conclusion. She looked at Lex.
He raised both eyebrows. "Sound familiar?" he murmured.
In circumstances such as these, she had no business getting turned on. But after all, she was holding the hand of the person who had recently shared that very activity with her. "Umm, yeah."
"We have to do something about it. That's very dangerous."
A terrible thought came to her, one that completely drowned any flickering flame of passion. "What if it is Cora and Little Ben?" She wanted to cover her ears and run away.
"All the more reason. Those two old people could kill themselves, not to mention getting thrown off the ship."
"Literally?" Gillian pictured Cora and Little Ben walking the plank, blindfolded, with sharks below, jaws open.
"No, of course not. They'd be put off when we dock and have to fly back to L.A. at their own expense."
"What are you going to do?"
"Rap on the side of the lifeboat."
"Can I leave now?"
"No." He glanced down toward the man reading his newspaper. "Not with Hector Michelangelo right there, watching your every move."
"But this is so embarrassing." He smiled. "Nobody's ever died of embarrassment before."
She swallowed and gazed up at the swaying lifeboat. "That's what you say." Closing her eyes, she prayed that Cora and Little Ben weren't the people making that boat move.
Nineteen
LEX WASN'T LOOKING FORWARD TO ROUSTING OUT the lifeboat lovers, either. If it turned out to be Cora in there, he'd be pissed. Blaming it on Little Ben would help the situation, but if Lex knew Cora at all, it could have been her idea.
Still, the woman was eighty-two, for God's sake. She didn't need to be doing the horizontal Macarena in a lifeboat. Taking a deep breath, he reached up and rapped sharply on the side of the fiberglass hull.
If he'd expected an instant response, he wasn't getting one. Instead the slapping rhythm became faster and the moans more frantic.
Gillian leaned close to him. "Maybe you should let them finish."
He st
ared at her. "Finish?"
"You know." She raised her glance to the lifeboat, which was swinging more vigorously. "Finish."
"I know perfectly well what you mean. What if all that movement tears something loose?"
"Oh, I don't think so. I realize they're both pretty old, but even at their age, their body parts should hold together during sex."
Lex was losing patience. His nerves were on edge, anyway, and thinking of someone he cared about taking chances like this didn't help at all. "I meant what if something comes loose on the lifeboat."
"Oh."
"What if the rigging gives way and the whole thing comes crashing down? It could fall all the way to the water. They could kill themselves. This isn't about orgasms, it's about safety!"
"All right, then."
As Lex raised his hand to bang on the lifeboat again, a little shriek was followed closely by a long, drawn-out groan. Then the lifeboat was still.
Lex sighed and glanced at Gillian. "Now can I get them the hell out of there?"
"Yes, but don't be too rough on them. You know how it is."
"No, I don't know how it is. I have never contemplated climbing into a lifeboat hanging three stories above the waterline so that I could do the wild thing. That's insanity. As it is, they're getting a huge break because I'm the one catching them instead of a crew member."
"True. Cross your fingers it isn't anyone we recognize."
"Trust me, I'm doing exactly that. Although at least then we'd know where Cora is." He rapped loudly on the boat. "Party's over!"
Scurrying sounds came from inside and the boat trembled. Eventually a head poked out from under the orange tarp. Lex sighed with relief. It wasn't anyone he knew.
A young guy with hair sticking out at all angles peered down at them. "Are you, like, with the cruise line?"
Lex gestured toward his khaki pants and plaid shirt. "Do I look like I am?"
"I don't know. I can't see very well without my glasses." Just then a hand snaked out from under the tarp and held up a pair of glasses. "Oh, thanks, Emily."
"Irwin!" squealed the woman in the lifeboat. "Did you have to say my name?"
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