All Night Long

by Melissa MacNeal

  Which perturbed Rio every damn day, and rubbed him raw now that Lola had reawakened needs he’d ignored since Katya died.

  “Bam bam bam! Hurry up in there!”

  “Sounds like they’ve got company,” Skandalis mused aloud. “I’ve got to move along anyway—Odette’s not good at waiting, you know. But keep your eyes and ears open, DeSilva.”

  The captain stood up, adjusting himself so the pleats of his whites camouflaged his bulge better. “I’ll expect a full report by the time we drop anchor in Grenada tomorrow morning, so I can plan my strategy. Lola needs some discipline that’ll teach her to behave like a lady—at least while she’s my love slave!”

  His laughter followed him into the hall, echoing the inflated ego DeSilva wouldn’t miss when he left the ship.

  Pissed—as much at himself as at the captain—Rio flipped the little monitor off. He needed a long walk to clear his head.

  A walk in the moonlight by yourself—out where you’re sure to run across other lovers going at it. And what will that solve?

  He paused at one of the automatic exit doors, torn between disappearing into the crowd around the pool—or going back down the hall, to come clean.

  You can’t let her catch you with this monitor. Not after what she did with Aric in that men’s room.

  He should help her, though. Lola responded to him—the kid was only her ticket out of that suite right now. A real man—the king of his castle—would rescue her before she played right into the captain’s grasping hands.

  I’m tired and I’m going to bed,” she snarled as Aric slipped his key into the lock.

  “But Priestess, you were just getting into the mood for—”

  “Having a drunk stranger bang on the bathroom door kinda jarred me out of it, you know?”

  Lola stalked into the suite ahead of Cabana Boy, tossing her purse, the hat, and her shopping bag on the couch. “And when I figured out it wasn’t Captain Scandalous—and that you’d used that as your little ploy to get sucked in the boys’ room, well, your stock went wayyyyy down with me, little man.”

  She watched him from the corner of her eye, gauging his reaction. Of course, why would he be upset now? He’d gotten what he wanted! And then left her hanging!

  But she was so exhausted and disgusted she really didn’t care.

  “And how was I supposed to handle that guy?” Cabana Boy demanded. “I told him to get lost! It was you who had to open the door and—”

  “You told me you’d do whatever I wanted for the rest of the night, right?” Lola snapped. “Well just zip it then—your lip and your fly! You get to sleep out here on the couch—”

  “Oh no you don’t—”

  “—and I’m going in to collapse on that nice big bed. By myself! To get some sleep, for once!”

  Aric crossed his arms, peering archly at her from beneath his loose curls. “Sleep was the last thing on your mind when you asked me to fly under the radar with you.”

  “That was hours ago! Dammit, leave me alone!”

  She grabbed her bags and stalked into the bedroom. Gave the door a loud, satisfying slam. It was probably a waste of time, but she locked it, too.

  What she needed was chocolate and a lot of sleep—

  And what you really, really want is a smoke. You just don’t want Cabana Boy to know you bailed.

  Still leaning against the door, Lola reached into the plastic shopping bag for that wrapped package of truffles. With trembling hands, she ripped off the ribbon and peeled the foil off one. Popped it into her mouth before she could reach for those Camels—two packs of them, thanks to Mr. Nice Guy out there.

  “So is it mint? Or butter rum?” his voice came through the door.

  “None of your fuckin’ business!” she said, although her mouthful of Black Forest nougat muddled the words.

  “Ooh, we’re getting touchy.”

  “No, you got all the touchy and I got cut off. Not to mention extremely embarrassed when I had to walk past that guy.”

  “And what’s the little fortune say?” he crooned.

  She cleared her throat ceremoniously. “If you kill him and dump him over your balcony railing, no one will ever find the body.”

  “All right, I know when I’m not wanted,” he said in a mock sulk. “I’ll just wait you out…eat cold pizza and sleep on this old hard couch while my Priestess gets her beauty rest. Would you like a beer?”

  “I’d like you to shut up. I’m reading.”

  Things are not what they seem. Pay attention, the foil warned.

  “No shit, Sherlock,” she muttered, reaching into the bag again. This time it was dark chocolate with a honey-roasted peanut butter filling. Lola thought she’d died and gone to heaven.

  “You’re gonna get fat, Priestess.”

  “Fuck you. Go eat your pizza.”

  The second wrapper said, Someone loves you more than you know. Find him.

  “Yeah, right. They’re all after one thing,” she muttered, ripping into another one. She’d be better off switching to a cigarette. She could stand out on her balcony, and no one would ever know.

  “What’s that, Lola? What are we all after?”

  “Oh, just—”

  She moved away from the door, popping the truffle into her mouth. Mint, at last! Smooth and sweet and creamy, clinging to her tongue and tingling all the way down her throat. As good as the menthol in a Turkish Jade, but not the same kind of fix.

  “You realize, don’t you,” he continued, “that eating more than a couple of those truffles at once is a sure-fire way to get diarrhea.”

  Her gut clenched. She swallowed the last of the candy faster than she intended, and then choked on its richness.

  “Hang on, babe—I’ll be right there!”

  Moments later, while she was still coughing and trying to swallow, her door opened. A bottle of beer, so cold the sweat ran down the side, appeared in the opening, with Aric’s hand wrapped around it.

  “Drink this. I’ll see you in the morning, when you’re in a better mood.”

  Damn that Cabana Boy!

  But after he closed the door Lola drank it down, because the carbonation cleared the gunk from her throat…and then the alcohol kicked in with the sugar she’d just snarfed, and she was ready to crash. Didn’t much care what Aric did.

  She stepped out of her sun dress. Saw the Tarot deck she’d left on her table and picked it up, just to feel the slick newness of the cards and to let the rich, luminous colors soothe her. Sometimes, when she was very tired or a little tipsy, her brain disengaged and her intuition kicked in. Then the cards fell together in patterns and pictures that meant more than when she consciously laid out a spread.

  Absently she mixed the cards in a loose pile on her table, then restacked them and cut them into three piles—her ritual for letting her inner energy pass into the cards. She fanned each pile across the table and without any thought or hesitation chose eight of them. Her lucky number.

  When she’d restacked the rest of the deck, Lola laid out the cards she’d chosen. Court cards—a lot of them—caught her eye, and in this gorgeous deck the Kings and Queens, Knights and Pages were so beautifully detailed their facial expressions often suggested things, depending upon the situation she was dealing with.

  Lola caught her breath. Why, that King of Swords had the same sly expression as Captain Scandalous! And didn’t that Page of Swords—a young man she’d always found a bit too pretty in this deck—remind her Cabana Boy tonight? And surely that self-satisfied woman holding the falcon in the Nine of Pentacles had to be Odette.

  And the Tower card! Always a sign of a surprise that struck like a bolt out of the blue. Surely it belonged just above that dubious trio in blues and purples, although she wasn’t sure why yet. The Tower, with its bullet-shaped top, was so damn phallic it might have inspired the design for ancient dildos—and the way it was breaking at the top, a portent of doom, just seemed to fit somehow.

  Lola looked at this grouping, too tired
and upset to read anything definite into these images. The other cards she’d drawn felt much more compelling: The Hanging Man, dangling by an ankle wrapped in chains, and Strength—a long-haired woman with a chain around her lion’s neck—seemed natural partners as well.

  This left the King of Pentacles, a handsome fellow with a mustache, gazing off into the night sky—

  Rio!

  —and the Queen of Swords…a redhead who seemed to be recharging the sword in her hand as she gazed back at Lola with that sly, knowing look about her.

  She’d always wanted to be more savvy, like this street-smart queen, but instead Lola usually felt intimidated by this Tarot character’s sharp tongue and critical assessment of failure.

  Her last card, The Moon, belonged above this second grouping as surely as the Tower looked right above the court cards representing Skorpio, Aric, and Odette.

  Lola sighed tiredly. What did this reading mean? What were the cards trying to tell her?

  She was too tired and looped—and too quickly sinking into a sugar low—to care. She turned out the light, fell into bed naked, and crashed.

  When Lola awoke, the sun was streaming in from her balcony. The subtle movement she felt while they were sailing had stopped, which meant they’d already docked at their next port of call.

  Rubbing her eyes, she wandered to the sliding glass door and stepped outside, into the brilliance. Not something she would do at home naked, but hey—adult cruises had their advantages, and she was feeling better rested than she had for days.

  She realized then that Captain Scandalous was delivering his morning message: his voice came over the outdoor speakers on the deck below her, loud and clear and confidently Greek.

  “Let me welcome you to Grenada, where the weather will be sunny and pleasant for those going to watch for whales—or for the snorkeling adventure on the party boat,” he said with a chuckle. “As always, it is your responsibility to return to the gangway before five-thirty, so the S.S. Aphrodite—our proud jewel of the Caribbean—can set sail for Dominica at six o’clock sharp this evening.

  “As a special enticement to go ashore and enjoy the unique charm of Grenada,” he added, “I myself will be handing out a passbook of certificates for discounts at the local shops, to one lucky passenger. It could be you! So come ashore and find me, and if your SeaKey number matches the one I’ve drawn, you’re the winner! But then—you can’t lose, if you’re aboard the S. S. Aphrodite!

  “We’ve now been cleared by the port authority,” he added in that buttery-rich voice, “and I wish you a wonderful day in Grenada.”

  Lola gazed out over the harbor, lined with local market vendors, and then quickly went back inside. Those passengers walking down the gangway could see her if they looked this way!

  But wouldn’t it be fun to go with them? If Captain Scandalous was going ashore, making himself scarce enough that one lucky passenger would win his prize, this would be the place to make her break!

  She would return, of course. This late in the game, she’d be stupid to pay again for air fare home, just to escape Skorpio and Odette or to get a rise out of Aric. And if she reneged on the deal, Skorpio might send her the bill for the purchases charged to his account—and he might be underhanded enough not to have her credit rating restored.

  And then Dennis would win. And she couldn’t have that!

  Lola walked back to the table to look at the cards she’d laid out in her mental haze last night. One thing jumped out at her immediately—that the King of Pentacles with his happy smile was Rio, and that she was the Queen of Swords, with that red hair and such a secretive smile.

  And gee…didn’t the Hanging Man’s chains belong around Aric’s ankle? And didn’t Strength’s loose chain around that lion suggest that Cabana Boy needed to be tamed—

  Or left hanging, she mused. Like I was last night.

  Lola smiled hugely. She’d laid out these cards without conscious thought of their patterns or interpretation, but that Moon suggested looking at things in a different, more imaginative light; seeing things other people didn’t.

  And Lola suddenly had a plan.

  It was worth a try, anyway—if Cabana Boy cooperated. Was he still in her main room? Or had he taken a break, assuming she’d sleep the morning away?

  Lola listened at the door and heard deep, even breathing, coming from the couch near her door. It seemed Aric was catching up on his beauty sleep, too, but she suspected he’d stayed up a lot later than she had.

  Very quietly, she opened her door.

  Good Lord, he was not only stretched out on her couch, snoring lightly, but he was buck naked!

  In the dimness of this room, where the curtains were pulled against the morning sun, Aric looked like a painting done on the royal blue velvet of the couch: alluringly bronzed all over, with skin that just begged to be stroked and that mop of hair practically covering his eyes. He looked almost sweet and innocent, with his eyes closed and that cock dangling relaxed and limp between his slender thighs.

  But she wasn’t fooled for a minute! If he woke up, she wouldn’t have a moment’s peace—much less make her break for the shore. And yet her eyes lingered on his dick…recalling its length and strength last night, and the urgent way he’d responded to her sucking.

  There was a certain power in having a man in her mouth—of controlling him and making him beg for it…

  Lola re-entered her room without making a sound. Quickly she slicked on some makeup, and chose shorts and a top with the same colors as the flowered band of her new lime sun hat. She put the hat and the dark, oversized shades on, and then reached to the bottom of the shopping bags for the two scarves.

  This was going to be so much fun! And if Cabana Boy woke up too soon, she’d segué into a sex game and he’d never know her original intent!

  Slowly, silently, she emerged from her bedroom with her purse. Laid it on the floor, ready to grab when she left. With her shades on, the curtained room looked even more secretive, and her warden seemed even more surreal as he lay before her, spread out like a banquet of soft, supple flesh. A temptation not to be missed!

  Very slowly and carefully, Lola slipped the turquoise silk scarf under his ankles, which hung over the edge of the couch cushion because he was so tall. She tied a loose knot around them, and then paused to be sure he was still asleep.

  Aric shifted, making that showy crystal medallion wink. He smacked his lips and resettled into his deep, even breathing.

  So Lola tightened the knot, which would make him trip and fall first thing, if he tried to chase after her. And then, just for fun, she tied the other end of the long scarf around the table leg. Might as well give him something to fuss about when he awoke! Might as well give him a challenge, if he caught her sneaking out of the suite.

  But of course he couldn’t untie his feet with his hands also bound to the table, could he? Since he was lying on his side with both arms draped over the edge of the couch—and since he’d moved that end of the coffee table close enough to set his beer bottles on last night—it was too lovely a temptation to resist. Sweeter than that first deep drag on a Camel.

  Lola nearly choked on her laughter as she lightly, lightly drew the hot pink scarf around his arms, knotted it next to his wrists, and then paused.

  This is too easy! This kid sleeps like the dead!

  She couldn’t get careless, however. No sense in losing a whole day of freedom for a few moments of inattention.

  So she stood contemplating him for a moment, listening to him breathe. Convincing herself Aric Petrocelli was totally zonked out.

  That’s when she noticed his cock was getting hard. Little smart ass was only pretending to sleep! He was liking this game!

  So she quickly wrapped the ends of the second scarf around the table leg and tied them in a tight knot. Then, to show him who was really in charge here, Lola slid across the center of the table on her stomach until she was within kissing distance of that willowy dick.

  She ind
ulged in a bit of playful contemplation, watching that thing spring to life as though its eye was looking down her shirt. Lola made a tight O of her lips, and slid down the length of him with one fast swoop.

  “Jesus H. Christ!” he wheezed, arching toward her.

  Knowing she had only a few moments when surprise remained in her favor, Lola swirled her tongue around him, concentrating on the sensitive ridge and the head that now throbbed hotly for attention.

  “Yeah, suck it fast and hard,” he breathed. “Oh, Lo—what the fuck—?!”

  She pulled away with a playful slurping sound and stood up. Grabbed her purse and headed for the door, wiping her mouth.

  “Untie me, you—! You can’t just leave me here to—”

  “Why not? You left me hanging last night!” she shot back with a giggle. “What goes around comes around, Lover Boy!”

  Down the hall she hurried—then descended the center steps, in case the captain was using an elevator—and then she eased into the crowd of people heading toward the gangway.

  Scents of sunscreen and fresh cologne filled the air, with so many guests crammed in this closely. Like everyone else, she fished out her SeaKey for the security monitor. Lola instinctively studied the guys in white at the exit, looking for a sandy-haired man with a mustache or a handsome Greek in a captain’s hat. But she saw no one familiar.

  When her card dinged in the computer, she realized the security staff would know Lola Wright was disembarking—but it would be awhile before Rio or Skorpio would realize she was missing. And how could they catch her? She was free to roam the island, with nine hundred dollars in her purse and all damn day to defy Captain Scandalous by being gone!

  How cool was this? She gazed eagerly at the people filing down the gangway, toward the first real freedom she’d had—the first real sunshine and fresh air—since she’d left Aruba!

  Happy island music rode the breeze and the sun warmed the back of her neck. A good night’s sleep had put her in a fine, feisty mood. By God, she was going to shop, and walk, and eat in quaint local cafes. Maybe pay one of the cabbies at the pier to drive her around the island for awhile!