we were waiting for the boat.”
“So at that point you just decided to walk over to the yacht and see if it met your high expectations, did you?”
“No. My intention was to find out if anyone on board knew where you really were.”
“I guess I’m not surprised you decided to use your beauty to sweet-talk the crew into revealing my whereabouts.”
She stiffened. “There was no crew.”
“Yet having been told I was out of the country indefinitely, you still waited for someone to come to the yacht.”
She moistened her lips. “I was afraid that if you were at work and knew I was looking for you, you’d pretend to be away. It was my last resort to try and reach you.”
“Therefore once again it was pure luck that you didn’t take no for an answer and sought me out at the yacht.”
“It appears that way,” she whispered.
“I’m afraid your luck has run out.” Before he walked out of the bedroom, he said, “Go ahead and fix your own meal. There’s food and drink in the galley. We just restocked everything. You’re paler and weaker than I remember. That couldn’t be good for you in your condition.”
“I notice you’ve lost weight and don’t look as well, either!”
Touché.
“In fact, you—” Suddenly, she stopped talking.
“I what?” he demanded.
Stephanie averted her eyes. “Nothing.”
He’d seen her glance at the cane, and had an idea what she’d intended to say. It angered him further. “Don’t try to go up on deck while we’re leaving port.”
Adrenaline drove him out of the room and down the hall to the stairs. But he paid the price for not taking care because when he reached the top deck, he felt pain at the base of his spine and realized he’d exerted himself too much without support. Damn it all.
AFTER A FEW minutes of enforced solitude, Stephanie could feel the yacht moving. Good heavens! Nikos had really meant it. They were leaving the port and she was his prisoner! It certainly wasn’t because he was enamored of her. She’d changed physically since they’d been together, making her less attractive.
His looks had altered, too, but in his case the weight loss and dark brooding behavior didn’t detract from his virulent male charisma. If anything, those changes made him even more appealing, if that was at all possible.
By now she’d passed the stage where she still believed she was having a nightmare. Rage and bewilderment had been warring inside her, but her greatest need at the moment was for food, so she wouldn’t throw up again. No matter what was going to happen, she needed to take care of herself and her baby.
Taking him at his word, she walked to the galley. He’d stocked his fridge well in a kitchen that rivaled that of even the most rich and famous yacht owners. Anything she could want was here. But after she’d eaten, she started going crazy with nothing to do, and decided to go up to the top of the stairs for some fresh air.
To her dismay the tough-looking seaman, Yannis, probably in his sixties, barred her way. “Go back down, Ms. Walsh,” he told her in a heavily accented voice.
“Just let me stand here for a little while and breathe some fresh air.” There was no sign of her baby’s father. The sun had fallen below the horizon.
“Nikos doesn’t want you up here until we’re out on open water. It’s for your safety. I promised him that I would take care of you.”
There’d be no point in begging his guard dog to let her walk around on deck. “All right.” She turned around and went back to the dimly lit passage below, and finally Nikos’s bedroom. Stephanie couldn’t believe this was the same man she’d fallen madly in love with.
Since he wasn’t working at Vassalos Shipping right now, what was he doing on this yacht? Needing to figure out why he was being so cruel and secretive, she opened his closet, but all she found were casual clothes. Nothing that told her anything. The clothes in the dresser didn’t reveal anything, either.
Needing answers, she left the bedroom and went along the passageway to the next door, on the left. It was another bedroom, with a queen-size bed and its own bathroom.
She tried the next door, but it was locked. Maybe it was the bedroom of the man who was crewing for Nikos. Stephanie’s gaze darted to the lounge across from it. One end contained a couch, table and chairs, and an entertainment center. The other end had been made into a den, equipped with a computer and everything that went with it.
After checking out his desk, she came across sets of maps and charts with Greek words she couldn’t read. Stephanie was afraid she’d be caught snooping and it would intensify his anger. Quickly, she put them back in the drawers and hurried down the corridor to his bedroom.
Once she’d shut the door, she leaned against it with a pounding heart while her mind tried to make sense of what he was doing on the yacht. When she’d calmed down, she was so exhausted she stretched out on the bed. In case he came to check up on her, he would think she’d been sleeping instead of exploring the yacht without his permission.
Emotionally spent, she closed her eyes for a minute, trying desperately to put all the disjointed pieces together. The man at the reception desk had told her Kyrie Vassalos was out of the country and wouldn’t be back in the foreseeable future. It was a blatant lie, since Nikos had obviously been living on this yacht for some time. Why?
Stephanie racked her brain for answers until she knew nothing else. When she next became aware of her surroundings, the yacht was still moving. To her surprise Nikos had thrown a blanket over her. How long had she slept? Her watch said it was 11:00 p.m., Greek time.
When she rolled over to get up, she realized he’d removed her sandals. At the end of the bed she saw her suitcase. That meant he’d already sailed to Chios, and had no doubt taken care of her hotel bill.
She started to tremble. No one in the world knew where she was right now. No one would be looking for her yet. Stephanie was being held against her will in the middle of the Aegean Sea by a man she didn’t begin to know.
After slipping on her sandals, she left the bedroom and walked down the hall to the stairs. No one met her at the top. She walked to the railing and looked all around. Night had descended. In the distance she could see lights twinkling from land far away. Though the sight was beautiful, she shivered to think she’d been so foolish as to climb aboard the boat of a perfect stranger. In Greek waters, no less...
Didn’t Greek mythology tell of Pandora, the first woman on earth? Zeus had given her a beautiful container with instructions not to open it under any circumstances. But her curiosity had prevailed and she did open it, letting out all the evil held inside. For what she’d done, she’d feared Zeus’s wrath.
Another shudder rocked Stephanie’s body. Today she’d opened that container, knowing she shouldn’t have. The action had seemed so small at the time. But what she’d done, in order to find the father of her baby, had turned out to have severe and far-reaching consequences for her, inciting Nikos’s wrath.
“You’re not supposed to be up here.”
At the sound of Nikos’s deep voice, a cry escaped her lips and she spun around. The warm night breeze flattened the T-shirt against his well-defined chest, ruffling his black wavy hair. Despite his hostility, his male beauty captivated her.
“I was looking for you.”
“It’s dangerous to walk around at this time of night. You’re lucky I didn’t set the wireless security system yet, or you would have received the fright of your life by the noise.”