"One hour," he interrupted firmly and pulled the door closed on further protest.
Carolyn stared after the van with dismay, then turned to start up the walk to the villa door. She didn't want him picking her up. Beth would give her grief, and she really didn't want another lecture on being his beard. It would completely ruin her mellow mood of the moment, and she was mellow.
Okay, that was an understatement, Carolyn admitted as she staggered on the path. She was pickled. In fact, she'd had a seriously hard time walking straight on the way from the dock to the van and wasn't sure she'd accomplished it at all. She may have been staggering a bit here or there, but fortunately, Christian hadn't noticed.
He'd stared straight ahead, his expression grim the whole way.
Carolyn had never been much of a drinker, only ever indulging in the occasional glass of wine with dinner. In fact, she'd had more to drink on this trip so far than she'd probably had in her whole life, and most of it today. It had been deliberate, a desperate effort to force herself to relax. It hadn't worked as well as she'd hoped. She'd still stiffened a bit every time Jack had touched her, but she was beginning to think that had more to do with the fact that Christian had been glowering the entire time.
Maybe if he wasn't there looking all handsome and sexy and glaring at her for stealing a guy he was interested in, she would relax more with Jack. That was what she was hoping for anyway.
Carolyn supposed she'd find out tomorrow on their dinner date, and thought perhaps she should have a couple of cocktails before he even picked her up. She pushed that worry away for now as she reached the door and struggled to get the key card into the slot. Right now she had other matters to worry about. Like getting showered, dressed and up the hill to Christian's villa before he left to come collect her. She really didn't need the lecture Bethany would give her if she knew she was having dinner with Christian again.
Speaking of which, she thought suddenly, what if Bethany was feeling better again and wanted to have dinner with her? That worry was fizzing around inside her head as she fumbled with the door, but as it turned out, it really didn't end up being a problem. Apparently, hearing her at the door, Bethany came to open it for her, took one look at her, and just gaped for a full minute before accusing her of being drunk. She then trailed her to her room asking all sorts of questions about what she'd drunk and so on.
Carolyn muttered mostly incoherent answers as she stumbled into her bathroom and turned on the shower.
She was terribly relieved when Bethany pronounced her too drunk to even make sense, and announced that she was going back to bed. She then firmly added that Carolyn too should go to bed after her shower. She could order herself some room service when she woke up if she felt like it, but was likely to upchuck if she ate now.
Bethany left her alone in the bathroom then, saying she would fetch her some water and put it on her bedside table. She should drink it before sleeping. Water helped prevent hangovers and she didn't want Carolyn hung over on the shopping tour the next day.
"Thank you," Carolyn had mumbled, relieved at the way things had turned out. She could shower and pretend to lie down, but dress and slip out of the villa via her terrace doors instead. There would be no lectures. Bethany wouldn't even know she was gone. Carolyn had stripped and gotten into the shower, grabbing for the taps to keep from falling over as she did and then squawking as the water suddenly turned cold. She'd turned the taps, she realized after a moment under icy water, and quickly adjusted it back.
Forty-five minutes later she was dry, dressed, and slipping out through her terrace doors. She felt like a teenager sneaking out when grounded. Something else she'd missed out on growing up, Carolyn thought with a giggle, and wondered if all women acted like prepubescent idiots when menopause set in. She should be able to say she was going down to dinner with Christian.
And if Bethany began to lecture her, Carolyn should be able to say she was an adult and could do as she wished and didn't appreciate lectures.
However, this was easier, and actually, kind of fun, she thought with a grin as she tossed her shoes over the terrace rail and then climbed over to drop onto the grass on the other side. Picking up her shoes, she smiled to herself as she hurried around the villa and up the road on bare feet.
Carolyn didn't stop to put on her shoes until she had almost reached the stone terrace around the villa the band was using. Pausing a few feet short of it, she quickly slid her sandals on, did them up, and straightened to brush down her skirt before continuing on. But with the first step, her strap snapped, and her foot twisted sideways out of the high-heeled sandal. Carolyn staggered to the side, trying to keep herself from falling, felt the ground give beneath her, and gasped out a surprised, "Oh," as she fell.
"Do you really think that's wise, son?" Marguerite asked worriedly as she followed him to the front door.
"Were you listening to me at all?" Christian asked with disgust as he peered out to see if the van he'd sent for had arrived yet. He'd gotten back to the villa, downed blood, showered, changed and come out of his room to find the rest of the band up and his mother and father there. He'd spent the last half hour telling them about his horrid day and what Carolyn had decided to do, but they didn't seem to be taking her plans seriously. "She is determined to have an affair 'to save me.' I am not allowing that to happen."
"I'm sure she won't carry through on it," Marguerite said at once. "He can't possibly affect her as much as you do."
"That won't make one lick of difference. She isn't even attracted to the guy. She said there was no spark, but she's determined. Where the hell is the van?" he added in a mutter and dragged the door open to walk outside.
"I'm sure she wouldn't-"
"Isn't that Carolyn?" Santo asked.
Christian glanced around to see that everyone had trailed him outside. He then followed Santo's gaze to see Carolyn on the road, bent over and fiddling with her shoes. Even as he spotted her, she straightened, brushed herself down, took a step forward and then suddenly pitched to the side, her eyes and mouth making perfect O's in her surprised face.
Cursing, he broke into a run, but his heart nearly stopped in his chest when the edge of the hill gave way beneath her and she toppled over, hit the ground, and immediately began to roll down the side of the mountain.
Christian already knew from having traversed it himself that the slant gave way to a straight fifteen-or twenty-foot drop where the next two roads down had been carved out of the mountainside. Changing his angle, he put on a burst of speed and threw himself forward to catch her legs just as she reached the lip of that drop.
Christian overshot. He landed on his stomach on her lower legs, his head in her lap and her shoe jammed into his groin. It was not a memory he would soon forget, he decided, a pained groan slipping from his lips.
"Oh," Carolyn gasped. "Well, that was exciting."
Christian lifted his head slowly from her lap to find that she'd sat up and was blinking as if just having fallen out of bed onto a soft carpet.
"Hi," she said and had the temerity to grin at him.
"Are you all right, dear?" Marguerite was suddenly kneeling beside them, brushing Carolyn's hair away from her face with concern. "You took quite a fall."