The reassurance sounded hollow to his ears, and Christian's panic clawed its way up his throat as he made the jump to the road cut into the mountainside. He shouldn't have done it, and Christian knew it. It was midday by his guess. If anyone had seen him... But he didn't care. He had to get to Carolyn. That was the only thing his mind could concentrate on as he hurried up the walk to her villa and rang the bell.
He heard the bell sound inside and the patter of footsteps and felt himself relax. She was here. They would talk. It would be all right, he thought before the door opened to reveal one of the resort maids, a bundle of used sheets in her arms.
"Yes?" she asked politely.
Christian almost pushed past her into the villa, but restrained himself, and said, "I need to speak to Carolyn."
"The ladies who rent this villa are out," she said politely and started to close the door, but he caught it before it closed. "Where is she?"
The maid turned back with surprise. "I don't know. On a tour maybe."
"But she hasn't checked out?" Christian asked grimly.
"No, they are still staying here," she said, beginning to eye him warily. "They are just out right now, I think."
"Right," Christian murmured, forcing himself to relax.
"Thank you."
He released the door and turned to walk back up the path. Carolyn was still at the resort. She just wasn't in at the moment. And neither was Bethany. They'd probably gone down to lunch or something. She hadn't run... yet.
He would go shower, change his clothes and then find her.
"Are you sure you don't want to head back to the resort?"
Bethany asked with concern. "You look terribly pale."
"No, I'm good," Carolyn said at once, but it was a complete and utter lie. She felt like hell. Her headache from the night before had returned, along with the queasiness and shakes that had plagued her the day before on the boat and the night before that in bed. But then she supposed she'd done it to herself by having only coffee at breakfast before they'd boarded the bus for the shopping tour, and then merely picking disinterestedly at her lunch. What she really wanted was to return to the villa and crawl into bed. However, Christian would be able to find her there.
If he was looking for her, Carolyn thought unhappily.
She wasn't sure what would be worse, his not looking for her at all, or his looking and finding her. The idea of having to face him after all they'd done last night... or really, what he'd done to her, she thought with a frown. He hadn't let her touch him at all after that first time on the terrace, but had either tied her up or pinned her down, holding her hands by her head as he thrust himself into her.
But he'd untied her after each round. She'd woken to find herself in his arms and untied each time. Thank God, Carolyn thought, or that last time she'd woken she wouldn't have been able to slip away. Even as she had that thought, some part of her brain was laughing at her. The part that knew that Carolyn really wished she hadn't woken up first at all, but was still there with him. She would have been happy never to wake first and leave his bed.
"Well, if you're sure," Bethany said. "Let's go look at those shops over there. That dress in the one shop window would look nice on you. You could buy it just in case you get lucky and have a date."
Bethany headed toward the shop, but her words had made Carolyn halt abruptly as horror crept over her. The innocent comment about " 'in case you get lucky" had whipped at her like a lash. She'd already gotten lucky, luckier than she'd ever imagined. But it was the part about getting a date that was causing her horror. It reminded her that she already had a date. Tonight. With Jack. The guy she'd intended to have an affair with.
Carolyn moaned. The very idea of that now left her feeling nauseous again.
She didn't know what was going on between her and Christian.
Part of her wanted to crawl right back to his bed, but another part was standing back and gasping in horror at the very fact that she'd slept with someone so much younger than herself even the once. Well, six times, she corrected herself, and then wondered if it counted as one or six times if it was all in the same night.
Carolyn shook her head at the ridiculous worry. That didn't matter, what did was that while she didn't know what to do about Christian, she knew damned well she wasn't ready to plunge from his bed to Jack's.
"Carolyn, come on," Bethany said, sounding exasperated and then raised her eyebrows when Carolyn's phone began to ring from the depths of her purse.
"You go ahead. It's probably the office," Carolyn said, digging through her purse. "I'll catch up."
Bethany nodded and headed into the first store as Carolyn found her phone. She hit the button to answer and pressed it to her ear, sighing, "Hello?"
"Caro?"
"Jack?" Carolyn gasped with amazement, her eyes widening with a sort of horror. It was as if thinking of him had called forth his voice.
"Yeah," he grinned. "Genie gave me your cell number when I told her we had a date tonight and I couldn't reach you at the villa. She said you're out shopping with that Bethany who rushed off the boat yesterday morning?"