Romantic Acquisition Page 0,49
the same thing she was. But she couldn’t look him in the eye. The fear that he wasn’t feeling the same things she was would belittle this feeling and she wanted it to go on forever.
They spent the next two days cruising around the Atlantic. He got the captain to stop in Jamaica and they spend another lazy day snorkeling and dining on jerk chicken and other Jamaican dishes. The nights were spent in bed, making love until they were both too exhausted to talk anymore.
It was Friday night when the call came, breaking the idyllic, tropical pace they’d set for themselves. Carlo took the call in the library while Kate read a mystery novel she’d found in Jamil’s library. Some of his conversation filtered through and Kate dropped the book onto her lap and watched as Carlo’s face turned impassive again. She knew that something was wrong.
He hung up a few minutes later and turned to face her. “I’m sorry. I’d wanted to cruise around for another few days but some information about another project has surfaced that I need to investigate,” he explained.
“I understand,” she said and smiled sadly.
Carlo picked up the phone and told the captain to head for Washington, D.C. “That doesn’t mean we can’t have fun for one more night,” he said and picked her up, carrying her back to her stateroom.
They made love, watched a movie and ate a delicious dinner before falling asleep, tangled in each other’s arms. Saturday morning, they woke up early, the yacht docked in the Alexandria harbor.
Kate packed up her lovely new clothes, amazed at how much her wardrobe had grown in the past two months. Carlo left her on her doorstep, telling her that he had to fly up to New York but hoped to be back by Sunday afternoon. She agreed to meet him for dinner the next night and he kissed her gently.
Chapter 5
Sunday morning, Kate slapped the phone off her night side table in an effort to get it to stop ringing. But the noise kept up. She reached down and pulled the receiver to her bed and mumbled a good morning, falling back to sleep almost instantly.
“Kate?” Carlo called out through the phone line.
“What?” she mumbled, still not willing to leave the warmth of her sleepy state.
“Kate, wake up,” his deep voice said in her ear through the phone.
“Why?” she asked grumpily.
“Because I’m on my way to pick you up,” Carlo said.
“Why?” she asked again, but he now had her full attention.
“You’re coming to lunch with me,” he said.
“Oh,” was her only response, wide awake now. Her stomach was instantly back to doing flip flops in excitement, eager to see Carlo again. “I thought you’d be in New York until tonight?”
“I finished early. You’d better get dressed. I’ll be at your house in about a half hour.”
“You can’t come get me,” she said, sitting up in bed and looking around at her messy room. She knew the rest of the house was just as bad. She’d spent all day Saturday making cookies in an attempt at feeling better after Carlo left. She had thought she’d have time to clean up before he called later this afternoon.
“I’m on my way,” he said again. “I’ll be there in twenty nine minutes.”
Kate immediately put the phone back in it’s cradle and jumped out of bed, not bothering to say goodbye. She’d only had four, possibly five, hours of sleep last night. She’d stared at the ceiling, wishing Carlo was next to her again like he’d been for the previous four nights and feeling silly for becoming so addicted to him in such a short period of time.
She took a quick shower and dried her hair, wanting to look nice for him this time. She brushed it until it shone, wasting precious time on her hair. She applied only a small amount of makeup, then pulled on a pair of jeans and an orange sweater with a large shawl collar. The sweater was made out of chenille so she felt warm and cozy.
Kate had no idea where he was taking her but she didn’t care and worried a few moments about that. She was still exhausted from lack of sleep but somehow, she felt revived now that Carlo was on his way to pick her up.
Exactly thirty minutes from the time she hung up, she looked at the clock this time, Carlo arrived. As soon as his car pulled up in her driveway, she walked out of her