all the women you need,” she replied with a faint twinkle in her eyes.
“Something like that.” He leaned back to light a cigarette while he watched her nibble half-heartedly at her egg and muffin. “Twenty-five is a bit young for me, anyway, Georgia.”
“Twenty-six in two weeks,” she replied.
There was a long, potent silence between them while murmuring voices from other tables drifted by.
She looked up into dark, searching eyes and felt the breath chased out of her lungs by the intensity of that unblinking stare.
“How long are you going to be here?” he asked gently.
“About ten more days,” she managed in a strange little voice. Her heart began to do the calypso in her chest as she returned that long, searching gaze. How odd, it seemed as if she’d known him forever...
Strange sensations wandered through her at the piercing quality of his eyes. He was such an uncommon quantity to her. She felt safe and threatened, all at once, and something in that utterly adult look of his made her feel strangely vulnerable. If I had good sense, she thought wildly, I’d break and run and never go near him again until I was safely on the plane home. But she was frozen in place. She couldn’t force herself to get up and leave him there.
“Don’t start looking for cover,” he said, reading the apprehension in her taut features. “You don’t need to feel threatened with me, little one.”
“I’m not little,” she said breathlessly.
“Honey,” he said, standing even as he crushed out his cigarette, “compared to me, you’re tiny.”
She stood up beside him, forced to admit the truth in that bland statement. He loomed over her like some dark giant, as solid as concrete, as powerful as a professional athlete. There wasn’t an ounce of flesh on him that wasn’t firm, no sign of a beer belly or its upper-crust equivalent. His stomach was as flat as her own, his posture not only proud and arrogant, but full of barely concealed vitality. He’d said he’d been married, and she wondered if there were children. But before she could get her muddled thoughts together, she found herself being shuttled out onto the sidewalk.
“But I was going back to my room,” she protested, feeling that warm, strong grip on her elbow as he hurried her across the street.
“What for?” he asked without breaking stride.
“To get my swimsuit on.”
“You can’t swim on a full stomach.”
“But I can sunbathe...”
“You’ll blister,” he remarked, glancing sideways at her creamy complexion against the pale green blouse and white slacks she was wearing. “Or worse, wind up like old leather. Don’t fry that perfect skin. It’s one of your better features.”
“So complimentary,” she mumbled. “What do you think you’re doing, dragging me along like this?” she added as they dodged other tourists. It appeared that not only did the local people drive on the left-hand side of the road, they walked on the left-hand side of the sidewalk, as well. That had caused Nikki quite a few collisions until she got the hang of walking in crowds.
“I’m taking you under my wing,” he replied.
“If you did, you’d crush me,” she told him. “And besides, it’s too early. None of the shops will be open.”
“Which makes this the best time of day to explore,” he replied, strolling along beside her like a man without a care in the world. The brown open-necked shirt he was wearing was almost exactly the shade of his eyes, dark against the white slacks on his powerful legs. He was a striking man.
“The beach...” she began weakly.
“Will still be there when you get back,” he promised. “Now shut up. I’m rescuing you from certain boredom.”
She gave up, falling into step beside him when he released her arm long enough to light a cigarette and send out a great cloud of smoke.
“Do you always capture people this way?” she asked politely.
“Only when it’s necessary.” He threw her a mocking look. “It never has been before. It’s usually the other way around.”
“I don’t chase men,” she informed him. “I’m only a libber where salaries, working conditions and rights are involved. I don’t want to brawl or press two-hundred-pound weights, thank you.” She gave him a brief scrutiny. “I’ll bet you think women should be kept in harems.”
“On the contrary,” he replied. He took another drag from the cigarette and paused to watch a straw vendor setting up shop on a wide corner as they passed it. “I’m not a chauvinist. The world is changing, and I’m