bitterness. But she only shrugged and smiled harshly.
“I wouldn’t mind an early night,” she lied. “I brought along some material to work on a story with. It will give me just enough time to get it written. I hope you have a great time entertaining your representative. She sure looked eager enough to me!”
Before he could reply, she took off at a run and didn’t stop until she got to her suite of rooms. For the first time, she locked the door between it and the sitting room. Then she threw herself down on her bed and let the tears scald her hot cheeks.
She heard Cal enter the sitting room minutes later. While she sat up, rigid and nervous, she heard other sounds. A door opening and closing. The sound of a shower. Minutes later, the door opened and closed again. Sounds came into the room. A phone being dialed. A muffled deep voice. Footsteps that paced, coming close to her door for an instant. A hesitation. Then a muffled, harsh sound, followed by footsteps moving away, a door jerked open and being closed angrily. Then silence. A long, stifling silence.
Only then did Nikki begin to breathe again. She wasn’t going to worry about mending this wall between them. Not now anyway. She was going to get on her bathing suit, go downstairs, and lie on the beach until the aching stopped. And then she’d think about going home. She could catch a flight back to Atlanta and have Mike meet her. She could always leave a note for Cal. Not that he’d mind, she was sure. It wouldn’t bother him that much to lose a friend. And no doubt the pretty waitress could console him...
She got up and put on the black-and-white striped swimsuit she’d brought along, sliding her arms into a white beach robe. Maybe the sun would get her mind off her chaotic feelings.
The beach wasn’t crowded, probably because most of the tourists were still at lunch, so Nikki picked a place near the water. She lay down on her stomach on the wildly striped beach towel, pausing to unclip the halter of the two-piece suit so that she wouldn’t have a line across her back from the suntan. Then she closed her eyes, wiped everything out of her mind and let the warm sun and watery sound of the surf relax her into a sweet, light sleep.
She awoke to the sound of children laughing nearby. To the murmur of voices. And to a sensation like blistering all over her back.
Her eyes flew open and the sensation got worse by the second. Her back felt stiff; as if her skin had been violently stretched to the point of bursting. There was the feel of a giant blister to it, and she knew before she eased the halter clip painfully together that she’d made a terrible mistake in letting herself go to sleep.
The backs of her legs were red, too, but a glance over her shoulder told her belatedly that her back was in much worse shape. With a faint moan, she picked up the towel, slipped into her beach shoes and went back up to her rooms.
She stripped off the halter and backed up to a full-length mirror in the bathroom, wincing when she saw what she’d accomplished with her impulsiveness.
“Leave it to you,” she muttered at her pouting reflection. One side of her face was redder than the other, too, and already she was wondering how she was going to be able to bear anything against her back. She felt faintly nauseated, as well. If only she could get some cream on that blistered skin. But how was she going to reach behind her? And worst of all, how was she going to get home? It would be absolute torture to try to sit in an airplane seat—assuming that she could get a dress on over it.
She took the tube of suntan lotion and squeezed out a glob of it, easing it over the portions of her back that she could reach. She winced even at her own light touch. What was she going to do now?
With a muffled sob at her own stupidity she walked back into her bedroom, a towel clutched to her breasts, and lay facedown on the quilted coverlet. It looked as if she might have to spend the rest of her life that way.
A few minutes later there was a light tap at the door, followed by Genner’s polite voice. “Miss