Midnight Shadows (3 page)

For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.

So easy to say, so hard to do.

Lucky, lucky her.

She’d grown up in the fickle world of music where every single straight male, from the stage hands to the lead singer, thought they were God’s gift to women. Feckless boys, all of them, most of them thin and narrow-shouldered, so hopeless in the real, physical world that unless it involved music, they were like helpless babes. And every single one thought he was a sex god. Except now that she was actually married to a real sex god, she was able to laugh at the memory of the ones who had caught her eye.

“Come here, sailor.” Allegra tightened her hands around his neck, savoring the feel of the steely muscles there.

“Giving orders, are we now?” Douglas responded in a pure Irish accent. You’d think he’d been born in county Connemara.

“Sure and I have a perfect right to, don’t I? Seein’ as how you had me waitin’ for so long, eh?” she answered in kind.

Douglas laughed and she laughed with him. She loved it when he laughed. It was always as if laughter took him by surprise, as if laughter were this new, unfamiliar territory he had just ventured into.

“Kiss me,” she whispered and he bent to her and, oh man. That familiar magic. His arms tightened around her back, bringing her close to him, to that acre of strong, hairy male chest, a wall of muscle. When she felt him against her she simply lit up.

How she remembered what it was like being in Douglas’s arms when she’d been blind. How she’d had no choice but to concentrate on what was beneath her fingertips, against her lips, inside her body. It had been one of the only advantages to being blind—this ability to concentrate entirely on what her body was telling her.

Like now, when her body was signaling such pleasure. When Douglas held her, the world simply went away. He cupped her head and curled a big arm around her back and she found herself almost melting against him, feeling all that power and heat somehow sinking into her too, so that she felt as powerful as he was.

The power flowed between them, back and forth. Often Allegra would simply give herself up to him, follow his lead, go where he wanted to. But just as often, Douglas would read her, read her body and reactions and know what she wanted before she knew it herself. Then he would give it to her.

She closed her eyes as she kissed him, the insides of her lids golden with the light and with the honeyed pleasure. Against her stomach his penis was huge and hard. She knew it would be almost peeping out from the waistband of his swimming trunks. Her hand trailed from his back around across his washboard stomach, fitting her hand beneath the trunks and holding him.

How she loved touching him there. It felt like touching a nuclear reactor, a source of almost supernatural power. Every time she touched him, his penis would swell, move with her hand, as if they were conducting a dance. She made a fist around him and pumped down to the broad base and back up.

Douglas hissed as if he were in pain, but it wasn’t pain. She knew that.

There was something different now, some urgency that pleased her down to her toes. Douglas wasn’t showing that iron-clad will he usually did.

This far and no further because, well, she was recovering wasn’t she? That had been their sex life these past four months.

No, this time the kiss wasn’t timed, wasn’t calculated in its steps. This time the kiss was open, in every way. She lifted herself up more, helped by the buoyancy of the water, so she could be completely face to face with him, something that could never happen outside bed. He helped her, boosting her with an arm across her bottom. She slanted to get a better taste of him and a sudden cold wind, from way out to sea, lashed her wet back.

She couldn’t control the shiver and Douglas lifted his head immediately. “Let’s get you back to the room. It’s getting chilly.”

Oh no! Allegra didn’t want to open her eyes and see
that face
. Frowning, puckered with worry over her. All sensuality gone, as if she’d turned into that maiden aunt again.

When she finally did open her eyes again, though, she didn’t see the ‘poor Allegra’ face, not at all. She saw heat and sex as he looked at her, and she realized he was seeing
her,
the woman, not the invalid. His woman. A woman he desired, only right now he wanted her to be more comfortable than this.

But the sex hadn’t gone, it had merely been set aside.

And she
was
chilly. He was right. They should be heading up to their room. Where, if she read his expression correctly, things might actually happen tonight.

So she smiled at him and took his hand and headed to shore. Thinking that maybe, just maybe, she might get lucky tonight.

Chapter Three

Kowalski held his wife’s hand as they waded through the transparent water up to the beach.

He thought sad bad thoughts to bring his boner down. He thought of all the brave young SEALs who’d lost their lives during the fifteen years he’d been Senior. He thought of the Indonesian village they’d infiltrated in ’08 only to find the intel had been off a day. The entire village had been executed the day before by
 Jema’ah Islamiyah
fucks. He visualized that silent walk through the village, seeing men, women and children in the big hole that had been dig in the ground, each one with a gunshot wound at the back of the neck. Some of the children had been so small the gunshot severed the head.

It worked. By the time he and Allegra hit shore, his dick was right where in belonged in public—hanging between his legs. As they trod the board walkway he noticed a big-breasted woman rise up on her elbow and study him. Allegra was right—she carried enough bling to sink a ship. He didn’t get the feeling that it was her hormones out of control, though. It felt more like a cold assessment of a side of beef.

Well, fuck her.

He didn’t care about her, he didn’t care about any woman except Allegra.

“Here, honey,” he said, putting a dry towel around his wife’s shoulders. His hands lingered, as if his hands were magnets and she was the North Pole. It was almost impossible to lift them. He stared down at the nape of her neck, at the tender soft skin there. She loved it when he kissed her neck and he knew exactly which parts needed kissing and which parts needed biting. Nothing rough, just a little nip, guaranteed to make her break out in goosebumps.

She shivered again. But where before seeing her shiver or be uncomfortable in any way, or—God!—in pain was enough to switch his dick off completely, now he recognized a truth that had been staring him in the face for the past month.

Allegra was better. Much better. She wasn’t 100%, she’d had major brain surgery, but she was fine. As she’d told him over and over again these past weeks, but he simply wouldn’t listen to her. He’d been worried sick about her and that had wiped out the thinking part of his brain. Not that that part had ever been too big to begin with, he thought wryly.

They stopped at the elevator and turned around to look at the spectacular view, pristine white sandy beach, intense turquoise water, the two arms of land embracing the beach intensely green and perfumed. Allegra shaded her eyes, then accepted her sunglasses from him with a quick smile.

“It’s so beautiful here,” she sighed.

“Yeah.” He pressed the elevator button. “Yannis tell you that everyone on this island is convinced it’s Atlantis?”

She took in the long, crescent-shaped beach, supposedly half of the caldera of the volcano that destroyed the legendary island. It was exactly as if someone had taken a compass and traced half a perfect circle. Behind the beach, the land rose dramatically with the blinding white buildings of the village of Hagios Nikolaus spilling down over the hillside from the summit. Every inch of the land was covered with greenery and the terraced hills were famous for providing perfect grapes and perfect vegetables.

“Yes, he did. It’s not hard to believe when you see this beach. And he says that underwater explorers keep finding artifacts from the Minoan culture and a mysterious pre-Minoan culture.” She smiled. “Must be nice to think of your home as once being Atlantis.”

The elevator came with a muted, melodic ping. Trust Yannis to find an elevator bell that sounded as if it were made exclusively for the ears of rich people.

Up on the bluff the air had turned slightly chilly. Kowalski hurried Allegra along with a hand to her back. He’d just realized that she wasn’t sick any more, but he definitely didn’t want her to catch the flu.

Because maybe, just maybe, tonight…his dick stirred and he put the kibosh on his thoughts. He was still in his swim trunks and walking around with a semi hard-on was not cool.

There was a distant whooping sound and Kowalski frowned, searching the sky. There it was. An Augusta AW119 Ke Koala, one of the most expensive helicopters in the world. Inside, it was appointed like an S-class Mercedes Benz. It could reach a flying speed of 170 mph and had a range of 620 miles, so if it had refueled once it could have come from anywhere in Europe, the Middle East and most of the Far East.

In a few minutes it was hovering, nose down, over Yannis’s hotel’s helipad. The wind ruffled the leaves of the plants in Yannis’s extensive, pretty gardens but before any damage could be done the pilot landed and killed the rotors. Kowalski should have ushered Allegra back to their suite fast, but he was curious to see who the bigwig was.

The rotors were still slowly spinning when the door opened, retracted back against the frame and steps automatically descended. Three security guys descended lightly, moving like athletes. They were big guys and had on expensive suits tailored to hide the weapons in their shoulder holsters. Kowalski had a professional curiosity as to what weapons they carried but they were hidden under summer-weight virgin wool. They fanned out covering 280°, facing out. Then an elderly gentleman with a tired, drawn, refined face stood for a second in the helo’s doorway.

Good God. Kowalski stared.

Allegra stirred at his side. She touched his arm. “Who is it, Douglas, do you know him?”

He broke his stare and hurried her to their rooms. “Yeah, I know who he is. Lorenz Esterhaze. One of the richest men in the world. Escaped from Soviet-run Hungary when he was a boy. Made a fortune so big no one can count it. He once made a billion dollars in one day. The guy can make or break entire markets.”

Allegra raised her eyebrows. Yannis hadn’t known who the bigwig was, or he’d have told Kowalski, as a courtesy. Whatever pow-wow was going down, it was going to be at the top levels of global finance. The global economy could be repaired or broken in the next couple of days.

Kowalski didn’t want any part of it.

The world had taken great big bites out of him and Allegra, with sharp teeth. This was precisely what he and Allegra were here to avoid, the pressures of the outside world.

This was to be their time out of time, the world on hold. For the next three days of the mini summit he was going to avoid as much of the resort as he could. He’d have their meals catered on their huge terrace, such lush plants climbing the walls it was like being in a secret garden with a sea view. Maybe he’d rent a boat and take Allegra out to sea, spend the day on the boat with a picnic lunch, making sure she slathered that beautiful pale Irish skin with a billion SPF sun block. Maybe they’d go up to that gorgeous little white city at the top of the island with its small buildings tumbling down the hillside like grains of sugar.

As long as it was away from here and the men who were going to negotiate the world economy.

He turned his mind to the beauty of the grounds, walking through a rose and ivy-covered archway, turning at the end along a tufa-stoned walkway to the portico of their suite. It had a front porch held up by Doric columns—he knew they were Doric only because Yannis had told him, what the fuck did he know?—great clumps of deep purple and red bougainvillea framing the doorway.

When the door to their luxurious suite closed behind them, he and Allegra both breathed a sigh of relief. Inside was an oasis of beauty and comfort. The entire back wall opened onto a huge tiled terrace looking out over the Mediterranean. The sound of the heavy door closing at their back left them cocooned in their own space, high over the sea, safe and together.

Allegra smiled and pointed at the coffee table made from olive wood. “Look darling, Yannis was true to his word.”

Yannis was always true to his word. He was a former SEAL, after all. Sure enough, a wine cooler with a bottle of rosè retsina rested next to two crystal glasses and small terracotta bowls of green and black olives.

Allegra kissed his biceps and moved away. “I’m going to shower. Let’s have our wine on the terrace.”

Kowalski froze, but she didn’t notice. The bathroom door closed behind her and a few seconds later he heard the sound of the multiple showerheads in the luxury shower start up.

Allegra was always doing that to him. Showing signs of great affection, and it still blew his mind. She was totally unselfconscious about it, clearly a woman who had grown up well-loved, with no problems expressing what she felt.

It was a kick in the head when they were out. Everyone just assumed he was her bodyguard, muscle to keep the beautiful, famous musician safe. Jaws dropped when Allegra made it clear from the start that they were a couple.