5. Dramatic Effect This—
FIVE
DRAMATIC EFFECT THIS—
T he sound of water dripping on the deck could be heard from both her and Dante, from being drenching wet as they were finally pulled back onto the yacht.
“Have a nice swim?” Amo asked her with a smile.
Nadia shivered, too cold to get her smart comeback out before Leo’s remark.
“I’m not sure you could call that swimming.”
Just when she thought the youngest Caruso was nothing like his father … “That would have been funny, if your father hadn’t already made the same joke five minutes ago.”
Both Leo and Amo furrowed their brows together as they looked over at Dante strangely.
She was just about to ask them why they were looking at him like that when Dante addressed the small staff that had just helped pull them out of the water.
“I’m sure one of you can show Nadia to her room and find her something dry?”
“Of course.” A blonde woman in a white Polo stepped forward. “Please, follow me.”
“Thanks,” she muttered, falling in step behind her, but her steps weren’t the only ones she could hear as she turned her head to see Dante following close behind, holding his dry jacket and shoes that he must’ve taken off before taking his dive.
“I’d like to get dry, too.”
“Right,” Nadia said with a nervous laughter. She tried not to feel guilty for his current state, but she certainly was responsible for him being wet.
Continuing to follow the staff woman, she led them to what appeared to be an outdoor living room with a bar that looked like an oasis in the middle of the ocean. However, it was when they went through the huge sliding glass door that her mouth dropped to the floor.
It was the most beautiful living area you could dream of, and it was on a freaking boat!
Whenever Nadia thought of a yacht, she imagined them decorated in white and gold, but this was clearly no ordinary yacht.
The walls were matte black, and the furniture was a rich velvet in a navy color.
You’d think it would make the yacht appear too small, but it actually made it beautifully intimate, especially with the sliding glass doors open so you could hear the peaceful sound of the ocean.
Nadia just wanted to be dry, curl up on the couch, and read one of her favorite books while she watched a movie on the ginormous TV screen. And that was just the living room.
There was also a small indoor bar and gaming section that held a pool table.
This yacht was insane, and she couldn’t begin to wrap her mind around not only the cost of something like this but the fact that it was just a “vacation home.” She would be shocked if it was used more than five times a year.
This must’ve been the middle deck, as the woman led them to a staircase in the back. One half went upstairs, and the other half led down.
The woman motioned her hand toward a staircase that went upstairs. “Mr. Caruso.”
Dante simply nodded his head as he started to disappear up the steps.
“Ms. Brooks, you may continue to follow me,” the woman said as she began to descend below.
“Right, sorry.” Nadia quickly fell back in step … after she removed her gaze from the mob boss.
She didn’t know what was upstairs exactly, but down below held extravagant cabins, and as they passed each room, she could see a suitcase sitting beside the foot of each bed.
Nadia’s room came last. It appeared to be one of the more feminine rooms, decorated in a royal purple rather than a beautiful shade of blue. Unfortunately, her room didn’t hold a suitcase that was going to be magically filled with her stuff from home.
“I believe we have plenty of clothes for you here, ma’am.
We typically get a lot of late arrivals of the female variety.
” She winked before opening the small closet to reveal it jammed full of brightly colored clothing that appeared to be mostly skimpy dresses and cover-ups.
“Boss likes us to keep anything that has been left behind.” She tried not to chuckle.
Then, getting a hold of herself, she pointed toward the chest. “You will find plenty of bathing suits there, and any other items you might need will be in the head.” She now pointed toward a door.
“Bathroom,” she explained the boating term when Nadia seemed confused.
Nadia tried her best to give the woman a friendly smile. “Thank you …”
“Lila.”
“Thanks, Lila,” she repeated the helpful woman’s name. Then Lila finally left her to it with a smile.
Nadia headed to the “head” first, needing a nice, warm shower after today’s events. First, she took off her jacket that had become plastered to her when she suddenly remembered …
The check!
Pulling out the now extremely wet rectangle piece of paper, she carefully placed it on the counter.
The ink had bled a little, but it was still legible, right?
She would let it air dry and find out later.
If it wasn’t, she’d get Dante to write her another one.
Hell, he might even add another zero after this disastrous meeting that had turned into a weekend.
She quickly undressed then showered in the small but luxurious bathroom before throwing on a bathrobe.
She managed to find a blow dryer and a round brush to give herself her usual sleek blowout.
It didn’t take long until her shiny, black hair was placed perfectly in her long bob that barely grazed her shoulders.
Shockingly, there was even makeup, but she decided against her usual cat eyeliner and nude lipstick, only putting on a tinted SPF she found to protect her skin from the harsh Florida sun.
She supposed the perfect business look she always displayed could take a break for a few days while she was forced to be here.
Finally leaving the bathroom, she headed toward the dreaded closet. She gingerly looked through the brightly colored clothes to find them all of the skimpy variety. Hell, she was better off wearing her robe than those.
Deciding there was no way in hell, she went to the chest, praying for something that would cover her big ass around the man who had just given her a hundred thousand dollars for her charity, but when she opened the top drawer, then the next, then the next, she practically screamed when she opened the last.
Slamming the drawer closed, it was decided …
She would stay in her fucking room all weekend.
Dante sat with his son and Amo in the outdoor living area, catching the last few sunrays left in the day. They had all already changed into their vacation attire and had been resting, waiting for Nadia to join them. It wasn’t until the sun was beginning to set that worry started to set in.
“I’m going to go check on Nadia.”
“Good idea,” Amo told him, picking up an hors d’oeuvre from the plate Lila held. “I thought I heard her scream.”
“What?” Dante quickly got to his feet. “When?”
Amo plopped the little dish in his mouth. “When I went to go change.”
“That was hours ago!” It was everything he could do not to slap Amo on his big-ass head. “And you didn’t fucking think to check on her?”
“It wasn’t like a screech of terror,” Amo explained dumbly for him to calm down. “It was like one of those screams a girl makes when you get them white chocolate instead of dark chocolate when they’re on their periods.”
Leo, who looked like he might’ve been asleep, raised his sunglasses, revealing his bandaged eye underneath to give Amo a speculative look.
“Is that so?” Dante asked through gritted fucking teeth. It was no fucking wonder Amo was one of his last men who was still happily single.
“Yeah.” He shrugged his big shoulder, clearly not reading the room. “You know they do it for … dramatic effect.”
Dramatic effect this—
“Ow!” Amo yelped, rubbing the back of his head where Dante had just slapped the shit out of him as he passed. “What did you fucking hit me for?”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” he told him from over his shoulder as he headed toward the stairs.
He saw the tug on his son’s lips when he put his shades back down and went back to pretending to be asleep.
Fuck. He thought going on vacation was supposed to be relaxing.
Instead, it was anything but. Now he had One-Shot finally targeting him, and what was worse was that now Nadia was involved.
She wasn’t meant to have been thrown into his shit.
He regretted ever calling her back to give her the check.
He should have just fucking mailed it to her, but his ego wanted him to do it in person.
He had made a mistake by letting his instincts throw Nadia into his car because now One-Shot could interpret it as him caring for her. Hell, she wasn’t under-aged; he could just let her go and let One-Shot handle the rest, but his conscience wasn’t letting him, and now he was playing babysitter.
At least, if he got her out of here alive, she was going to be easy to keep quiet. Handing money over to her little charity was going to serve as more than just a tax write-off now.
Finding her room was easy once he took the final step. It was the only door down here that was closed. Raising his knuckles, he gently raked them on the door. “Nadia?” he called out when she didn’t answer.
He was just about to knock the door down when he heard a stir …
Nadia cracked open the door to see a sliver of Dante’s face on the other side. She couldn’t help but notice his ice-blue gaze drift down to what he could see of her robe.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb your sleep.”
“I wasn’t sleeping.”
“You’ve been sitting in here this whole time?” He began to slightly narrow his eyes now, as his hand started to lightly push against the door. “Is something wrong?”
“Excuse me!” Nadia quickly lost the battle as he barged in. “This is my room!”
“Amo thought he heard a scream earlier,” he said, giving the room a quick look around.
“I may or may not have screamed,” she said, pulling her robe closer together. “But that was a while ago. A little too late now to be worried.”
“Yeah, well, he didn’t tell me till about a minute ago.” Dante let his disappointment show clearly in his tone as he went to give the bathroom a check now. Returning to the bedroom, he asked the question she was hoping he wouldn’t. “Why did you scream, then?”
“I was just being …” Nadia couldn’t think of the right word to describe why she had screamed after seeing the clothing options.
“Dramatic?” he asked with a raised brow.
“No”— you freaking prick —“silly.” Yep, that was a much better word.
“Okay, then, what were you being silly about?”
Nadia went to open her mouth but couldn’t think of what to say.
“I’ll wait here all day ‘til you tell me,” he threatened, crossing his arms.
Clearly, there was no getting out of it. He wanted to know what caused her distress.
Shit, the crossing of his arms drew attention to what he was wearing now.
Dante had changed into a looser white button-up shirt that revealed the top of his tanned chest. His black slacks were now a navy pair of …
khakis? No one in Kansas City would ever believe Dante Caruso would be on a yacht in khakis , yet here he stood, and Nadia had to admit the casual look made him appear somehow younger, fresher and, regretfully, even hotter.
When he was about to take a seat on the bed, she gave in to his relentlessness.
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes with a sigh, heading over to open the closet door.
“I didn’t scream out of fear. I screamed in frustration because the only clothes available to me this weekend belong to”—she pulled out a yellow see-through dress—“Sherry”—she then revealed a red dress with the sides cut out—“Cherry”—now she headed toward the chest to open the forbidden drawer, grabbing a handful of string bikinis that she let rain back down into the chest—“and Missy!”
Stepping closer, he took a good look at the contents in the drawer. “This is why you’ve been locked in your room all day?”
Okay, when he said it that way, while he looked at her like that , it did sound a bit dramatic … silly … or somewhere between both.
“They’re just bathing suits, Nadia,” Dante told her simply, like it wasn’t a big deal. “We’re in the middle of the ocean, for Christ’s sake. Just try to chill out this weekend and enjoy yourself. You’re safe here.”
Unconsciously, Nadia took a deep breath, feeling relief wash over her almost immediately at his words.
“Plus, I promise you, no matter what clothes you wear, it’ll be tough to break your”—Dante stared at her a moment, clearly thinking of the right word, until he did—“uptight facade.”
Nadia’s mouth practically dropped to the floor. “I am so not uptight.”
“Really …?” Dante lifted his tanned fingers to the first fastened button of his shirt. “You sure about that?”
“What are you doing?” she quickly stammered out, taking a step back.
Smiling now, the mob boss finished unbuttoning his shirt, revealing his cotton white tank top that clung to his now apparent muscles underneath. Holding it out to her, his smile only grew wider. “Use this as a cover-up.”
Nadia cleared her throat, both of them knowing she had just eaten her I’m not uptight words about as fast as they had come out. “Thank you,” she said kindly, taking the shirt from his grasp.
“You’re welcome,” he said, clearing his own throat.
It was as if, just as soon as she had seen his ice-blue eyes become warmer, they turned freezing cold once more as his smile suddenly disappeared. She began to wonder what she had said or done to warrant the quick change in his demeanor.
Unfortunately, his voice went just as cold as he headed for the door, “I’ll see you at dinner.”
Staring at the door that had just been slammed shut, Nadia was simply dumbfounded.
And I’m the dramatic one?
Dante’s jaw set in a fixed position as he left the room and went up the first flight of steps.
He couldn’t remember the last “kind” act he had given, and the fact that he just kept doing them with a woman whom he was beginning to find attractive, more and more by the second, made a weird feeling creep in his gut. Was it … guilt?
Unfortunately, Amo and Leo had come into the inside living area. Even more unfortunate, they didn’t miss a beat.
Amo was the one to ask the obvious. “What the hell happened to your shir—”
“Shut it,” was all Dante said as he began climbing up the other steps to go put on another shirt. He knew how it looked, but he also knew it looked much worse than what had actually happened.
Right?
It was that fucking guilt that had him asking. Damn, he should have just let her stay in her room all fucking weekend. Why did I have to go make sure she was all right? It was all Amo’s fault because he had said he had heard her scream.
What was even worse was the fact that Amo’s idiotic comment had been right …
And he thought Maria was fucking dramatic.