Chapter 22
A melia sat in the lobby of the Hilton, staring at her passport while Ethan secured their room. Why had Blue made up so many differing country visits for her? It seemed to go against what Ethan told her, to keep it simple. To further the lie, she would have thought Cameroon would have been her first and only stamp.
“Ready?” Ethan asked. She tucked her passport in his pack and followed him to the elevators that took them to their room.
“A king size bed,” she exclaimed when he held the door and allowed her to precede him inside. She took off her shoes and flopped on the bed, stretching out her arms and legs as if about to flap them and make a bed angel. Ethan took off his shoes, set down his pack, and lay down beside her.
“It takes so little to please you,” he noted.
“I wish I could have a king size bed, but my apartment is microscopic. Before I got my own place, I spent four years sleeping on a dorm-room bunk bed. And the last couple of nights, I shared a bed with you, giganthor. Muscles are all well and good until they take up two thirds of available space. Might want to dial down the ‘roids, just saying.”
“I have news for you: you were the one chasing me all over the bed. I’ve never felt so hunted. Every time I tried to find some space, you were on me like a lamprey checking for parasites. I thought it was some kind of commando cuddling technique, but you were dead asleep. You’re sleep needy.” He poked her.
“I’m like a heat-seeking missile when I sleep. I go where the action is.” She reached out and ran her fingers gently through his hair.
She had a tiny mole on the right side of her forehead. He noticed it for the first time a couple of days ago, along with a small birthmark on her right shoulder. He had never been with a woman long enough to notice details like that before. In the past he’d imagined making those types of intimate discoveries might make him feel panicked or trapped. Instead he was surprised to find it gave him a little thrill, as if he’d stumbled upon a hidden secret only he knew. It satisfied some primal urge within him, of both possession and belonging.
“You’re staring at my forehead so hard I feel like you’re trying to hypnotize me. If I start clucking like a chicken whenever anyone says the word ‘tortilla,’ I will not be pleased.”
“You have a cute little mole right there.” He pressed his finger to her mole.
“Okay,” she said, her tone uncomprehending.
“We should probably make some calls,” he said.
“About my mole? Because I’ve had it forever, so please believe me when I tell you no one’s interested.”
“I need to check in with work, and you need to check in with probably everyone you’ve ever known who is worried about you,” he clarified.
“Oh, right. That.” How could she have forgotten her family? They must be panicked by now.
Ethan went first. His conversation was odd and cryptic, a series of statements she guessed to be some kind of code. When he was finished, he dialed for her because she had never made an overseas call before. Her mother picked up on the second ring.
“Hi, honey. How’s your trip?”
She frowned at Ethan in confusion, but as he couldn’t hear her mother’s side of the conversation, he had no idea why. “Good,” Amelia drawled.
“We couldn’t believe it when Maggie told us you were jaunting off to Africa, spur of the moment. I guess her love of travel is starting to rub off on you.”
“Yeah,” Amelia said. Maggie hadn’t told her parents she’d been kidnapped? She wondered why.
“You sound tired, sweetie. Are you getting enough rest?”
Amelia glanced at Ethan. The last couple of nights had been sleepless, but she wasn’t complaining. “There’s a big time difference here.”
“Which country are you in? If Maggie told me, I don’t remember.”
“Cameroon,” Amelia replied. “They speak French here.”
“Oh, that explains a lot. I’ll have to tell Darren you’re getting some use out of that minor,” her mother said, laughing.
“How’s Johnny?” Amelia asked.
“He’s doing really well. Cam put a bug in his ear about trying the Special Olympics this year, so we’re looking into which category best suits him. So far we haven’t found one for enthusiastic high fiving,” her mother said.
Amelia smiled. “Mom, it’s really great to talk to you, but I have to go.”
“Sure, honey. Thanks for calling. Maggie warned us we probably wouldn’t hear from you until you got back, so this is a nice surprise. Enjoy the rest of your trip.”
Amelia’s gaze landed on Ethan again. “I definitely will. Love you.”
“Love you, too.” They disconnected.
“All right?” Ethan asked.
“She didn’t know anything was wrong,” Amelia said.
“Is anything wrong?” he probed.
“No.”
“Well, there you go. Ready to talk to Maggie?”
“Ready,” Amelia said. He dialed for her again, and Maggie answered after one ring.
“Amelia?” Maggie said.
“How did you know?” Amelia asked.
“I don’t get as many calls from Africa as you might expect,” Maggie said, and it sounded as if she was crying.
“I’m fine,” Amelia assured her. “Perfect in every way, except some minor sun damage on my face. If I get wrinkles, I’m definitely suing the blood diamond people.”
Maggie laughed and sniffled. “It’s so, so good to hear your voice. How’s Ethan?”
“Equally perfect,” Amelia said. She turned her back to him, afraid her tone might reveal something to the sister who knew her too well.
“Uh-oh,” Maggie said, reading between the lines anyway.
“No, it’s fine. We’re friendly.”
Behind her, Ethan snickered. She put her hand in his face and pushed. Ignoring her, he brushed aside her hair and began kissing her neck. She closed her eyes, trying hard to maintain the thread of the conversation with her sister. “How’s the dog?”
“The best little baby ever.” There was a commotion in the background. “Every time I call him our baby, Ridge feels the need to remind me he’s not. But he loves his daddy so much. Every new baby brings adjustments.”
“Soon your baby is going to be a hundred pounds,” Amelia reminded her.
“More of him to love,” Maggie said. “Although we may need a tad of obedience school because he destroyed one of Daddy’s leather loafers and left a rather unpleasant present in the other. Hey, I almost forgot to ask. When are you coming home? Did you get a flight out tomorrow?”
“We’re coming home the day after tomorrow. Ethan has some business to attend to first,” Amelia said.
“I’ll say I do,” Ethan whispered.
“Have you talked to Piedmont?” Maggie asked. “He’s been a mess since you went away.”
Amelia tensed, and Ethan stopped kissing her. “Not yet.”
“Call him soon, the poor guy,” Maggie urged.
“Yes, okay. Hey, I have a couple of questions for you. Blue made me a passport and put all these obscure countries on it. Any idea why?”
“Knowing him it’s for some reason that makes sense only in his twisted mind,” Maggie said.
“Why didn’t you tell Mom and Dad the truth?” Amelia asked. “That I’d been kidnapped.”
“That was my first go-to panic reaction, but Cam rightly pointed out there was no need to alarm them unnecessarily when the probability Ethan would successfully retrieve you was so high. You’re in good hands there.”
I’ll say I am, Amelia thought. Her eyes landed on Ethan’s strong, capable hands, and she picked one up, bringing it to her lips.
“Send us a message when you know your travel arrangements, and we’ll meet you at the airport,” Maggie said.
“Will do. Before I forget, how was France? What did you guys do there?”
“I couldn’t begin to tell you,” Maggie said, her words weighted with meaning.
“I want a rundown of the food in person,” Amelia said.
“That I can do,” Maggie promised. They said their goodbyes. Amelia hung up the phone and sat staring at it a moment.
“Is there anyone else you’d like me to dial?” Ethan asked. His hand was still in hers, his finger sliding gently over her palm.
“Yes, okay, I supposed I’d better,” she said dully.
“Can I give you a piece of advice, man to woman?”
“What’s that?”
“Resist the temptation to confess or break up over the phone. You’re five thousand miles away, and he’s been going out of his mind with worry over you. Be soft, be gentle, and tell him face to face when you get home.”
“That’s good advice,” she conceded. “Maybe you should write a book: How to Break Up With Your Boyfriend, One Man’s Guidance for his Wife.”
“Pretty sure I’m the last person who should be doling advice, dating, marital, or otherwise.” He dialed the phone and sat back, blatantly eavesdropping.
“Taking a page from Jones’s book, are you?” she asked.
He grinned and spoke in an exaggerated Aussie accent. “One time I knew this bloke who got a phone jammed in his…”
“Hello, Amelia, is that you?” Piedmont asked. She had instructed Ethan to dial his private line, the one he kept on reserve for friends, family, and her.
She turned her back to Ethan. “Hi.”
“Oh, my…are you okay? I can’t tell you how worried I’ve been. Hold on, I have to sit down. I think I might pass out. Okay. Are you all right? Please tell me you’re all right.”
“I’m fine, honestly,” she assured him.
“Amelia, I am so, so sorry. If I’d realized how credible the threat was, I would have had the security team start immediately. They assured me there was no way they could get to you.”
“Piedmont, stop, please. It’s really not your fault.”
“Yes, it is,” Ethan hissed. She waved him away.
“These have been the worst few days of my life,” Piedmont wailed. Amelia closed her eyes. These have been the best days of my life, she thought, shocked. How could she think that when it had been nothing but constant danger? She glanced at Ethan. Oh, that’s how .
“When you get home, promise me we’ll have a conversation about us,” Piedmont demanded.
“I promise,” Amelia said, the weight of guilt hanging like a stone in her gut.
“Take care and, Amelia, I love you.”
She hung up without saying another word and sat stock still, the phone cradled in her lap. Ethan eased forward and took it away from her, setting it aside. Then he pulled her close and hugged her, and that was when the dam burst and she cried.
“I’m the worst person in the world,” she wept.
“Of course you’re not. It’s a really big world,” Ethan said.
“Do not tease me about this,” she pled.
“I’m sorry, but how can I feel bad when his loss is so much my gain?” he asked, his arm smoothing gently up and down her spine.
“What’s even the point when you don’t want anymore than these few days?” Finally, she broached the question that had been weighing on her.
“You said time wasn’t a factor. You said however long we had together would be enough, that it would be special and unique because we would have loved more in the short term than most people do in a lifetime.”
“What are you, a human tape recorder?” she asked, pushing at his chest in irritation.
He pulled her back again, holding her close and pinning her arms when she tried to squirm away. “We have tonight, tomorrow, and tomorrow night. Let’s enjoy them for what they are. If you will give me that much, I swear to you we’ll have fun and you won’t regret it. Will you?”
After a moment’s hesitation, she nodded. “But I feel gross, enjoying ourselves on Piedmont’s dime.”
“So do I. That’s why I put the hotel on my credit card,” he said.
“You did?” she asked.
He nodded. “The rest of the trip is on him. It is his fault you’re here, his case, his failure to warn you, to properly protect you. But this part, this is for us, this is ours.”
“Oh,” she doubled over, clutching her chest.
He rested his hand on her back, alarmed. “What is it?”
“I got this huge rush of emotion, so big and so sudden that it physically hurt for a second. Or maybe it was that mystery food we ate from the unlicensed street vendor. But I’m pretty sure it was love.”
“Do you want to kiss me or throw up right now?” he asked.
“Kind of both, but I think kissing is winning,” she said. She sat up on her knees and advanced on him, knocking him back onto the bed as she tackled him. They kissed for a while, and it was definitely leading somewhere other than food poisoning when Amelia suddenly sat up and reached for her passport.
“I figured it out,” she said, waving the passport in Ethan’s face.
“What?” he asked. His brain was having trouble catching up to the fact that she was no longer in his embrace and using words.
“Why Blue put all the random countries on my passport. If you take the first letter from each country, it spells out a message.” She showed him, and he read out loud.
“You owe me big.”
“I can’t believe he made up eleven fake country visits to send me a secret message. No wonder he sent me to Oman twice,” she said, smiling at the passport in recognition of Blue’s skill as a prankster.
“This was what you were thinking about as I was kissing you?” Ethan asked.
“Among other things.”
He plucked the passport from her fingers and tossed it onto the nightstand. “Let’s try this again and in fifteen minutes, if you’re able to think of anything at all besides me and what we’re doing here, I’ve failed in my objective.”
Fifteen minutes later, she pulled away to say two breathless words to him: “Mission accomplished.”