Chapter Sixty-Seven Adrianna
Chapter Sixty-seven
ADRIANNA
I’m pacing the wooden boards of one of the beach cabanas, while Mark makes successive phone calls. Storm clouds are gathering. It’s my bachelorette tonight, and I’m anxious heavy rain might spoil the pictures. When he hangs up, his handsome face is strained.
‘Leopold says security think they saw two people headed north into the jungle,’ he says.
‘They think they saw?’ I rub my temples. ‘It’s good to have Dad here managing his security at least,’ I say. ‘But I still don’t trust his guys not to do something crazy.’ I catch his expression. ‘Sorry,’ I say. ‘The stress of it all is getting to me.’
‘Shall we try to relax on our last unmarried day together?’ suggests Mark. ‘Try out the pool?’
As we slip into the water, I’m feeling better.
From here, we can see staff laying out tables on the beach for the wedding breakfast. Crates of publicity documents, cutlery imported from Italy and flowers sit ready to be unloaded.
Inside the marquee, staff are at work, fixing ten thousand rose-heads to the ceiling.
I take a breath. Lie back and intertwine my toes with Mark’s under the water.
‘If we can pull this off, we can do anything,’ I tell him. ‘Think it will all go to plan?’
He smiles. ‘I’m on it. We’ve got extra staff to strew the approach with petals when the guests arrive. Chocolate torte for dessert.’
I sit up in the water, beaming at him. ‘You remembered!’
‘Giving you my chocolate torte, the night we met? How could I forget?’ He slides closer and wraps his arms around me. ‘It was worth it,’ he adds, moving his face close, ‘every bite of that dry soufflé.’ He kisses me softly. I close my eyes, letting myself be drawn in, but I can’t.
‘What’s wrong?’ asks Mark. ‘Silky?’
I shake my head. ‘I know I should be feeling bad about her death, and I do,’ I say. ‘It’s more I just have this nasty feeling, even with Simone’s death solved, that someone is out to get me.’
‘Correct.’ Mark runs his thumbs along my torso. ‘It’s me.’
I manage a laugh. ‘Mark,’ I say, my eyes on the organized chaos of the wedding arrangements on the sand. ‘Remember that week we had, just you and me, holed up playing video games?’
‘We’re talking about the best week of my entire life, right?’ he pretends to frown. ‘Apart from when you beat me on Fortnite.’
‘Do you ever wish we could just go back to that? Marry quietly?’
His face turns serious. ‘Of course I do,’ he says. But that’s not an option for us.’
‘Don’t you wish you’d just met a normal girl?’
‘No.’ He pulls me tight. ‘Let me show you why.’ Before I can answer, he kisses me hard. I kiss him back, and circle him with my legs, feeling myself melt into him. Mark slides his hands down my body, hooking his thumbs into my bikini bottoms.
‘We can’t,’ I breathe. ‘Literally, the whole beach can see us.’
‘So?’ he kisses me again. ‘It’s your private island, right?’
I try to relax, but from the corner of my eye, I see something winking in the sun. A photographer’s lens?
I sit up in the pool. It’s nothing. Just a sunspot on the water. But somehow the mood has gone.