"Caro?"
"Here!" Carolyn set her brush down on the bathroom counter and walked to the door to her bedroom, pausing when she saw Bethany standing in the hall door in her pink silk robe, her dark hair up in a ponytail. "You aren't ready."
"No." Bethany grimaced. "Would you mind if I didn't go?"
Carolyn frowned and started across the bedroom. "I thought you were feeling better?"
"I was when I woke up from my nap this afternoon, but now not so much," she said with a grimace. "I'm thinking it might be better to stay here and just rest tonight.
Hopefully, if I do, I'll be good for tomorrow so we can enjoy the rest of the trip... and since Genie will be there tonight to keep you company, I thought it would just be best to rest tonight." She hesitated and then added, "Well, unless you mind. I mean I know I dragged you here, so if you want me to-"
"No, no," Carolyn said quickly, though she really would rather Bethany came, but if she wasn't feeling well... she managed a smile and shrugged. "Like you say, Genie will be there. Besides, I want you feeling better for the rest of the trip too."
Bethany smiled. "I promise I'll make it up to you. Tomorrow we'll do something fun, maybe a tour or something, then come back here, party our faces off, pick up a couple of men and rock their world."
"Considering that every single male here appears to be on his honeymoon, I don't think that's likely," Carolyn said with amusement, moving to the closet to scoop up her shoes. Carrying them to the bed, she sat to put them on, thinking she was actually glad that this was the case.
She sincerely doubted she could "rock" anyone's world, and she also didn't really want to "party" her "face off."
Last night had been more than enough partying for her.
Carolyn grimaced at the memory. Thanks to those tequila shots Bethany had talked her into, she'd spent the evening trying desperately not to slur her words, first in the lounge and then in the restaurant where Marguerite and Julius had insisted she and Genie join them. Truthfully, they seemed like a nice young couple, but just the fact that they were on their honeymoon had left Carolyn somewhat at a loss and avoiding personal questions. The last thing newlyweds needed to hear was about her divorce.
Mostly, Carolyn sat and listened as Genie and Marguerite chattered away about the band that was coming and various events on the island, while trying to ignore the strangely intense way Julius kept looking at her. There had been nothing sexual in the way the man had eyed her, more like he'd been sizing her up for something. It had been a bit weird and made her uncomfortable. Carolyn had been glad when the meal ended and she'd been able to use the excuse of checking on Bethany to escape.
Of course, after returning to the villa and finding the other woman sound asleep, Carolyn had crawled into her own bed and soon drifted off as well. It had been an early evening, but then she'd had a long day what with the flight and what not. Traveling always wiped Carolyn out.
"Perhaps the guests here are all on their honeymoons, but there are other resorts with restaurants and lounges, you know... not to mention some clubs in town as well.
Besides, the people who work here aren't all on honeymoons or even married. That driver who brought us to our villa was a cutie," Bethany said with a grin as Carolyn finished with her shoes and stood up. "And I think he liked you. He kept calling you pretty lady."
"Who? Adam?" Carolyn asked, and couldn't keep the shock out of her voice.
Bethany arched an eyebrow. "You have a problem because he's not white?"
Carolyn snorted. "No, I have a problem because he's a baby. Adam has to be at least twenty years younger than me," she pointed out with a laugh.
Carolyn was sure Bethany was just teasing her, so was a bit shocked when Bethany arched an eyebrow and said, "So? Men do it all the time. Rich, successful men are always dumping their wives for sweet young things."
She shrugged. "You're a rich divorcee. Why shouldn't you have a boy toy?"
"Oh, I don't know," she said dryly. "Maybe because the entire time I was with him I'd be resisting the urge to change his diapers and burp him."
Bethany laughed. "Honey, if Adam dropped his drawers in front of you I'm sure the last thing you'd be thinking about is diapers."
"Beth, he called us both pretty ladies, and so did the bartender. I suspect the male workers here do it with everyone.
It probably gets them bigger tips. And I hate to tell you this, but if your plans to cheer me up include my having a sordid little tryst with a cabana boy, you're going to be terribly disappointed on this trip."
"It doesn't have to be one of the guys who works here, necessarily. What about those band guys who are coming tonight?" Beth asked, moving out of the way as Carolyn grabbed her purse and approached the door. "They're Italian, right? Well, Italian men are supposed to be stallions."
"And bands have pretty young groupies chasing them around," Carolyn pointed out as she crossed the foyer.
"They'd hardly be interested in an old broad like me."
"All right, we'll find you an adult playmate then." Beth trailed her to the front door. "But I think you're making a mistake. Younger men have a lot more stamina than men our age. They hit their sexual peak from eighteen to twenty-five or something like that, while women don't become sex machines until their forties. In truth, it's almost like mother nature wants us to play with the young ones."
Carolyn just shook her head and opened the front door as she sang out, "Good night," Beth."
"Have fun," Bethany instructed as Carolyn pulled the door closed.
"Have fun," Carolyn muttered, starting up the walk to the wending mountain road. "Yeah, right."
Honestly, the longer she was here the more Carolyn regretted coming... and it had only been a little more than twenty-four hours. But so far she'd had an uncomfortable meal with Genie and strangers, gone to bed early, gotten up early, and sat on the beach alone with a book... mostly in the shade because everyone knew the sun wasn't good for you. She hadn't been reading the book, but had basically pretended to, keeping it propped on her chest while she watched the people around her under the cover of her sunglasses.
It had been a depressing exercise, Carolyn thought as she started along the dark lane. Watching all that billing and cooing around her as she sat alone without even Bethany for company. She'd found herself lying there wondering what was wrong with her. She was okay when it came to looks with a nice face, shoulder-length blond hair, and... well, all right, she could stand to lose a few pounds, but she was average. Why didn't she have someone to love her too? Of course, then the heckler, the voice in her head that sounded like her ex-husband, had helpfully listed all her faults. It was a never ending list and had taken up most of the day.
"Depressing," Carolyn muttered, moving automatically to the edge of the road as she heard a vehicle approaching from behind. Unfortunately, she moved too far to the side, her heels promptly sank into the grassy verge and nearly sent her splat onto her face. Managing to stay upright by doing a little dance that took her right out of one shoe, Carolyn sighed and bent to pull it out of the dirt. She then cursed under her breath when her purse promptly slid off her shoulder and dropped to the ground.
"Pretty lady, what are you doing walking? You should have called down for a ride. Come, get in, we have room."
Carolyn froze at that voice and didn't need to look to see that a vanload of resort guests were getting a lovely view of her behind. It just had to be the case. It was her kind of luck. Sighing, she pulled her shoe free, grabbed up her purse, and slung it back over her shoulder as she straightened and turned to the van to find Adam beaming at her from the driver's seat. That just figured. With Beth's words ringing in her ear the last person she wanted to see was the first one she did.
"Don't they ever let you go home, Adam?" Carolyn asked, managing a smile.
"Two drivers are sick. I am working overtime. Overtime pays well," he said with a grin. "Come, get in. We will take you down. You can sit in the front with me."
Carolyn hesitated, but then limped around the van to the passenger-side door with one shoe on and one off. She was running a little late and would get there faster with a ride. Mind you, it was going to be uncomfortable making small talk with Adam while Bethany's words rang in her head. Good lord, he really didn't look more than twenty-one or twenty-two.
Shaking that thought away, she opened the door and climbed in, smiling at Adam as she did.
"There, see? It's all good," Adam said cheerfully, sending the van moving forward again as soon as she'd settled in the seat and tugged the door closed.
"Yes, thank you." Carolyn quickly undid her shoe, slipped it back on and did it up only to frown as her heel immediately slipped out again. She stared at it blankly, slow to realize that her foot hadn't worked itself out of the shoe, but that the sandal strap had actually broken.
"Damn," she muttered.
"This pretty lady is Caro," Adam announced to the van at large, and then added, "Caro, this is the band, the NCs. It stands for the Notte cuginos. Notte is their last name and they say cugino means cousin. I am taking them down to the main building so they can perform."
Carolyn briefly forgot about her shoe and glanced around with surprise, her eyes skating over the shadowed faces of the five other people behind her. It was hard to see much. The roads weren't exactly well lit; all she could really make out was that she thought one of them might be a woman. Maybe two, she thought as she noted the long hair on the one in the seat directly behind hers. Although, if that was a woman, she was one hell of a big female.
A snicker came from the smaller one she'd thought was a female and Caro glanced to her curiously.
"Say hello," Adam ordered cheerfully.
"Hello," Carolyn murmured even as the riders in the back did as well. At least, most of them did, the one in the back who had moonlight glinting off his bald head remained silent and she eyed him curiously, wondering if he shaved his head as some sort of fashion statement, or was balding and trying to hide it by shaving his head.
Really, that sort of thing fooled no one, she thought. Although he seemed to have a nicely shaped head, the sort that took well to the style.
"Caro is a friend of Genie's," Adam announced and then glanced to her and asked, "You are sitting with Genie tonight to watch them play?"
"Yes," she said, smiling as she settled back in her seat.
"Genie and a young couple on their honeymoon, Marguerite and Julius."
Adam nodded, but the sudden tension in the back of the van was actually palpable, and Carolyn recalled that Marguerite and Julius had arranged for the band to come here. She bit her lip, wondering if she should say something to acknowledge that, but didn't have a clue as to what she should say.
"We are all related to Marguerite and Julius."
Carolyn turned in her seat again to see that the smaller female had sat forward... and she was definitely female.
Not that Carolyn could see her any better, but the woman's voice was a beautiful, husky singsong that could only be female.
"Really?" she asked with a smile. "How are you related?"
"Raffaele, Zanipolo, Santo, and I are all nieces and nephews," she said, pointing to each dark figure in turn.
She then gestured to the second figure with long hair, the possibly very large female, and added, "And Christian here is their so-"
"Their brother," the one called Raffaele interrupted.
"Julius's brother," the woman agreed, and then jabbed Christian in the shoulder and taunted, "Put your hair back in its ponytail, cugino. Surely you realize you could be mistaken for a woman like that?"
"What?" the man asked, glancing over his shoulder with what appeared to be confusion, though it was hard to tell in this light.
The woman leaned to whisper something in his ear and then sat back with a laugh as Christian muttered under his breath. He turned to peer toward Carolyn then and she stared back curiously, wishing she could see his face. Like the girl, he had a nice voice, though his was definitely all male.
Growing uncomfortable under the man's stare, she slid her gaze to the others, noting that every one of them appeared to be peering from him to her and back almost expectantly, their heads in silhouette as they turned forward then back, then forward again.
Finding it all a little too strange, Carolyn started to turn back in her seat again, but paused as the big man in the back rumbled, "Since she named everyone but herself, I'll do it. The girl is Giacinta."
"Giacinta," Carolyn murmured the alien name with interest. She'd never heard it before.
"Everyone calls me Gia," the woman said absently, her gaze on Christian, and then sounding somewhat awed, she said, "You can't read her, can you?"
Carolyn was raising her eyebrows at the strange question when Santo growled, "Gia," in warning.
"Here we are," Adam announced cheerfully and Carolyn glanced around to see that they were approaching the front of the main building.
"Thank you, Adam," she said as he brought the van to a halt.
"No problem," Adam said as the band began to pile out. "You call for a ride next time. It's a long way to walk and uneven. We are happy to collect you."
"Thank you," Carolyn repeated with a smile and opened her door. She turned on the seat to get out, only recalling that her shoe was broken when it slipped off her heel and to the side before she could plant it on the ground.
Carolyn immediately grabbed for the door to keep from twisting her ankle or stumbling and then gasped in surprise as she was suddenly caught around the waist and lifted away from the van.
Clutching the arms holding her, she stared blankly down at the young man carrying her, noting the long, deep auburn hair; the chiseled features; and then the wide, deep black eyes with flecks of some lighter color in them. Eyes very like Julius Notte's, she thought absently, though this man's were larger, with an almond shape.
"Grab her shoe," he growled, never taking his eyes from hers, and it was only when she heard his voice that she realized it was the one called Christian.
Flushing under his intense stare, Carolyn glanced over his shoulder in time to see a man with short, black hair bend to collect her shoe and follow them, and then Christian was setting her down.
He didn't just set her down though, but eased her to the ground, holding her close as he did so that their bodies rubbed against each other in a long, slow, full-body caress that left her flushed and breathless and completely flummoxed. Her feet finally landing on the cool tile gave her something of a jolt and had her tugging free and then dropping to sit with a little bump on the bench he'd set her in front of.
"Thank you," Carolyn breathed, looking everywhere but at him. Her gaze slid over the other band members, noting their resemblance to each other and their differences.
Zanipolo had long hair like Christian, but his was tied back in a ponytail; it was also black like Raffaele's, whose hair was shorter. She suspected Santo's hair would be black as well if he let it grow; at least his eyebrows were black, she noted, taking in the thick metal rings on each of his fingers as he ran one hand over his bald head.
The rings looked more like some modern kind of brass knuckles in silver than actual jewelry. Her gaze slid to Giacinta then, a pretty, petite blonde and the only one of the group not wearing all black. Her outfit was a short red skirt and white tank with an open white blouse over it.
Spotting her shoe in Raffaele's hand as he approached, Carolyn held out her hand, but Christian took it to examine.
"It's broken," he said with a frown.
"Yes." Carolyn risked glancing his way, and felt another flush rise up through her. Biting her lip, she looked away and briefly considered taking the next shuttle back up to the villa for new shoes. But she was already late, and really, she was so flustered and embarrassed all she wanted at that moment was to get away from the man presently holding her sandal.
That left one option, Carolyn decided, and quickly removed the still good sandal. She then stood, snatched the broken sandal from Christian's fingers, murmured, "Thank you," and hurried away through the main building on bare feet, aware that every member of the band watched her go. She could feel their eyes burning into her back. They probably thought her a crazy lady for rushing off barefoot like that, but she didn't care. She-"
Carolyn?"
Sliding to a halt, Carolyn glanced around to see Marguerite and Julius crossing the lobby toward her.
"I'm so glad you made it. I was starting to worry," Marguerite said, giving her a hug in greeting. She then turned her toward the front of the building saying, "We were just going to check and see that Gia and the boys made it down all right."
"They have. I rode down with them," Carolyn said, resisting her pull.
"Oh." She smiled. "Well then, come, and I'll introduce you to them."
"Oh, no, I-"
Carolyn grimaced and held up her shoes.
"My strap broke and I can't wear them and I'd really rather just go sit down. Besides, they introduced themselves to me," she added in a babble, beginning to back away. "I'll just go sit down. You two-"
She paused and gave her head a shake as the strangest ruffling sensation went through her head. Then forced a smile. "I'll go save us a table."
"Don't be silly," Marguerite said, suddenly beaming.
"We'll all go down together. We can talk to Christian and the others on their break. Or perhaps even before they start."
"Right," Carolyn muttered, suddenly aware that she'd probably have to meet them all again if she stuck with Marguerite and Julius. The idea made her ridiculously uncomfortable and she found herself frowning and trying to come up with a reason to leave. They were almost to the open air bar when she suddenly realized she was carrying the perfect excuse.
"You know," she said, coming to a halt, "I think I should probably go back up to the villa and switch my broken shoes for-"
"Don't be silly, Caro. You're here already," Marguerite said with a gentle smile. "Everything will be fine."
Carolyn stared at her silently as her eagerness to escape the possibility of having to again face Christian eased and a soothing calm slid over her. Then she smiled and nodded and allowed Marguerite to lead her into the open-air bar, wondering what on earth all the fuss had been about. Christian had helped her after her shoe broke.
She was making a mountain out of a molehill. Everything would be fine.
"She is your lifemate," Raffaele said quietly.
Christian tore his eyes away from the lobby as his parents and Carolyn were swallowed up by the crowds.
Turning, he considered the group eyeing him silently, his cousins and band mates. They'd known each other all their lives, but had only played together the last ten years or so.
"Well?" he asked. "What was she thinking?"
"She thought you were a big female at first," Zanipolo said with amusement.
"Yes, I know," Christian said dryly. "Gia giggled that into my ear. It's why I tried to read her."
"It was dark in the van and she hasn't our eyesight," Raffaele said soothingly. "All she could make out was long hair and a large frame."
"She thought you were very handsome once she saw your face," Giacinta said, patting his arm as if he might need the reassurance. She then bit her lip and added, "Which kind of horrified her."
Christian frowned. "Why?"
Gia arched her eyebrows as if that should be obvious.
"She's forty-two."
Christian's eyes widened. He would have placed Carolyn in her mid to late thirties. She carried her age well.
Still, he didn't get Giacinta's point. "So? She's forty-two?"
"Well, you look about twenty-five or twenty-six," she pointed out gently.
"I haven't been that young for a very long time," Christian said grimly.
"But you look that young," Gia pointed out and when he stared at her blankly, she added, "She is mortal. She thinks you are young enough to be her child and is upset to have sexual feelings for someone she thinks is so young."
"She had sexual feelings for me already?" he asked with a grin.
Gia threw up her hands in exasperation. "Uomini! Idiota, non essere cosi stupido!"
Christian blinked at the explosive rant of "Men! You idiot, don't be so stupid!" and then cleared his throat. "I gather this is a problem?"
"Si, cugino,
120
