Chapter 16
THEY LEFT BEFORE DAWN the next morning. It was a miracle that she already had a passport, but with the stricter ID requirements, she’d gotten one last year. Then there was packing and a surprisingly quick discussion with Joey. Far from being upset by her trip, her little brother was thrilled to get the chance to manage the apartment building himself. Tracy could only pray that he remembered he was supposed to go to school, too.
Their flights went from Champaign to Chicago to Los Angeles to Hong Kong. Then there was the endless wait through customs before meeting a limo that wanted to take them directly to Stephen’s home. Even though Tracy could barely see straight, she had the strength to flat-out refuse. She and Nathan would go to the tigress temple now. Stephen could visit tomorrow after she’d had a bath, breakfast—or was it dinner?—and felt a little more oriented.
The driver had no choice but to agree, and she had Nathan there to make sure they were driving to the right place. Then she collapsed backward against his outstretched arm and thought she might take a little nap. Except, of course, she had never been out of Illinois, much less the United States. And no matter how tired she felt, she couldn’t suppress the excitement zipping down her spine.
She was in Hong Kong! And it was huge! Flying in, she had seen mountains and buildings and more buildings. Nathan had told her of huge shopping districts, flea markets and designer boutiques. Of food that ran the gamut from curbside stir fry to $500-a-plate dining.
Tracy had listened closely to everything he’d said. He was her only source of information since there hadn’t been time to pick up a guidebook before leaving Illinois. But what struck her most was his description of his native island, Lamma. It turned out that what she called Hong Kong was actually a network of over two hundred islands. Whereas Hong Kong was a steep rocky place of high rise after high rise, Lamma was mostly unspoiled by urban sprawl. In fact, his temple home didn’t even have electricity.
The concrete road out of the airport felt busy to her, but Nathan assured her that the traffic was light. As they drove, she caught a glimpse of a massive bronze Buddha and gasped, “Is that your temple?” The statue was huge!
“No,” he answered, his voice warm against her cheek. “The tigresses are not so wealthy or as obvious as Po Lin.”
She turned and pressed a kiss to his beard-roughened cheek. “Because you study sex? It’s important to keep a low profile?” She hadn’t forgotten that the Hong Kong police still believed the temple was a glorified prostitution ring.
“Because we use all that our bodies are capable of to launch our way to heaven.” He looked down at her, and when she quirked an eyebrow at him, he released a carefree laugh. “And yes, sex is often a hidden discussion among the Chinese.”
“Not just among the Chinese,” she murmured, her attention drawn back to the landscape. Very soon, Buddha was far away and they were zooming toward the huge skyscape of Hong Kong Island. “How do we get to your home?”
“By ferry then bicycle. Or Stephen’s car.”
She blinked. “Seriously?” She couldn’t imagine a place that she couldn’t get to by car. Certainly not in this huge, zooming metropolis. “I think I’m getting whiplash. It’s like how I imagine Gotham City on steroids. And yet your home doesn’t have electricity.”
He began pointing out highlights, talking about things he had done and seen as a child. He’d had footraces against boys on bikes and sometimes won because the road was so rocky. He had carried packages for tourists at Stanley Market for a Hong Kong dollar—less than a U.S. quarter. He had even snuck onto the ferry and ridden for hours….
Then they were at that very same ferry, unloading their luggage to sit on a large open ferry boat. Though there was enough seating for two hundred, barely twenty people shared the ride with them, and no one joined them at the very windy bow. Tracy watched the water and the skyline as long as she could, but in the end, she simply closed her eyes, lifted her face to the wind and felt the warm, strong presence of Nathan as he stood by her side, his arm around her waist, his broad shoulders blocking the worst of the wind.
“Perfect,” she said. He couldn’t hear her. The wind snatched the word away, but when she opened her eyes she caught him looking down at her, a yearning in his eyes that took her breath away. She would have stretched up on her toes to kiss him then, but he turned away. Still being noble, she supposed, letting her see if she had some great pro-football career. So she pinched him as hard as she could, and when his face snapped back to her, she surged up on her toes and kissed him. “I choose my path,” she said a moment later. She spoke right in his ear so he would hear her. “I choose.”
He didn’t answer. She could tell he didn’t believe her. He simply turned away, but the hand that held her waist pulled a little tighter, and she happily snuggled into his side. They stayed like that all the way to the quaint wood pier that led to a well-trod footpath obviously designed for tourists.
Their driver had parked the limo back on Hong Kong Island, then followed them onto the ferry. He now spoke to Nathan in rapid Chinese before grabbing Tracy’s suitcase and taking off at a run. She had enough time to gasp before Nathan smiled. “He is going to get the car. We will meet him up at the road.”
She looked around at the pristine walking paths, the railings that led to a raised pagoda, and the signs that pointed to a seafood restaurant. Nowhere did she see any cars. A few bicycles, yes. Even rickshaws with smiling runners hoping for fares. But a car? The road wasn’t large enough. But she dutifully followed Nathan up a path to a long track of what looked like honeycomb pavement with Bermuda grass poking up everywhere. Then before she could comment on that, the cutest three-wheeled vehicle decorated in zebra stripes appeared. She burst out laughing at the solar panel on top, only to subside into surprise as she climbed inside. It was comfortable, air- conditioned and really quite roomy.
“This is Stephen’s ZAP car,” Nathan said in a bland tone. “He paved the road, as well. Both are very environmentally friendly.”
Tracy twisted to look at Nathan. “He paved the road?” She tried to conceive of that much wealth. Of a man who could build a road—miles and miles of it—simply for his convenience. “Just how rich is this Stephen guy?”
Nathan didn’t answer as he twisted, straining to see out the left side of the little car. “We will climb a bit now. Five minutes by car, but…” He shook his head, a smile lighting his features. “Forever if you are carrying buckets of water.”
“You love this place,” she murmured.
“It was my home.”
They traveled the rest of the way in silence while a mangrove field sped past. The switchbacks in the road were frighteningly tight, but the beauty was unmistakable—and utterly foreign.
She tucked a little tighter to Nathan’s side though one glance at his animated profile reminded her that she was the stranger here, not him. “I don’t suppose there’s any place to grab a burger here, is there?”
He smiled, his eyes trained ahead. “There will be food at the temple. My sister makes the best tea eggs in all of China.”
Tracy remained silent. She hadn’t felt hungry so much as out of place. A fast-food burger joint would have given her a welcome sense of familiarity. The promise of tea eggs didn’t ease the anxiety knotting her stomach.
Then they arrived. The ZAP car rounded a corner and stopped dead in a brick courtyard before a large, exotic building with clay roof tiles shaped into dragons and tigresses. The walls were painted white except for the two large red columns that flanked a large, red double door. Red banners hung down either side, their gold Chinese characters flowing gently in the breeze.
“I know it is very shabby looking,” Nathan said just before the driver opened the car door. “But our fame comes from the beauties within, not the walls without.”
She didn’t have the words to explain that she found it stunningly beautiful. Only now that she looked did she see peeling paint and the frayed fabric. Then Nathan offered her his hand. She grabbed it like a lifeline as she stepped out into the humid, subtropical air.
She was just meeting his gaze, holding on to the familiarity of his dark eyes and sexy eyebrows when a high squeal cut through the air followed by a rushed flurry of Chinese. Nathan turned immediately, releasing Tracy’s hand
