“Do you like my bathing suit?” I teased.
“Are those the giant underpants from your talk?” he said. “It’s amazing how many uses you find for them.”
I giggled. “It’s all they sell on the ship.”
Denis looked me up and down. “Nice eggs,” he said.
I touched my stomach near my ovaries. “You like my eggs?”
“No, nice legs.”
I looked around for the long-legged creature he was talking about. “Where?”
“You,” Denis laughed. “You make granny panties look sexy.”
“Aw, that’s the second nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“The second nicest?” Denis said. “What was the nicest?”
“When you told me I reminded you of spring,” I whispered. “That I was a breath of fresh air.”
Denis blushed, or maybe he was getting sunburned.
“Thank you for helping me,” I said. “I don’t know why you are.”
To my surprise, Denis brought his face to mine, and our lips met for an exquisitely slow kiss that tingled and tasted sweet.
“Oh, that’s why,” I said when we parted. “I’m so stupid.” I turned to face him. “Explain it to me again.”
This time, he pressed his lips to mine more urgently, sending my stomach into a wild ride. Then, very slowly, he kissed the tip of my nose, my eyelids, my temples, my neck. He rested on his side, reached over, and caressed my ribs with his fingertips, soft as a whisper, tracing them down toward my belly button.
Desire radiated through my body. My nipples hardened. “You’re giving me goose bumps.”
He stopped.
“No, it’s okay, I love goose bumps.”
Denis turned on his side and nestled next to me. Our bodies were close enough that I felt the light tickle of his arm hairs brushing my skin. It was pure torture.
“Doesn’t the heat feel fantastic?” he said.
I was breathless and hot, hoping he would take me right there on the lava rock, no matter how painful and scratchy that might be. Sadly, he didn’t because we both dozed off.
When I woke up, I realized we must have slept for quite some time. Denis’ face had turned the color of rare meat.
“Denis, wake up. You’re really sunburned.”
His eyes blinked open and he sat up. “Look at you,” he said. “You’re as red as Rudolph’s ass.”
“You mean nose?”
“Right, that’s what I meant.”
I lowered the elastic band of the giant underpants I was wearing and saw the difference between my milky-white breasts and my newly fried décolleté.
Then, from far away, I heard the long and low horn of a ship. My head turned. “Did you hear that?”
“What?”
It sounded again.
“That,” I said. “It sounds like a ship is pulling out.”
Denis sat up and checked his watch. “Maybe it’s a different ship,” he said. “What time were we supposed to leave?”
“At five, I think,” I said. “What time is it now?”
“It’s five.”
I’m Just a Lucky So and So
BY THE TIME WE made our way back to the tram station, which overlooked the bay, our ship had sailed.
“I can’t believe they didn’t wait for us,” I said.
“Especially since you’re the captain’s pet,” Denis added.
“Are you jealous?” I teased.
“No, I’m just stating the obvious…Captain’s pet, captain’s pet,” he sang.
“Would you stop it?” I said, swatting him playfully.
“May I borrow your cell phone?”
Denis called the Tiffany Cruise office in California to find out what we were supposed to do.
While he talked, I took in the setting. The town of Santorini clung to the sculpted volcanic cliffs against the bluest sky imaginable. There were white buildings, many with deep azure roofs that melted into the sky, donkeys carrying visitors up the steep cobble road with their bells ringing and horseshoes clacking, rows and rows of descending terraces with stone-paved courtyards decorated with pots of red, purple, and pink azaleas, and clusters of bougainvillea spilling over the walls like magical fuchsia waterfalls. The fragrant breeze blowing up from the water felt like a buttery caress against my skin.
“Here’s the deal,” he explained. “Tomorrow’s a sea day, so we’re stuck. The ship’ll be in Livorno, the port for Florence, on Thursday. They said to get a ferry there because they won’t let us buy air tickets without our passports. But I can arrange for my jet to take us. I’ll call Sydney and ask her to watch Annie.”
Soon Denis was on the phone having harsh words with someone. Sydney, I guessed. Edging closer to where he stood, I heard bits and pieces. “Give her a chance…I’m counting on you…I don’t care if it’s Manny’s job, someone needs to be the parent…” Denis was combing his hands through his thick brown hair. I stood at the ancient stone wall, staring out at the bay, feeling the warm afternoon sun cook my freshly fried skin. I decided I’d best find some shade.
“I have to call my mother,” Denis said. “Do you mind?”
“Lucille? No. Is there a problem?”
Denis nodded. “Sydney doesn’t want to watch Annie when there’s staff to do it.”
“But why?” I said. “That’s silly.” Note that I would never be so selfish.
Denis talked to his mother for quite a while. His face was sensationally flushed (or maybe it was the sunburn, hard to tell) and he was waving his hands about. I wondered if she blew the whistle on Sydney and Manny, but doubted it. Lucille wanted that wedding to happen even if it cost her son’s happiness. Then Denis called his office, arranging for his jet to pick us up. When he was finished, I phoned Pops and let him know I was safe with Denis and not to worry.
“Holly, you listen to me. Don’t get involved with him,” Pops said. “You’re from two different worlds. It can never work out. Believe me, I know.”
“It seems to me I gave you the same advice concerning your
