What on earth had gone wrong between them?
Chapter Thirteen
Nick looked up when he saw Joanna walk into the lobby. “Is everything OK?”
“Yeah… I just need to get out for a bit.”
He showed her his pearly white teeth. “Are you hungry yet?”
She shook her head no.
“OK. I think I know just the perfect thing to brighten up your day.”
He instructed Joanna to go back to her room and grab a bathing suit.
“Where are we going?” she asked, as they trotted down the stone steps to Nick’s car.
“My boat.”
“Nick, we just met,” she said, taken aback expecting he’d planned to seduce her.
He yelped like a hyena, the most absurd laugh she had ever heard, and despite herself she laughed too.
They practically flew the thirty seconds it took to drive to the pier where Nick’s boat was docked.
He turned the engine off before the car was even finished stopping, and helped Joanna climb into his houseboat. He untied the ropes tethering the boat to the peer, and pushed it out as hard as he could with his foot before jumping in.
“Will you tell me where are we going now? What are we going to do?”
“Just sit tight,” Nick said as he powered up the boat. “Inside the cabin is a small fridge. Grab a beer if you want. There’s also some wine in a crate if you prefer. You can go ahead and change, too. It will take us a little less than an hour to get there.”
“But where are we going?”
“There’s a small island immediately to the north. It’s the best fishing area in the islands— a secret my father passed on to me. Have you ever used a speargun before?”
“A speargun? Why the hell would I know how to use a speargun? Every American girl isn’t Annie Oakley, you know.”
“It’s easy. I show you. If it’s too big, don’t shoot it, though. My speargun isn’t that good. You’ll just anger what you shot.”
Joanna considered this. “Where’d you say the beer was again?”
A little whilelater they were about four hundred meters off the mountainous coast of Skiathos. Nick’s father’s secret fishing spot was actually nestled between two barren, rocky islands that jetted out of the water like cavernous teeth.
It was quiet. The only sound was the lapping of the seawater against the side of the boat.
Why would anyone ever leave this place?Joanna thought, captivated.
Having dropped anchor, Nick suddenly took off his white t-shirt and tossed it inside the cabin, and she almost spit out her beer again.
He was lean tanned and muscular, way too fit for someone who seemed to sat in a lobby all day reading newspapers. He then took off his pants to reveal he was wearing only a pair of black speedos and she gulped afresh.
“Already wearing your swimsuit?” she asked, trying not to stare.
He winked. “Always prepared.”
Joanna had changed when she went inside to get a drink and was wearing a white one-piece. Nothing revealing, but her boobs looked good and she knew it. She saw him glance a few times at them as they chatted and she didn't mind.
What about Peter? You’re being emotionally unfaithful to him,a little voice nagged.
