She felt Raffaele’s hand on her back as he gently but firmly propelled her along and she cast one last backwards glance over her shoulder, taking in everything, wishing she could have stayed a bit longer just breathing in the swirl of new, different smells.
She’d travelled so much with her parents. She’d seen every corner of England. For six memorable months of lazy home-schooling, they had explored northern France against a backdrop of incredible spring and summer weather. There had been lots of barbecues on their portable camping stove, weaving in and out of small villages in their caravan, enjoying the scenery and a culture which was different from their home and yet very much the same.
She’d never, ever been anywhere likethisand every adventurous cell in her body which she hadn’t even known existed was fired up with excitement.
They slid into a small, black four-wheel-drive jeep and then they were off, windows down so that a warm breeze blew through.
The hotel was tucked away in the lush rainforest in the opposite direction of the main drag of tourist hotels and motels. She’d glanced at the blurb about it on the internet and knew that it was divided into a handful of little cabins and then the main hotel for guests who didn’t like the thought of being too cut off.
Erin couldn’t get enough of the scenery passing them by even though, as darkness settled fast, the canopy of towering trees and the dense foliage by the side of the road was reduced to shadows and mysterious dark shapes that harboured the vibrant sounds of tree frogs and crickets and the last of the daytime birdsong.
‘This is amazing.’ She turned to Raffaele, who was leaning against the passenger door and looking at her. In the darkness, she could only make out the angles of his face and the glitter of his eyes.
The road was bumpy, narrowing in places, widening in others and swinging around corners that were barely discernible in the darkness. She had to hang on to the door handle to steady herself from falling against him.
Ahead, their driver was concentrating on the twisty road to the exclusion of everything else.
‘Never been to the Caribbean?’
‘No. A bit of Europe and… No, I’ve never been anywhere like this at all in my life before. Have you? No, strike that. Silly question.’ The breeze was blowing her hair across her face. She held it back with one hand and looked at him. ‘I bet this part of the world is like a second home to you.’
‘Not quite,’ Raffaele said drily, ‘but I’m not unfamiliar with it.’
The car jolted and she half fell against him, then quickly pulled back as he reached out to steady her.
‘I don’t know how I’m going to be able to focus on work while I’m here,’ she confessed breathlessly.
Something about the fragrant air, the salty smell of distant sea and the unfamiliarity of their surroundings was filling her with a heady sense of adventure that she knew she had to bank down. She distantly recalled the feeling from way back, when she and her parents would be on the road to some new, unexplored destination—a time before she’d woken up to the reality that no amount of adventure could ever be worth the insecurity of never knowing what lay around the corner or the loneliness of an adolescence in which friends were always just passing through.
She thought she’d ruthlessly killed any streak in her that might have been tempted to follow in her parents’ footsteps, but it was obvious that in her soul a bit of their influence lingered. She could feel it now.
‘You won’t be on call 24/7,’ Raffaele murmured. ‘And remember what I said aboutliving a little?’
In the semi-darkness, the deep blue eyes resting on her were lazy and speculative and Erin felt her pulse begin to race.
‘I can do that in my own time.’ She cleared her throat. ‘Not on company time.’ She winced at just how prissy she sounded. Like a middle-aged woman instead of a girl in her late twenties. ‘By which I mean,’ she rushed into embarrassed clarification, ‘of course I’m going to take time out to enjoy myself while I’m here. I know it’s not going to be around-the-clock meetings and there’ll be a lot to explore.’
‘I’ll make sure you have a driver to take you on tours.’
‘Really?’
‘The public transport infrastructure here is basic, Erin, and I’m pointing that out now, before you tell me that you can manage perfectly on your own just so long as you can locate the nearest Tube.’
‘Very funny, Raffaele.’ But his throwaway remark suddenly stung. He was just teasing her. She knew that. It wasn’t out of the ordinary and normally she would have swatted his teasing away without really noticing it at all. But for some reason, out there with the smell of excitement in the air, it seemed to compound the sudden image she had of herself as stuffy and inhibited and dull. The person her ex-boyfriend had been considerate enough to describe in great detail.
‘Who knows? I might even come with you on some of your out-of-hour tours. Might be useful to gauge the infrastructure, if I’m to take over Archer’s hotel business.’
‘I thought you were familiar with this part of the world.’ She thought of them touring the island together without the benefit of a laptop acting as chaperone and her stomach lurched.
‘I’d be looking at it from a slightly different standpoint,’ Raffaele drawled. ‘On the few occasions I’ve been to this part of the world, it hasn’t been in the capacity of a fact-finding mission.’
‘I can imagine.’
‘Can you?’
Erin shrugged and turned away to look out of the window once more although she could feel his eyes on her. Eventually, with the silence thickening between them, she returned her reluctant gaze to his face.
‘What will be the timings for tomorrow? I know we have a schedule but I’m not sure how much we’re going to adhere to it. Do you want me to be up and running at the usual time? Eight? Maybe we could discuss the day’s projections before we have the first meeting?’
