Cruising With Miss Christmas (Cruisin’ With Curves)

Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

T he crowd’s gasp of horror follows me into the pool. The water closes round me, making me lose my bearings. Panic seeps through my chest as I struggle to work out which way is up. I stretch out my arms, grasping for something, anything, that will help, but they find only empty water.

Fear courses through me, making my legs kick frantically, but in my disorientation this serves only to send me crashing into the tiled wall of the pool. I gasp as pain blooms in my temple, filling my lungs with water. My limbs turn to jelly.

I look up at the blue sky shining over the water’s wavering surface. The sunlight filters down onto my face and for a moment calmness washes over me. The endless blue cocoons me as I sink towards the bottom.

An explosion of bubbles disturbs my peaceful contemplation of my probable impending demise. They part to reveal a flash of blue eyes and wild, ginger hair. In less than a moment, Hector’s arm snakes under mine, pulling me back against his hulking frame. I relax against his solid chest.

I’m safe. Hector’s here.

He kicks us to the surface. Lorenzo’s face comes into view as Hector lifts me from the water. His relieved expression is rapidly obscured by a man wearing a suit and bearing a clipboard. He approaches as Hector carries me onto the poolside.

“Elspeth, are you alright…?” Lorenzo begins. He is pushed to the side by the man with the clipboard.

“Miss Christmas, I am so sorry…” he croaks. “Are you okay? Do you require first aid?”

“No, I’m okay, thank you.”

Hector growls under his breath.

“Are you sure? I could have the ship’s doctor check you over.”

The rumble in Hector’s chest vibrates against my ear.

“No, thank you,” I protest.

“Honestly, it would be no trouble…”

“She said no,” snarls Hector. “I’ll take care of her. Now if you don’t mind, she’s shivering. I’d like to get her inside.”

The suited man nods.

“Of course. Well, if you need anything, please do let us know. Again, my apologies.”

I take pity on the man, who is visibly wilting in the face of Hector’s unmistakable fury.

I nod. “Thank you.”

Hector’s arms tighten round me and he strides off, carrying us both towards the lifts before the poor man has the chance to say anything else.

The shivers rolling through my body have crested to full blown quakes as we enter the lift.

“Cabin number?” Hector asks, shifting me slightly to free his hand to press the button.

“I’m…not…telling…you,” I bite out through chattering teeth. “You…you…could…be…a…creep.”

The answering rumble in Hector’s chest is not the laugh I was going for. I don’t get it. I’m normally one of the few people who can coax a chuckle from our grumpy farm hand.

“264,” I add.

“Hmm,” he huffs. “I’ll take you to mine. It is closer.”

I open my mouth to protest but the shiver that rips through me is so savage that the thought of warm, dry clothing is way more appealing than the long walk to my own cabin.

As Hector marches wordlessly through the corridors, bearing me in his arms as though I weigh nothing, I try again. If nothing else, it will distract me from the endless shivering.

“How are you enjoying the facilities? The food is lovely, but I’d avoid the water aerobics classes…”

“Elspeth!” he growls.

“What?”

He halts, looking down at me with stormy blue eyes. I want to reach up, to cup his face in my hand, to run my fingers through his bushy ginger beard. But something tells me now really isn’t the time.

“Stop…urgh, forget it.” He removes a door key from his pocket and unlocks his cabin door.

I marvel at the neatness of his cabin as he carries me across the room. We’ve only been at sea for two days but my cabin is already well decorated with my possessions. Mostly because there was no order in my last-minute packing and I’ve been raking through my suitcase trying to find things. Not always with a great deal of success, I might add. Still, I can always plan properly for my next cruise. This one was more of an impulse booking.

Hector lowers me gently into his bed. I groan at the loss of his body heat.

“Stay there,” he commands as he tucks me under the duvet. I say nothing as he opens the cupboard and fishes out a blanket. He spreads it over the top of the quilt. “Added warmth,” he adds.

“Right.” I’m about to protest, to ask why I can’t just jump in the shower, but the look he gives me causes the words to die on my lips.

He returns to the wardrobe and pulls out dry clothing from the neatly ordered rail and shelves. I shut my eyes to give him privacy to change. The warmth of the quilt is doing the trick and I’m beginning to feel rather snug. Sleep hovers at the corner of my mind, waiting to pull me down into a comfortable blackness.

“Elspeth!” barks Hector.

“Hmmm?”

“No sleeping, not with that head knock.”

“How did you…?” I run my fingers over my forehead, wincing when they meet the bruise on my temple. “Ah.”

“I’m going to keep a close eye on you. If there’s anything I don’t like the look of, I’m taking you to the medical centre.”

“Sure thing, doc,” I mumble.

He fills the cabin kettle and prepares me a cup of tea. I watch as he peels open several of the tiny cartons of milk and adds one and a half sugars to my cup. Something in my chest squeezes. Just the way I like it.

I sit up in bed, taking the cup from him.

“Thank you.”

“You are welcome. How are you feeling? Any dizziness, nausea?”

“No.”

“Body temp seems to be coming up fine, so that’s good.”

He sits on the chair in the corner of the room and takes a sip of tea from his cup. This isn’t quite how I’d envisaged our reunion. He might as well be a million miles away.

“I have to say that having been dumped in a pool and nearly drowned, I didn’t expect that it would be me you would be mad at.”

“Well, if you hadn’t run off and booked yourself on this cruise, that wouldn’t have happened.”

Hmm. A low blow I think, in the circumstances.

I had to get away. I needed space to think. There isn’t any room to breathe on that farm. Everyone knows your business.

But if we didn’t want people to know our business, perhaps we shouldn’t have kissed in the middle of the town’s bar…

“Hector, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…I got carried away. I shouldn’t have…”

“No,” he interrupts, “Don’t be sorry. I’m not.”

“You’re not?”

For the first time I get the inclination that Hector might have been happy about my mad moment of impulse.

“No. I know its complicated, but we’ll sort that. I love you, Elspeth.”

“So why are you so mad? Is it because I was singing karaoke on a bar on a cruise ship?”

“Absolutely not. You were wonderful. Deserved to win. No. I’m not mad at what happened, of course, but…”

“But what…”

“You left, Elspeth. You kissed me, then you disappeared. Of course, I’m mad. Why did you do that? Have you any idea how worried I’ve been? How worried we’ve all been. Lennox was in a state when he found your note.”

“I’m a grown woman,” I grumble. “I can make my own decisions.”

“Indeed. But you didn’t have to run. We could have faced things together.” He is quiet for a moment. He stares into his teacup. “Lennox sent me here to bring you home, you know.”

“So you didn’t tell him? About…us?” My voice carries a little edge of accusation that I don’t really mean. I shake myself. I’m not the little girl on the farm anymore.

Hector raises his eyes to mine. He knows that. He’s known that for a while. And I’ve known that he knows. And I’ve known how he feels. And that’s what made me lean in to kiss him that night in the bar.

“No,” he replies. “I didn’t. That’s something we are going to tackle together. As partners. When we are ready.”

A thrill runs through my body at his words. Partners. I like the sound of that.

I can’t help the chuckle that rumbles from my body.

“Lennox is going to kill us.”

Hector raises an eyebrow. “Probably. But that’s a price I’m willing to pay.”