Connie Cox – His Hidden American Beauty (страница 2)
The layered cut had been a whim while she’d been on shore, a consolation prize after visiting her mother and finding her the same.
She’d thought short hair would be easier, but she missed the straightforward care of her ponytail. Now her hair was too short to capture with a rubber band and too long to stay out of her eyes without a lot of styling and primping. And primping had no place in Annalise’s life. Why waste the time?
Her life was devoted to patching up people and keeping them healthy so they could enjoy their days under the sun. Stolen time away from the workaday world was precious and she wanted the passengers to be able to make the most of it.
Annalise knew the value of escaping the real world. That’s why being the
A squeal of tires from the parking lot down below caught her attention.
A sporty black convertible with the top down slid into an empty parking slot and careened to a stop. Annalise squinted to see the dark-haired man behind the sunglasses pop his trunk, grab a suit-sized carry-on, a serious backpack and a large rolling suitcase and make a sprint for the entrance of the cruise ship’s land-based check-in facility.
She glanced at her watch. A quarter till five.
When the cruise line said to embark before four o’clock, they had their reasons—security checks being one of the most important ones.
Brandy shook her head. “There’s always one who thinks the rules don’t apply to him, isn’t there?”
Annalise agreed. “He’ll have to do some real sweet-talking to get aboard this ship.”
Brandy gazed absently at the head of the line. “Some men are worth breaking the rules for.”
Not any man she’d ever met.
Stormclouds moved into position overhead, blocking the sun’s intensity but adding a couple of points to the humidity scale, making the moist air heavy to drag into her lungs.
The sooner she was out at sea, the better.
“Next,” came the call from the front of the line.
As she moved forward, Annalise looked back at the dark-haired latecomer juggling his luggage to open the door to the check-in office.
She had to admit he had a face and body that could entice a saint to at least bend the rules a little.
He flashed a dimpled smile at her as he caught her staring.
She could feel a blush heating her face as she looked away.
She was no saint, but the man didn’t exist who could tempt her. Sadly, she wished there were.
Dr. Niko Christopoulos leaned over the counter past the plastic
“I’m so sorry to be such a bother. I’ve been traveling for the last thirty-two hours straight to get here and my last flight landed late.”
The receptionist, who reminded him of his Aunt Phyllis with her polite but no-nonsense attitude, pulled up his information.
“You’re responsible for the party of twelve, right? The grandmother who thinks she’s won the family cruise?”
Niko gave a quick look around the deserted lobby, as if any of his family might overhear. “That’s right. Do you need to verify my credit card?”
“We’ve already done that. But I do need your passport, please.” She held out her hand.
He handed her the well-worn leather folder.
“The Congo, Doctor? And before that Haiti? You’re quite a world traveler.”
Niko didn’t talk about his charity work—ever. But if it got him on this blasted ship before it sailed … “Doctors Without Borders. An adventure every trip.”
Her eyes softened and she picked up the phone. “Hold the ship for Dr. Nikos Christopoulos. He was unavoidably delayed and will be heading your way in just a moment.”
“Thanks for waiting on me.”
She gave him a sly wink. “I’m sure you’re worth waiting for.”
He returned the wink. “That’s what they tell me.”
“Do you need help with your bags?”
“Got it all here.” He pointed to his military-sized backpack full of shorts and swim trunks and toiletries, his suit bag with his tuxedo and his one rolling bag, glad he’d packed for this trip and stuffed his clothes in his trunk before he’d even left for Haiti, for once planning ahead.
He was more of a go-with-the-flow kind of guy—which came in handy when making split-second decisions in the field. Life or death decisions were enough to worry about without adding the little things to the list. But this week he intended to surrender all decisions and worries and soak in the sunshine.
He needed these three weeks of enforced restful playtime. He had become soul-weary, the kind of tired a good nap couldn’t cure.
“Have a wonderful vacation, Dr. Christopoulos.”
“I’ll do my best.” It worked. The charm his grandmother loved him for and his brothers taunted him about had gotten him where he needed to be once again.
Use the gifts you’ve been given, his grandmother told all of them. His brothers could all cook meals that would please the gods of Olympus. Niko couldn’t boil an egg.
An easy way with words and a genetically pleasing appearance had been his gift—he just wondered if a woman would ever care enough to see past the exterior to the man underneath.
But then again, that would mean he would also need to look beneath her surface and that would mean getting up close and personal. A relationship was out of the question with the lifestyle he would soon be living full time. His ex-fiancée had made that perfectly clear to him. But that was yesterday’s problem.
He would embrace today. Too many years ago he’d learned the hard way that that’s all anyone could really expect to have.
As he headed up the gangplank, the calypso music put a kick in his step. This trip may have originally been planned for his family’s benefit, but it was exactly what he needed, too.
Niko breathed in the tangy air and prepared to enjoy himself, no holds barred. And maybe he’d start with that cute little honey-haired woman in the baseball cap with the legs that went on forever. She stood at the end of the line apart from everyone else, looking totally unattached, which meant totally available, right? While long-term relationships were out, shipboard flirtations were definitely in.
“Those are mighty big bags for such a little lady. Prepared to dress for dinner, are we?” Niko jiggled his suit bag for emphasis.
Big drops started to fall from the clouds above. He moved closer to squeeze under the canvas canopy sheltering the ship’s entrance.
The long-legged beauty tried to shift away but there was nowhere to go.
Just as Niko was considering stepping out into the rain to put her at ease, the line moved, giving her the space she obviously needed.
Then again, it seemed this woman claimed her own space. She looked down her nose at him as best she could, considering she was several inches shorter than him. “I’m on staff here. I don’t do dinner.”
Which wasn’t quite true. Annalise helped out by rounding out the captain’s table on occasion to even out the couples ratio. It was no hardship. Seated next to a partnerless passenger, usually an elderly gentleman or an awkward geek, she’d met some delightful people.
People like this stunning man next to her always had a date, or found one or two while shipboard. The ship’s relationship rules definitely didn’t apply to passengers like it did to crew.
Since she was a rule-abiding crew member, this man was not a threat. Even so, she found herself leaning away from him and his overpowering personality, even while she regretted the sharpness of her tone. She was definitely too much on edge today.
Brandy reached across her toward the guy with an open hand. “Hi, I’m—”
“Next,” the security checker interrupted. He slid Brandy’s ship’s ID through the scanner. “You know the drill.”
The tension between the security checker and Brandy crackled, proof that shipboard break-ups made for an incredibly uncomfortable environment.
Brandy turned to Annalise. “You know, Doc, this ship is large enough that a person could sail for a month without running into everyone on board. But no matter how big it is, when you’re trying to avoid someone, no ship is big enough.”
Annalise felt trapped, literally being caught between a man and a woman and their conflict. A clammy sweat started down her back as the old terror threatened to overcome her.
“Relationships. Not my thing,” she managed to choke out as her throat tightened up on her. She tried to laugh but it sounded strained even to her own ears so she coughed to cover it up. From bad to worse.
Behind her, the late passenger took a step forward, concern in his eyes. “Are you okay?”
His voice was a low deep rumble. Masculinity personified.
She could feel the heat from his body as he crowded her.
Annalise took a deep breath as the unreasonable panic settled. It had been a few years, almost a decade, since she’d had a panic attack. But too many memories in too few hours had taken their toll on the solid, secure world she’d built for herself.
The sooner she put New Orleans behind her, the better off she would be.