“That’s why you blasted the music,” I murmur.
“That, and anger, and some kind of perverse desire to make my dad pay attention to me, though when he does remember he gave me a villa, he’s likely to tell me to be on my way. Dad isn’t the forgiving type.”
I can’t help wondering what my boss will think about me being here, in this house he closed up as a monument to his dead wife, with his black sheep son. I push the thought away. There is no place I’d rather be than here with Cruise.
“I need to ask you something.”
“Anything,” I respond.
“You don’t seem to care about…my past. Is it that you don’t care because this doesn’t mean anything to you?”
How can he ask me that? When he’s the one who has the reputation, when he’s the one who was with two girls the night I met him. When he’s the one who will, undoubtedly break my heart.
“Weren’t you the one who kicked me out of your villa two mornings ago? I thought you were the one who did the one night stand thing without it meaning anything.”
I glance over at him, but his expression is thoughtful, not angry.
“The middle of the night is when insomnia sets in. We never got to sleep for more than a few hours. The guards would come in and count and recount, we had to get out of our bunks and line up. The middle of the night is when I start re-evaluating my choices, wondering who the hell I am and how I got here. That night, I was furious at myself. You were this nice girl, with everything going for you, and I pulled you into my messed up life, just because I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I knew you weren’t the kind of girl who gets messed up in the life of someone like me.”
“But here I am.”
“Here you are. Can you tell me, honestly, that your parents would approve of me?”
I hesitate. My parents would definitely not approve of him. But they didn’t wholeheartedly approve of me going into hotel management. I love my parents, but they don’t control me. I’ve hesitated too long, trying to find a way to articulate this.
Cruise’s expression goes dark.
“Your parents would hate me.”
How did we go from a continuation of a one night stand, to talking about my parents, anyway?
“My parents aren’t important right now. And neither is, defining this—let’s just go with it.”
Because being with him is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and if it’s going to be over soon, I don’t want to know it.
I wrap my arms around myself, shivering, even though the fire is warm.
All we have to wear are our wet swimming things. My clothes were soaked by the waves.
“Let me find you something.” Cruise jumps up and goes down the hall, returning with a soft red t-shirt and pair of terry cloth shorts. I pull the shirt over my head. My nipples are obvious through the fabric, and his lips curve in a smile as his eyes caress me.
“So this was where you grew up?”
“Yeah.”
Being here is much more intimate than being with him in Villa Seven. Somehow, without him telling me, I know that he’s never brought another girl here.
“Thank you, for sharing it with me,” I say.
“One day, I’ll show you everything. Her art—I’m not ready today. When we lived here, Mom would sweep the sand off, every morning.” He smiles nostalgically. “This place was all her. Dad was classic architecture and fancy things, like the inlaid desk at the hotel. Mom was a free spirit. When she died, Dad closed this house and never returned to it. He always kept an apartment here in the hotel, for sleeping over. It was where my grandfather lived in his later years, and Dad moved here, bringing me and Adrian. I hated leaving all of mom’s china, and the furniture, and her books. Maybe it was how dad dealt with the loss, but to me, it seemed callous, like he was trying to forget.”
“You didn’t want to forget.” I say.
“No. I didn’t want to forget anything. At the same time I was terrified that I would forget. I barely remember my grandparents on my dad’s side. It wasn’t logical, but I wanted to keep everything close, to honor her memory.”
“You and your father grieved in different ways.”
“To say the least. Dad always favored Adrian, his golden boy. I was closer to mom, and with her gone, I acted out.”
“Sheila told me you were kicked out of prep school.”