Sea Storm: Children of the Waves (5 page)

The room wasn’t small, yet the men there
dominated the space making it shrink in size. She paused for a moment to admire
them. Both tall, over six feet, but not overly built like wrestlers, they
looked more like swimmers. Broad shouldered and trim waists. Both men wore
khaki shorts, t-shirts hugging taunt physiques, and sported sculptured arms.

They rose when she entered, proving
chivalry was not dead. Aaron got to her first and taking her hand, he guided
her to the stool next to his. She happened to glance over at Ezekiel, and saw
him frown as he stared at Aaron holding her hand. What was that about?

Aaron must have seen the look too because
he grinned at his friend. “We were just discussing the upcoming nuptials,” he
explained to her. At the same time, he reached for a bowl of mixed nuts sitting
between the two males.

She gazed back and forth at the men.
“Who’s getting married?”

“Oh, oh,” Ezekiel said.

“Ah, your friend Cori and Xavior,” Aaron
explained sheepishly.

“What! Since when? Why didn’t Cori tell
me?”

Both men shrugged. “Perhaps, she wanted
to surprise you and tell you once she saw you tomorrow,” Ezekiel offered.

Des shook her head. “I find this all very
difficult to believe. It’s way too fast, don’t you think?” She swung her gaze
to look at one, then the other, expecting them to agree.

They both merely smiled at her. Like they
knew something she didn’t.

“My brother has been looking for his
bride—ah to fall in love for a very long time. So, to answer your
question, no, not really. In my family, it tends to happen like that.”

She scoffed. “What? Love at first sight?
That’s for books and movies.”

Ezekiel shrugged. “It was like that with
my parents. They were married days after they met.”

“Mine, too,” Aaron offered.

She threw up her hands. “This is insane.
What you’re talking about, if it exists in the first place is something very
rare. Yet, you expect me to believe it happened to both of your parents?”

“Yep,” they answered in unison.

She tilted away from the counter, because
she couldn’t help staring at them. Shocked. “What the hell! Are they still
married?”

Aaron nodded. “They sure are.”

“We lost mine months apart from each
other. But they’d been married for a very long time, and I’m sure they would
still be married today had they lived.”

Well damn, now she felt bad. “I’m sorry.”

Before she could say more, Ezekiel spoke
up. “Thank you.” He stood but only to go to the counter behind him and grab two
containers. “Now, I’m hungry after my swim, how about you?”

“I know I am.”

She spun around at the sound of the new
voice coming from over her shoulder. “Good God!” She couldn’t help herself. The
man entering the room also added to the definition of beautiful. Long blond
hair like Aaron, but so light it appeared almost silvery white. Yet, his
features put him no older than mid-twenties, and for some reason, he reminded
her of Ezekiel and his brother Xavior.

He walked over to her and took her hand.
“Hello, I’m Cyrus, beautiful lady.” He raised her fingers to his lips, and
placed a light kiss on her knuckles.

She grinned, a player.
Figures.
She took her hand back. “Hi,
I’m Des.”

“Sit down,” Ezekiel barked, and placed
the containers in his hands on the center island.

Cyrus grinned unrepentant and walked
around the island to sit across from her.

She narrowed her eyes and stared at him
then at Ezekiel. “Are you two related?”

Cyrus smiled, flashing a dimple on his
left cheek. “Brothers. I’m the good looking one.”

“And also the lazy one,” Ezekiel growled.

“You wound me, Zek, man,” Cyrus said,
holding his hand to his heart.

“Get your ass outta that chair and help
set the plates. I sent Marta home early, so she can rest up and begin planning
for when Xav gets here with Cori. She’s going to have Jerry take her to market
early in the morning,” Ezekiel said.

Cyrus rolled his eyes and got up to help
his brother by getting out cutlery and dishes for everyone.

Des couldn’t help but think all three
brothers defined the word, ‘gorgeous’ and then some. She shifted to look at
Aaron.

He fit right in. Surrounded by some
serious feast for the eyes here, she had a hard time focusing on the
conversation.
What kind of place bred
such beautiful men
? Lord, she wondered what the women looked like, if the
men looked like this. Best the women stayed wherever they were.

Yet, for all the heavy-duty testosterone
in the room of gorgeous men, not once did she feel uncomfortable with them.
They made her comfortable and asked her about how she and Cori came to be on
the cruise.

“Cori called into one of those radio
programs and was the tenth caller so her name went into a drawing and she won.”

“Very cool,” Cyrus laughed.

The comradery between the men had her
smiling. Aaron grabbed a piece of shrimp from a container and Ezekiel smacked
his hand. But in truth, only one of the men really held her attention. Only one
caused her breath to hitch whenever she glanced at him, or caught him staring
at her. Pretty much, every time she looked at him.

Ezekiel finally placed two more dishes on
the table and put down serving spoons, then sat down. “Okay folks, help
yourselves.”

“Oh, libation,” Aaron cheered. “Hang
tight, I’ll get the drinks.”

“I can help,” Des offered getting up,
too. She saw the glasses in a glass-covered cabinet.

“Oh no, you’re a guest.” Ezekiel
stood up, beating her to it.

She sat back down and smiled. “Thank you,
Ezekiel, you’re too kind.”

Cyrus snorted. “Hardly.”

Ezekiel frowned at his brother, then
turned his attention back to her. “Zek please, Ezekiel is a mouthful.”

“Zek, then.” She glanced at the
containers of food on the table and served herself. It all looked delicious;
the pasta salad with shrimp, a green salad, thin slices of beef marinated in a
sauce that smelled divine. Accompanied by two different types of salad
dressings as well as beignet-type rolls. “This looks fantastic,” she said. “Did
you make all of this?” She hadn’t seen any restaurants on the island. When
they’d flown in she only saw a handful of buildings, but most looked like
residences and a storage place. So, they must take care of meals themselves, or
have it flown in.

Aaron laughed, as did Cyrus.

“No. I have a housekeeper-slash-cook.
Marta. Since her son is home from school visiting, I gave her the rest of the
evening off. But she always makes plenty and stores it in the fridge for me,”
Zek explained.

She tasted the shrimp salad and moaned.
Momentarily closing her eyes. When she opened them again, all three men had
their forks partway to their mouths, frozen, watching her. Des felt her face
flush and bent her head. She always enjoyed her food vocally, as well as other
things.

Someone coughed.

Thank
you God!

Then someone’s cell phone rang. “Excuse
me,” Zek said. He got up from the table and moved into the room behind her.

The other two men kept up a steady flow
of conversation.

She figured out Cyrus worked for Zek on
the cruise line, yet he’d just told her he’d never taken a cruise. “You’re
kidding,” Des said.

He shook his head. “Never had the time,
too busy making sure those things run properly before they leave my port.”

Zek came back to the table and clapped
his brother on the back. “And does a damn good job, too. We’ve never had any
major trouble with our line, like some others.”

“Well, except for my friend falling over
board,” Des reminded him.

“There is that. Surprisingly, it’s never
happened to us before. By the way, that was Xav. He’ll be here with his bride
tomorrow morning.”

For some reason when Zek spoke he watched
only her and when he said the word
bride
it sent a thrill through her body. Like he tried to tell her something. She
shook her head. “Fiancée,” she corrected him and stood up, taking her plate
with her over to the sink.

A tanned hand came down over hers just as
she touched the faucet and the electric shock from the contact had her dropping
the plate.

Zek moved fast. He caught the plate with
his other hand, never removing his fingers from on top of hers.

Tingles continued to zing up her arm from
where they touched. Quickly, she turned her head to stare at him. Her breath
had been coming hard before, but she made a mistake by looking at him. She
opened her mouth to get air. She couldn’t breathe.

Slowly, he took the plate out of her hand
and placed it in the sink. “I got this,” he urged, never taking his eyes off
her. Instantly, she pulled her hand out from under his because clearly he
wasn’t going to let go. One of them needed to. Des inhaled deeply and took a
step back. Only then, did she feel she could control the pounding of her heart
again to a more normal rhythm. She took another step back. “I—I—is
it okay if I go walk along the beach for a minute? It’s not too dark yet.”

“Yes. It’s fine and the paths are all
lit,” Zek stated.

Aaron stood up and brought his plate over
to the sink. “I think I’d like to take one of the boats and run over to the big
island for a bit.” He turned to Cyrus. “You coming?”

“Yeah.” He too stood and placed his plate
in the sink.

“Not so fast,” Zek barked. “You can bus
your own dishes.”

Aaron laughed and moved out of the
kitchen.

Des grinned and moved passed them to make
her way out through the great room. The French doors led to a direct path down
to the beach. She walked in the direction of the water and took off her
sandals. Standing only far enough so the surf reached her ankles, she let the
gentle waves of the receding tide surround her. The warm water and sand felt
soft against the soles of her feet. She walked along the shore a few steps,
then returned back to the dry part of the beach.

Without a thought to her dress, she sat
down on the sand, and stretched her legs out in front of her. Well out of reach
of the lapping water. Her thoughts drifted to her friend, Cori.
Did she discover love at first sight?
Des found it difficult to believe, knowing how logical and organized her
friend’s mind worked. Still, she grinned.
Engaged.
If her friend had found her ‘one’ then Des would be happy for her. But first,
she’d talk to her and make damn sure of it. True love, why not?

Then again, her mind wandered back to the
past. She shied away from the explosion on the boat and thoughts of dying in
the water. She sometimes wondered why she didn’t fear the ocean. Frankly, she
barely remembered being in the water. Most of it seemed like a dream, perhaps
her brain’s way of protecting her.

Her strongest memories of that time were
of lying partially on warm sand but the rest of her body rested cradled in the
lap of someone. Someone whom her senses told her meant safety, comfort. Her
memory of it surfaced…Des opened her eyes to stare into the azure orbs of a
teenage boy. The most beautiful boy she’d ever seen, maybe only a few years
older than she. Her heart had been pumping hard from pain, exhaustion and fear,
but just then it seemed to pump in excitement and anticipation.

“You’re going to be fine now.”

His voice came out deep and she wanted to
hear it again. She coughed. “My—my family.”

“They’re safe. They were just taken a
little farther down the beach, help will be here soon.”

“You saved me.”

His hand rose to caress the side of her
face. “Yes. I would never allow any harm to come to you.”

She smiled and touched his face, too.
Somehow, it all seemed right. “Who are you?”

“My name is Ezekiel.”

“Ezekiel.” She smiled.

“What’s your name?”

There were shouts in the distance. They
both turned their heads in the direction of the noise but a curve in the beach
hid them from anyone on the other side. “Help will be here soon,” he said
again.

“Will you stay with me until they come?”

He smiled. He had the warmest smile. “I’m
sorry I can’t. I can’t be here when they find you. But don’t worry, I will come
to you again.”

“Hali. My name is Hali.” She sat up and
took off the necklace from around her neck. Her favorite piece of jewelry.
“Here take this, so you don’t forget me.” She took his hand and opened his
palm, dropping it there.

He closed his hand around it. “I will
never forget you.”

“Thank you for saving my life.”

He grinned. “No, thank you. You saved
mine.” He opened his hand and held the necklace out to her. “Help me put it
on.”

She took it from him and placed it around
his neck, attaching the hook. Their faces were so close.