The Russian's Tender Lover (The Sisterhood) (7 page)

She tried not to ask. Told herself she didn’t want to know. She tried very hard to suppress her curiosity, but the words seemed to spring from her mouth despite her efforts to not care. “What do you do?” she asked softly, as if she had some control, but not enough to stop the words from leaving her mouth.

He looked at her with equal curiosity. “You really don’t know who I am, do you?”

“I try not to delve too much into other peoples’ lives. I’ve lived with people invading mine for too long so I try to be considerate.”

“That’s very generous of you but a bit of a puzzle.”

“Why’s that?”

“Don’t you thrive on the publicity?”

Darcy thought about that, considering how to phrase her answer. She hated the publicity, but she couldn’t live without it. “Let’s just say the press and I have a symbiotic relationship, shall we?”

Sergei looked across the table at the woman with her hair no longer perfectly coifed, no makeup and, as he looked closer, he could see freckles on her face. The woman who had arrived at his house yesterday afternoon had been exactly what he’d been expecting. But overnight, a new person had emerged. Someone fresh and lively, spirited and, if her vocabulary and reading choice was any indication, a very intelligent woman. “For a woman who implies frustration with the invasion, you certainly court the attention extremely well. The mystery surrounding your comings and goings is legendary and adds to the thrill when you actually show up at some nightclub. How do you reconcile those actions against your words?”

Darcy was in a tough situation again. She couldn’t explain without revealing too much about herself. “Let’s just accept that we both have mysterious sides to our lives, shall we?”

He chuckled and Darcy enjoyed the sound, feeling like she’d genuinely accomplished something. “Fair enough,” he conceded. “What will you be doing today?”

“What am I allowed to do today?” she countered.

“Anything you like.”

“Fly back home?” she asked with a falsely bright smile because she already knew the answer.

“Anything you like, as long as it’s still on the island.”

“Can you tell me some of my options? Since this is my first visit, and my last, I’m not aware of what kinds of entertainments might be available.”

Sergei controlled the disgust that roiled through him at her complete lack of ambition. “There’s a beach, a pool, a library and a game room. Do what you want, but behave.” He stood up and left, not bothering to give her specifics on where the game room was or acknowledge that she couldn’t really swim without a bathing suit. The man truly was a jerk, she thought as she watched him disappear into the relative darkness of the house.

But as prisons went, this one was pretty nice, she thought as she sipped a glass of juice in the lovely morning air. She could smell the ocean in the distance and there was nothing wrong with reading under some lovely palm tree, she thought.

Darcy savored the fruit of the morning and took her time with her cold juice, enjoying the smells and sounds and relaxed atmosphere. She hadn’t had a vacation since high school and even that had been stressful since her father had taken her to Italy to introduce her to several men he wanted her to consider for a husband. He’d fought with her brother constantly as well, adding to the stress but since their conversations had been in Italian, she hadn’t been able to grasp the meaning of the arguments. The whole week had been a painful trial at trying to come up with one objection after another for men who were all mafia related and therefore, completely outside the bounds of possibilities for husband material, while at the same time, decipher if her brother was a friend as he had been when she was little, or foe if he had decided to align himself with her father’s business interests. Besides, at the time, she’d barely been seventeen years old and didn’t want to get married, so the whole issue had been traumatic.

After breakfast, she went back to her bedroom and found the book on top of the completely made up bed. She’d hidden it under the pillows but someone had come into her room during breakfast and straightened up. She’d have to do a better job at hiding her pastimes, she thought as she picked up the book and strolled down to the beach.

Finding a lovely shade tree, she opened her book to the place she’d stopped after falling asleep the previous night and became immediately absorbed in the saga once again.

Chapter 6

“Finally gotten hungry enough to come out of hiding?” he asked, then waved to the empty chair on the other side of the table. “Please join me for breakfast. There’s plenty and I’m just about finished.”

Darcy looked at the comfortable chair, the coffee cup and the servant who was even now stepping forward with a silver coffee urn. “Are you angry with me for some reason?” She pretended not to care, but there was just something about this man that suddenly made her want to impress him. She pushed that aside, knowing thoughts like that were dangerous. He was not her friend and would use anything he discovered about her to destroy her if he needed to, hence the reason she’d avoided him as much as possible the previous day.

The man’s eyes traveled up and down her body. “I realize that your kind doesn’t eat very much or very often, but breakfast is a normal ritual the rest of the world maintains each morning.”

“My kind?” she asked, her anger rising once again as she took the opposite seat, forcing a smile of thanks to the servant for the coffee and fresh juice.

He didn’t even bother to look up as he responded, “Your kind being the painfully thin kind of woman who thinks men want women who look good in a dress versus feeling good in his arms.”

Darcy almost laughed because she loved eating, although she didn’t have much of an appetite when she was getting ready for one of her weekend night club tours. “I’m sure there are men around who like the way I look.”

He rolled his eyes. “Give it up. You can’t get enough vitamins and nutrition when you eat only enough to maintain that weight,” he said. Raising his hand, a servant immediately stepped over to the buffet table and filled up a plate with food.

“Why do you care how much I eat or my nutrition level?” she demanded.

“Because I only want to keep you out of the way until I can find that pathetic fiancé of my sister. I don’t want you getting sick while you’re here. So eat something,” he ordered, then stood up and left the table, all his reports in one hand and his coffee cup in the other.

Darcy watched him walk away, impressed with the energy and the confident way he carried himself. But as the servant placed the plate in front of her, she couldn’t concentrate on anything other than eating the delicious scrambled eggs, flaky biscuits and freshly cut fruit. Savoring each bite, she enjoyed the birds chirping somewhere in the trees and the sound of the ocean waves crashing against the beach. She hadn’t meant to skip lunch and dinner yesterday, but she’d fallen asleep on the beach and had just forgotten about dinner while curled up in the library reading. She’d snuck into the kitchen late last night and grabbed a biscuit, but it had only been enough to hold her until now. She was famished and loved the savory meal in front of her.

She finished her breakfast, then leaned back in the cushioned chair considering her options and sipping her juice. She really didn’t want to read the day away again today. She loved the book but needed a bit more excitement today, more physical activity. Maybe she should take a stroll around the island. She definitely could use the exercise, she thought. She’d been on a plane for most of one day and then basically read or slept yesterday away. Now that she was a bit more revived and alert, she could do anything she wanted so she decided a bit of exploring was on the agenda for the day. And maybe she’d find a way off the island while she toured about.

Standing up, she smiled at the man hovering by the buffet table. “Thank you very much for the breakfast. It was delicious.”

Just as he had yesterday, the man didn’t respond, but simply bowed and smiled.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“I am Manuel. If you need anything, please just ask.”

“Thank you very much Manuel.”

She took one last sip of her juice, then headed down the stairs by the side of the house. It took her two hours, but she was able to walk around the entire island by either staying on the beach or walking along a seldom used pathway through the tropical sections where the beach hadn’t yet taken over.

The island wasn’t as small as she’d originally thought. And the tiny village was filled with only three houses while the church was an old one that was apparently unoccupied judging by the state of the interior. The wood was rotting out, there were no longer any pews to sit upon and the alter was breaking down as well.

As she stepped out of the stone church building, she looked up and spotted the dog off to the side of one building.

Sitting down so she was on the dog’s level, she reached out her hand. “Hello! How are you, old fella?” she called to the dog with a gray muzzle and sad eyes. “What’s your name?” she asked gently.

The dog sniffed the air, not daring to come out of its makeshift shelter of the box beside the stone house.

“It’s okay. I won’t hurt you,” she said to the animal, feeling as if there was something very wrong with a dog that wouldn’t approach another human being. They were usually very friendly unless taught to be otherwise by experience.

The animal stayed in place, dropping its head down onto its front paws with a deep sigh.

Darcy looked around for someone to ask, but the houses were all dark inside. She suspected that the residents who lived in the houses were actually the servants that helped in Sergei’s house when he was in residence.

She didn’t want to frighten the dog, but didn’t want to leave it here if it was hurt either. She smiled at the animal to show her that she wasn’t a threat, then slowly stood up and walked away. When she was out of sight of the animal, she took the stairs back up to the main house two at a time, rushing through the door in search of Manuel.

When she found him, he was polishing an already pristine table in the dining room, an impressive room made of stucco on the walls and heavy iron candelabra hanging from the ceiling. The room reminded her of an old Spanish dining room from centuries long past. “Manuel, the dog that’s in the shelter down by the village. Do you know whose dog it is?”

Manuel shook his head. “Jose left a few months ago to find a different job. Since then, we’ve all been taking care of him, but he’s not really anyone’s animal.”

“Why would Jose leave him here?”

“Because the dog is afraid of the water and wouldn’t get on the boat. Jose tried, but when the boat had to take off and the dog wouldn’t get on, he just left him with us.”

Darcy already had strong feelings for this absent Jose, but she also knew that people had to survive as well. He should have taken his dog with him though. “So it would be okay if I took care of him for a while?”

“Sure. But watch out. He can be a bit of a pest.”

Darcy didn’t answer him, but instead, headed for the kitchen. When she found the large stainless steel and glass area with lots of work space, she was thrilled. “Excuse me,” she called out to the woman who was busy chopping up vegetables, probably for whatever would be served at lunchtime.

The woman immediately turned around, wiping her hands on her pristine white apron. “Yes, Miss?” she asked politely.

“Do you have any rice?”

“Of course,” she replied quickly and moved off to the left where the dry pantry apparently was stored. Taking out a big bag, she put it on the counter. “What are you going to do with this? I can make you something, yes?” she asked hopefully.

Darcy shook her head. “No, I really don’t want to be a bother. I know you’re busy preparing lunch but if you wouldn’t mind sharing your kitchen? I’d like to help the dog that’s down in the village.”

The woman waved her hand. “Jose should have taken that mutt. Now he and the others are a pest,” she said dismissively. She moved back to her cutting, saying, “Of course you can help yourself to anything you need. And I will be happy to help however I can.”

Darcy kept the smile on her face but took down a medium sized pot and filled it with water. When the water was boiling, she poured a hefty amount of rice into the mix. “Do you have any leftover meat?” Darcy asked hopefully.

The woman nodded and shuffled over to the fridge, pulling out a plastic container filled with leftovers from the previous night’s dinner. Darcy smelled the dish and groaned softly, wishing she’d come down for dinner because this smelled delicious. “Thank you!” she replied, smiling as she moved back to her own table. A knife and cutting board were easy to find and she set about cutting up the meat.

Once the meal was prepared, she dished out a large amount into a steel bowl, promising Adele that she’d bring the bowl back in about an hour.

With her treasure in her hand, she hurried back down to the village, taking the stairs more slowly on the downward trek for fear of tripping in her excitement.

The dog was in the same place where she’d left it and Darcy knelt down once more with the bowl of food in front of her. The dog immediately sniffed the air. When the animal stood up and came closer, unhesitating, Darcy felt a rush of relief. The dog wasn’t beaten as she’d originally suspected, but was just shy.