Page 35 of Nikolai
Any other woman would have bristled, but she just smiled at him.
“We ready?”
“I guess we are.I’ll be fast at my hotel.I want to be on the road before rush hour.When’s rush hour?”
Parker locked the door and sighed.“Always.Traffic is always bad.But it’s particularly bad from around nine to ten.”
“We’ll beat the traffic.”
Nick made it to his hotel along the Bay in record time.They walked into the immense lobby, and he felt a secret thrill walking in, Parker on his arm.He’d left yesterday evening, a boring businessman, and was walking back in with a prize on his arm.
The hotel lobby was spectacular.Sleek and modern without being soulless.
“Do you want to come up or do you want to wait for me in the lobby?”
She looked around.“I’ve never been here.It’s really nice.I think I’ll wait for you here.”
Nick sat her down in one of the numerous elegant conversation sets.Behind her chair was an explosion of bouquets and she looked like a queen.
“Good call.I’ll be fast.”On his way to the bank of elevators, Nick ordered a cappuccino for her.
In the room he changed into cargo pants, a light long-sleeved shirt, boots and a ball cap.He also packed a go bag with several changes of clothes, his shaver, toothbrush and toiletries.Some gear he always had with him.And a box of condoms.
God yes.
Jesus, he couldn’t wait to get back down to her.
She was sipping her cappuccino, reading the hotel copy of an Italian newspaper,La Repubblica.
“Hey.”
She smiled at him.“Hey yourself.Thanks for the cappuccino.”
He shrugged, passed a hand over her hair.“Everything okay with the world?”
Usually, Nick was always super plugged in.He subscribed to a lot of online newspapers and political newsletters and a couple of databases and usually checked hourly.He hadn’t checked any source of news in over fourteen hours.
Parker sighed.“Not really.There’s a low-level war just started in the Republic of Congo, an earthquake in Tibet, a new viral outbreak of a mystery disease in Shanghai and the Pope’s in the hospital again.”
He already had men in Congo.Nothing he could do about Tibet or Shanghai.“Sorry to hear that.He’s a good man.”
“He is.Are we ready?”
“Yeah.”Nick reached down to give her a hand.She didn’t need a hand getting out of the armchair, but he liked touching her.He kept her hand in his and tucked it into his arm and walked out of his hotel with the most beautiful woman in Naples on his arm.
ChapterSeven
Oh man, having a personal driver—a really good personal driver—who also carried your bags for you and, incidentally, was a sex god, was definitely the way to go.
Instead of making the trip in a sweat of anxiety because there were few signposts and dozens of backroads to take, and it was so easy to get lost, Parker was whisked in enormous comfort directly there.Somehow, Nick navigated his way unerringly to the archeological park with only GPS coordinates and that weird male sense of direction she hadn’t been blessed with.
And she’d been able to catch up with her email.It had taken an hour to get there—traffic was hellish—and she read with increasing fascination something her little group of nerds in Oxford had found.
The vehicle had stopped, and Parker pulled herself out of her study trance.
“End of the line,” Nick announced.
“What?”She lifted her head and looked around.They were at the entrance of the park.“We’re not there.The villa is still two and a half kilometers away.”
