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‘What is it?’
‘That was until we hit Utah and the national parks. Oh, no, then he didn’t want to stay in a hotel. Then he wanted to camp and stare up at the starry sky at night.’
‘And did you?’
Sullivan waved his hand. ‘Yeah. We bought the whole kit and caboodle. I’ve never felt ground so hard in my life and I’ve never seen rain like it. And by the next day? Neither of us could walk.’
Gabrielle started laughing. It was clear from the way that he talked he’d had a good relationship with his father. She wished she could have seen them together. But as just as quickly as the joy had appeared in Sullivan’s eyes they shadowed over again.
She’d seen that look before, when he’d mentioned casually that he hadn’t had a chance to pack up his father’s things back home in Oregon. It hadn’t seemed significant at the time, but now she was getting to know him a little better it felt a little off. Working with Sullivan had shown her he was incredibly organised.
But even now he didn’t seem entirely anxious to go home. There had been no pre-booked flight to Oregon to cancel when she’d asked him to accompany her. And she got the feeling if he hadn’t been with her now, he might have answered Gibbs’s text about the next mission. How could she phrase the question that was burning inside her?
She never got the chance because Sullivan nodded towards the old-fashioned picture house opposite the restaurant. It had a small poster on either side of the main doors advertising the latest action movie.
‘What’s with the place across the street?’
She smiled. ‘The Regal? It’s a picture-house based in one of the oldest buildings in Mirinez. There have been lots of attempts to modernise it—all of them resisted.’ She couldn’t help but let out a laugh. She’d witnessed some of the fierce arguments about ‘dragging things into the twenty-first century’, but she had fond memories of the picture house. Even looking at it now spread a little warm glow through her body.
‘And they’ve all failed?’ Sullivan looked interested.
‘More or less. The electrics and plumbing have been modernised. The screen has been changed, but it’s still like walking into an old theatre rather than one of those cinema complexes. The chairs are original—a tiny bit uncomfortable and covered in dark red velvet.’
‘Just one screen?’
‘Just the one. And each film only plays for a week so if you miss it, you miss it.’
‘It’s kinda quaint.’
She laughed again. ‘There’s a word I never thought I hear on Sullivan Darcy’s lips.’
‘Quaint? My dad used it, quite a lot actually. He must have picked it up when we stayed in England for a while.’
He tapped his fingers on the table. ‘I guess if we want to see the latest action movie we’d better go in the next few days, then.’
Gabrielle started to nod and then rolled her eyes. ‘We might have a problem.’
‘Why?’
She held out her hands. ‘Look at this place. You said Arun had to book the whole place out so we could come to dinner. If he tried to book the cinema out for just us, the rest of Mirinez would probably riot.’
‘How about a private showing—could we arrange that?’
She sighed. ‘Probably. But then we’d need to go in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning. It kind of takes the joy out of going to the cinema. You know, filing into your seat with your giant bag of popcorn and waiting for the lights to go down and hear the theme tune before the adverts start. There’d be no atmosphere.’
Sullivan thought for a few seconds. ‘What if we go incognito?’
‘What?’ She hadn’t even thought of that.
‘You never did anything like that as a kid?’
‘Well, sure I did. But we only had one security guy and he was really for Andreas, not for me. I used to sneak out to places all the time.’
‘So...sneak out someplace with me?’ All of a sudden she felt around fifteen again. It was the oddest thrill. Sneaking out somewhere with the bad boy. But, then, Sullivan wasn’t really a bad boy, was he? It was just the way he said those words, almost as if it were a challenge.
And she loved a challenge.
She glanced over at the cinema. She’d love to go back there. She would. But as she watched the people milling around outside, a horrible black cloud of responsibility settled on her shoulders.
It was automatic. The enormous list of things that still needed to be dealt with started running through her head. ‘I’d love to, but I still need to meet the owners of the mine, I need to check a trade agreement with another country, there’s dispute over a part of our boundary—our fishermen haven’t apparently been following EU fishing regulations—there are issues around some of our exports. We have applications from six major new businesses that want to invest in Mirinez—’
‘Whoa!’ Sullivan held up his hand and stood up.
The background music had changed to something a little more familiar.
‘What?’ She looked around.
He turned the palm of his hand, extending it out towards her. ‘Give me Gabrielle back, please.’
She frowned with confusion. ‘What do you mean?’
He was giving her a knowing kind of smile. ‘I had her. I had her right there with me, then you just flipped back into princess mode.’
A little chill spread over her skin. He was right. She had. One second she’d been enjoying dinner with Sullivan, contemplating some fun, and the next? She’d been sucked back into the wave of responsibility that felt as if it could suffocate her.
Tears prickled in her eyes. But Sullivan kept his voice light, almost teasing. ‘When Gabrielle hears this tune, there’s only one thing she can do.’
The beat of Justin Timberlake filled the air around her. From the expression on Sullivan’s face it was clear he was remembering their first meeting—when he’d caught her dancing around the tent in Narumba.
‘How can any girl resist JT?’ he asked again.
‘How can any girl resist Sullivan Darcy?’ she countered as she slid her hand into his.
The security staff seemed to have miraculously disappeared into the walls. After a few seconds it was easy to feel the beat and start to relax a little. Sullivan pulled her a little closer.
‘I thought you didn’t dance?’ She smirked as the heat of his body pressed up against hers. Apart from the night she’d lain in his arms, this was the first time since Paris she’d really been in a place she wanted to be.
‘I thought you needed to let your hair down a little,’ he said huskily. ‘Remember what it is to have some fun.’
She swung her head. ‘But my hair is down,’ she argued, as her curls bounced around her shoulders.
‘Is it?’ he asked as he swung her round and dipped her.
She squealed, laughing, her arms slipping up and fastening around his neck. He held her there for a second, his mouth just inches from hers. She glanced up at his dark hair, running a finger along the edges. ‘This is the longest I’ve seen your hair. Is that a little kink? Does your normal buzz cut hide curls?’ She was teasing. She couldn’t help it.
This was the kind of life she wanted to live. She wanted to be free to work hard during the day and laugh, joke and flirt her way with a man who made her heart sing through the nights.
He swung her back up, so close her breasts pressed against his chest. ‘Now, that, my lovely lady, would be telling. Isn’t a guy supposed to have some secrets?’
She wrinkled her nose as a little wave of guilt swept through her. ‘I thought we were kind of finished with secrets.’
He waved his hands as he kept them swaying to the beat of the song. ‘Princess Schmincess.’
She blinked. ‘Did you really just say that?’
‘Say what?’ Thi
s time he was teasing her. And she liked it. She ran her hands down the front of his chest.
‘I think you’ve been holding out on me.’
He spun her around again. ‘Really?’
‘Really. You never demonstrated these dance moves in Narumba.’
She was trying not to concentrate too closely on those clear green eyes of his. The twinkle that they held practically danced across her skin. And that sexy smile of his was making her want to take actions entirely unsuitable for a public terrace.
He slowed his movements a little and traced his finger gently down her cheek. ‘Maybe I was saving them for a private show.’
She groaned out loud. ‘Stop it. I’ve got security guards around. If you keep talking to me like this we’re going to have to skip dessert.’
He leaned down and whispered in her ear. ‘I’ve always thought dessert was overrated.’
His lips met hers. For a few seconds her brain completely cleared. Tonight had been almost perfect. It was like some make-believe date. Dinner, wine, dancing and...
