Bare In Bermuda (26 page)

“Henna,” he sighed as she returned to the curve of his arm.

“Did you like that?” She leaned over him and studied his face.

“Yes.” He pulled her mouth to his, letting the kiss linger before he moved his mouth to her neck.

“I'm late,” she said but didn’t move.

“How did you know to do that?” he asked pressing his lips to her hair. “With your fingers.”

“You did it to me,” she said. “I like it. You seem to enjoy anal play. I figured you'd like the same.”

“I did,” he said. “Nobody has done that to me before.”

“I may have a surprise for you later on.” She gave him an impish smile.

“What?”

“You'll see,” she said.

“You forgive me?”

“I suppose I do,” she said. “I just don't want her near you. I've never been jealous like that before. It does sort of make a person crazy, doesn't it?”

“It does. I think she may leave,” he said. “Perhaps. Maybe no. One never knows with Fatima.”

“What did you tell her?”

“More like she told me,” he said. “Fatima has given me an ultimatum to which I have responded.”

“Which was?”

“Marry her or no Fatima.” He ran his hand down her bare hip. “I will not be dictated to by a woman who has little of interest to offer.”

“What could you possibly want that you don't already have in abundance? Truly, I can't imagine what is missing from your life.”

“I would like another child,” he said. “I am still young and healthy. I like the idea of becoming a father again. This is not something Fatima can give me. She is older than I. Her time to bare children has passed. But you...” He gave her body an appraising look. “Your body is ripe and ready to be filled.”

“Is that the reason you like me?” Henna asked, wondering what her response should be. Part of her told her to be pleased he thought of her as a potential mother for his child. The other part told her to be offended he looked at her like a brood mare.

“No,” he said. “I like your eyes. Your smile. I love your body. You make me laugh. Fatima does not make me laugh. She makes me cringe.”

“So if I said ‘Eduardo, we get along. The sex is great. Let's reproduce.’ What would you say?”

“I'd say I'd like to spend some more time getting to know you,” he said. “I'm sorry I made you angry, but I might have to do it again just to make up with you.”

“I'm sure you'll think of something,” she said.

Eduardo laughed. “Henna, you don't know what you do to me.”

She kissed him on the tip of his nose then rolled away and off the bed. She kicked off her shoes and continued barefoot across the room.

“Where are you going?” He grabbed her hand.

“I have to get ready for tonight. Unlike you, I can't just take a shower, run my hand through my hair, and voila, be gorgeous. It takes a lot of work to be me.”

“Wear the white,” he said.

“I thought you liked the red the best.”

“I'm not going to be with you, and I like the white the least.” He kissed her fingers. “Save the red for another night.”

She smiled, took back her hand, and disappeared into the bathroom. Eduardo lay back in the bed with his arms spread wide and let his bare body sink into the mattress. He was tempted to just lie there, but he had to be in the lobby in less than an hour. The shower was running when he walked into the bathroom and Henna was under the water. “How was your spa trip?”

“Disastrous,” she said. “Eden was mean to me. I probably overreacted. I did overreact. I'll make up with her tonight.”

He picked up one of the earrings he bought for her that morning and examined it. “What happened?”

“Nothing. It was stupid. Eden and Gloria were teasing me. I should have brushed it off, but I didn't.”

“Teasing you about what?”

“They wanted to know if I had a sugar daddy buying me jewelry or if I was a dominatrix with my own dungeon and was paid in gems. Puerile, juvenile behavior, and I let myself get sucked in. What they were saying was just so rude and so typical of Eden. Now that I'm saying this out loud to you, I feel even more ridiculous for the way I reacted.”

“Sounds like you had every right to be angry with them. They are grown women. Not little girls. They should act like grown women.”

“Truthfully, I do love my sister, but she can be very jealous when she thinks that I'm somehow getting something more or better than she is, so I've always just let her win at
mine's better than yours
. I don't know where this comes from. I was in college by the time she started kindergarten so there really was no rivalry when we were growing up.”

“Ah,” he said. “I can tell you why she's jealous of you.”

“She is not jealous of me.”

“Yes, she is. You are your father's favorite. She knows this. It's obvious to me. Eden is a lovely girl, but you are well educated and a successful doctor. Eden's ability with languages is admirable, but having such an accomplished older sister is a hard example to live up to.”

Henna turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. He handed her a towel after opening it with a flick of his wrist.

“I never thought of it like that. I'm not certain you're right, but it would explain a lot.”

He watched as she dried her body. Telling her he wanted a child hadn't sent her running. A good sign. He kissed her on the cheek. “Don't let Gloria bother you,” he said. “I'll speak with her.”

“Don't,” she said. “I don't want her to think I ran and told on her. Besides, I think she's on to us, and I'd rather not have any problems with her between now and until the wedding is over. I am going to tell you now, that if she threatens me with a shotgun or comes after me with a machete, we're going to have a problem.”

“You heard about that?”

“Yes. I'm becoming a big fan of passion, but not when guns and knives are involved.”

He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Have a good evening. I'll come back here to spend the night with you. That is if you'll let me take a new key.”

“You can take a new key.”

He kissed her again then left. Before shutting the door, he checked that he had the right card. Instead of going across the hall to his room, he went down the hall seven doors and thumped on it.

Hector answered in his underwear.

“Go put your pants on,” he ordered Hector as he walked past him into the room.

“You can't just walk in here,” Hector told him. “We're not children anymore.”

He picked up a robe from the floor and threw it at Gloria who was trying to hide under the blankets. “You and I need to have a conversation about you thinking it's acceptable to be a bitch to Henna when she's done nothing to harm you.”

“We'll be down in ten minutes.” Hector held the door open and gestured for him to leave.

He turned around, put a hand on Hector's chest, and shoved him out the still open door and onto his rear in the hallway. “Don't even start with me. Esmeralda is on her way to Switzerland right now. Have you even bothered to call her?”

“No.” Hector looked up at him from the floor, and for a brief moment, Eduardo saw the boy he'd known since birth.

Eduardo pulled his mobile phone out of his pocket and tossed it at Hector. “Call her now, you spoiled little shit bag.” He closed the door, leaving Hector outside the room. What he needed to say to Gloria had nothing to do with Hector.

Gloria was out of the bed, wrapped in the robe, and, based on the way her arms crossed her body, ready to fight with him.

“What is the matter with you?” he shouted.

“I was just having some fun,” Gloria shouted back. “She didn't have to be so touchy!”

“I told you this morning to keep your mouth shut. What do you do? Instead of showing me respect or consideration, you mock the gifts I buy for a beautiful woman who has given me so much joy in such a small amount of time.”

“I get it,” Gloria shrieked. “Okay? What is the big deal? I was just teasing her a little.”

“You try to ruin the first dose of happiness I've had since your mother died. Why? Why would you do this to me? What have I done to you to deserve such disrespect?”

“You are overreacting, and so is she. I can't believe she told you what happened.” Gloria examined her nails as she flicked her hair. “What a child.”

“She was right to tell me what happened,” he replied. “She also told me that she knows about you and Fatima. What you think is some harmless teasing, she very rightfully sees as an unbalanced lunatic being hostile towards her.”

Gloria's face fell slightly. “She knows about that? Who told her?”

“I didn't ask. She knows. That's what matters. Right now, she thinks you're a maniac who’s coming for her next. Do you see now how your stupid, childish behavior might cost me a relationship I want to explore? What woman in her right mind wants to be with a man who has a child that might start chasing her with a machete?”

Gloria rolled her eyes and huffed a little. “I am not going to chase her with a machete. Before she overreacted this afternoon—”

He held up a silencing hand. “She was going to refuse my gifts because the idea of taking something expensive made her uncomfortable. It took a great deal of convincing to get her to accept what I offered her. Then what do you do? You highlight the very things that made her uncomfortable to begin with.”

“Like she had a sugar daddy,” Gloria said with a grimace.

“Now you are seeing things through eyes other than your own. You are very stupid and selfish sometimes. You think only of yourself and not of others. That you were like this disappointed your mother terribly. She wanted you to be kind. Often you are not. There are times when you have no empathy.”

Mentioning Pilar had the effect he wanted. Gloria finally seemed to understand the world that existed beyond her limited scope. “Eden was much worse. Much worse.”

“That's an excuse? Henna knows her sister and can judge what was harmless, yet infantile teasing. She doesn't know you other than you went after Fatima and that you pretty well accused her of being a gold digger.”

“Are you sure she's not a gold digger?”

He stared at his daughter.

“Don't think I haven't seen the prenuptial agreement you made Romeo have Eden sign. You can go on about destiny all you want, but at the end of the day you still covered your ass.”

“There is a meanness in you that is ugly to me as it was to your mother. If she knew how you'd treated Henna, knowing I was developing feelings for her, she would cry and wonder what she had done wrong in raising you.” Perhaps a bit low, but it worked. There were times when he needed a sledgehammer to break through Gloria's thick skull.

“I'm really sorry.” Gloria started to cry.

Her tears no longer worked on him. They hadn't for twenty years. “I don't care what you have to do, but you make friends with Henna. She's very kind. Perhaps you can learn something from her.”

“I'll try to make it up to her tonight,” Gloria said. “I'll tell her I was just teasing. I'll let her know that I'm really okay with the two of you being together. Which I am.”

“Pay attention!” he barked. “Do not let her know you know. I'm not pleased with Esmeralda that she called you, but I should have anticipated that. It was stupid of me to tell her something I wanted her to keep quiet. Nothing until after the wedding.”

“Everybody knows,” Gloria said. “Between you acting like a teenager and her walking around like she owns you—”

“Not another word.” He opened the door and walked into the hallway. Hector sat on the ground with his hands wrapped around the phone.

“Did you talk to her?” He crouched down and took the phone from Hector.

“She won't talk to me.” He looked up, eyes somber and strained. “Screamed at me for a minute when she realized it wasn't you on the phone and hung up. I think I really might have gone too far, leaving her behind.”

“She doesn't belong here,” he said. “Her being here would only cause problems. You have to stop letting her hijack how you live your life. Romeo figured this out. Now you need to.” Eduardo stood and offered Hector a hand. “One more thing.” He put his hand on Hector's chest and pushed him against a wall. “You either marry my daughter, or you stop treating her like a whore. If I catch the two of you in bed together again, and she doesn't have a ring on her finger, I'll cut your dick off myself. Do we understand each other?”

“Yes.” Hector said.

Eduardo gave him a smart, but not hard, slap across the face. “So you don't forget.”

He released Hector from the wall and stalked back down the hall to his own room. When he was behind the door, he called Esmeralda's head of security to confirm she was still in Europe and not on a flight to Bermuda. He couldn't reach anyone. This was noteworthy, but not worrying. He had other resources. After he made a few calls, he pulled himself together.

There were messages on his phone, and a text from Henna. Esmeralda was truly in Switzerland. He was to come across the hall when ready.

He was ready. He left his room and walked into hers. Judith and Midge sat in the matching club chairs set near the window. Each looked at him with vastly different expressions as he walked into the room. Henna stood at the mirror and turned to him. She was in the white dress paired up with lime green shoes and the emeralds. Her hair was pulled up and off of her neck. It was lucky for her that her mother and her aunt were in the room. Otherwise, her hair wouldn't have stood a chance.

“Ladies. I was not expecting you.”

“Oh...” Henna looked at him. “I forgot to send you a follow up text. So much for being discreet.”

“Oh, my god,” Judith gasped. “You two are sleeping together. I knew it. Just don't let daddy find out. He'll have a kitten. He's already not happy about the fact your brother is behaving like a sailor on shore leave. You two mincing about won't help matters.”

“Judith,” he said. “I am a grown man. I feel no need to conceal my behavior from Mel.”

“You make a good couple,” Midge said. “My brother is a big boy. Don't let him bother you.” She stood up, pulling Judith up with her. “We're late. We'll meet you two at the elevator.”

“Don't dawdle,” Judith told Henna.

The two women left.

“Did you need me?” he asked her when they were alone.