style="font-size:15px;"> ‘Maybe you were dancing too close to them.’
‘Nope. Those fringes were really long. People got whacked from half a metre away. I didn’t get up close and personal with anyone at that dance.’
‘Probably because of the dress.’
‘Pretty sure it was because of me.’ Lena smoothed her fingers down the front of her serviceable shorts. ‘No date. No dance partners other than whoever was dancing in the group.’ Lena knew she pursued things too aggressively at times. Sports, adrenaline highs, men...boy, could she scare men away when she wanted to. And Trig and Jared had encouraged it.
Maybe she had been too focused on sex these past few days.
Maybe she needed to cut her husband a break.
‘I remember wanting to ask you to be my partner for that night,’ she said. ‘It would have made it bearable.’
‘Why didn’t you?’
‘You were twelve hundred kilometres away. And Jared said you were busy.’
‘Not that busy,’ her husband said, after a pause.
‘I also wasn’t sure whether I wanted to mess with the status quo between you, me and Jared. I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea—or possibly the same ideas that I had. You and Jared were my friendship group, my safety net, and I didn’t fit anywhere else. If I stuffed that up I’d have no one.’
Trig had his hands in his pockets and a frown on his face but he nodded as if he understood. ‘Weigh your risks.’
‘Exactly.’
He nodded again, his eyes dark with some unidentifiable emotion. ‘So about this date. You ready to go?’
She most certainly was.
* * *
Trig had more than one ulterior motive for having the driver drop them at the marina rather than the castle. This was the marina that Amos Carter had steered them towards. Jericho3 could be the name of a boat. It sounded too easy, but Trig didn’t mind easy. Right now he craved it. His other reason was nastier, because it involved making Lena walk to the castle from the marina—a distance she could have covered with ease two years ago, but this was now and he knew that she’d have trouble even making it to the castle from here, no matter how often she stopped for a breather along the way.
‘Are we looking for anything in particular?’ Lena asked, with her gaze firmly fixed on the half a dozen sturdy wooden tourist yachts bobbing up and down in their moorings. The sterns of the boats were loaded with cushions and lounges. The undercover bow areas contained dining tables and chairs. The boats were manned by young men with flashing white smiles and darkly suntanned skin. ‘Jericho3 perhaps?’
‘Yes.’
‘I knew it.’ Lena slid her hand in the crook of his elbow. ‘I knew you had an ulterior motive for dragging us down here this afternoon. You think it’s the name of a boat?’
‘No harm in looking.’ Trig eyed the people on the nearby tourist yachts.
‘No women,’ said Lena.
‘Maybe they’re below.’
‘Maybe we could do a trip on one of them. Good way to look around, make some enquiries.’
‘You don’t want to go out on those boats.’ The girl who sidled up to them had a bright smile, copper-coloured hair and enough confidence for a dozen street touts. ‘Come back tomorrow morning before ten if you want a day tour.’
‘Maybe we want a night tour,’ said Lena.
‘You might,’ said the girl. ‘But not on those boats. See all the pretty boys? You pay them and they serve you. The bedrooms are below. Sometimes they don’t even bother with bedrooms. These are the night pleasure boats.’
‘Oh.’ Lena coloured.
Trig grinned. ‘We’re not interested.’
‘I know,’ said the girl. ‘You want my boat. Taxi service only. Take you around the castle and then on a tour of the bay. Drop you back here or at the castle marina if you’d rather. Twenty-five lira.’
‘Seems a little steep,’ said Trig.
‘I also saved you from the night boats.’
‘What if we had wanted the night boats?’ Trig asked curiously.
‘Then I would have recommended my friend Akbar’s fine vessel. It is the most orderly of all the pleasure yachts because he does not allow drug taking or unruly behaviour on board. Nor does he drug your drinks and steal all your money, unlike some.’
‘What a gentleman,’ said Lena. ‘And your taxi is where?’
‘Down here.’
The girl’s water taxi was in fact a decent-sized cruiser. ‘I have lifejackets,’ she told them as she hopped nimbly into it, grabbed at a rope and started manoeuvring the cruiser towards a nearby ladder, attached to the wharf. ‘My pilot’s licence is legitimate. Twenty lira, because I like you. And I’ll tell you stories about Bodrum night life along the way.’
Lena glanced at Trig. ‘Means I don’t have to walk to the castle. I’m good with this.’
‘How are you going to get into the boat?’
‘Slowly. Possibly with your help. As in you go first and then when I look like I’m going to fall, you catch me. It’s all part of my asking-for-help-if-I-need-it plan. You like this plan, I hasten to add.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because you said so.’
‘You remember that?’
Lena frowned. ‘Not as a specific memory. More of a general knowledge thing. Why? Am I wrong? Are you on a quest to make me more independent?’
‘No.’ The girl bumped the boat against the ladder. Trig climbed down and drew Lena down after him, hands to her waist as he lifted her from the ladder into the cruiser. ‘You want help, I’m your man.’
‘Nice,’ said the girl approvingly, and winked at Lena. ‘What’d you do to your leg?’
‘Stuffed it,’ Lena said. ‘And the hip. And parts of the spine.’
The girl started the motor. ‘You should sit. I’ll go slow. Even when I’m out of the marina.’
‘Do me a favour, and don’t,’ said Lena, coming to stand by the girl. ‘I’m thinking of buying a speedboat. I want to feel how my body holds up to a bit of speed.’
‘You got it,’ said the girl, and when they cleared the marina and turned towards Bodrum castle she gunned it. Lena stood beside her, one hand on the back of the pilot’s seat and the other on the top of the windscreen.
She
