Lei Me Down (7 page)

“I guess I’m lucky we didn’t have any better weapon than a DVD player on hand,” Luke said.

“You certainly are,” said Detective Harker. “I’ll leave you two to your recuperation. Thank you again for your help.”

“You’re welcome,” I said.

When Detective Harker left, I sat down on the edge of the bed and kissed Luke’s cheek.

“Poor Julie Columbus,” I said. “I’m so sorry she lost her husband…and also a good friend. I can’t imagine what she must be going through.” I shuddered. “I can’t even bear the thought of losing you. I was so terrified last night.”

“You sure didn’t act it,” he said. “You sprang into action, grabbing those furry cuffs and bondage tape.” He started laughing and then winced at the pain in his head.

“Are you okay? Do you need some of the pain medication the doctor prescribed?”

“No,” he said. “All I need right now is you.”

There came a knock at our door.

Luke sighed. “Correction. All I need right now is you and for everyone to leave us alone for a few minutes.”

“Shhh. Maybe it’s the De Marcos again.” They’d already been by the room once with breakfast. They felt responsible for Luke getting hurt—which was entirely ridiculous—and they wanted to pamper us.

I opened the door. Our visitor was the concierge.

“Hello, Mrs. Fontaine,” he said. “I have the item you requested.”

I smiled. “Your timing is perfect! Thank you so much!”

“May I come in please?” he asked. “I also have a package for your husband.”

“Of course.” I stood aside so the man could enter the room.

“Mr. Fontaine, I’m so sorry for your misadventure last night. Since your attacker was an employee of this hotel and you should have been afforded greater security, the hotel is comping your entire stay…including these two items we picked up at your and your wife’s requests.”

“That’s not necessary,” Luke said. “You had no idea what your waiter had been doing.”

“That’s true, but we should have. The hotel insists on your allowing us to purge your current balance and to allow the remainder of your stay to be at our expense.” The concierge cleared his throat. “We would, however, appreciate your signing this waiver stating that you hold the hotel harmless for your injuries.”

“Of course.” Luke struggled to hide a smile.

The concierge handed Luke the form and a pen. Luke signed and handed the paper to me.

I glanced over it. It was typical boilerplate legalese saying that we promised not to sue the hotel. I signed the form and returned it to the concierge.

When the man left, I turned to Luke. “He’s right, you know. The hotel
should
have had better security.”

“Water under the bridge,” he said. He nodded toward my package. “What did he bring you?”

“A gift for you.” I handed him the small box and peeped over his shoulder as he opened it.

Inside the white box was a black velvet hinged jewelry box. When Luke lifted the lid on the jewelry box, it contained a pair of gold cufflinks with a mother-of-pearl inlay featuring the silhouette of Sherlock Holmes.

He laughed. “Ah! Perfect! I love them…my dear Watson!”

“Hmmm…might you feel up to some kinky role play later?” We still hadn’t gotten to use the superhero and villain costumes I’d bought yet, but we could be Holmes and Watson too.

“I might,” he said. “First you need to open your present.”

“But, Luke, you already got me something!”

“This is something small…but something I hope will be meaningful.”

He handed me the long, rectangular box the concierge had brought him. I opened it and found the triton shell I’d picked up on the beach. Luke had had it made into a pendant.

“I love it,” I said. “It’s beautiful.”

“
You’re
beautiful.”

I kissed him and ran my hand tenderly along his cheek. “So what now?”

“Well, I’m looking forward to that role playing thing you were talking about.”

“After that,” I said.

“Tomorrow we’re going island hopping,” he said.

“If you’re up to it.”

“I’ll be up to it. I took worse hits than that when I played football in college.”

“Would you mind if I wrote up our adventure?” I asked. “I’ll change the names, of course, but I think we have an exciting story to tell.”

“Sure, you should write about it!”

I smiled. “If no one wants to buy it, I’ll start a blog. I think we’re gonna have a lot of adventures together.”

“You know it.” He smiled. “Too bad we don’t have costumes for this role playing gig.”

“We don’t have Holmes and Watson costumes, but we
do
have these.” I went to the bag and pulled out the superhero and villain costumes.

Luke laughed. “What are you waiting for? Get to your lair and get that on. The quicker you get into it, the quicker I can get you out of it.”

Suddenly I was sorry that the police hadn’t given back our furry handcuffs.

Selena Cooper lives in the southern United States and loves to hear from readers.

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