Page 77 of Exit Strategy
“Oh?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“The way you looked at me just then…” I trailed off and he cocked his head.
“Like what?” he asked.
I smiled gently and said, “Like you were memorizing me, almost like to draw or paint me later.”
He laughed then and I grinned, but I quickly lost that grin when I said, “And I realized, I don’t even know, do you draw? Do you paint? What is it you love to do besides read?”
He looked down at me thoughtfully and finally said, “Go find a swimsuit, and let’s continue this discussion in the hot tub, yeah?”
I smiled and nodded, and he let me go.
I found a black one-piece in the wardrobe in here that Sadie had filled with some of her things that suited me. Meanwhile, Kurt found a pair of black-and-blue swim trunks amidst his things.
We both covered up with the thick white terrycloth spa robes that seemed to be on hand in every guest room or bathroom in the mansion, and it made me secretly wonder if they were there because our two hosts and one hostess spent a lot of time naked or what?
Truthfully, Sadie was the type that I could probably just ask, and she would tell me. I pictured of the three of them only Roan getting flustered.
Kurt and I wound our way through the expansive mansion, and I asked as we padded barefoot over marble floors and through plush, high-pile carpets, “What had you frowning so over your phone?”
“Oh, that was a good frown,” he said.
I laughed and asked, “How is any frown a good one?”
He chuckled and held the door for me to the back patio. The sun was starting to set, and even though we were on the opposite shore, and it wasn’t setting over the water but rather land, the sky was still a beautiful shell pink and yellow over the water as the sun dipped behind the mansion.
I slipped out onto the plateau of the back patio, raised and made of rock, the pool a lapis lazuli in the deepening shadow, the hot tub already frothing and lit. Kurt turned to the nearest camera and gave it a salute and I laughed.
“I was merely concentrating on some investments the captain took a liberty to make on my behalf with some of my cryptocurrency,” he said.
“Ah, wait… you don’t sound mad.”
“I’m not. He cashed out a substantial sum like I’d asked, and the few and small investments he made are already seeing gains. Some quite impressive gains. It’s hard to be mad about that.”
“Oh, I see.” I thought about it for a minute and said, “If we get out of this alive and I somehow manage to see any money from a divorce or whatever, maybe he could help me. I’m afraid I don’t exactly have any marketable skills. I’m afraid I don’t know how I’m going to survive in a world that I’ve never really been a part of, you know?”
He gripped my shoulders and looked at me, a small and almost, I don’t know… proud, smile on his lips?
“You asked me what I liked to do,” he said, and I nodded, untying the sash of my robe. He pushed back the thick, warm material and a breeze off the bay was brisk.
“Ooo!” I gave a slight shiver, and he held my hand and helped steady me as I stepped down into the steaming water. There was nothing for it. With a braid past my waist and hair to my knees when it was unbound, it was going to get wet, so I didn’t worry about it.
I sank into the water and sure enough, when I sat on the bench, it came up over my mouth and tried to invade my nose. Kurt slid in with a hiss and a sigh and sat down with some of the jets at his broad back and I drifted over to him. I slipped my arms around his neck and settled on his lap, the extra few inches keeping my neck to my shoulders out of the water.
“So, is this why you dragged me down here, Love?” he chuckled, and I giggled and shook my head.
“No, I mean, I sort of knew I needed you as a… shit. What do you call it? Um, tower seat?”
“High chair?” he asked, and I shook my head.
“No, a high chair doesn’t – booster seat! That’s the word for it!”
He nodded and shook his head at me, his expression charmed.
“Don’t change the subject,” I murmured. “You were just telling me…”
“Oh! Right, sorry, Love.” He massaged the back of my neck and craned his to kiss my temple.
