Natalie bit her lip in dismay when she realized she couldn’t decide which of Dom’s multiple personalities appealed to her most. They were all equally seductive, and she had the scary feeling that she was falling a little bit in love with each one of them.
Lost in those disturbing thoughts, she didn’t see they’d emerged onto a broad boulevard running parallel to the Danube until Dom pointed out an impressive complex with an elaborate facade boasting turrets and fanciful wrought-iron balconies.
“That’s Gellért Hotel. Their baths are among the best in Budapest. We’ll have to follow Dr. Kovacs’s advice and go for a soak tomorrow, yes?”
Natalie couldn’t remember if she’d been to a communal bath before. Somehow it didn’t seem like her kind of thing. “Do the spa-goers wear bathing suits?”
“In the public pools.” He tipped her a quick grin. “But we can book a private session, where suits are optional.”
Like that was going to happen! Natalie could barely breathe sitting here next to him fully clothed. She refused to think about the two of them slithering into a pool naked.
Hastily, she shoved her thoughts in a different direction. “How far did you say it was to where I left the rental car?”
“Gyür’s only a little over a hundred kilometers.”
“And Pradzéc, where I crossed over from Austria?”
“Another sixty or seventy kilometers. But the going will be slower as we get closer to the border. The road winds as it climbs into the Alps.”
“Where it reaches Karlenburgh Castle,” she murmured.
She’d been there. She knew she’d been there. Dom claimed the castle was nothing but a pile of tumbled rock now but something had pulled Natalie to those ruins. Even now, she could feel the tug. The sensation was so strong, so compelling, that it took her some time to let go of it and pay more attention to the countryside they passed through.
They zipped along the M1 motorway as it cut through the region that Dom told her was called Northern Transdanubia. Despite its bloody history as the traditional battleground between Hungary and the forces invading from the west, the region was one of gentle hills, green valleys and lush forests. The international brown signs designating a significant historic landmark flashed by with astonishing frequency. Each town or village they passed seemed to boast an ancient abbey or spa or fortified stronghold.
The city of Gyür was no exception. When Dom pointed out that it was located exactly halfway between Vienna and Budapest, she wondered how many armies had tramped through its ancient, cobbled streets. Natalie caught only a glimpse of Old Town’s battlements, however, before they turned north. Short moments later they reached the point where two smaller rivers flowed into the mighty Danube.
A double-decker tour boat was just departing the wharf. Natalie strained every brain cell in an effort to identify with the day-trippers crowding the rails on the upper decks. Nothing clicked. Not even when Dom turned into the parking lot and parked next to the motorized matchbox she’d supposedly rented in Vienna almost two days ago.
Dom had arranged for a rental agency rep to meet them. When the agent popped the trunk with a spare set of keys a tingle began to feather along her nerves. The tingle surged to a hot, excited rush the moment she spotted a bulging leather briefcase.
“That’s mine!”
Snatching the case out of the trunk, she cradled it against her breasts like a long-lost baby. She allowed it out of her arms only long enough for Dom to note the initials embossed in gold near the handle…and the fact that it wasn’t locked. Her heart pounding, she popped the latch and whooped at the sight of a slim laptop jammed between stacks of fat files.
“This must be yours, too,” the rental agency rep said as he lifted out a weekender on wheels.
She didn’t experience the same hot rush when the ID tag on the case verified the case was, in fact, hers. Maybe because when she opened it to inspect the contents they looked as though they belonged to an octogenarian. Everything was drab, colorless and eminently sensible. She tried to pump herself up with the realization that she now had several sets of clean undies in her possession. Unfortunately, they were all plain, unadorned undies that Kiss Kiss Arabella wouldn’t be caught dead in!
A check of the vehicle’s interior produced no purse, passport, ID or credit cards. Nor was there any sign of the glasses Dominic insisted she hadn’t really needed. They must have gone into the river with her. Hugging the briefcase, she watched as Dom transferred the weekender to his own car and provided a copy of the police report to the rep from the rental agency. In view of her accident and injury and the fact that there was no apparent damage to the vehicle, the rep agreed to waive the late return charges.