Immortal Unchained(64)
The new island is five times bigger than the little one we're now living on and, as far as I can tell, Ramsey is having a house built that is also five times bigger. He's building labs too, which is good if it means he won't have to stay at the university so late working in the labs there.
Fortunately, the new island is only half an hour away in the little fishing boat Ramsey purchased to motor back and forth. Well, it is when he pilots it anyway. I'm afraid I don't go as fast as he does and it takes forty or forty-five minutes if I'm alone. I prefer it when Ramsey takes me, but he's so busy preparing his classes and overseeing his student's labs that most of the decisions about the new house have fallen to me. That means that more often than not I have to make the trip myself to meet up with the contractor on the bigger island.
The big island isn't visible from the little island except on the clearest of days and even then it's nothing more than a shadow on the horizon, easily missed if you didn't know it was there. You can't imagine how nervous I was about piloting the boat my first time alone. I was sure I would miss the island and end up out in the middle of the ocean and out of gas. But Ramsey was so sweet and encouraging about it. He was sure I could do it, and did everything possible to make it easier for me. He marked the boat's compass at a point just between the twenty and thirty degree points and said to keep the boat headed in that direction and I would reach the island fine. And he was right! I could and did do it, and was ever so proud of myself afterward. Mind you, I still prefer him at the helm, but needs must and in this case we need the house done and ready before the baby comes and if it were left to him that would never happen.
Speaking of that, Maggie, I don't mean to complain, and I know he has to work, but I just didn't realize how much time Ramsey's work would take up. Most of the time I'm left alone out here on this little island with no one but our maid, Mrs. Reyes, to talk to and I'm afraid she doesn't know much English. On top of that, she is only here during the day when I often am not. Ramsey pays a local fisherman to bring her out and take her back to the mainland every night and some days I see her only in passing as she arrives and I leave or vice versa. But the nights are lonely. Ramsey often doesn't return from the mainland until bedtime and then he's too exhausted to do more than grunt "goodnight." It makes me long for home. I miss you so. I miss all my family and friends and I miss England. This isn't nearly the exciting adventure I thought it would be when I agreed to marry him and move here. But I'm hoping everything will change once the house is done and the baby is here. Then he can work in his own lab and spend time with the baby and me. I'm sure things will improve then. In the meantime, I-
Sarita lowered the letter with a frown. It ended there, rather abruptly too, obviously midthought. She supposed Dressler had arrived home from the university then and Mrs. Dressler had probably shoved the unfinished letter in the book, intending to finish it later, but never getting back around to it.
Slipping the pages back into the book, Sarita closed it and tapped her fingers on the cover, her mind churning.
Domitian rolled over and reached for Sarita, but found only sheets. Frowning, he opened his eyes and peered around the cocooned bed. He was alone. Turning onto his back, he stared up at the ceiling, only to find it was himself he was looking at. The ceiling was mirrored.
Damn, he hadn't known that was there, Domitian thought and examined his reflection. His short hair was spiked in spots, probably from Sarita pulling on it last night, but other than that there was nothing much to see. The scratches and hickies he was quite sure she'd given him were gone now, the nanos having erased every trace of what had happened in that bed last night, three times.
Well, unless you counted the mess the bed itself was in, he supposed. The duvet was gone, probably lying somewhere on the floor next to the bed, and the upper sheet was bunched up at the bottom of the bed. As for the lower sheet, it had come off on both upper corners and curled in toward his head and shoulders. That was all there was to see. Now if Sarita was there, he would have had a perfect morning view. He could kiss her awake and then if he laid on his side next to her, he could watch her face in the mirror as he caressed her body and gave her pleasure.
That idea was rather appealing, Domitian decided, sitting up. He'd take a shower, brush his teeth, run downstairs for a quick blood top-up, and then find Sarita and lure her back to bed.
It was a solid plan, and worked right up to the point where it came to luring Sarita back to bed. Domitian showered, used the razor he found in the drawer to shave, and then brushed his teeth before heading downstairs to suck back some blood. He heard banging from the kitchen as he passed through the living room from the bedroom door to the office door, and wondered what Sarita was doing but didn't stop to check. After draining four bags, he went back up, though, and straight to the kitchen, his nose twitching. There was a heavy stench of something burning in the air, and his footsteps slowed warily as he passed through the dining room to the kitchen.