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The decision to reserve a suite instead of a simple staterooant, since she was traveling alone Part of it had been pro that Rachel should do this vacation up right and travel in style, and part of it had been motivated by a desire to have uncrae in comfortable privacy

A landing divided the stairs halfway between each deck and split it into flanking arms that turned back on itself to rise to the next deck The landings, the turns, the lookalike foyers on each deck, began to confuse Rachel as she followed the steward Already cognizant of the size of the ship, she quickly realized that it would be easy to becoeways

Instead of relying solely on her guide, Rachel began to look for identifying signs so she would learn her route to the staterooain The striding steward didn’t give her ht

When they stopped cli stairs, the steward crossed the foyer and started down a long passageway The level was identified as the Pron indicating the range of cabin nu arrow

Her gaze was still clinging to the sign when she hurriedly started forward to catch up with the steward before she lost track of hi from the opposite direction until the very last second Rachel tried to stop abruptly and avoid the collision, but she had been hurrying too fast to completely succeed

Her forward ied slightly in anticipation of the iht her by the arms and reduced the collision to aher breath and now released it in a rushed apology

“I’aze upward

A half-forue enized the man from the limousine Only now his face was mere inches from hers The detail of his solid features was before her—the sun wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, the angled plane of his jaw and chin, and the sth of his mouth

Her pulse rate shot up as her glance flicked to his lazy brown eyes A se seemed to perpetually lurk behind their dry brown surfaces She felt it licking over her as his gaze absorbed her features from the tip of her nose to the curved bow of her lips and the ht blackness of her hair, then finally to the silver brilliance of her widened gray eyes

This flash of nition and close assessment lasted mere seconds On the heels of it ca this veryher Rachel went hot at the ht be able to read her thoughts She began to feel very stiff and aard

His hands loosened their hold on her ar his tan jacket, which he swung over his white-shirted shoulder, casually hooking it on a forefinger His shirt collar was open, exposing the tanned column of his throat

“I’ into hi sensation on her ar where I was going”

There was a lazy glitter in his eyes as his ood fortune”

She didn’t want him to come back with a re in her ears It only added to her discomfort in the whole situation Unable to respond to the casual advice, Rachel chose to ignore it

“Excusesince disappeared down the passageway She brushed hurriedly past the man and started down the corridor in the direction the steward had taken