He nodded.
“I’ll open the bottle for you.”
The second she put two pills on the tray, he popped them in his mouth and drank some water. Then he started in on the stew. She smiled to watch the way he practically gobbled it down.
“Ah-h…you’ll never know,” he whispered when it had disappeared.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it. There’s more if you want it.”
He darted her a glance. “How about in a half hour?”
“So it’s going to be like that is it?”
His half smile turned her heart over. “I have a big appetite as you’re about to discover. While I drink this nectar, why don’t you bring me the blue folder on my desk.”
Terri found it right away.
“Pull up a chair next to the bed. There’s something I want to show you.” When she’d done his bidding, he handed her an elaborate brochure. “I could tell in the car you were dying to ask questions. This should answer some of them.”
For the next twenty minutes she became fully engrossed in a description of the ship and its purpose.
The Spirit of Atlantis is a literal floating city that will travel the globe for years to come. Besides offering an international consortium of businesses, conference rooms, manufacturing plants and warehouse storage, everything is free of income, sales and duty tax.
Families will live in beautiful residential homes they own outright. Other amenities are satellite TV and telephones, schools, a library, a first-class hospital, fire department, police department, duty free shopping centers, supermarkets, banks, post office, restaurants, cafés, theatres, chapels, a concert hall, recreational and gym facilities with a track, swimming pools, tennis courts, a hand-ball court, beauty salons, a park, a florist, an airport and heliport to ferry passengers and guests to and from various coastal cities around the world.
The concept was mind-boggling. Terri turned to the section that showed the layout of the ship. Further on she read about the golf cart type vehicles used by residents to get around if they didn’t want to walk everywhere.
She finally put the brochure down. When she lifted her eyes, she discovered that the mastermind behind this phenomenal enterprise had been watching her reaction with great interest.
“T-this is overwhelming,” she stammered, still trying to take it in. “How long was it your dream before you turned it into reality? No—” She jumped to her feet and took the tray from him. “Don’t answer that. Your throat needs more time to heal. I’m going to get settled in the other room, then I’ll be back to check on you.”
“Terri?”
“Yes?” she called to him from the doorway.
“Thank you. Tomorrow I’ll take you to the place where the accident happened. I’m sorry that I didn’t feel up to it today.”
A wave of guilt washed over her before she slipped away to do some housekeeping chores. Since he’d appeared at her hotel room door this morning, she’d all but forgotten about Richard, let alone the reason that had brought her to Ecuador in the first place.
Ben clearly needed a lot of sleep because he didn’t waken until six that evening. Knowing a liquid diet wasn’t going to do it for him, she heated up the contents of some baby food for his dinner. Besides carrots and beans, she made mashed potatoes that would slither down his throat without effort.
When she took him the tray, he wolfed everything down in record time. After two helpings of potatoes which he praised, plus three bowls of ice cream, each a different flavor, he declared he was full. She gave him two more pills and told him to go back to sleep.
To her relief, the next time she peeked in on him, he was dead to the world. She supposed there was nothing like being home in your own bed. Careful not to make a sound, she put away the pajamas and robe she’d run through the washer and dryer. Worried that the room might be too cool, she covered him with the quilt and turned off his reading lamp.
After cleaning up the kitchen, she switched off lights and headed for the guest bedroom. In case he needed something in the night she purposely kept both their doors open.
Her shower felt good. When she’d prepared for bed, she wandered over to the window which gave out on a view of the coast in the far distance. She didn’t know what floor they were on, but they had to be high up.
Normally you wouldn’t think of a shipyard as being beautiful. But because it was night, the place looked exactly like a port city whose twinkling lights glinted on the water.
She rubbed her arms as if to remind herself she wasn’t dreaming. It didn’t seem possible she was on a floating city down in South America, getting ready to go to bed in a room next to a man who was neither her husband nor her fiancé.
Her thoughts flicked to Richard. The idea of working on a ship like this must have thrilled him as nothing else could have done. He’d probably dropped whatever he was doing back in the States to be a part of it.
Tomorrow Ben would supply the answers to questions about her ex-husband she hadn’t yet asked. Terri sensed there was an unfavorable story to be told. Too bad it wouldn’t come as any surprise to her.
Expelling a deep sigh, she climbed into the queen-size bed. No sooner had she turned off her bedside light than the phone rang. Afraid it would waken Ben, she picked it up after the first ring and said hello.