The Death of Me

12

I slowly opened my eyes, and stared out at the waves from my bed. It took a second, then two to notice Ricardo's arms around me.

I gasped so loud and tumbled right out of bed onto the floor. When I stood, he only let out a grumble. "What." He dryly said.

"Your arms! Keep them away from me you-you-" I paused when he opened his eyes a little and I saw the devil. "You demon!"

"You put your arms around me first."

"I did not!"

"Do you remember?"

I snapped my mouth shut. I didn't know why I was so angry, and so confused. His arms were so heavy and warm and...safe. I never thought I'd ever feel that way about someone I hate.

I clenched my jaw and stomped out of his room,  wanting to shower in the coldest water.

********************************************

"What did you do last night?" I cheekily asked Irina as we had breakfast in the cafe on the deck. "More like who did you do?" I joked.

"Rocco's a funny man. You know I'm a sucker for humour." Irina replied, whispering the last part. "What did you do last night?" She was the one with a cheeky grin now, and I sat silently waiting for her to forget she asked.

She raised her eyebrows and looked at me but I dismissed her. "You know I don't want to do that before marriage." i felt my skin growing hotter under the sun and hoped she couldn't tell where i was last night.

Irina was good at noticing lies, and i was the worst at telling them.

She stared me down for ten long seconds before i sighed. "I slept in Ricardo's room." I let out in one quick sentence as her mouth dropped open.

"You what?!"

"It was a deal okay? Its a long story, but I didn't do anything with him."

"You didn't do anything?" She raised a brow and i gave her a look of confusion.

"No. We didn't."

She narrowed her eyes.

"Irina."

She sighed and put her fork down before Rocco slid next to her.

"What are we talking about?" He asked.

"No one."
"Ricardo." Irina said. My lips fell apart.

"Speaking of." Rocco said before nodding his head to the railing where Ricardo stood leaned against it. He must have arrived now,  but he seemed lost in thought. So lost he didn't even notice the woman on the sun bed who removed her sunglass to gawk at him.

A bitterness made my look darken. Suddenly I wanted to know about what he was thinking of, and why he looked so distant. I hated it, I hated everything about him but still can't deny that he intrigued me.

*****

Irina and Rocco kidnapped me. They wanted to go to the waterpark on the third floor, only because they thought it'd be funny seeing me there, so they barged into my room and dragged me.

I guess if was a good way to spend the rest of day. Rocco went around pushing strangers into the water and ran from the lifeguard. It resulted in the cruise security guards getting involved, but he made them chase his brother instead who looked a lot like him from the back.

Uncle was not happy.

***************

"You kids have had enough rest from missions for the month we've been here." My uncle lectured, walking around Irina's doom. "Your missions will start tomorrow." He lifted up his finger and Gianni shook his head. Those two were joined at the hip at this point.

"Oh and we're going to meet Giovanni Mancini, the owner of this cruise and the underboss of the Mexican mafia." He continued, whispering his last words. My eyes met with Ricardo's across the room. He stood leaned against the dresser, face still in a light scowl from being chased by security guards he apparently slammed to the ground.

"When?" I stood up.

"Now. So go - fix yourselves."

Of course we did as we were told. I washed the waterpark chlorine off of my face, applied some makeup and brushed out my wet hair. It was a dinner with Giovanni, so I put on a dark blue dress which stopped just above my knees and perfectly accentuated my figure.

I strapped on some black heels and went outside on the main deck to meet up with the rest of my family, waiting for them to stop their bitter argument over a misplaced shoe.

"My wife looks stunning." A deep, husky voice spoke out from behind me, and I didn't even have to look to know it was Ricardo.