Gnawing at her bottom lip, she followed the guests out to the air-conditioned buses that would take them to the airstrip. Then climbed in with them.
* * *
‘Where the hell is she?’ Ari demanded for the fifth time. The concierge manager paled and reached for his phone again.
‘I’m sorry, sir, but we think she may have joined one of the guest events.’
‘You think? Try her phone again.’
The manager hurried to do his bidding. When he shook his head regretfully, Ari curbed the need to punch a hole in the desk.
‘Giving your staff hell?’ came a droll voice from behind him.
‘Not now, Sakis.’
‘Why? What’s wrong?’
‘I’m trying to find Perla. No one’s seen her in the last hour.’
‘And this is worrying because...?’
Ari pursed his lips. ‘She’s supposed to be at the villa, having lunch.’
He looked up as the assistant manager hurried forward. ‘Mr Pantelides, I’ve just been told by one of the drivers that Mrs Lowell joined the sky-diving guests.’
For a moment, he couldn’t compute the information. ‘She what?’
The voices that responded were drowned out by the blood thundering in his ears. When his arm was grabbed in a firm hold and he was propelled down a hallway, he did not protest.
He heard a door shut behind him seconds before Sakis pushed him into a seat.
‘Talk to me, Ari. What the hell is going on?’
He speared both hands into his hair and tried to stem the terror rushing through him. ‘It’s probably nothing. She can’t possibly have gone sky-diving...’
‘Yeah...that’s what your man said.’
He tried to swallow. ‘Well...she can’t have.’
‘Why not? If she’s qualified—’
‘Sakis. She’s pregnant.’
His brother’s mouth dropped open seconds before the colour leached from his face. They both leapt for the phone on his desk but Ari was quicker. ‘I need your fastest driver out front in the next ten seconds.’
Sakis wrenched the door open. They passed Theo in the hallway and one dark look from Ari and his brother stemmed whatever wisecrack he’d been about to utter.
In silence, he fell into step beside them.
The journey to the airstrip was the longest of Ari’s life.
Horrific scenarios he couldn’t stem tumbled through his mind and the fingers that continually clawed through his hair shook uncontrollably.
Brightly coloured parachutes slowly loomed into view as their SUV roared down towards the designated area on the edge of the parachute landing site.
Theos, surely she hadn’t...
Ari was out of the car before it’d come to a screeching halt. He heard the thunder of running feet behind him as his brothers followed him.
One by one he watched the eight parachutes drop lower, his heart hammering as he rushed from one to the other.
None of them were Perla.
‘Ari?’ He whirled round to find her stepping down from the air-conditioned bus, Selena Hamilton following behind her. Relief was followed closely by volcanic anger. This time, there were no feet thundering behind him as he sprinted to the bus.
He skidded to a halt in front of her. She started to speak. ‘Not. One. Word.’
Her mouth dropped open. Without giving her a chance to respond, he swung her up in his arms and marched her to the SUV parked a hundred yards away.
‘Out,’ he growled. The driver jumped out and held out the keys. He placed her in the passenger seat, secured her seat belt and ignored his brothers as he got in and slammed the door.
‘I’m guessing we have to find our own ride back?’ Theo quipped to Sakis.
Ari turned the ignition and peeled out of the airstrip, his heartbeat a deafening roar in his ears.
The journey to the villa took less than ten minutes. This time he didn’t help her out. He headed straight into the villa and sought out the butler.
‘I want you and your staff to take a break. Don’t return until I tell you to.’
He returned to the living room to see the staff hurrying out and Perla standing in the hallway, her face pale and her teeth worrying her lower lip.
‘Ari, please. You’re scaring me.’
He threw the car keys across the room and watched them hit the wall and bounce on the marble floor.
‘I’m scaring you?’
Her arched brows spiked upward. ‘Can we try less snarling and more coherence?’
‘You left the resort without telling anyone, without telling me. I thought you’d gone sky-diving!’