Second Honeymoon Part 2

Except maybe this. Yes, this had great potential. Something they could giggle about for years, a real honeymoon memory. Or, at the very least, a tremendous calorie burner!

"After you, my darling," said Ethan, opening the sauna door with good-humored gallantry. The Governor's Club was known for having spectacular master bathrooms, complete with six-head marble showers and j.a.panese soaking tubs.

Ethan promptly covered the bench along the back wall with a towel. As Abby lay down, he cranked up the heat, then ladled some water on the lava rocks in the corner. The sauna sizzled with steam.

Kneeling on the cedar floor before Abby, he reached into the ice bucket. A little foreplay couldn't hurt.

Placing an ice cube between his lips, he leaned over and began slowly tracing the length of her body with his mouth. The cube just barely grazed her skin, from the angle of her neck past the curve of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and all the way down to her toes, which now curled with pleasure.

"That's...wonderful," Abby whispered, her eyes closed.

She could feel the full force of the sauna's heat now, the sweat beginning to push through her pores. It felt exhilarating. She was wet all over.

"I want you inside me," she said.

But as she opened her eyes, Abigail suddenly sprung up from the bench. She was staring over Ethan's shoulder, mortified.

"What is it?" he asked.

"There's someone out there! Ethan, I just saw somebody."

Ethan turned to look at the door and its small gla.s.s window, barely bigger than an index card. He didn't see anything-or anyone. "Are you sure?" he asked.

Abby nodded. "I'm sure," she said. "Someone walked by. I'm positive."

"Was it a man or a woman?"

"I couldn't tell."

"It was probably just the maid," said Ethan.

"But we've still got the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door."

"I'm sure she knocked first and we didn't hear her." He smiled. "Given how long that sign's been out there she was probably wondering if we were still alive in here."

Abby calmed down a bit. Ethan was probably right. Still. "Can you go check to make sure?" she asked.

"Of course," he said. For a laugh, he picked up the ice bucket and put it in front of his crotch. "How do I look?"

"Very funny," said Abigail, cracking a smile. She handed him the towel from the bench.

"I'll be back in a jiff," he said, wrapping the towel around his waist.

He grabbed the door handle and pulled it toward him. Nothing happened.

"It's stuck. Abby, it won't open."

Chapter 3

"WHAT DO YOU mean the door won't open?"

In a split second, the smile had disappeared from Abby's face.

Ethan pulled harder on the handle, but the sauna door wouldn't budge. "It's like it's locked," he said. Only they both knew there was no lock on the door. "It must be jammed."

He pressed his face against the gla.s.s of the little window for a better view.

"Do you see anyone?" Abigail asked.

"No. No one."

Making a fist, he pounded on the door and shouted, "Hey, is anyone out there?"

There was no response. Silence. An annoying silence. An eerie silence.

"So much for it being the maid," said Abby. Then it dawned on her. "Do you think we're being robbed and they've locked us in here?"

"Maybe," said Ethan. He couldn't rule it out. Of course, as the son of a billionaire, he was less concerned about being robbed than being locked in a sauna.

"What do we do?" asked Abby. She was starting to get scared. He could see it in her eyes, and that frightened him.

"The first thing we do is turn off the heat," he answered, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He hit the Off b.u.t.ton on the control panel. He then grabbed the ladle sitting by the lava rocks and held it up to show Abby. "This is the second thing we do."

Ethan wedged the ladle's wooden handle into the doorjamb as though it were a crowbar, leaning on it with all his weight.

"It's working!" she said.

The door shifted on its hinges, slowly beginning to move. With a little more muscle Ethan would be able to-snap!

The handle splintered like a matchstick, sending Ethan flying headfirst into the wall. When he turned around, Abby said, "You're bleeding!"

There was a gash above his right eye, a trickle of red on his cheek. Then a stream. As a doctor, Abby had seen blood in almost every conceivable way and always knew what to do. But this was different. This wasn't her office or a hospital; there were no gauze pads or bandages. She had nothing. And this was Ethan who was bleeding.

"Hey, it's fine," he said in an effort to rea.s.sure her. "Everything's going to be okay. We'll figure it out."

She wasn't convinced. What had been hot and s.e.xy was now just hot. Brutally hot. Every time she breathed in, she could feel the sauna's heat singeing the inside of her lungs.

"Are you sure the sauna's off?" she asked.

Actually, Ethan wasn't sure at all. If anything, the room was beginning to feel hotter. How could that be?

He didn't care. His ace in the hole was the pipe in the corner, the emergency shutoff valve.