“Excellent. Sounds like I didn’t need to pack my boots after all,” Nicole said.

Saad was surprised by her voice, a smoky alto that was sultry and intriguing. He could feel his obsession level rising. It had been a few years since he’d lost control to that mania, and when he did, it never ended well.

“Please, come. Let me show you my boat, including the walls where I just might need an artist’s touch.” He held out his arm to Alicia, who took it, and they walked toward the elevator. Nicole and Arash followed similarly linked.

“Cafala,” Alicia said. “Is that an Arab word?”

“No, but bahr is. It means ‘sea.’ Cafala is just the first two letters of each of my daughters’ names combined.”

“Oh, that’s sweet.”

Just before they entered the elevator, a steward stepped forward with four flutes of orange-pink champagne on a silver tray. He watched Alicia give a quick look to Nicole, who gave a small shake of her head.

Very interesting. She is not just the business partner. She also seems to be the bodyguard. Could she be more intriguing?

He leaned forward and said conspiratorially, “I know it can be a dangerous world, and one can never be too careful. Please, feel free to choose whichever of the glasses you would like. Then Arash and I will try ours first.”

Nicole smiled. “You are the first to make us that offer. One client near Sicily demanded that we leave his boat immediately because we wouldn’t drink whatever it was he offered us. Thank you.”

Nicole and Alicia each chose a flute, then waited as the men took the others and sipped their champagne.

“Let me extend that agreement to anything else I offer you, whether it be food or drink. I want you to feel this is a safe place.”

“Much obliged,” Alicia said, then added after sipping, “Oh, this is good. What is it?”

“Louis Roederer Cristal Vinotheque Rose 2000.”

Saad watched how the two women handled their champagne glasses. It was obvious to him that the Texan wouldn’t know a rosé from a noir. Nicole, however, held hers to the light, which gave her a clear view of the rare color and extra-fine bubbles.

“Please,” Saad said, motioning the group into the elevator, where the operator took them down a level.

For the next 40 minutes, he escorted them deck by deck, letting the women admire the seven bedrooms—each with its own balcony—the outdoor pool and the indoor pool, the spa room, the cinema, the vast kitchen and dining room, the crew quarters, and the bridge, where they met the captain and chief steward. He even took them down to the lowest deck so he could show off his garage with its two tenders for going to shore, its variety of playtime watercraft, and his mini-submarine.