Zuri glanced at Thao, leaning on the wall beside the door, her arms crossed, and Avery hanging on her shoulder.
Soleil shook her head, fatigue evident in her eyes and voice. “When I didn’t see you, I tried texting, but of course you didn’t take your phone. I looked down the hallway, waiting for you to magically appear––”
“She came knocking on our door to see if you were with us,” Avery interjected.
“I had to call hotel security!” Soleil continued, her gaze unwavering, her voice tense. “They checked the security camera, and saw you going past the elevators, but some stupid Christmas garland had fallen and blocked the view after that. And the next camera didn’t pick you up… It was like you just vanished!”
“Can you imagine what was going through our minds?” Avery’s voice was still laced with concern as she crossed the carpet and sat cross-legged at the foot of Zuri’s bed––a pile of mini candy canes and empty wrappers at her ankles.
“Jesus, Avery. How many of those have you eaten?” Zuri asked.
“You know I’m a nervous eater,” she said nonchalantly, scooping her candy horde back into the velvet pouch.
Soleil flailed her hands wildly in the air, her fingers splayed. “Zuri, they had people posted at all the exits while they looked for you.”
“Oh my god…” Zuri’s eyes bulged. “Are you serious? They did all that?”
“Of course they did all that,” Thao said, pushing off the wall, and dropping her weight onto the cream velvet sofa.
“This isn’t some seedy little hotel, Z,” Soleil snapped. “You think Hotel Andreas wants its name associated with a missing person’s case?”
Zuri plopped down on the sofa next to Thao, the full weight of the trouble she’d inadvertently caused settling over her. She buried her face in her hands. Sweet Jesus, they still smelled of Kyree—musk, chlorine, arousal. Pushing the salacious thoughts away, she dropped her hands, and took in the worry on her friends’ faces––guilt overshadowing the delicious memory of her guilty pleasure. They had been terrified enough to mobilize security, and had imagined god knows what terrible scenarios, all the while she’d been…
“So, out with it! Where were you?” Soleil tapped her bare foot on the carpet.
“I… um.” Embarrassment took precedence over everything else. Zuri knew that if the tables were turned and one of them had gone missing, she would have been worried sick. But she hadn’t been thinking about her friends or anyone else. The moment she’d spotted Kyree, looking so impossibly fine in his wet swim trunks, and water glistening on his skin, all rational thoughts had evaporated. With only one thing on her mind, she’d felt alive, and powerful, and…
She tucked her feet under her, unable to find the right words to explain the strong pull toward him, or the intensity of their connection. “I just––”
“Wait a second…” Avery’s hazel eyes narrowed to slits as they bore into Zuri, making Zuri feel like a deer caught in headlights.
Thao and Soleil watched Avery with impatience.
“Did you…” she continued, her chin dipping. “Zuri Harris, did you just have sex?”
Soleil and Thao’s heads snapped toward Zuri in perfect synchronization.
Soleil’s eyes widened as she took in the guilt-ridden expression Zuri was trying––and failing––to hide. “Oh. My. God.”
Thao clapped her hands to her mouth and immediately started to laugh––a high-pitched giggle that pierced the air.
“With who?” Soleil exclaimed, still clearly agitated from the whole ordeal.
“Who do you think?” Thao gasped between peals of laughter.
“What, that guy from L’Antra?” Soleil asked, her voice laced with disbelief.
“Aww, I knew there was something between you two,” Avery said dreamily, biting off the end of her candy cane.
Zuri watched her with incredulity. “How would you know? You never even met him!”
“I can read you like a book,” Avery insisted, wiggling her finger at Zuri. “I saw how you two were looking at each other, and your body language… I have a sixth sense for these things, and there was definitely something special happening.”
Zuri’s stomach twisted. She couldn’t deny that something had happened between her and Kyree––something that had made her chest ache and her throat tight, a mind-altering connection that had resonated with her very soul. But was ‘special’ the right word for it? No, no. It was just hormones. Physical attraction.
Come on, her heart taunted, you know full well it stopped being just hormones fifteen minutes in.
“Zuri Avalon Harris,” Soleil said slowly, her voice climbing with disbelief. “Do you mean to tell me that we went through all this just so you could get some? You disappear in a busy hotel at one o’clock in the morning, with some guy you don’t even know, just leaving us here to worry?” She glared at Thao, whose laughter was reaching peak levels. “Oh my god, would you stop it already!”
