“Someone should go in and look for her.” Romeo stared meaningfully at Doc.
Doc removed his arm from around Mia’s shoulders and Romeo ignored the relief that slammed into him like a wind shear. “Rock, paper, scissors you for it,” Doc said.
“Fine.” Romeo sighed and then grinned evilly when he beat Doc’s rock with his paper.
A protracted groan issued from the depths of Doc’s chest. “I’m the last one of us she should be meeting first, you realize. I hate lawyers. They’re non-carbon-based life-forms sent here to suck out all that is good and wholesome from us Earthlings.”
“Damn. Who told you that? Now someone will have to call the mother ship to have you abducted so all your orifices can be probed.”
All three of them spun at the sound of a woman’s voice. Doc sputtered, “Well...I...I’ll be dipped in shit,” at the same time Romeo called, “Good morning! Fancy seeing you here.”
The black-haired woman inclined her head in a regal-looking nod. “Good to see you again too.”
The night before, she’d been in vacation mode, wearing a sundress with her long hair cascading down her back. This morning, she was all business. Her hair was pulled back in a flawless bun, her figure was encased in a crisp, linen pantsuit, and her eyes were hidden behind a huge pair of black sunglasses.
“What are you doing here?” Doc demanded, looking more uncomfortable than Romeo had ever seen him.
Romeo coughed and stared hard at Doc, telling the man without words that his bald-faced question didn’t exactly place him in the running for the role of Prince Charming.
“Sorry.” Doc winced. “That was rude. How about I start with an apology for sneaking out on you this morning? I just figured after my lackluster performance last night, you’d probably prefer to wake up alone.”
“Doesn’t one actually have toperformin order for it to count as a performance?” Candy countered, her ruby-red lips twitching. “And you don’t have to apologize again. I got your one-word note.Sorry,” she quoted. “You’re very succinct when you want to be.”
Before Doc had a chance to answer, the woman let go of the handle of her rolling suitcase so she could thrust a hand toward Mia. “Hi. We haven’t met. I’m Camilla D’ Angelo. But you can call me Cami.”
“Mia Ennis.” Mia shook the hand offered to her, but her eyes were huge as she glanced between Doc and Romeo.
And there it was. That shadow of an ornery smirk.
“Very good to meet you, Mia.” Cami smiled, and Romeo knew his own eyes were flying as wide as Mia’s because the wind blowing across the tarmac had suddenly dried them out.
“I thought you said your name wasCandy,” he blurted.
“It was loud in the bar,” she explained, shifting her purse to her opposite hand. “And since I didn’t think I’d see either one of you again after last night, I figured it wasn’t worth the effort of correcting you when you misheard me. But speaking of confused identities...” Her eyebrows puckered over the frames of her sunglasses, “I thoughtyousaid your name was Romeo. And was I crazy, or did you tell me your name was Doc?” She turned to frown at Doc.
“My nameisDoc,” Doc grumbled, and damned if Romeo didn’t detect a flush staining the big man’s cheeks.
Cami frowned. “But Mr. Anderson told me I’d be meeting...” She pulled her cell phone from her purse and checked the screen. “One Mr. Spiro Delgado and one Mr. Dalton Simmons.”
“And LT toldusyou weren’t arriving in Key West until this morning,” Doc insisted, clearly mortified that the woman he’d tried—and apparently failed—to shag the night before had turned out to be their attorney.
“I decided to catch an earlier flight and get in one night of R and R.” Cami looked like she was biting the inside of her cheek. “Am I to assume that LT and Mr. Anderson are one and the same?”
“Just like Doc is Dalton Simmons and Romeo is Spiro Delgado,” Mia clarified quietly. “They all have nicknames.”
“Ah.” The lawyer nodded. “That would explain it then.”
“Oh, for shit’s sake.” Doc groaned. “I’ll just go sauté myself in shame now.” He turned and acted like he was going to slink away, but something stopped him. When he swung back, his expression had brightened. “Wait.” He lifted a finger. “This is perfect. I have the chance to redeem myself. You know, now that I’m sober.”
Cami pulled her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose and let her dark eyes rake over Doc’s form. “The problem with that is nowI’msober too.”
Doc’s toothpick hung drunkenly from his slack mouth. He wasn’t used to women who didn’t fawn over his strapping, long-limbed looks.
“Plus, I don’t mix business with pleasure,” the lawyer added with a careless shrug. “We’ll have to chalk up last night to anany port in the stormthing, and act like nothing happened. Because...nothing happened.”
Doc winced again. “You don’t have to keep rubbing it in.”
“Is that what I’m doing?” A smile played over the lawyer’s painted lips.
