The Night Angels series was one of his favorites. And he dearlylovedto hear Mia read aloud. But if he was being honest, he had an ulterior motive. They were nearly to a sex scene.
He’d been waitingweeksto hear her read aloud one of P.J. Warren’s sex scenes, because the author wrote wonderfully explicit ones. And Mia had a phone sex operator voice that was sure to turn the prose into pure porn for the ears.
Plus, you know, maybe a sex scene will lead to sex, which will lead to hotter sex, which will lead to dirtier sex.
See? Single-minded. Single. Fucking. Minded.
Emphasis on the fucking.
Mia didn’t say anything. Her answer was to push to a stand so she could retrieve the novel, and Romeo barely contained his grumble of satisfaction.
His eyes glued themselves to the sway of her hips and her perfect heart-shaped butt as she made her way to the watercraft. And when she bent over the side of the life raft? There was no way he could stop the growl of hot-blooded hunger. It came up from the very depths of his being.
“Yo, Casanova,” Doc called to him. “What the hell are you doing?”
Slinging wood like a damned lumberjack, he thought. Aloud he said, “What do you mean?”
Doc’s mouth flattened into a straight line. “Youknowwhat I mean. What the hell are you doing with Mia? Before, you did a pretty good job of hiding that you’d like to eat her whole. But the last couple of hours you’ve been staring at her like she’s a bottomless bowl of Bran’s pasta and you’ve been wandering in the desert for the past three years.”
Shit. After the way Doc had been coming on to their lawyer, and after Mia had assured him that she and Doc were only friends, Romeo had forgotten Doc’s words back at the airport. Maybeconvenientlyforgotten?
Now they came screaming back to him.
“What if Iwasserious about starting something real with her?”
Rubbing a hand through his hair, he winced. “You were just winding me up back at the airport, eh? You weren’t serious about starting something with—”
“Of course I wasn’t serious,” Doc scoffed, and Romeo let loose with a windy breath of relief. “But the fact remains, you haven’t suddenly become someone you’re not, right? And neither has she?”
“Don’t worry,” he assured Doc, unable to stop the grin that stretched his mouth wide now that there really,reallywasn’t anything standing between him and the woman he craved more than his next breath. “I was wrong about her. She’s not looking for forever. She’s like me. So it’s all good.”
Doc leveled a look on him. “Famous last words.”
Before Romeo could answer, Mia returned and he forgot what he’d even wanted to say. One look at her pretty face, at the way she tentatively bit her lip and offered him a small, secretive smile, melted every single one of his brain cells.
“Fine,” he heard Doc mumble. “Go on and be a couple of fools. But leave the gun.”
Thatwas enough to drag Romeo’s gaze from Mia’s mouth and get the ol’ synapses firing. “What?” He frowned at Doc. “Why?”
“Because we still don’t know if someone is out to kill us. And something tells me you’re going to be distracted from guard duty.”
“Actually,” he said, “the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’m convinced that if itwasan explosion that took out the Otter’s tail section, it was likely planted back at the airport. Some sort of timed device or altitude trigger or something. Whoever tried to off us—”
“If, in fact, someonedidtry to off us,” Cami interrupted, ever the lawyer. “We still don’t know that for sure.”
“Point taken.” He canted his head. “Ifsomeone tried to off us, then theallegedassassins”—he looked to Cami and she gave him a thumbs-up—“probably assume their plan worked. LT has no doubt alerted the authorities. I bet our disappearance is all over the local news. If there was a bomb, whoever planted it is probably back on dry land congratulating themselves on a job well done. I’d say we’re safe out here.”
“Yeah.” Doc nodded. “Makes sense. Still, you better leave me the gun. Because you’re not going to need it, and I just might.”
Romeo cocked his head. “For what?”
“To shoot our lawyer if she keeps using her sharp tongue to take strips out of my hide. Obviously.”
“Oh, ha, ha.” Cami slapped Doc’s uninjured shoulder.
Before the two of them could dissolve into another round of flirting ill-disguised as insults, Romeo pulled the Glock from the back of his jeans and passed it to Doc without another word of protest. Arguing with Doc was always good for chucks and yucks, but therealfun was to be found elsewhere.
Elsewhere being anywhere that included Mia. Alone with him. And preferably naked.
