“Of course,” he said, and she laughed.
“Thank you,” she said, “and oh no, I’m so sorry.”
Ah, shit, the crowd was now waiting for her right outside of the ballroom doors.
“Fast or slow,” Rio asked, meaning did she want him to move her quickly around them, or did she want to stop and chat—for the next, oh, four or five hours, judging from the size of the horde.
“Fast, please, if you can.” Casey said. “I really want to get back to the room. I just... I... want to explain.”
“Yeah, you don’t have to,” he told her. “It’s cool.”
“But I want to,” she said, “and ugh, the thing with Jon was making me crazy and now that I know he’s safe...” She rolled her eyes. “Safer. Wow, I am so tired.”
They’d almost reached the door, and the crowd waiting outside seemed to pulse with renewed energy, so Rio raised his voice. “Hey team, Casey would love to stay and talk to you, but she’s gotta be up early, so I need you to help me out. Walk us over to the elevators, will you? Let’s get her upstairs as quickly as we can.”
Casey smiled at him as they immediately all moved like the largest diamond-pattern security detail in history, toward the lobby and the elevator banks. “You’re impressively creative,” she told him before turning toward the smiling faces surrounding her. “Thank you. Thank you so much. Oh, hey, Roger! Nice to see you! And oh, Sylvia! How are you?”
Damn, some of these folks probably attended every single SF con where Casey appeared. Dave had told him she did around a half a dozen of these things each year. Providing she wasn’t off on location or filming in LA. Still, it was equally extraordinary that she remembered their names.
“Hoo-yah,” Rio said as they reached the elevator, where a teenage girl with a pink streak in her hair had already pushed the up button and was holding the door open—and using her moto-booted foot to keep everyone else out. He spoke loudly enough so that his voice carried, giving a special nod to the girl. “Thanks, Team Casey. I’ll take it from here.”
Chapter Nine
“Are you hungry? We could get room service,” Casey said as she pushed open the heavy hotel room door.
“You really don’t have to take care of me.” Luc took her arm, gently keeping her from going inside first as he also flipped on the lights. “And I know you’re probably safe here, but it’s kinda my job to...”
He motioned for her to stay back by the still-open door as he did a quick check of the bathroom, opened the door to the tiny closet, then finally used the flashlight on his phone to look under the bed.
The big, giant bed, of which there was only one in this rather small room, damnit. The bed in which she was going to sleep with him—no, Casey corrected herself, she was going to sleep beside him, in a completely twelve-year-olds-having-a-sleepover way.
Yeah, Luc was beyond cute, with that dark, wavy hair that fell forward into his handsome face. And indeed, he was impressively fit, with all of those muscles in his arms and chest and back that she could gaze at and admire for days. And yes, the way his smile made his brown eyes sparkle and ignite, lit an answering fire in her belly and chest.
An inappropriate fire.
Because he was Dave’s. And even if she could, even if Luc were bi or pansexual or something unlabeled yet vagina-appreciative-inclusive, she would never, ever, ever even try to steal someone Dave loved.
Which was one of the reasons she’d been so glad that Jon had opted to fly up to Napa to visit their parents. Jon didn’t give a damn about never, ever, ever. In fact, Casey was starting to believe that he didn’t give a damn about much besides himself.
“All clear,” Luc told her now as he sat on the edge of the bed and took off his sneakers and his socks. “Whew.”
“You know, it would absolutely be fine tomorrow, if you sat down for—”
“No, no, no.” He cut her off. “That’s not the... Trust me, I can stand for days if I have to. My feet just get ridiculously hot.” He pulled a pair of well worn flip-flops from his bag. “I usually live in these.” He slipped them on. “Much better.” He smiled at her. “Really.”
“Okay,” she said. “But—”
“Nope. Are you hungry? Because I could go and get us something while you settle in.”
She didn’t miss his use of the word us. He was hungry. And she was, too. She pointed toward the room phone. “So let’s call for food.”
“If I go, it’ll probably be faster,” he said. “I was talking to one of the hotel staff, and he told me this time of night, during a con, it gets crazy. It’ll be worse because they’re down a kitchen due to the flood. He thought the wait would be around two hours tonight. If we’re lucky.”
Two hours...? “But you going down to the restaurant doesn’t change—”
“Which is why I was thinking pizza. I saw a place not too far from the resort, over by the Trader Joe’s...? I can call ahead, pick it up, along with a six-pack or—” Luc cleared his throat and laughed a little as he shook his head, as if he’d made a silly mistake “—a bottle of wine, maybe a nice red...? I could be back in thirty minutes. Bonus is you’d get thirty minutes of total alone time after today’s chaos.”
Chaos was a good word for it. And that was before Todd had appeared from out of the blue, damn him. Casey nodded. “Don’t get me wrong,” she told Luc. “I love you madly, but that, plus pizza and yes please, beer, would be amazing.”
