The bed – the enormous, luxurious bed – was covered in deep red rose petals. On a table at the side of the room stood an ice bucket containing a bottle of Dom Perignon, as well as two champagne glasses, and a massive hamper containing every kind of food under the sun.
Beside all of this was a note on the same thick, expensive-looking paper as the envelope they’d received earlier, the text inked in a swirling, precise hand. His hand definitely didnotshake as he picked it up.
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Richardson,
Congratulations on your recent nuptials! We here at Burr Island Resort wish you all the best for your married lifetogether, and hope that you have a wonderful honeymoon, with our compliments.
~The staff at Burr Island Resort.
Rhys placed the card carefully back down on the table. He stared ahead at the wall for several long seconds.
Michael. I willmurderyou.
His hand twitched as he readied himself to call up that son of a bitch and unleash hell on him, asleep or not, but he forced himself to pause for a second, taking a slow breath in and out.
The last thing he needed to do was have a yelling match with Michael while Maisie was here, trying to take a well-deserved holiday. She didn’t deserve that kind of shit. And anyway,hewanted to have a break as well. As cathartic as yelling at Michael would be, surely hanging out on a beautiful island with his gorgeous mate was the better way to spend his time?
He took another slow breath, then forced himself to turn around to face Maisie. Somehow, her being flustered made her look even more gorgeous, if that was possible, her cheeks pink and her eyes wide. Her mouth moved, but no words came out.
“Let’s not worry about Michael’s bullshit,” he said, trying to sound indifferent. He thought he mostly succeeded. “We can clear this stuff off the bed, and I can sleep on the sofa –”
“No!” said Maisie vehemently, before slapping her hand to her mouth for a moment. “I mean, there’s plenty of room for both of us. You don’t have to sleep out there.”
Rhys’s griffin was practically doing loop-the-loops of joy in his head, and Rhys pushed it down… though he felt like doing some loop-the-loops of his own, if he was being honest with himself.
“We can sort out the specifics later,” he said. “For now, how about we just have a look around the rest of the room?”
Maisie nodded quickly, her head bobbing up and down. “Sure! Sounds good.”
The rest of the apartment was just as fancy as the bedroom – a kitchenette, though Rhys suspected that they weren’t expected to actuallyuseit, a large bathroom with an enormous spa bath, and a light, breezy loungeroom with a sliding glass door that led out to a large wooden deck, which in turn led directly to an enormous swimming pool, with the sea visible just beyond.
“Thatisfancy,” Maisie said appreciatively. “Swimming pool at your literal doorstep? This is like… the height of laziness. I like it.”
As much as Rhys thought of himself as being a pretty active guy, he did have to admit that the idea had some appeal. Jump into the pool with Maisie for a swim, climb back out and dry off on the sunbeds on the deck, pick her up and throw her over his shoulder, carry her back to that enormous bed…
He coughed. “Should we go for a swim?”
“I’d love to,” Maisie said, but then her face clouded. “Except that I don’t have anything to go swimmingin. And neither do you.” Her face went from cloudy, to taking on a decidedly pink tinge. “And. Uh. Not sure the neighbors would enjoy us skinny dipping.”
That’s not a problem,he didn’t say, though he really wanted to. The thought of going skinny dipping with Maisie was enough to drive him to distraction.
You should bathe nude with your mate, as nature intended!shrieked his griffin.Do you think that a griffin should concern itself with such prudish matters?!
“Well,” he said, reluctantly dragging his mind back to the topic at hand, “the least we can do is drain Michael’s credit card buying up whatever it is we need, since we have literally nothing. Do you want to go shopping?”
Maisie nodded fervently and then bolted, practically running out the front door. Rhys followed at a slightly more sedate pace, passing her one keypass and pocketing the other.
“Oh – sorry,” Maisie said, flustered. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” Rhys replied, and his voice soundedalmostnormal.
They made their way to the small shopping complex, and Rhys waited around in the atrium while Maisie flitted between shops, picking up everything she’d need for the next few days.
He hadn’t said anything to her about it, but he’d been a bit on edge when they’d been at Sydney Airport, and he was getting a bit of the same vibe now. Nothing to make his griffin particularly worried, but itwasa little antsy. It was hard for him to tell whether the griffin was just reacting to all the stress of everything that had happened recently, or showing its disgust with him for notdoing as nature intended,as it put it, with his mate, or if there was an actual danger lurking just at the edge of its perception.
In any case, Rhys wasn’t taking any chances. As much as he wanted to fully relax and enjoy this holiday, he wasn’t about to forget that there was definitely something weird going down, and he didn’t like it one bit.
He kept an eye out while he waited, his senses on high alert. There didn’tseemto be anything amiss – unless being surrounded by wankers with more money than sense counted as something being amiss – but that didn’t mean that there was nothing going on.
