When they stayed mute taking in Brent’s and Cole’s scowls, I demanded, “Why don’t you people just eat, instead of staring at us since you don’t want to tell us what the hecks caught your undivided attention this time. Because, I gotta tell ya, it’s gettin’ mighty old.”
A tense pause.
Amazingly, it was Zane that broke the mold, trying to unruffle our feathers. “It was nothing. Never mind,” Zane rumbled calmly and apologetically, picking up his fork to finally start eating.
They all swiftly followed his lead, eyes averted from us.
I stabbed my meat and started sawing away at it, grumbling heatedly under my breath, “We didn’t do a darn thing.”
Cole’s hand slipped under the table, landing on my knee. He gentle rubbed him thumb back and forth, even though he was still glaring at everyone. Brent leaned over and kissed my temple between scowling at the crew. A few ticks passed before they decided no one was going to spout anything else off and both went back to their meals. I continued to hack into mine. Even with contented warm love shining inside me, I could still manage to get ticked off with the best of ‘em.
A few minutes later and half my chicken devoured, Stash started up a conversation about Park Technology to divert the restless silence that had descended over our table. I was happy for the reprieve. I still couldn’t figure out what had gotten their panties in a bunch this time, and I was tired of worrying about it. I might be able to figure most things out about other people, but something’s were still beyond me.
“They’re only in Orlando for one evening.” Stash took a sip of his amber liquid. Scotch, maybe. “They came here for Mr. Fresby’s party, but their flying out early tomorrow morning. When they saw we were here they asked if they could meet with our whole group to discuss a new project with one of their overseas locations.” A pause. “I think they said Sydney.” He shrugged and started moving around his green beans like a kid does to look like he’s eating them. Probably a childhood habit. One never entered his mouth. “Anyway, they thought we might spare them a few minutes since we’re all here. They were planning on contacting us this week to arrange something.”
Cole swallowed a bite of his chicken. “We might as well. It would save us from having to fly someone out there later.”
Stash pointed his fork at him. “That’s what I thought.” He grinned, playing with his food again. “Plus, their project manager in smoking hot. She’s got the biggest pair of…” He stopped abruptly, glancing around at the woman at the table.“Brains. You can tell she’s extremely intelligent.” He coughed and went back to scooting his food.
“Right,” Chloe drawled. “Just what every man notices the first time they meet a woman. Their intelligence.”
I groused, “Just like the only thing that catches a woman’s eye is a sense of humor.”
All the women around the table snickered and stared pointedly at their plates. I’m sure we were all envisioning what we really noticed first. I glanced at Cole’s and Brent’s laps and felt my lips tilt up. Both leaned back in their chairs, stretching their legs out and giving me a better view. Mmm. Yeah, splendid examples of what to look for.
Brent cleared his throat delicately. My head snapped up. His eyebrows raised slightly, a confident knowing smile gracing his handsome face, making him that much more attractive. My cheeks heated. I heard Cole chuckle quietly behind me. I glanced at him, and immediately back down at my plate. He had the same sensual knowledge glittering in his baby blues, tempting me to look my fill. Geez, can’t a woman ogle without being caught every once in a while?
“So it’s decided that we’ll meet with them?” Zane asked, pretending not to watch our by-play, but failing miserable. At least he didn’t comment.
“Sure. Plus, we’ve got that cruise we’re going on this week to work with their onboard staff for hostage and terrorist situations. The four of us won’t be available if they tried to set something up.” Brent shrugged.
I gaped, glancing back and forth between Cole and Brent. “You guys are going on a cruise?” I’m not sure how I felt about not seeing and being with them every night, but it was decidedly not a good feeling. I felt my eyebrows pinch together as my stomach turned and my chest tightened. Nope, not a great feeling at all.
Cole scowled at Brent, but then looked down at me, smiling gently. “Everyone’s going. Including you and Ally and Sam.”
“What?” I asked in surprise.
Brent laughed. “We were going to surprise you tonight.” He glanced at Cole with a sheepish air. “Sorry. It slipped.”
Cole grunted.
I squealed and hugged them. I’d never been on a cruise before. I had seen plenty of commercials and lots of people had talked about them in Daddy’s office, but we didn’t exactly go on family vacations. We didn’t exactly do a lot of anything fun. The most we ever did was take a road trip to the next “mark” I was scouting to take down. So, this…this was fabulous.
“She’s easily excited,” Sam stated, watching me kiss their cheeks.
Ally nodded, finishing the last of her glass of Champaign and rolling her eyes.
“You have no idea,” Brent joked calmly, but he was grinning at me like a man who knew every one of my carnal secrets. And he did. Green eyes danced over my face, heating and turning darker. His burning gaze ended at my lips, where it stayed as his tongue shot out, licking his bottom lip.
I stared unblinking at Brent, and Cole bent down behind me and placed a gentle kiss on my neck before nipping it covertly and laving it softly with his hot tongue. I blinked. This really wasn’t the place or the time. They could both sit here turning me on without anyone else noticing their sly actions, but I would end up flushed and looking exactly like what I was becoming. Aroused.
So, I jerked my attention back to our crew. They were all talking about Park Technology’s businesses around the world. I listened attentively while quietly slapping away Brent’s or Cole’s wayward hands that kept touching me in small but lethal doses. It was getting harder by the minute to listen to the others.
“Stop it,” I hissed quietly to them.
Both grinned with enough sensual mischief to have most women running…or jumping them right here and now.
Me? I just sighed and kept batting away their advances.
