For a long moment, they stood in the sand, frozen in time, kissing like long-lost lovers.
When at last Chase raised his head to take a breath, he leaned his forehead against hers.“I remember this.”
Alana stared at his chest, the sunglasses shielding her eyes.Finally, she shook her head.“I don’t remember any of this.”Then she stepped backward, out of Chase’s embrace.“We need to move on if we’re going to discover what happened before your midnight rendezvous.”She set out across the sand at a brisk pace.
Chase hurried to catch up.When he reached for her hand, she brushed his aside and kept walking.What the hell?He could not have been mistaken by her earlier response.Alana had returned the kiss with as much fervor as he’d given.What had he done wrong to deserve the cold shoulder now?
Alana charged ahead,determined to get to the bar, learn what they could and get the hell out of the mess they’d landed in.She couldn’t believe she’d married a stranger within hours of meeting him.Not only would her father go ballistic, but he’d also likely hire a hit man to take out the man who’d dared marry his daughter so quickly.He’d be convinced the man was after one thing only—Daddy’s money.
She’d have to remind her father that money alone didn’t ensure a marriage.Vance was proof of that.When it had come to the actual wedding ceremony, he’d skipped out with someone else rather than marry her.
Alana frowned.Or had her father paid him off?Had he paid Vance to skip out on her wedding and go off with the wedding planner?The moment the thought came to her, it left.No.Her father had approved of Vance.He’d pushed for the marriage as much as she had.
Her father would disapprove of Chase immediately upon meeting him.The fact he hadn’t had a hand in selecting him for his daughter would play a huge part in that disapproval.Dwayne Neal, a multimillionaire, liked to control every aspect of his daughter’s life.Perhaps that was why Alana liked Gina so much.Her father hadn’t chosen Gina to be her friend.They’d been friends since they’d met at a party in Honolulu.Gina had come as a guest of a guest.It galled her father that he didn’t know Gina and couldn’t find enough dirt on her to keep her out of Alana’s life.
Thank God, Gina had been there when her wedding day fell apart.Gina and her other friend, Kimo, had helped Alana out of her dress and into the red one, grabbed her suitcase and bundled her and Gina into a taxi before her father had arrived to berate her for letting Vance slip away.He would have found a way to make it her fault that her fiancé had eloped with the wedding planner.He never understood when people didn’t do what he expected of them.
Alana didn’t go to great lengths to displease her father, but she found a bit of backbone and a rebellious streak running through her veins when her father cinched the reins too tightly.Perhaps that was one of the reasons she’d gravitated toward the handsome SEAL.
Her father wouldn’t have liked her hanging out with a man trained in combat.A man he hadn’t met and couldn’t control.Yeah, Daddy would be livid when he discovered she’d married someone other than Vanishing Vance.
As they neared La Casa Loca, Chase hooked his arm through Alana’s and slowed her down.“We’re not in a race,” he reminded her.“We’re tourists coming in for a drink at the bar.”
Alana slowed her steps.“Right.Tourists.With a murderer wanting to off us for some reason we can’t remember.”She threw him a sideways grin, albeit a forced grin.“Got it.”
She liked the feel of his arm hooked in hers.Liked the hardness of his muscles against her body, and she wondered, not for the first time—and probably not the last—what it felt like to make love with him.Try as she might, she couldn’t remember.
But she had remembered his kiss.Her core coiled and heated.No woman could forget a kiss like that.That kiss fired up memories of a dance that had ended in a similar kiss.She remembered the fire in her veins as he’d spun her around the floor, the way his hips had moved to the rhythm of the music, and how he’d dipped her low to the ground, crushing his lips to hers in a searing kiss that had left her panties damp and her heart pounding to the beat of the Latin music.
Even as she walked into the bar, her heart thrummed to that tune in her head, firing up her nerves and making her pulse beat hard against her eardrums.
Once inside, Alana reached for her sunglasses.The dimness of the interior made it hard to distinguish between the shapes of people or furniture.
“Might want to keep those on.”Chase covered her hands with his and guided the glasses back onto her nose.“Your eyes are unforgettable.”
“You managed to forget them,” she reminded him.
“Yeah, but I was drunk.We can’t expect La Casa Loca staff to have been in the same inebriated state last night.We’re better off if they don’t know who we are.”
“If we don’t want them to know who we are, how will we ask about last night?”Alana asked.
“Leave it to me,” Chase said.He made a beeline for the bar and settled her onto a stool before sliding onto one himself.
The bartender took their orders and delivered a Salty Dog for Chase and a beer for Alana.
“I would’ve guessed you as a whiskey drinker,” Alana said.
“And I would’ve guessed more margaritas for you.”
“Normally, I would have a margarita.”She lifted a shoulder.“But after all the tequila I had last night...”She pinched the bridge of her nose.“My head still hurts.”
“And normally, I would drink a whiskey.But now that I’m out of the military, I have to watch what I drink.I figure grapefruit juice is healthy, right?”Chase lifted his drink and grinned.“And, like you, my head is numb from the tequila last night.”
Alana laughed.“The grapefruit juice might be better for you, but the vodka…not so much.”
The bartender drifted off to wait on another customer.He returned a few minutes later.“Anything else?”he asked while wiping the counter with a cloth.
Chase smiled at the short, meaty Hispanic man.“We heard there was some excitement here last night.”
