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Chapter 28

“So much for girls’ weekend.”

Toni stretched her arms and legs, snuggling back into the warm cocoon that was Lawrence.

“The alternative isn’t so bad now, is it?”

Last night, after their epic sexfest in the hot tub, they’d come back to the room he’d rented. Her things had already been brought over from the room she’d shared with Alessandra. She’d teased him about being presumptuous, silently thanking her friend for her presumed intervention.

A knock landed on the door. Toni watched in admiration as Lawrence jumped from the bed. When he reached for the door, completely nude, she squealed in protest. As little as she wanted him to hide his beautiful body, their visitor was either Alessandra or a resort employee, and in either situation, nudity wasn’t appropriate.

Laughing, he slipped on his boxers and grabbed his wallet from the nightstand. Room service it was. She didn’t hear what was said—she didn’t have super hearing—but he emerged from the doorway with a tray.

Closing the door behind him, he said, “Come on, sleepyhead,” and nodded toward the glass doors at the other end of the room. Then he brought the tray outside, where a view of the mountain range awaited them on their private patio. Little surprise, the room he’d rented was an upgrade, one of the nicest in the resort.

By the time she brushed her teeth and joined him, Lawrence had already poured tea for her and coffee for himself. He sat in one of two lounge chairs eating a blueberry muffin.

The scene was so very . . . ordinary.

It occurred to her that she’d never seen Lawrence more relaxed than he was at this moment. Almost like a different man . . .

Plopping down into the seat beside him, she pulled her hair on top of her head and reached for a packet of sugar.

“No need, sugar and cream already in there,” he said. Eyes twinkling, he added, “I know the way you like it.”

Did he ever.

Sore, contented, and slightly nervous about the talk they were about to have, Toni sipped her tea and waited for Lawrence to start.

“I was a total asshole.”

He didn’t need to clarify.

“Yes, you were.”

“I thought—”

“I get what you were trying to do, Lawrence. But it didn’t make it any easier. As if I could ever hate you.”

She stared at the regret welling in his beautiful green eyes.

“That doesn’t make it any more acceptable,” he said. “I am sorry for all that I said that day.”

“I know you are.”

Reaching toward the table between them, she snagged a piece of bacon from the tray, which included scrambled eggs, home fries, and two chocolate croissants in addition to the muffin in his hand.

“So what happened after you left?”

Putting the muffin back on the tray, he swung his legs around the edge of the lounge chair toward her. He took her free hand and held it.

“I went to the airport, prepared to meet up with Laria and Torr.”

“Prepared? Does that mean—”

“I never went.”

Never went? Then where the heck had he been . . . All this time, she’d assumed he was running after the rogue Cheld.