Ride the Tide (Deep Six #3) - Julie Ann Walker Page 0,58
former.
“You realize you have an ego the size of a whale shark. Right, Romeo?” Chrissy asked.
Romeo waggled his eyebrows. “It’s not the only thing on me that’s oversize.”
“Oh, for crying out loud,” Wolf grumbled.
Chrissy shook her head and then turned her sea-blue eyes on him. Right on cue, his stomach squeezed painfully and his blood ran hot. “Are you ready, then? Or do you need to grab a toothbrush or something?”
“We’re headed back to your room?” His voice came out like the wind over the plains, dry and crackling.
“You didn’t think I’d stay in there”—she jerked her chin toward the room behind him—“with both of you. That would be”—she curled her upper lip and landed on—“weird.”
“No.” He shook his head. Although, the truth was he hadn’t been thinking much of anything besides Me! Me! Pick me! “I already brushed my teeth. I’m good to go.”
“I’m sure you are.” Romeo smirked.
Wolf responded by stepping into the hall and slamming the door in Romeo’s face.
As Chrissy made her way down the hall to her room, Wolf kept close beside her, studying her pretty profile. There was a skip in his step, and a lightness to his heart that’d been missing since that night he went and screwed everything up. He couldn’t stop the happy smile that curved his lips.
“Have you ever wondered,” she began and then did a double take when she saw his face. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Have I ever wondered what?” he asked.
“Nope.” She shook her head, which caused a lock of hair to fall over one eye. He lifted his hand to tuck it behind her ear. Unfortunately, she beat him to it. “Why are you looking at me like that?” she demanded.
“Don’t know.” He shrugged. “Just happy, I guess.”
Her eyes narrowed. “We are not having sex.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. Can’t a man be happy about spendin’ a sexless night with a woman he likes and admires?” He waited a few seconds before adding, “After all, snugglin’ is nice too.”
She was in the middle of swiping her keycard in the lock, and her spine snapped straight. “We’re not snuggling either.”
“Fine.” He lifted his hands. “Sleepin’ in the same bed with a pillow fort built between us.”
She searched his eyes, and he tried his best to look innocent. He wasn’t sure if he succeeded, because she harrumphed. But she did open the door, and then…
He was in! Inside her hotel room! For. The. Duration.
He would never have guessed when it started that this would turn out to be the best night of his life.
* * *
11:50 p.m.
A knock on the door had Izad jumping to his feet, his heart a wild thing in his chest. His mind silently screaming one word. One name. Kazem!
Was it possible his son had returned to Key West? Had he lost his burner phone in the melee, and that’s why he didn’t call them once he got within cellular tower coverage?
Hope was a flame inside Izad’s heart. It burned as brightly as the fires at the festival of Sadeh. But it guttered and died when Nazim opened the door, and instead of Kazem standing on the threshold, it was Omid.
Not that it wasn’t nice to see a loyal member of his security team, but Izad wanted only one thing now. His boy. His precious, precious son.
Well, two things. His son and Mason McCarthy’s head on a platter.
He did not wait for Omid to finish pouring himself a glass of water before demanding, “Well? What can you tell us?”
Omid thirstily drained the water, and it took every bit of restraint Izad possessed not to slap the glass from the man’s hands. Gritting his teeth, he reminded himself that Omid had spent hours in the wind and the sun, watching and gathering information.
Wiping the back of his hand over his mouth, Omid finally said, “Cas has gone to the morgue where the authorities have taken the bodies. He’ll wait until the wee hours to slip inside to make an identification.”
Izad refused to allow his mind to even touch on the notion that one of the bodies might be Kazem’s. No. His son was still on the missing speedboat. Kazem was alive. He had to be. Izad could not lose everything. Everyone.
“In the meantime,” Omid continued, “You should know that McCarthy is staying here at the hotel. I followed his group from the docks and I know which room is his.”
Izad let his head fall back on his neck. Closing his eyes, he lifted his