Page 22 of Tempted Hearts
I sighed dramatically. “Ahh,” I said, opening my arms, tossing my head back and closing my eyes. “Heaven.”
Not at all prepared for Juliette’s punch in the gut, I doubled over, though mostly from laughing since the punch wasn’t all that hard.
“Jules?” Delaney cried.
“He deserved it.”
When I didn’t stand up straight, Juliette moved toward me. I could see her feet beside mine, but remained quiet.
“Cole?” she asked finally. “Are you okay?”
Standing upright and grinning, this time prepared for her, I caught Juliette’s wrist before she could take another swipe. “Careful,monella,” I whispered for only her to hear. “Unless you want to me to start thinking you like playing rough.”
10
JULES
“I have a question for you. And please feel free to tell me to get lost.”
I was pretty sure I never had, or would, tell Delaney to get lost. She was like a glass of Prosecco, with red hair. If Prosecco had hair. Bubbly and bringing endless joy, never sadness, my long-time friend would have to do something pretty extreme for me to ever wish her ill.
After spending more than an hour filing the necessary reports to make an appointment at the embassy for new passports, we were headed back to the hotel when Delaney pulled me aside.
“The thing is… when the guys checked in… well, you know it’s a boutique hotel… and they only had one available room, and it’s a queen bed.”
It only took me a second to figure the rest out. The guys didn’t want to sleep together in a queen bed. And the almost newlyweds did.
“Funny,” I said as we headed back through the tunnel from Old Town toward the beach. “I was just thinking how you couldn’t ever possibly do anything that would make me want to tell you to ‘get lost.’ Especially after I went ahead and lost my phone and wallet.”
“And passports.” I couldn’t see her face since we were single-file on the narrow sidewalk, but I could hear the laughter in her voice.
Not censure, but laughter. After I’d put us in the stickiest of predicaments and necessitated an ocean crossing for her fiancé just before their wedding. There was only one thing to say.
But I’d go on record about how much I didn’t like it.
“You know we’ll probably kill each other. Come to think of it, did he agree?”
I was fairly certain Cole Ford would have something to say about us sleeping in the same room.
“Unsure. They’re probably talking about that now.”
Sure enough, as if on cue, Parker turned around and gave Delaney the most conspicuous thumbs-up.
“Oh my God. At least I don’t have to worry about him ever cheating. Could he be more obvious?”
Cheating. A sore subject with me, but I agreed. I’d call most people naive if they said “my partner would never cheat”, but Parker? Pretty sure he’d be last on my list of suspected cheaters. The guy was as nice as they came.
In response, I gave Parker a big ol’ thumbs up too, to which he laughed.
And then Cole turned around.
The look he gave me could only be described as dangerously amused.
Careful, monella, unless you want to me to start thinking you like playing rough.
I could have focused on the part when he called me a pest, but it was the second half of that whispered speech that hadn’t left my mind since he said it. It wasn’t even the words themselves but the way he’d said them.
Before long, we’d walked by the sea-view restaurant and made our way up the narrow alleyway to the back entrance of the hotel. It had been a bitch with luggage but the rooftop views made it worth it.
