Lethal Lover

His curt nod was the only indication that he’d accepted her hedge. For the first time she noticed he carried a small canvas bag, which he tossed onto the bed before unzipping it.

When Tess realized that the bag was filled with his personal belongings she gasped, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I need a shave.”

When he reached inside the duffel bag and withdrew a shaving kit, she blurted, “Well, go get one someplace else!”

He tucked the small shaving bag in one hand and turned to face her. “Listen, I’ve been up for thirty-six hours straight, I haven’t had anything to eat or drink but airplane food and warm beer and I need a shower and a shave.”

Tess was flabbergasted. “Surely you don’t expect me to stand by and—and—”

“Watch?” He shot her a wicked smile and shrugged. “Suit yourself, Tessa.”

“Oh! You are insufferable!”

“Hey, I’m not any happier about all of this than you are, babe. I’d hoped to fly in, snag Selena and be back in Miami by tomorrow morning. But sometimes we don’t always get what we want, you know?”

“If you’re so tired and so dirty, then why don’t you go to your own room to bathe and take your stupid shower?” she demanded. “Give me your room number and I’ll call you if I hear from her.”

His laugh was short, dry and brittle. “You always were a lousy liar, Tessa. And as for the room, in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s the height of tourist season. There’s not a spare room anywhere along Seven Mile Beach. Face it. You’re stuck with me until your cousin turns up or you tell me where she is.”

“But...you can’t stay here!”

“Too late. I’ve already moved in.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he interrupted again.

“I promise I’ll be out of here the moment I catch up to Selena. In the meantime, I’m part of the furniture.”

The man was not only insufferable, but infuriating, as well, and Tess would have loved nothing better than to tell him exactly what she thought of his boorish behavior. Right now, however, delivering the notebook still stuffed inside her purse took precedence over her anger and her desire to tell him off—now and over the past eight years.

The more pressing problem was how to get away from him to make the exchange with Selena’s abductors. “Whatever you say, Reed,” she agreed suddenly, obviously astonishing him with her unexpected capitulation. “There are plenty of towels in the cupboard above the john.”

The suspicion in his eyes was undisguised and she added a terse, “And please, put the lid down when you’re finished in there.”

He laughed. “I’ll be the perfect guest,” he assured her with a mocking bow. “I’m glad to see you acting so reasonably. You always were the practical one, weren’t you, Tessa.”

“I thought I asked you to stop calling me that,” she shot back. “And I’ll thank you to stop telling me what ‘I always was.’” As if you ever really knew, she added bitterly to herself.

He nodded and continued to rummage for agonizing minutes through his duffel bag, withdrawing fresh clothes. Watching him, Tess couldn’t help noting how his dark, expressive eyes glittered in the soft lamplight that cast his features in shadows—the high, wide forehead and the aquiline nose.

A slow, satisfied smile spread across his face when he caught her studying him. “You haven’t changed either,” he said quietly.

“Go on,” she snapped. “Take your damn shower. I’ll listen for the phone in case Selena calls.”

He nodded and started for the bathroom with his shaving kit in hand and a fresh shirt thrown carelessly over his shoulder. Then he seemed suddenly to change his mind and headed instead for the door where, with a quick turn of his wrist, he locked the dead bolt with the key extending from it and withdrew the key and tucked it into the side pocket of his snug-fitting jeans.