“You say tomato, I say cruel.”
“Is he always like this?” The lawyer hooked a thumb Doc’s way, but she posed the question to Romeo.
“Pretty much.” Romeo shrugged.
“How do you stand him?”
“It’s a talent very few people seem to possess.”
“Hey!” Doc protested. “No ganging up on the guy nursing a hangover. I thought everyone knew about that unspoken rule.”
“Pretty sure you have it bass ackwards,” Cami countered. “I think the unspoken rule is that everyone is morally obligated to gang up on the guy nursing a hangover.”
“Are you really not going to let me have a do-over?” Doc crossed his arms over his chest.
Any other woman might have thought Doc was taking his teasing too far. But not Cami. The way her mouth twitched told Romeo she was enjoying the drama and banter as much as Doc. And after Romeo had heard the two of them trading awful pickup lines the night before, he couldn’t say he was surprised.
“I mean I could let you try,” she told Doc slowly, as if she were truly weighing the merits of the idea. “But I’d be worried about a repeat of last night. And we all know two wrongs don’t make a right. Just look at what your parents created.”
Doc stumbled back like she’d punched him.
“Oooh.” Mia’s lips pursed around a smile. “This is going to be fun.”
But not as fun as waking up with you in my arms, Romeo thought. Not as fun as feeling the weight of your head on my chest or having the smell of your shampoo tunneling up my nose. Not as fun as seeing your little nipples poking through the fabric of your blouse when you didn’t know I was looking...
The memory alone was enough to send his blood racing south, so he clapped his hands. “Okay, children. Recess is over. Let’s load up and get to Wayfarer Island before we run out of ways to make fun of Doc for...uh...suffering his very own mini Cuban missile crisis last night.”
“Hey!” Doc objected again. “I want it put on the record that there is nothing mini about my missile. Also, what is this? Pick on the Poor Guy Who Suffered a Rare Case of Erectile Misfunction Day?”
“That’s a terrible name for a holiday,” Mia declared, still looking like she was fighting a grin.
“Agreed,” Cami nodded briskly. “It’s far too long. Doesn’t roll off the tongue. Plus, I don’t think misfunction is a real word. But even if it is, that isn’t what happened.”
“Isn’t it?” All the teasing left Doc’s face.
“No.” The lawyer pulled off her sunglasses, stuck the end of one earpiece between her lips, and narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you remember?”
Doc cringed. “I remember going back to your hotel room. I remember I emptied your minibar of the hobbit-sized Maker’s Mark bottles. The next thing I remember is waking up this morning face-first on your floor with one shoe off.”
Cami slid her sunglass back onto her face. “You taking off that shoe is how you ended up on the floor. You slipped right off the end of the bed and passed out cold.”
“Lord have mercy,” Doc groaned. “It’s worse than I thought.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Cami shrugged. “At least you don’t snore.”
“Damned by faint praise,” Doc muttered.
Five minutes later, Cami’s rolling suitcase was stored in the cargo hold and Romeo watched as she climbed into the back of the plane. When it was Mia’s turn to take the steps, he automatically reached for her hand. The stairs could get slippery on a humid day.
Or at least that’s what he told himself.
She glanced down at their joined hands, at his large fingers curled possessively around her much smaller ones. But she didn’t miss a beat as she climbed the remaining two steps. And he was left wondering if he was the only one who felt like he’d been hit by a lightning bolt the instant they touched.
Flexing his hand to work out the tension that gripped the muscles after she let go, he frowned when Doc shook his head and said, “Damn, man. You got it bad.”
“Me?” he quickly countered. “What about you? I heard you flirting with her, trying to convince her to go back to book one of the Night Angels series.”
“So what?” Doc frowned. “You jealous?”
“Hell, no,” was his knee-jerk response.
Doc called bullshit by turning his question into a statement. “Dude, you’re jealous.”
Romeo hated being obvious. He hated more that Doc was right. So he did something he rarely did. He equivocated. “Pfft. When have you ever known me to be jealous?”
“Never. Which is what makes me stop and take notice now.”
“I just don’t want her hurt,” Romeo declared emphatically. “Something tells me she’s been hurt enough in life.”
Doc cocked his head. “You think I’d hurt her? Why? I like Mia.”
“So do I! Which is why I’m telling you that you can be a charming sonofabitch even when you’re not trying to be. Just make sure she knows exactly where you’re coming from and where you’re headed, eh?”
“Funny.” Doc snorted. “I told her pretty much the same thing about you this morning.”
Romeo waved a hand through air that was ripe with the smell of jet fuel and salt water. “Wasted effort. She’s not interested in me like that. We’re friends.”
“Question is,” Doc came back immediately, “are you interested in her like that?”
“Yo.” Romeo extended his hand toward Doc. “My name is Romeo Delgado. Have we met? I’m interested in all women like that. But she’s Miss Commitment and you and I both know I’m Mr. Casual. So, like I said, friends.”
Doc slapped his hand away. “I’m just saying that for a guy who says he neither has nor wants any particular claim over her, you sure are acting all proprietary and protective.”
“I’m trying to look out for her like I do all my friends, cabron.”
Romeo couldn’t be sure, but he thought Doc’s eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses. “You realize you only slip into Spanglish when your blood is up, right?”
“So?”
“So I think you should ask yourself why the thought of me flirting with Mia makes you want to snatch me bald-headed.”