“Me falling asleep when you read to me. Your voice is just so soothing. It’s sort of throaty and raspy.”
The unexpected compliment had her tensing. Not because it flustered her or flattered her. But because it reminded her of the mistake she’d made at seven years old, the mistake that’d ended with her committing the ultimate sin.
Some of what she was thinking must’ve projected itself into her expression. He pressed up on one elbow. “What? Did I say something wrong?”
She fiddled with a ball of lint stuck near the seam of the comforter. “My voice sounds like this because my vocal cords were damaged when I was a little girl.”
“What happened to you?” His frown was so fierce, even his dimples couldn’t make him look boyish now. Now, he was one-hundred percent, high-octane, former fighting man, and she knew how terrified his enemies must’ve been to face him across a battlefield.
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Her childhood—and all the sorrow and shame that’d sprung from it—had always made her feel separate from the world. Set apart. Other.
But amazingly, from the beginning, she hadn’t felt separate from Romeo.
Quite the opposite; she felt a strange connection to him. As if, for the first time she’d found someone who could understand how her dark past continued to cast a long shadow into her present.
“Hey.” He rubbed a finger between her eyebrows, smoothing the line she knew had formed there. “Breathe.”
“I thought I was.” She exhaled a windy sigh, her forehead tingling from the warmth left behind by his fingertip.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me,” he assured her.
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you. It’s just that...”
She let the sentence dangle, only finishing it in her head. I can’t.
A soft knock sounded on the door. “Mia?” Doc’s deep, raspy voice drifted in from the hallway. “You awake?”
Romeo’s expression grew...she wasn’t sure how to describe it. Purposefully blank, maybe? “You expecting company?” His voice sounded oddly neutral.
“No.” She shook her head and glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand. The glowing red numbers had her bolting upright. “Oh my god! We’re late!”
His gaze landed on the clock. He blinked as if the time displayed didn’t compute.
She had a little trouble believing it herself.
He was usually up with the sun, getting in his workout. She, too, wasn’t one for lingering in bed, but it was because sleep brought her little comfort. And yet, somehow that morning they’d missed Key West’s wild rooster population crowing their wakeup tune. They’d missed their chance to have breakfast with the rest of the Deep Six crew. And they’d missed the opportunity to shower and change clothes.
“We need to leave for the airport in ten minutes,” she hissed.
The reality of their situation galvanized Romeo into action. Tossing back the comforter, he catapulted out of bed and quickly crossed the room to throw open the door.
Doc stood on the threshold, looking worse for wear.
The uncombed hair. The unshaven face. The sunglasses that undoubtedly hid hideously bloodshot eyes. Mia knew all too well the signs of brown bottle flu—another of her grandmother’s favorite phrases—and Doc sported each and every one.
His gruff tone matched his scruffy appearance when he looked over Romeo’s shoulder, spied her still in bed, and quickly returned his attention to Romeo. “This isn’t your room.”
Romeo leaned a forearm against the doorjamb. “Wow. Nice investigating. You’re like one of those CSI characters.”
Doc ignored the wisecrack and again focused on Mia. “You okay?”
“Hey!” Romeo stood to his full height. “What the hell, bro? Who do you think I am?”
“Oh, pipe down,” Doc grumbled. “For one, I have a splitting headache that a giant cup of coffee hasn’t managed to put a dent in. For two, I’m not accusing you of coercing her. I’m just making sure those dreamy eyes, and that pirate smile, and those dastardly dimples didn’t persuade her into doing something she regrets the morning after. So?” Doc stared hard at Mia. “You okay?”
“It’s not what you think,” she assured him, and then frowned.
Why did I say that?
Oh, right. Because she didn’t want anyone thinking she was stupid enough to assume she stood a chance with the big, beautiful, Latin Lothario.
“I was reading In Darkness and Dreams, and we fell asleep.” This last part she added almost entirely beneath her breath, hating her fair skin because she knew it showed her chagrin.
Doc lifted an eyebrow at Romeo. The toothpick that stuck out of his mouth wiggled as he worked it between his teeth. “You two are making a habit of that, huh?”
“Which part?” Romeo once again tipped his weight against the doorjamb. Except, there was something about the set of his shoulders that told Mia his casual stance was studied instead of sincere. “The reading romance together or the sleeping together?”
“Both.”
“What’s it to you?”
“Just...don’t do anything stupid, okay? Either of you.” Doc looked past Romeo again to include Mia in his warning. “I like you both too much to have to choose sides.”
Romeo reached into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out his hand, thrusting it at Doc, palm-up. “Oh, look. I found your nose. It was stuck all up in our business.”
Doc cocked his head. “Why is it acceptable for you to be an idiot but not for me to point it out?”
“Why am I an idiot?” Romeo’s chin jerked back.
Doc leveled a look on him. “You know why.”
Romeo glanced over his shoulder at Mia. The expression on his face was one of resignation...and maybe a little regret?
Oh, for Pete’s sake! Just once she’d like to wake up next to him and not see regret in his eyes. Was that too much to ask?
Turning back to Doc, Romeo adroitly changed the subject. “You know, it’s really hard to take anything you say seriously when you smell like hot dog water and look like a freshly dug-up potato. Am I right in thinking last night was everything you hoped for?”
Doc snorted and adjusted his sunglasses. “Hardly. I’m embarrassed to admit it wasn’t one of my better performances. Which is why I’m hoping you guys will hurry the hell up. I want to get out of here before Candy wakes up. I don’t want to run into her in the lobby. I don’t think I can face her in the light of day.”