Where the hell is he?
As she, Chrissy, and Meat made their way through the little terminal and out onto the tarmac—the best thing about flying privately was skipping the security lines—she lamented that Wayfarer Island lacked cell service. It meant those who lived there had canceled their plans. The logic being why pay for something they wouldn’t be able to use 90 percent of the time?
Living a simple life in the modern world was nice. Romantic, even. But right then she’d have given up a body part to be able to shoot Mason a text.
“It’s like we’ve time-traveled back to the eighties or something,” she muttered while coaxing a waddling Meat toward the waiting plane. “Next thing you know, I’ll be teasing my bangs and wearing jelly bracelets.”
“What?” Chrissy shot her a curious look, shrugging her overnight bag higher on her shoulder.
“Nothing.” Alex waved her off, raking in a deep breath that she hoped would ease some of her anxiety. It was only partially successful, since along with the pleasant aromas of sand and surf, there was also the decidedly unpleasant smell of jet fuel.
Deciding what she really needed was a change of subject, she slid Chrissy a sly look. “You had sex with Wolf, didn’t you?”
Chrissy sputtered like Alex’s old American history professor when a student had argued the New Deal was the beginning of the end for capitalist America.
“Why would you think that?” Chrissy demanded, coming to a halt on the blacktop and shoving her sunglasses to the top of her head.
“Because I saw him come out of your room this morning. And then at breakfast, he was whistling and humming and in the best mood I’ve ever seen him in.”
“Ah, yes. And sex with me would definitely explain the change in him.” Chrissy flicked her sunglasses back onto her face and resumed walking. “What it wouldn’t explain”—her tone was peevish—“is why I’m not currently curled in the fetal position and weeping from self-disgust.”
Alex did a double take. “You don’t think Wolf is gorgeous?”
“Oh, yes.” Chrissy nodded emphatically. “He’s handsome as hell if you’re into that whole tall, dark, and dangerous thing.”
Alex snorted. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, sis, but there’s not a woman on the planet who isn’t into that whole tall, dark, and dangerous thing.”
Chrissy didn’t say anything to that, and Alex frowned. “I don’t know what he did to make you hate him, but I’m sure whatever it was, it was a mistake. Wolf is solid gold. He’s one of the good ones.”
“I don’t hate him,” Chrissy insisted. “And I know he’s one of the good ones. I mean, he came and slept in my room last night—just slept,” she insisted when she saw the prurient gleam that entered Alex’s eyes, “because I asked him to. But good guys can still be bad news.”
Before Alex could comment on that, Chrissy turned the tables. “Enough about me. What about you? I see Mason loaned you his dog for the night. Did he happen to loan you anything else?” She bobbed her eyebrows above the frames of her sunglasses. “Like, say, his penis?”
“Alas, no.” Alex sighed. “I agreed to stop hounding him to help me lose my virginity and satisfy myself with simply being his friend. Of course, that was after I trapped him in my hotel room and kissed the bejesus out of him.”
Chrissy choked. “Holy shit, woman. You got a big old set of brass balls, don’t you? So? How was it?”
How was it?
Amazing. Beautiful. Transcendent. Transformative. Alex didn’t get the opportunity to say any of that aloud, because they’d made it to the plane, and Romeo was in the middle of doing something to the propeller. Beside him, Doc asked, “How’d it go with that dark-haired beauty you were hitting on at the end of the night?”
“Her name was Gina,” Romeo said, bending toward his task. “After last call, she told me she had an early flight to catch and needed to get some sleep. So I was left to jack my own beanstalk.”
“Poor baby,” Chrissy crooned and both men jolted around, looking as guilty as teenage boys caught flipping through a girlie magazine.
Alex couldn’t hide her chuckle.
Her humor dried up quickly, however, when she heard Wolf, who’d been helping Uncle John arrange supplies in the cargo hold, shout, “It’s about damn time, man! Ten more minutes and we were sendin’ out a search party!”
Spinning around, she scanned the tarmac. There he was. The man of the hour.
No mistaking him, really. Not with those shoulders that blocked out the sun.
His hair was wet from a recent shower, and his face sported the dark shadow of a full day without the touch of a razor. Seeing his walk, it was obvious he’d been in the military. There was a marching quality to the way he carried himself.
Alex was tempted to break into a run, anxious to confront him about where the hell he’d been and tell him she’d been worried sick. But her feet glued themselves to the ground because, just over his shoulder and beyond the fence surrounding the airport, she saw a Smurf-blue scooter. The brunette sitting atop it was none other than Donna.
Something hard and sharp lodged under Alex’s lungs, nicking the organs until every breath hurt. She suddenly understood what Chrissy meant when she said even good guys could be bad news.
Never mind that Alex had made him kiss her. Never mind that he’d regretted it immediately. Never mind that Donna had a prior claim to him. And never mind that Alex had promised to be his friend.
How could he have locked lips with Alex, getting all hot and bothered in the process, and then go to spend the night with Donna?
Honestly, Alex didn’t know who she was more upset for, herself or Donna.
Donna, she quickly decided. Because no woman should be forced to slake a lust inspired by another.
Any guilt she’d felt for the look on Mason’s face outside her hotel room disappeared quicker than a signed copy of The Wealth of Nations at a historical society event.
His eyes lasered across the distance separating them, stopping once he found her angry gaze. Despite her pique, being the sole subject of his attention was still like being hit by a thunderbolt from the clear blue sky. She caught her breath. Every nerve in her body fired at once.
Chrissy spied Donna as she motored away and said, “Oh hell.”
Oh hell is right, Alex thought. As in, oh hell, who would have thought Mason McCarthy would turn out to be a total asshole?
Mason continued to make a beeline toward her, and Chrissy took the opportunity to lean over and whisper in her ear, “I’ll walk over there. Far enough away to give you some privacy, but not so far away that I can’t eavesdrop.”