Ash frowned. “What are you talking about? I rented this for the week.” She looked back at the bathroom, then at him. Maybe none of that had happened. Of course it hadn’t happened. Who had glowing eyes, anyway? This was some game he was playing to take the room from her. She folded her arms. “I was here first.”
“Nope. Check the drawers. I’ve been here for days.”
She went over to the dresser and yanked the top drawer open, revealing a couple of neatly folded pairs of pants, tees, underwear and socks.
“There’s a hostel up the hill,” he said. “Maybe they still have rooms.”
“Lautaro booked this room for me. He never said you were here too.”
“Well, I guess whoever took his reservation didn’t know I already had the room. Better overbooked than not booked.” He grinned at her.
“I’m not going to the hostel.”
“Nor am I.”
“Merc… What kind of name is that, anyway?”
“The kind given to me by my friends.”
“What’s your real name?”
“Merc.”
“Are you following me?”
He laughed. “Um…I got here first, so I guess it would be you who’s following me.”
“I told Summer I was coming back here. She must have told Sam.”
“The info does flow that way.”
“I want you to leave.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “I want you to leave.”
“No.” Ash stamped her foot, frustrated with their futile conversation.
That made him laugh again. “Then how about this? We use the room in shifts. I suspect you want to sleep nights, so I’ll sleep during the day. Just be quiet if you’re here when I’m sleeping.”
“That’s unacceptable.”
“Then go find another room.”
The memory of their first real—their only, she corrected herself—encounter popped into her mind, the feel of his hips between her legs, the way he knew just how to—.
She flashed a look at him. He was looking at the ground. The times he’d been in her dreams had been just as vibrant as the live action.
“There are no other rooms,” she said. “The town’s bursting at the seams. Everyone’s come to see where the miracles happened.”
His tawny brows lifted. “What miracles?”
“Like you don’t know. Who would trek out to this hole in the wall otherwise?”
“I’m sourcing coffee for the fort.”
“Uh-huh. Because that’s the way most home roasters find their raw beans.”
“The thorough ones, anyway.” He held out his hand to shake. “So, do we have a deal?”
He didn’t move toward her, so she had to cross the room to him. She reluctantly did so and slipped her hand into his, momentarily losing herself in the feel of his big hand wrapping around hers.
Seemed he wasn’t as unaffected as he pretended. The muscles at the corners of his jaw bunched, and his eyes hardened.
“Deal.” She pulled her hand free. “But you take the futon.”
He shrugged. “So what about these miracles you mentioned?”
She tilted her head, studying him. “You should know. You did them. Someone has protected this town from the violence in the region.”
“Good. I guess.”
Ash narrowed her eyes. “How can you meet with coffee growers at night?”
“Doesn’t have to be at night. But evening meetings mean I don’t have to take them away from their daily workloads. And all that coffee I’ve been sampling has been keeping me up anyway.”
Ash considered her options. Staying with him was likely safe. After all, they had shared friends whose concern might keep him from behaving badly.
“We all know if I behave badly, Summer will tell Sam, who’ll have my ass. Of course, by then the damage will be done.” The grin he gave her could eat a girl’s soul.
She had a hard time breaking the spell she’d been under since she entered their shared room. “You know what I think?” she asked, stepping close.
“Yes.” His grin widened.
“I think you enjoy bullying people.”
“Is that what you were thinking?”
He seemed skeptical. And truthfully, she’d been thinking how she wished he’d just shut up and press that irresistible mouth of his against hers. She lifted her chin. “Yes. In fact, it was.”
He made a noncommittal grunt. “I’m hungry. Are you? With so many tourists flooding the town, several of the homes around the plaza have set up makeshift cafés. Some of them are quite good. Can I buy you lunch?”
Eating was not what she wanted him to do with that mouth. Unless—
“Or we could stay here?” he offered.
Heat rushed from Ash’s neck straight up her cheeks. “It’s raining outside.”
He stepped closer. What was it about his body that made hers so charged? “Will you melt if you get wet?”
Yes. Yes, she would—when he was the one melting her. Wait. That wasn’t what he meant, was it? His eyebrows lifted.
“I’m talking about rain,” she said.
“So was I.”
“I have a slicker with me.”
His smile started at one side of his mouth and slowly stretched across his lips to the other. “Lunch it is.”
Ash’s arrival complicated things. Without her, he could have just kept himself from being seen. But with her, he had to hide his layers of weapons from her, and hide them and his appearance from everyone else.
He projected himself to the community around them as a slim, twenty-something, urbane Colombian male from Bogotá. It made the villagers slightly more comfortable with him and Ash. The Legionnaires had all learned Spanish during their time in the training camps. And his mirage helped correct his Australian accent.
Ashlyn. His female. He looked over at her, struck by how relieved he was to see her—and how equally terrified he was that she’d risked everything to come back down here.
Lautaro should have sent her home the moment he saw her. Just tucked her in a pod, under a sleep compulsion, and sent her right back to the fort.
Merc had tried to puzzle out the reason for her visit, but she kept that knowledge fairly well locked away. She had surprising mental abilities, for a regular.
When he’d caught her in the bathroom giving herself a critical once-over, it had been all he could do not to seduce her on the spot. He still ached from the pain of that missed opportunity.
He reminded himself that he was stronger than his hunger, stronger than the Matchmaker’s Curse. He had to beat it back, if only to set her free.
The rain was now just a light drizzle. Where he was taking her had covered seating, so they’d be able to sit outside and still enjoy their meal. Along the main plaza, several pop-up cafés were cordoned off in front of shops and homes, offering the overflow of tourists places to eat.
The day was warm, even with the rain. The dampness made Ashlyn’s hair curl slightly as the breeze tossed it about.
Damn, but he wished she hadn’t come back. There was a current in the air he didn’t like.
Trouble was coming.