Griff took a swig of his Corona and observed Bug’s plan unfold from the comfort of his bar stool. She hadn’t gone into detail, just told him to grab another beer and watch. Once she was inside, he should wait five minutes before he met her in the room. He wasn’t concerned for Bug’s safety, she knew how to take care of herself, but he would’ve liked to have known how she was going to talk her way into the room, in the event she needed him to back up her story.
“Just trust me,” she said when she handed him her phone. Then she turned around, walked to the edge of the pool, and dove in. When she came out dripping wet, she skimmed a ketchup packet off an abandoned dinner plate and disappeared behind a patch of tropical foliage.
Griff watched now as she emerged from behind the bushes and dashed toward the maid with her arms wrapped protectively around her torso. Pretending to be anxious and upset, she said something to the young woman that made her eyes widen. Bug gestured downward and then pointed to Christian’s room.
The maid nodded sympathetically, and then she rushed ahead of Bug to unlock the door to one-thirty-two with her universal key. Bug gave the maid a rare, beaming smile that transformed her stoic face into something light and beautiful, before she slipped inside the room and closed the door.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Griff said to himself. She did it. She was in.
Griff waited five minutes before he picked up their bags and headed toward the room.
Bug answered on the fourth knock.
“What took you so long?”
“I was in the bathroom cleaning myself up,” she explained, as she dried her inner thigh with a bath towel.
Griff quickly averted his eyes and moved farther into the room. He tossed their bags on the floor along the wall before he turned around. “Can I ask how you talked your way in here?”
“I told the maid I unexpectedly got my period and left my room key with my friends on the other side of the pool. She took pity on me.” Bug spread the towel on the edge of the king-sized bed and sat on it.
The room was clean, but dated. Framed pictures of San Juan hung on the faded blue walls, heavy foot traffic had worn a path in the dingy carpet, and a rainbow had apparently thrown up on the obnoxious bedspread. Nothing in the room indicated Saintervil had ever been there. “The maid just took your word for it?”
Bug shrugged. “I used the packet of ketchup to sell it.”
Griff coughed. “Um, gross, but effective. I’ll give you that.” He stifled a chuckle with the back of his hand. “Are you sure you weren’t a con artist before you became a salvage diver?”
“You’re just jealous because I’m the one who always comes up with the best plans.”
Griff loved the impish gleam she got in her eye whenever she formulated one of her schemes. They didn’t always work out though, and when that happened, he was the one who had to talk their way out of it. He grinned, remembering one particular escapade that would have landed them in jail if he hadn’t diverted the police officer’s attention before he saw what they were up to. “You remember that time we salvaged that Viking yacht in Barbados for that cocky bastard who shafted Mitch on the payment?”
“Wasn’t that the American businessman who kept dropping senators’ names like we knew who he was talking about?” Bug got up and flipped the bed pillows searching behind them. “Yeah, I remember. His name was Romano …”
“Like the cheese,” they both said at the same time.
She paused to smile at him.
His heart thumped against his breastbone, and he smiled back.
“You just gonna stand there and look pretty or are you going to help?” She bent to peer under the bed. Finding nothing of interest, she stood and moved to the dresser.
“What are you looking for?”
“Christian’s backpack.” She opened the drawers one by one. “He said he was gonna drop it off at his hotel. If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll find the key inside of it.”
“Right.” Griff went to the closet and found some hangers, a small safe with its door gaping open, and an extra pillow and blanket. He felt them up just to make sure nothing was hiding behind it. “Back to Romano. Do you remember how we got even with him for trying to cheat Mitch?”
“We swapped his suitcase for one with a camo pattern. That was my idea.”
“Yeah, and it almost landed our asses in jail.”
“I told you we should have smuggled it into the hotel inside a box.” Bug stopped searching and scanned the room.
Griff went into the bathroom and peeked in the shower. “I honestly didn’t think anyone could get arrested for carrying a camouflage suitcase in Barbados.”
When he came back into the room, his gaze settled on Bug’s curvy little body. Mostly naked, she stood with her hands on her hips, all business and zero insecurity. She could have been wearing coveralls and a pair of shitkickers for all she seemed to care. She was oblivious to how sexy she looked in that damned leopard print bikini. Her legs were proportionally long and slender, and her arms were graceful but well-toned. Her small, round breasts stood pertly over a flat stomach with slightly defined abs. Her hourglass waist curled into gently rounded hips, and her slender back arched into a dainty but full bottom. He remembered the feel of his big, gorilla hands wrapped around her delicate wrists earlier at the bar. Her bones seemed so fragile, and yet, he’d never met a stronger woman in his entire life.
“The law has been on the books in Barbados and Jamaica since the 1970s.” When she turned to face him, Griff averted his gaze. “It’s to prevent people from impersonating local law enforcement.”
“Yeah, well, it was a great idea that almost went terribly wrong.” Griff snorted, remembering the crew’s reaction when he and Bug told them what they’d done. “Ax was pissed we stole his suitcase.”
Bug pulled the heavy drapes aside and looked behind them. “He got over it when he found out we used it to get even with Romano. It’s a shame the jackass only got five nights in jail before one of his senator buddies bailed him out.”
Griff sat on the edge of the bed. “Mitch never did get paid for the job.”
“But he appreciated our efforts.” Bug turned away from the window. “We always made a good team, you and me.”
A ball of warmth expanded in Griff’s chest. “Sure did. Partners in crime-and-misdemeanors for life.”
She snorted and covered her nose. A bulky club chair in the far corner of the room caught her attention, and she walked toward it.
“Need help?”
She gave him a look that said bitch, please before she muscled the chair away from the wall. “Ah ha!”
“You found something?”
She reached down and lifted out Christian’s backpack. “Fingers crossed we hit the jackpot.”
When she tossed the pack on the bed, Griff dragged it toward him and opened it up. He pulled out a couple of changes of clothes, swim trunks, a small toiletry bag, and a large box of condoms. He held up the box and shook it, raising an eyebrow.
“Stop playing,” she said, coming around to stand beside him. “Try the front pocket.”
Griff unzipped it and found a couple of twenties, some loose change, a set of car keys, and two more loose condom packets.
“He might be a male slut, but at least he uses protection,” Bug pointed out.
“Hmm,” Griff said, uneager to give Christian credit for anything. He shoved the backpack away in frustration. “I can’t believe you, of all people, were swayed by his slimy charm.”
“Excuse me?”
“Weren’t you afraid of catching something from him?”
Bug recoiled. She put her fisted hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side to glower at him. With Griff sitting, they were almost eye level. “Not everyone has the luxury of screwing their soulmate every night.”
A red mist clouded Griff’s vision. “You didn’t show any interest in the opposite sex in the three years I knew you, but as soon as I left, you thought it was a good idea to hook up with Saintervil? That’s messed up.”
“So what if I did ‘hook up’ with him? It’s none of your business. I never said anything when you hit on every blonde bimbo who vaguely resembled Hannah, did I? Talk about messed up. If she ever dumps you again you’re shit out of luck because I’m pretty sure you’ve already boned every brown-eyed blonde north of the equator.”
“Hannah and I broke up,” Griff blurted out. His shoulders slumped as he glanced away. He couldn’t stand the flabbergasted expression on Bug’s face. And the last thing he wanted to see was pity, or worse, hear her say I told you so.
“Are you serious?”
He nodded. “Things were going great, and then about six months ago, I proposed, and she told me she wasn’t ready to get married. She wanted space to focus on her career.”
“She dumped you,” Bug snapped. Her shoulders tensed, ready to do battle for him. “You dropped everything to follow her to Missouri, and she dumped you, just like that.”
“She didn’t dump me. She asked me if we could take a break. She said she would understand if I wanted to see other people, but I haven’t. Not yet.”
“Sounds to me like she dumped you.” The tension left Bug’s shoulders and she crossed her arms.
“She didn’t— You don’t understand. Her career is very important to her.”
“You mean more important than you.”
“I get it. I do.” Griff stood and paced to the window. “I didn’t fit into her world. I went to a couple of her office parties and felt like a chimp in a tuxedo. I had nothing to offer her. That’s why I need to get back to Kansas City and score that gig. If I do, I’ll be able to afford to buy Hannah her dream house in a couple of years.”
“When she’s ready.” Bug scowled. “Listen to yourself. Do you really want to be with a woman who thinks you aren’t good enough for her? I can’t believe you still want her after she dumped you two times.”
Griff’s back stiffened. He paced back to Bug. “And I can’t believe you banged Christian Saintervil.”
Bug hauled back her fist to punch him in the face, but this time he was ready for it. He brought his left arm up to deflect the blow, then twisted to the side to block her knee from making contact with his groin. He grabbed her in a bear bug and tumbled her back onto the bed, using his body weight to pin her down.
They landed face to face, both gasping to catch their breath. His bare torso plastered against her nearly naked one. His hips, which were twice the span of hers, forced her thighs to splay wide. His sudden quickening erection took them both by surprise. She gasped as his hardness strained against her through the thin barrier of their bathing suits.
She glared at him in challenge. Their panting breaths mingled as she struggled futilely to buck him off. The movement created friction between their lower bodies that sent shock waves skittering along his nerve endings. Suddenly, she stopped fighting and relaxed beneath him. Her hands slid down the length of his broad back, leaving goosebumps in their wake, and Griff’s gut tightened with anticipation.
Her small tongue moistened her lips.
“Bug,” he said with frustration, and then he kissed her.
Her satiny soft lips tasted faintly of whisky, and she was just as intoxicating. Her scent, the softness of her skin, and the power in her strong, compact little body made him drunk with lust. Deepening the kiss, he dipped his tongue inside her warm, sweet mouth, half holding back as he waited for her imminent rejection. He would stop the madness the moment she said the word. This was Bug after all. She didn’t make erotic little noises in the back of her throat, or make his blood pound with desire, and she certainly didn’t kiss men back like she wanted to devour them.
As the kiss went on, his hand found its way inside her bikini top. Her small, firm breasts were about the size of a tennis ball split in half to make two perfectly shaped domes on her narrow torso. Her nipples were hard as acorns against the palm of his hand. Tearing his mouth away from hers, he pulled her bikini top aside and took one of the hard peaks into his mouth.
Bug arched off the bed with a shout, and then shoved him hard. He tumbled sideways, catching himself on the edge of the king-sized mattress before going over the edge.
“Bug, I’m sorry.” Griff sat up and reached for her.
Panting heavily, she held up a hand. “No. Stay the hell away from me.”
Griff rose from the bed and stood watching her struggle to readjust her bikini top with trembling hands. His stomach sank with dread. “Bug, if I misread the situation and crossed a line, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“Will you quit apologizing,” she snapped. “You didn’t misread anything. I kissed you back.” She slid off the other side of the bed. Goosebumps covered her skin, and her nipples poked against the damp fabric of her bikini top like a pair of steel tipped umbrellas.
“What’s wrong then?”
“That can’t happen again.” She grabbed her bag off the floor then stopped, and turned toward him, but didn’t meet his gaze. “You’re still in love with Hannah, and I— Ugh! It’s not happening again.” She jammed her fingers through her hair. “I suppose we have no choice but to stay here for the night and wait for Christian to turn up. I’m gonna take a shower and get dressed.” Tossing the bag over her shoulder, she headed for the bathroom. “Order us some food. I’m starving.”
“Bug, wait. I think we should talk about what just happ—”
She raised her hand to stop him. “We’re not discussing it. End of story.”
Under normal circumstances, Griff would’ve kept his mouth shut, but the lower half of his body still pulsed with need for her, and his blood-deprived brain wasn’t thinking clearly. “But we kissed.”
She chucked her bag into the bathroom and came back into the hall. “I kissed Christian too, but that didn’t mean anything either.”
Ouch. Being compared to Saintervil had the same effect on his libido as an ice-cold shower. “Fine. We won’t talk about it. End of story.”
“End of story.” She disappeared into the bathroom and slammed the door.
“What the hell just happened?” Bug wore her bathing suit into the shower and turned it on full blast. The cold water was a shock to her overheated skin, but she barely acknowledged it.
Griff had kissed her. He’d kissed her the way she had always fantasized he would, roughly and thoroughly, like a man taking possession of the woman he wanted. When she’d felt his hot mouth on her breast, she’d nearly climaxed. Nearly. It was embarrassing. Shoving him away was a knee jerk reaction, but seeing him standing there across the room with a raging boner busting out of his swim trunks made her come to her senses.
Break or no break, Griff still loved Hannah. He would always love her, and that was why Bug couldn’t take advantage of his sudden interest. She had to protect her heart, because she knew Hannah could call at any moment, and he would go running back to her just like he always did.
He said he hadn’t been with anyone since Hannah, so that might explain his sudden interest in her. After six months without a woman, he had to be starving for female companionship and maybe any woman would do. Bug knew a little something about that. She’d turned to Christian for similar reasons when Griff had left. She’d been lonely, and it had been a mistake, but a minor one compared to what just happened with Griff. The two kisses hadn’t been anything alike.
When he left a year ago, he broke her heart and made her acknowledge just how much time she’d wasted pining over someone she could never have. She decided that no man should have that much control over her life, and she realized she had the power to make sure it would never happen again. It had been easy to keep that philosophy in place when Griff was over a thousand miles away, but it had been more challenging to maintain once he’d returned.
And, now, he’d kissed her.
And it was everything she had ever hoped it would be.
And she would have to live with the fact that it could never happen again.
And her philosophy was a load of crap.
Fifteen minutes later, Bug left the bathroom dressed in her t-shirt and jeans. Griff had changed back into his clothes. He sat in the club chair flipping through channels on the cheap flat screen.
“Hey,” she said, dropping her bag on the floor beside the closet.
“A guy from the airport called. An envelope was delivered for me. He thinks there’s a key inside of it.”
“That’s great news. Can we head for Martinique tonight?”
“I didn’t change the flight plan. It’s safer to fly during the day, and you can still have your meeting tomorrow, and we can head back to Key West on Sunday.”
She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “It’s barely 7 p.m. What are we going to do in the meantime?”
“Hang out. I ordered dinner. Saintervil can put us up for the night. It’s the least he can do, since it’s his fault we’re still in Puerto Rico.”
“Do you think we should go get his phone?”
“Not really.”
“He did remember to send us the key. The least we can do is return the favor.”
“Favor?” Griff sighed and tossed the remote on the bed. “I’ll grab a cab to the airport after dinner. I’ll grab his phone, but I’m really going there to pick up the key and get our bags.”
And that was why her heart was doomed. Life had thrown a lot of garbage at Griffin Dodge, but despite all of it, he was still a much better human being than she would ever be. “You’re a good guy, Griff.”
He snorted, doubtfully.
She smiled to herself as she leaned back against the pillows. Maybe they could forget the kiss ever happened and go back to the way they were before, because she sure missed her best friend.
The sound of knocking woke Bug out of a deep sleep. The hotel room was dark, but morning light glowed around the edges of the blackout drapes. Griff had already rolled out of his side of the bed. Stumbling toward the door, he muttered beneath his breath. Neither one of them liked being woken up before the alarm and couldn’t fully function until they’d downed at least one cup of coffee.
“Maybe it’s Christian,” she croaked.
His voice was just as rusty. “Why would he knock? This is his room.”
“Right.” She flopped back on the pillow and closed her eyes.
Christian hadn’t come back to the hotel as they’d expected him to, but it didn’t matter, because the envelope that was delivered to the airport had contained the key along with a note that simply said: My bad. CS.
The hinges groaned as Griff opened the door. Why did everything sound so much louder before seven in the morning?
“What’s this?” he asked.
“The room service you ordered yesterday at check-in, Mr. Hard,” the bellboy replied. “Will there be anything else, sir?”
“No, thanks. Hold up a minute.” Griff came into the room and swiped his wallet off the dresser. “Here you go.” He handed the guy a tip. “Thanks.”
The delicious scent of bacon and hot coffee drifted toward Bug. She let out a defeated sigh and sat up in bed.
Griff paused to flick on the light as he rolled the cart into the room. There were two covered plates, two cups of coffee, and two glasses of OJ.
“That’s weird.” Bug grabbed her jeans from the foot of the bed and slid them on under the covers.
“What’s weird about it? Christian isn’t here. It would be a shame to let this go to waste.”
“If Christian ordered breakfast for two, then that would mean he was expecting to sleep in his hotel room last night. Probably with an overnight guest. Do you think something happened to him?”
“Frankly, I don’t care.” He grabbed a piece of bacon off the plate and shoved it in his mouth.
“Come on, Griff. I know you don’t like him, but he’s a member of the crew. And he’s my friend.”
Griff raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Friend, is it?”
He almost sounded jealous. She ignored him and climbed out of bed. “Maybe those guys from the airport caught up to him.”
“Or maybe he met a woman who was staying in a nicer hotel and went back to her place instead.”
“You’re probably right. That sounds like him. I take my coffee black with two sugars.”
“I remember.” He held the cup out to her with a gentle smile. “Here.”
This was what she wanted. This felt normal. Maybe they could go back to how things were between them before he left.
Taking the cup of piping hot coffee, she held it to her nose and inhaled deeply. “Now that’s heaven.”
“Bug?”
She took a careful sip. It burned her tongue, but she didn’t care. It was pure bliss. “Yeah?”
Griff set his cup down on the cart. “What happened last night between us. The kiss. I’ll drop it for now, but we’re not done talking about it.”
Before she could form a reply, he disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door.
Well, crap. She’d forgotten how stubborn he could be. Why wouldn’t he just let it go?