Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Candy Cane Confessions
Drifting in a haze of blissful satisfaction, Zuri stretched lazily, opened her eyes, and stared up at the tray ceiling.
Her body thrummed with the exquisite aftermath of lovemaking––her limbs heavy and sated, her thoughts pleasantly fuzzy.
Delightfully spent, she reached for Kyree when a low, authoritative male voice carried from the other room.
“Sir, have you seen this woman?”
This woman? Her mind still groggy, she tried to process what she’d heard. What the heck? She scrambled out of bed, picked up her robe from the floor, and slid it on as she rushed out of the bedroom.
“What’s going on?” she asked, walking into the living room, her voice pitched somewhere between curiosity and alarm.
Kyree stood framed in the doorway in nothing but his boxers, his back to her, blocking the view of whoever was in the hall. He turned when she spoke––confusion and apprehension evident in his eyes as he silently stepped aside.
Three guards in dark blazers came into view. The one in front—older, with greying temples and a dark mole on his right cheek—glanced at the tablet in his hand, then at her face. “Zuri Harris?” His voice was clipped and professional.
“Yes?” She tossed her loose braids behind her back. “That’s me.”
“Ma’am, are you alright?”
“Of course I’m alright.” She frowned. “What’s going on?”
“Ms. Harris, you were reported missing.”
“Missing?” Kyree balked.
A hot, prickly feeling crawled up Zuri’s neck, but she didn’t need to be told who put out the APB.
Of course Soleil had called security. Because that’s what you do when your best friend vanishes in the middle of the night.
Zuri squared her shoulders. “Well, as you can see, I’m not missing, and I’m perfectly fine. ”
“I’m glad to hear that, but you have some very concerned friends down the hall. Perhaps you might let them know where you are next time?”
One of the other security guards tapped something on his phone, then put it to his ear. “Hey, Gil, we’re with Ms. Harris now,” he said, stepping a few feet away. “Yep, she’s fine. She was just…”
Zuri’s cheeks burned with unadulterated humiliation.
Every fiber of her being screamed for the earth to swallow her whole.
Anxious to flee the scene, she maneuvered her feet into her slippers––lying exactly where they’d fallen when Kyree had lifted her out of them.
She picked up the ice bucket from the damp carpet beside his feet, and stood, meeting the grey-haired security guard’s observant eyes.
“Would you please excuse me,” she said, as sweetly as her wounded dignity would allow.
The infantry quietly moved aside as Zuri stepped into the hall. “Goodnight,” she called to Kyree, without looking back, still unable to meet his eyes.
“We’re so sorry to disturb you, Mr. Johnson,” she heard one of them say as she walked away. “But…”
Johnson, huh? Jesus. She hadn’t even known his last name. With her head held high, and her back straight, Zuri made the long walk of shame back to her room, where a female security guard stood outside like a vigilant prison warden.
“Ms. Harris,” the woman, who looked around Zuri’s age, said when she reached her door. “Glad to see you’re okay.”
“Thank you.” Zuri pushed her hand into the pocket of her robe, thankful that her keycard was still there.
“Here, let me get that for you.” The guard opened the door with her master key before Zuri could pull hers out. “You have a good night,” she added with a knowing, but supportive wink before walking away.
With a shudder of pure mortification, Zuri slid inside, desperate to just crawl under her covers and disappear. But the door had hardly clicked shut before Thao, in a pair of lavender flannel pajamas, sprang from the sofa and wrapped her in a fierce hug.
Avery––in a silky grey nightgown and the grey Hermes blanket she never travelled without––was close behind with the curved end of a mini candy cane sticking out of her mouth.
“Thank god you’re okay!” She pulled the candy from between her lips and threw her arms and soft wool blanket around Zuri and Thao.
Her voice was thick with emotion, her eyes red and puffy, suggesting she’d been crying. “We’ve been worried sick!”
Guilt twisted in Zuri’s chest as Thao took the empty ice bucket from her and placed it into the shelf above the minibar.
Soleil, however, remained rooted across the room, arms crossed over her white hotel robe, her face tight with anger, and glaring at Zuri like she was a stray cat that had just tracked mud across her pristine carpet. “Where the hell have you been?” she demanded.
“I told you.” Zuri pulled away from Avery, a flicker of defensiveness breaking through her shame. “I went to get ice.”
“That was like an hour ago, Z!” Soleil’s voice was sharp, edged with lingering fear. “I came out of the bathroom expecting to find you in bed!”
Oh, I was in bed alright. She bit the inside of her cheeks, trying desperately to suppress the groan that rose to her throat as she remembered Kyree flat on his back, his face contorted in pleasure, her name on his lips…
Zuri glanced at Thao, leaning on the wall beside the door, her arms crossed, and Avery hanging on her shoulder.
Soleil shook her head, fatigue evident in her eyes and voice. “When I didn’t see you, I tried texting, but of course you didn’t take your phone. I looked down the hallway, waiting for you to magically appear––”
“She came knocking on our door to see if you were with us,” Avery interjected.
“I had to call hotel security!” Soleil continued, her gaze unwavering, her voice tense.
“They checked the security camera, and saw you going past the elevators, but some stupid Christmas garland had fallen and blocked the view after that. And the next camera didn’t pick you up… It was like you just vanished!”
“Can you imagine what was going through our minds?” Avery’s voice was still laced with concern as she crossed the carpet and sat cross-legged at the foot of Zuri’s bed––a pile of mini candy canes and empty wrappers at her ankles.
“Jesus, Avery. How many of those have you eaten?” Zuri asked.
“You know I’m a nervous eater,” she said nonchalantly, scooping her candy horde back into the velvet pouch.
Soleil flailed her hands wildly in the air, her fingers splayed. “Zuri, they had people posted at all the exits while they looked for you.”
“Oh my god…” Zuri’s eyes bulged. “Are you serious? They did all that?”
“Of course they did all that,” Thao said, pushing off the wall, and dropping her weight onto the cream velvet sofa.
“This isn’t some seedy little hotel, Z,” Soleil snapped. “You think Hotel Andreas wants its name associated with a missing person’s case?”
Zuri plopped down on the sofa next to Thao, the full weight of the trouble she’d inadvertently caused settling over her.
She buried her face in her hands. Sweet Jesus, they still smelled of Kyree—musk, chlorine, arousal.
Pushing the salacious thoughts away, she dropped her hands, and took in the worry on her friends’ faces––guilt overshadowing the delicious memory of her guilty pleasure.
They had been terrified enough to mobilize security, and had imagined god knows what terrible scenarios, all the while she’d been…
“So, out with it! Where were you?” Soleil tapped her bare foot on the carpet.
“I… um.” Embarrassment took precedence over everything else.
Zuri knew that if the tables were turned and one of them had gone missing, she would have been worried sick.
But she hadn’t been thinking about her friends or anyone else.
The moment she’d spotted Kyree, looking so impossibly fine in his wet swim trunks, and water glistening on his skin, all rational thoughts had evaporated.
With only one thing on her mind, she’d felt alive, and powerful, and…
She tucked her feet under her, unable to find the right words to explain the strong pull toward him, or the intensity of their connection. “I just––”
“Wait a second…” Avery’s hazel eyes narrowed to slits as they bore into Zuri, making Zuri feel like a deer caught in headlights.
Thao and Soleil watched Avery with impatience.
“Did you…” she continued, her chin dipping. “Zuri Harris, did you just have sex?”
Soleil and Thao’s heads snapped toward Zuri in perfect synchronization.
Soleil’s eyes widened as she took in the guilt-ridden expression Zuri was trying––and failing––to hide. “Oh. My. God.”
Thao clapped her hands to her mouth and immediately started to laugh––a high-pitched giggle that pierced the air.
“With who?” Soleil exclaimed, still clearly agitated from the whole ordeal.
“Who do you think?” Thao gasped between peals of laughter.
“What, that guy from L’Antra?” Soleil asked, her voice laced with disbelief.
“Aww, I knew there was something between you two,” Avery said dreamily, biting off the end of her candy cane.
Zuri watched her with incredulity. “How would you know? You never even met him!”
“I can read you like a book,” Avery insisted, wiggling her finger at Zuri. “I saw how you two were looking at each other, and your body language… I have a sixth sense for these things, and there was definitely something special happening.”
Zuri’s stomach twisted. She couldn’t deny that something had happened between her and Kyree––something that had made her chest ache and her throat tight, a mind-altering connection that had resonated with her very soul.
But was ‘special’ the right word for it?
No, no. It was just hormones. Physical attraction.
Come on, her heart taunted, you know full well it stopped being just hormones fifteen minutes in.
“Zuri Avalon Harris,” Soleil said slowly, her voice climbing with disbelief.
“Do you mean to tell me that we went through all this just so you could get some? You disappear in a busy hotel at one o’clock in the morning, with some guy you don’t even know, just leaving us here to worry?
” She glared at Thao, whose laughter was reaching peak levels. “Oh my god, would you stop it already!”
Thao was laughing so hard now, she was crying, tears streaming down her face, and Avery, who had been struggling to maintain a look of stern relief, finally snorted. The sound was so unexpected, it cracked her composure, and she doubled over.
“It’s not funny!” Soleil barked, even as the corner of her mouth began to twitch.
Zuri couldn’t help it. Soleil’s failing determination to stay mad, Avery’s dreamy comment, Thao’s infectious laughter—the absurdity of the situation finally broke through. A snort escaped her. Then a giggle. Then she was laughing, too.
“Can you imagine,” Thao wheezed, barely able to get the words out, “the––the conversation security is having right now?”
“Oh my god!” Avery’s voice was so high pitched now, she was practically squeaking.
“They’re probably all in front of the security monitors,” Thao went on, “passing around bowls of popcorn, making bets on whether or not you’ll go back for round two!”
The image hit Zuri––those three serious guards in their blazers and the one who had given her that knowing smile at the door––and uncontrollable laughter burst out of her.
Soleil threw her hands in the air as Avery collapsed backward on the bed, a bright trumpet sound escaping from her butt when her knees crashed into her chest.
That did them all in.
Zuri slapped her hand on the sofa, trying to catch her breath.
Avery cried out for mercy, and blew another trumpet, louder this time.
Thao slumped forward, grabbing her knees, then fell sideways onto the sofa, gasping for air.
Even Soleil’s stern reserve finally broke.
Her rosy lips parted as she clutched her stomach and fell backward on her bed in a peel of laughter.
They laughed until they couldn’t breathe, until the tension and fear and absurdity of the whole situation had dissolved into something lighter.
When they finally calmed down, strewn across the furniture in various states of exhaustion, Soleil fixed Zuri with a look that was equal parts exasperation and affection.
“Okay, okay,” she said, “now, tell us everything.”
Zuri told them what had happened: the unexpected encounter with Kyree in the hallway, his firm body clad in wet swim trunks, and the cool confidence with which she’d sauntered up to him.
“And you just...went for it?” Avery asked, wonder in her voice. “I don’t think I would have had the courage.”
Zuri had had both the courage and the aching need from the moment she first set eyes on him––and it had resulted in one of the most mind-blowing, soul-shaking encounters of her life.
To say that she had gotten it out of her system would be an understatement, because in truth, with Kyree, she had felt more alive than she had in years.
And it had all been because of her fall on Razorback this morning.
As her friends peppered her with more questions, Zuri couldn’t help but wonder what Kyree was doing right now, or how he felt about what they’d done.
She hadn’t dared risk a backward glance at him as she walked out of his suite, but the memories were fresh on her mind, the kiss in the doorway, him carrying her to the bedroom, peeling off her boy shorts and tossing them to the floor… Right where they still were.
Zuri dropped her head against the sofa’s back and groaned. Fantastic! Just freaking Fantastic!