Chapter Five
Azlan
After the omega left, I unpacked and took a second tour of the villa.
After living in the human middle-class world for so l’d nearly forgotten what quality accommodations looked like.
The few vacations I’d taken before making detective had been to more pedestrian places, Cabo with a couple of other officers, a week skiing while staying at someone’s cousin’s cabin. Nothing like this.
The living area was large enough to host a party, the kitchen fully appointed.
Not that I planned to cook. But the website informed me that not only was room service available twenty-four hours a day, but cooks were available to prepare full meals or anything else the guest required.
Two bedrooms, each with a bath nearly as big as my living room at home completed the indoor space, but it was the outside that I could see myself enjoying most. A wide covered patio furnished with lounge chairs and tables faced the pool with the promised hot tub.
It was hot in the desert, obviously, but with a pool to cool off in, I could see myself never leaving the villa area.
Well, maybe to check out the club. But not tonight.
Returning inside, I picked up the phone and ordered a meal to eat on the patio. The kitchen promised delivery within a half hour. The way I saw it, that gave me a half hour to take a dip and refresh myself. Wash away all the stress—or at least as much as possible—and get this vacation started.
Maybe that cute omega who gave me the tour earlier would bring the food?
Probably not if his job was picking people up at the helipad, but hopefully I’d seen him around another time.
I hadn’t had a chance to check the clothing-optional policies yet, but with a server coming, I pulled my swim trunks out of the drawer where I had just stashed them and changed before going out by the pool.
I had let the person taking my order know where I would be, so the person could just come around the outside of the villa to the gate.
Diving in, I let the water surround me. The air had cooled somewhat with the sun’s disappearance, but not quite enough to make me want to use the hot tub.
A shame, since there was a table right in the middle of it where I could enjoy my dinner.
Another night, I supposed. The pool wasn’t long enough for serious laps, but I swam back and forth stretching out my muscles and killing time.
My stomach rumbled, but it would be filled soon enough.
Then a good night’s sleep and maybe more of the same tomorrow.
Open slats in the patio cover allowed the stars to peek through, and I climbed out of the pool and reached fora towel from the stack on the nearest chair. Refreshed, I became even more hungry. Had it been a half hour yet?
Having left my phone inside, and with no other clock within view, I didn’t have any way to know for sure, although my sense of time was fairly good and it felt like it had been a while.
“Hello?” A rap at the patio gate preceded, “May I come in?”
“Of course.”
The omega who entered was not the same one from earlier.
He was good looking and professional, like Trace, but not the one I’d hoped to see.
Which was silly, since he’d done nothing to imply any interest in me at all.
The server set the tray on the table beside my chair and lifted the cloche to reveal my burger and fries.
A wagyu burger and truffle fries, but I still wondered how many people ordered such fare. So I asked.
“I don’t suppose you deliver a lot of hamburgers.”
“More than you’d think,” he said taking the plates off the tray and arranging the silverware on the napkin. “It is very good, and I think word’s gotten out.”
“Now I’m looking forward to this more than ever.
” I dipped a fry in the small dish of ketchup and popped it in my mouth.
Crisp on the outside and perfectly salted.
My teeth sank into the soft interior, and I couldn’t have prevented a happy sigh if I’d wanted to.
Which I did not. But when went to add condiments to my burger, something was missing.
“Excuse me, but I asked for mustard?”
“They didn’t give it to me in the kitchen.
I’ll run and get it now.” His phone buzzed, and he pulled it out.
“Yes? On my way back. I need to return with mustard though.” He listened.
“Oh, all right.” Hanging up, he tucked the phone away.
“They forgot, but another server is already on the way, so you won’t have to wait while your food gets cold. He should be here in a minute or two.”
I thanked him and he left. Sure enough, almost immediately, a golf cart pulled up outside the gate, heralded by its faint whirr. I crossed my fingers.
“Knock knock. Mustard delivery.”
“Trace, come on in.” I was on my feet and at the gate when it opened. “Thanks for coming all the way here just to bring this to me.”
“It’s my job, sir,” he said, the word sir sounding so good in my ears. What would it sound like with him bent over the spanking bench? “Anything else?”
“What, oh no. That is, unless you have a few minutes to join me in a cold drink? It’s still pretty warm out there, and I have some questions about the resort.”
He frowned then shrugged. “I can stay long enough for a bottle of water. We’re still pretty busy, but I am supposed to take care of the needs of the guests.”
For a second, my heart stopped. Needs? Stop that, right now. Just because he works here doesn’t mean he’s supposed to do anything like your brain is conjuring up as part of his pay. Talon would never have anything to do with that.
The omega was watching me with such intensity, I had to hope he couldn’t read my mind. “Great. Come sit down and I’ll get you a water.”
When we were both situated on the loungers, I realized my dinner on the low table between us was getting cold. That seemed pointless, and I couldn’t just eat while he had nothing, so I cut the burger in half with the hand steak knife that came with it for some reason. “Here. Share with me.”
“Oh no, I—”
“Have you had dinner?”
“No.”
“I hate to eat alone. Do you like mustard?”
“Yes, please.” He reluctantly agreed, both to sharing and, with less reluctance to adding mustard.
And by the time the last fry disappeared, he’d filled me in on all his favorite parts of the resort.
Some he’d covered earlier, but there were, it seemed, places where few guests went but all the staff really liked.
“There’s a pool hardly anyone even knows about.
It’s set way aside in a natural area and surrounded by all kinds of rocks… ”
“I’d love it if you could show me sometime.”
“Okay. Maybe when I’m off?” His job was to help out the guests, so maybe he liked me a little? I would have to wait and see.
“So, can you tell me about the club? I’m thinking of checking it out tomorrow night.”
He’d been lying back on the lounger, sipping water, but at this he sat up straight, cheeks reddening. “I-I haven’t worked in there, so I’ve only gotten a glimpse, but I hear it’s nice.”
Nice. Interesting way of putting it.