TWENTY-SEVEN
TRIPP TOSSED HER onto the hotel bed.
She landed in a bounce. “Ow! Fuck!”
Crazy. Honestly, what the hell? How was this her life? It was her luck, yeah, but if everything had a meaning, what was fate telling her? Don’t party. Don’t dance. Don’t have fun.
“Don’t think I’ve ever heard you curse,” he said. “My mom would like you.”
“Hush, idiot,” Roxie said, sitting with her to stroke her hair. “Don’t you know how to be gentle with a woman? Go get us some ice.”
Without arguing Tripp disappeared from the bedroom. This wasn’t her room. She didn’t know if it was Roxie’s or Tripp’s, just that it wasn’t hers.
“You didn’t have to come back with me.”
“Of course I did,” Roxie said, slipping off both of their shoes. “You sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?”
“No, I don’t. I really, really don’t. It’s just an ankle sprain, ice, elevation.”
Roxie jumped into action, grabbing pillows to stack them. “Right, the RICE thing.”
In a mutual wince, both women held their breath as Roxie eased her leg up to rest it on the stacked pillows.
“You should go back to the club. Have a good time.”
“This is a good time,” Roxie said and unzipped her dress while disappearing into the closet. “Do you want something else to wear? We can have a sleepover.”
It was after midnight. Way after midnight as far as her internal clock could tell.
“You don’t have to stay with me. I can go back to my—shit.”
Pushing her fists into the bed, her attempt to move clenched her teeth.
Roxie came rushing out in a man’s shirt, other fabric in hand. “Stop it! Stop it!” She set her hands on her hips. “You told me to leave Trevor with Alessia, but if you don’t behave, I’ll bring them both here.” She softened. “Are you sure you don’t want me to call your sister?”
“She’s having the time of her life, no, I don’t want to ruin anyone else’s night.”
“Dyce would—”
“No! Don’t call him either. He’ll worry and blame himself for not being here. No. I’ll be fine in the morning. It’s just a sprain. You and Tripp can go back to—”
“Tripp and I party for a living,” Roxie said, crawling onto the bed to unzip her dress and help her lift her ass to take it off over her head. Better that way than to move her leg again. “Literally every single night. We live in a nightclub.”
“You don’t live in Honolulu, ‘Ula ‘Ula—”
“We can visit any time. Haven’t you noticed Tripp barely has a job and I live in cocktail dresses? Zairn brought me here, to Dyce’s island, with zero notice.” Her friend threaded her arms into the sleeves of another shirt. “I just showed up at CollCom and next thing he knew, we were here.”
“Can you call him?” she asked and it only just hit her. “How did you call him earlier? There’s no cell service on the island. Does he have a sat phone?”
“Dyce is working on a new kind of sat phone. K2 says Dyce is just trying to ruin his fun, and he could be right. But we can’t complain given how much pleasure he accommodates.”
She couldn’t get comfortable. “K2?”
“Dyce.”
The door swung open.
Tripp entered, carrying a bucket of ice. “Usually when there are two women in my bed wearing my clothes…” He put the ice-bucket down and wandered to the bathroom. “It’s more fun than this.”
He reappeared with a couple of towels.
“I told Roxie you should go back to the club. And I don’t have to stay in your bed, I can go back to—”
“Ah, enough, woman,” he said, scooping some ice into a towel. “You know what will be less fun?”
He folded a towel to lay it over her leg then sat by her with the ice-filled towel to rest it on her ankle. Although she winced, she relaxed as soon as he did.
“What will be less fun?” she asked, raising her attention from the ice to the man frowning at it.
“When your guy finds out we didn’t take you straight to the hospital.”
“I don’t need a hospital, it’s a sprain. Alessia doesn’t need to know, and it’s not like you can drive me. Showing up in a limo is less than discreet.”
“Is that what you’re worried about?” Roxie pounced onto her knees. “Oh, honey, we can make a scene, sure, but we also know how to slip in unnoticed. You’re in pain, and you’ve been drinking.” Roxie sagged and appealed to Tripp. “The alcohol could be masking the pain. We should take her to the hospital.”
No objection from him. “Okay.”
“No!” she exclaimed, opening a hand to each of her friends. “I will be okay.”
“Dyce will be mad.”
“Then let him be mad at me, this is my call.”
Maybe it wasn’t fair to demand they comply, but she did not want Roxie showing up in the press with her and Tripp in some clandestine middle of the night hospital visit. Goodness only knew what story the media would cook up.
“Anyone hungry?”
“If you’re not going back to the party, you can still drink, still dance and—”
“Nah,” Tripp said, lying along the foot of the bed, still holding the ice towel on her ankle, propping his temple on a fist. “Roxie and I live in nightclubs.”
The woman beside her laughed and hooked an arm around the pillow beneath her. “That’s exactly what I said.”
Beyond the bedroom, a door slammed. What was that? Rather, who was that?
“Did someone order room service?” she asked.
Would they walk right in? Surely staff were required to—
Zane. He stalled in the doorway for just a second, concern etched on his face.
“This is where we slip out,” Roxie said.
Before her friend could leave the bed, Zane moved. “No, you stay. We’re leaving.”
“Told you he’d be mad,” Roxie muttered.
As Zane came to her side of the bed, Zairn wandered in. “Always knew you’d end up in bed with him, Lola.”
Tripp enjoyed that, but she didn’t have the time to judge Roxie’s reaction. Zane scooped both arms under her.
“What are you doing?” she asked as he lifted her.
Tripp leaped up and the ice scattered everywhere.
“Taking you to the hospital.”
“I don’t need to go to the hospital,” she objected as he took her sideways out of the bedroom door, navigating with an awareness of her ankle that escaped Tripp. “Please just take me back to bed.”
“I’ll take you to bed after the x-rays.”
“We don’t need x-rays. It was stupid, I went over on my ankle and I fell down like two stairs. It was stupid, the stairway was dark and there were people. I wasn’t paying attention, I…”
They’d got all the way from the room to the elevator. As the doors closed, she sighed and her head fell against him.
“You think I’ll take risks with your health?” he asked and kissed her hair. “I don’t care if you’re mad at me, Wanderer. This is important. Your health is important.”
“How did you get here so fast?” she asked, stroking the buttons of his shirt. “Why were you and Zairn—”
“We flew in to have dinner with a friend.”
“A friend you’re hiding from me and Roxie?”
Though… Roxie may have known because she hadn’t hesitated to call Zairn either. If they’d been there for dinner, Zairn didn’t need a sat phone to speak to his other half.
“We wanted to surprise you,” he said, a hint of scorn in his tone. “You should’ve gone straight to the hospital. You should’ve called an ambulance. What would you have done if Tripp wasn’t there?”
“I don’t know. Roxie’s resourceful, she’d have figured it out. She looked after me.”
“And Alessia?”
“I don’t want her to know, she’s having fun and security are protecting her. She has your people and Roxie’s. She knows to stay with the group.”
Reiterating that didn’t guarantee her sister would make the smartest choices. Especially with alcohol in her system. To those who didn’t know her, Roxie may seem like a frivolous person. For those who’d heard her talk about the people in her life, it was obvious how much the woman cared. Roxie’s security was handpicked, people Zairn had approved, and Roxie could vouch for. If Alessia did wander a little from safety, security would protect her.
Paying no heed to bystanders, Zane carried her through the lobby and into a waiting SUV. He put her on the seat, legs extended and closed the door. Hey, he didn’t expect she’d—he got in the door opposite her feet, carefully raising both her legs as he did. The moment the door was closed, they drove off.
“You have to keep it elevated,” he said, snagging a bag from the floor to snap an ice pack and lay it over her ankle.
That he didn’t ask which she’d hurt was a bad sign. Just how swollen was it? She didn’t want to look.
“I thought Tripp carrying me through the lobby might look bad,” she said, resting her head on the back of the seat. One of his hands stayed on the ice pack while the other stroked her knee and up her thigh. “I was wearing more clothes then.”
Not by much. If anything, the shirt may cover more than her spaghetti strap dress. He didn’t respond, his concern was still there, still potent. Maybe it wasn’t just concern, maybe he was angry.
“Drift, are you pissed?”
“No,” he said, his attention snapping to her. “Why would you think I’m mad?”
“You’re not talking to me.”
“I’m worried about you.” He squeezed her leg. “I need to know you’re okay.”
“It’s only my ankle. The rest of me still works.”
That loosened him up a little. When a smile lit his eyes, she could’ve just won a marathon for the joy it gave her.
“I know how you love the sand.” His caress went from one leg to the other and back. She slid a little lower, giving him more intimate access. “The feel of it between your toes.”
And for the first time that night, a little concern speared her too. “God, and if they give me some kind of cast—”
“Thought it was just a sprain,” he said like he’d caught her out, one brow rising. “Whatever it is, baby, we have to get it checked.”
“It’ll be okay and—”
“Do you want to come back to the island?”
“Right now?” she asked. “If there’s a flight…” The moment she said it, she shook her head. “You know what I mean. Yes, I want to come back. I’ve been gone less than a day and I miss it already.”
“What if I take you back and your ankle’s not fine? What if you fall or it gets worse?”
“Then you have an excuse to keep me in bed.” And away went his smile. “I suppose I can always work from bed. Maybe I’ll ask Roxie to help me pitch a tent on the beach by the corporate suite, then I can sleep and work right there by the waves.”
“You could do that, but pitching a tent on sand takes skill. Roxie isn’t the outdoorsy type.”
“Hmm, yes, if only there was a strong, attractive man who could keep me so busy in his sheets that I don’t have time to do anything other than him.”
“No sex until we know what this is.”
Even if her ankle was broken, it shouldn’t… No, he was right, she’d said it was a sprain, it was a sprain. If she’d known a visit to the hospital was the only way to get back on the island, she may not have been as resistant. Okay, it was understandable he didn’t want her to suffer or need help while they were far from any kind of official medical facility. Still, it might’ve been nice to live in the dream for a while.
“You are pissed.”
“I’m not pissed,” he said and picked up her hand to kiss her fingers. “I’m sorry, just when we got the call you were hurt and—I needed to be with you. If I’d got that call on the island…”
“But you didn’t. Roxie and Tripp took care of me. I told them they didn’t have to leave the club, that they should stay and have fun, or go back—”
“They live in nightclubs.” She laughed. “What?” He was frowning again. “Cutting out on one night won’t slow them down.”
“That’s pretty much what they said,” she whispered on a sigh, her eyes growing heavy. “I’ve had a good time in Honolulu.”
“You wouldn’t mind visiting again?”
“I’d prefer it just be a stop on my road to somewhere else.” Her eyelids rose. To her delight, his frown was gone. “I told Roxie we’ll keep seeing each other.”
“Well, babe, she lives in New York. Traveling to see her takes you further from me.”
“I meant you and me,” she said, sensing his tease. Though that wasn’t something she’d considered. “Do you see her a lot?”
“Roxie? Here and there.”
“I’ll miss her.”
“She won’t go far, or she won’t go far for long anyway. Any time she’s not at a nightclub, she’s usually on a plane to somewhere. Her and Roux, my brother’s wife, they’re sort of going into business together.”
“Sort of?”
“Roux is Head of Operations for Huddle Hope, an offshoot project from Huddle, the social media platform. It will give greater access to support and therapies to those in need, for mental health issues, trauma, that kind of thing.”
“Wow,” she said, shifting, suddenly not so asleep. “That’s a good cause.”
“It is. Roxie spends a lot of time in California, and when they’re not in LA, they’re usually in my house.”
“When you’re not there, but if you were there—”
“We can invite them or not. Rourke’s is on the other side of the lake with plenty of bedrooms, and we have employee apartments on the compound. They won’t be short of somewhere to stay.”
Crooking the knee of her uninjured leg, she stroked her instep across his thigh. “Think maybe I can come and see your house in California one day?”
“Any time, baby,” he said, kissing her palm this time. “I’ll be spending more time there now.”
“Why now?”
He snickered. “Because the closer I can get to you, the better,” he said. “Ever considered working remotely as a permanent option?”
“I don’t think my boss would like me constantly off the radar and—”
“From California, baby. Trust me, we have the tech to put you right there in her office. And if it doesn’t exist already, I’ll create it.”
“Show-off,” she said, maybe feeling a little smug herself. That was her guy there, threatening to use his skills to keep her close. What woman wouldn’t be flattered? “I might be persuaded.” She sighed because reality was sometimes so inconvenient. “I have to get through this project first. I’m already behind and it’s a big deal for the company. The whole idea is to impress our newest client and bring in new custom under the…”
“What?” he asked when she trailed off. “Tell me.”
“Will there be sex after we find out what this is at the hospital?”
Another laugh. “Maybe, baby. I might be persuaded.”
“Tripp and Roxie are a lot of fun.”
“I’m happy you like them. Tripp’s in LA a lot too.”
“But can I tell you a secret?”
Though she teased, he was polite enough to lean in. “Yeah.”
“I prefer being alone with you.”
Alone or with people, anywhere with him. The club was fun, the company entertaining, but it felt so much better to know she wouldn’t sleep alone that night. Just one night without him had seemed insurmountable. How would she cope when they had to become part-time lovers and live in different states? Would it work out between them? Could it?