by Meg Buchanan
At least she’d stayed.
Hell, he’d never thought that before. Usually in this situation he hoped desperately the girl would’ve disappeared during the night. Didn’t ever happen.
He slid carefully out of the bed. God, he hated one-night stands. He hated that awkwardness the next morning. He hated waking up next to someone he barely knew. But knew he’d fucked so felt he had to be polite until they left. That’s why he’d stopped doing this.
He wasn’t ready for that until at least he’d had a piss.
He padded to the bathroom still in t shirt and under shorts. So, he’d managed to get undressed that far.
With any luck he coma-ed as soon as he got into the room and had nothing to apologise for. It turned out, not knowing if anything had happened felt worse than knowing.
He lifted the lid of the toilet. At least it had been flushed after the last person used it. He watched the stream hit the side of the bowl. He couldn’t believe how beautiful she looked. Even this morning, lying there asleep she’d looked like a dream come true, and peaceful.
That’s right, they’d got a taxi, and then for some reason they’d had to walk some of the way.
He flushed the toilet, then washed his hands. He’d been the perfect gentleman. No, he hadn’t. A vivid memory came back of that moment by the neighbour’s fence. He’d made his intentions perfectly clear then. That obviously hadn’t scared her off. Then he remembered something, she’d said for some reason she didn’t have anywhere to go. She needed somewhere to sleep and chose to come home with him.
He dried his hands and squared his shoulders. Now to go and face whatever waited for him in his bedroom.
He opened his bedroom door quietly again.
“Hi,” came from the bed. She sat there with the sheet nicely folded across her waist. Her dark hair fell in soft curves on his t shirt. She still looked pretty amazing.
“Hi,” he said. “I can’t believe you’re still here.” But, he reminded himself, she had nowhere else to go.
“Where else would I be?”
He shrugged. Did you hop back into bed in situations like this? What was the etiquette?
He opted for sitting on the chair at his desk. He leaned his elbow near the computer, going for nonchalant. “Did you sleep well?”
She laughed. “Fine thank you. And you?”
“Quite well I think.” He decided to go for honesty. “I don’t remember a lot about what happened last night.” Then another scrap of memory came back. When they got to the flat and he’d announced to Tessa that Geneviève was sleeping with him. He winced. That wasn’t particularly cool of him either.
Geneviève shrugged. “Nothing happened. You took your boots off and lay back on the bed and fell asleep.”
What a relief. He wouldn’t like to have had sex with someone as amazing looking as her and not remember it. He looked down. “That doesn’t explain the lack of jeans.”
“I think you must have woken up later and got undressed,” she said. “I found this in a drawer.” She pulled at the t shirt. “I hope you don’t mind.”
He shook his head. So, he hadn’t even been that much of a gentleman. He’d let her fend for herself. His head ached, and he felt like he hadn’t slept enough but on the whole, he’d got away with having way too much to drink pretty well. And nothing to apologise for.
“Where are you from anyway? I think you said something in Spanish last night.”
She nodded. “I live here now, but Uruguay is where I am from.”
Uruguay, he didn’t know a bloody thing about Uruguay. “Handy you speak English; my Spanish is a bit rusty.”
She half smiled and plucked at the sheet. “I studied it.” She looked as uncomfortable as he felt. He stood up. He needed a shower.
“Do you want breakfast?” he asked. What else would you ask a girl you barely know, who’s sitting in your bed wearing your t shirt?
She nodded. “How does that work?”
“We all go down to the café about ten.”
She nodded. “Then I have got an hour to work out what I am going to wear.”
That’s right. She wasn’t exactly dressed for going out to breakfast when she arrived, and she didn’t have a bag with her.
She looked about the same size as Tessa. That would work.
“I’ll get Tessa to lend you something. Are you all right here?” He grabbed a towel. “When I’ve found you some clothes you can have a shower.”
“You aren’t going to suggest us showering together then?” She smiled at him from his bed.
Well he hadn’t thought about that, but it sounded like a good plan. Then he gave up on the idea.
“You haven’t seen our shower, it’s a passion killer.”
Geneviève laughed, then looked serious. “Adam, I must have left my phone in the taxi, I don’t have it with me.”
“Did you notice what taxi company it was?” She shook her head. “Did we pay him?”
She nodded. “You used your credit card.”
“We’ll track it down then. It’ll be on the statement.” He checked his phone found the company name.
“Do you have a surname?” he asked. Not a question he usually had to ask after he had slept with someone.
She hesitated, then said, “Morès, and you?”
“Turner.”
Adam rang the taxi firm about the phone. They had it at the office. The office would be open after ten o’clock.
“Thanks. We’ll pick it up then,” he told the girl on the phone. “They’ve got it, we’ll go get it after breakfast.” He collected up his clothes. “See you in a minute.” She nodded and slid back down under the covers.
Easier than he thought. He had no idea what her plans were. He’d just treat her the way he usually treated Tessa, ignore any vibes between them and they should get through the next few hours.
At the café Geneviève sat quietly beside Adam pushing the scrambled eggs around her plate. It had seemed rude to insist they pick up her phone straight away. She guessed taxi companies had to deal with stuff left in their cabs a lot. Luckily, she still had her purse, it held everything she had. Including the couple of thousand dollars she’d got out of the ATM. But she had lost her phone and she needed to get it back, it had all her contacts in.
Adam looked her and smiled, she smiled back. Echoes of those kisses and the few moments by the fence were still there. The waitress turned up with a tray of coffee and the connection broke again.
She watched Luke hold his coffee cup up in a toast. “To leaving in four days.” Luke definitely wasn’t ugly despite what Adam had said. “We need to go back to the pub and pack up all our gear. Chapman said he will organise a shipping company to pick it up and ship it across to Queensland for us so it will be there when we arrive.”
“Four days,” Adam, Noah and Cole echoed. Isaac sat back quietly and watched. Adam said he was surprised Isaac wasn’t going with them and that surely his wife could cope on her own for three months.
“It’s getting real.” Cole picked up the business card sitting in the middle of the table. “Who would have believed this would have changed things so much?” He put the card back on the table.
Isaac scooped it up. “Just in case I ever need an agent.”
It looked like Isaac wanted to go with them.
She guessed it was Jess his wife sitting beside him. She watched Jess pick up her phone and take a photo of everyone. Then send the picture to someone. They all went back to eating and then Jess’s phone gave a ding. She picked it up and looked at the message and laughed. She held the phone up.
“Look at this.” She showed them a picture of a street and a message, “And I am here.”
“Who’s that from?” Isaac asked.
“Mark, my boss,” said Jess.
“What’s he texting you for today? It’s Sunday.” Isaac sounded irritated.
“I knew he’d be working and thought I’d make him jealous and he sent me a picture of the view from the office.”<
br />
“For fuck’s sake,” said Isaac.
There was more going on between Isaac and Jess than Adam had told her.
Adam leaned closer to her and asked, “When we’ve finished here, and picked up your phone, what do you want to do?”
She thought about it for a moment and then said, “Can you take me somewhere I can buy clothes?”
“I could take you home,” he suggested. She could hear the reluctance in his voice.
“No,” she said quietly. “I don’t want to go home.
“Where do you want to go then?”
“The Base?”
“What are you two cooking up?” asked Tessa from the other side of the table.
“A shopping trip,” Geneviève answered. It seemed having her around did make Tessa jealous. It looked like Adam’s plan might be working. And she hadn’t told Adam yet but from what she could see, Luke and Tessa weren’t really together anymore. She could feel tension between them and they were only just polite to each other.
Geneviève went back to pushing the scrambled eggs around on her plate.
“Don’t you want them?” Adam asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t eat much in the mornings.”
“Do you want to go then? We could pick up your phone and head for the Base. After that I might have to go back home and go to bed.”
She looked at him not sure whether that was an invitation or a suggestion. She still hadn’t worked out what to do after she’d bought the clothes. And honestly going to bed sounded really appealing. She’d only had a couple of hours’ sleep too.
She breathed in. First things first. Get her phone then buy a disguise. Then maybe she should get a motel room. She couldn’t just hang out with Adam. He’d served his purpose.
“Don’t you feel well?” she asked.
“A bit seedy.”
“Okay, phone, shopping, then sleeping.” Geneviève stood up. “I’m ready.”
Chapter Five
For some reason he’d thought Geneviève would buy clothes like she’d been wearing when he met her. Grown up, sophisticated clothes and the shoes to match. Day time versions of them. Instead she’d marched him into a department store and bought three pairs of jeans. She didn’t even try them on.
“Shouldn’t you see if they fit?” he asked.
“They’ll fit,” she said. “This is what I always buy.”
“Okay.” Tessa had lent her jeans, a white t shirt, and a pair of flat shoes. Since they were Tessa’s clothes and she went for blatantly sexy the t shirt was tiny and when Geneviève moved it showed the perfectly smooth tanned skin of her waist and the neckline dipped to reveal the curve of her breasts.
Then she moved onto t-shirts and selected dark colours with logos that were more surf than anything. Then some long-sleeved tops. She didn’t try them on either, just held them up against her body to check they went around her.
Next, a couple of hoodies. Finally, some black lace up sneakers. They moved onto the underwear section. Again, not trying anything on and nothing fancy or extravagant.
He felt a bit disappointed. He’d could have coped with watching her going through racks and racks of lacy bras and pants. Like the ones he knew she’d been wearing last night.
He thought about that moment by the fence again. The sexiest thing he’d done in his life. He shook the image away. Kisses and touching shouldn’t be on the menu. And he didn’t do that stuff, anyway. He always acted respectful and caring. For some reason she needed help. He was helping her.
Next, they moved to the bag department and she bought a small leather bag with straps, so it could be worn like a pack and a big khaki canvas roll bag. It looked like she was buying the stuff she’d need if she had to make a run for it.
They went to the checkout and she paid cash for everything she’d bought. When she opened the little silver purse, he was surprised by the amount of cash she had in there. Last night she’d had money and a phone. That would get you out of most situations and she’d still chosen to come home with him.
They got out of the store and she pushed everything except one of the hoodies into the roll bag and zipped it up. Then ripped the labels off the hoodie and put it on.
She turned and smiled at him with the hood pulled over her hair and low over her forehead, so she had to look out under it.
“Do I look like a hood rat?” she asked. She’d been buying a disguise.
“Not too many hood rats look like you do,” he said. But the hoodie covered her up.
“Now I need to buy some toiletries, I can’t keep borrowing yours. There isn’t a supermarket at the Base is there?” asked Geneviève.
“Never found one here. Do you think you can get everything you need at a chemist?”
Geneviève nodded. “I should be able to.”
They wandered across the carpark to the chemist in the middle of the other row of shops. He pushed the door open and they wandered over to the shelf with toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Geneviève got some of each, the soap, deodorant and all the other bits and pieces it took to stay clean. He watched her as she wandered to the makeup and reached for some lotion. He guessed she knew what she wanted.
She really was beautiful. Even dressed as a hood rat, she looked amazing. Tessa’s jeans fitted her well. The flat shoes didn’t make her legs look any less long. The hood had fallen back off her head and her hair tumbled down her back. Her skin with its light tan looked flawless. And he liked her. Not just the way she looked, but the easy way they got on when they were together.
Then he saw her look out the window of the chemist shop. She snatched her hand back from the bottle of lotion and ducked down behind a shelf.
What the…?
Well he knew she had to be hiding from something and she’d obviously just seen whatever it was. She looked terrified.
Maybe she’d stolen the cash she had in her purse. Maybe she’d just seen the police.
He looked out the window. A male, late thirties, early forties stood in the middle of the carpark examining his phone. He looked at it. Looked up, then examined the phone again and started striding towards the shop they were in.
Just as the man headed for the shop Geneviève looked around the unit, saw him coming and ducked back. She pressed up against the shelving and stayed there looking terrified. She really didn’t want the man to find her.
The white knight impulse kicked in. He’d get her away from the guy first and then he’d find out what the hell was going on. He went over to her.
“He can’t find me,” she whispered. She looked up at him with huge, dark frightened eyes.
“Okay.” He flipped her hood back up for her and tucked her hair under it. The best he could do as a disguise. He took her hand and lead her out the other door into the mall area just as the man walked in the front door of the shop and looked around. Geneviève kept looking straight ahead and walked with him.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the man glance at his phone and over to where they were and hesitate. He felt sure the man was tracking something on the phone.
“Keep walking,” he said. Geneviève stayed beside him. The mall felt busy, a lot busier than the carpark. They should be able to get lost in the people there for a while.
How were they being tracked? If that guy was looking for Geneviève how did he know she’d go to the Base? There were plenty of shopping centres in this place. Hell, she could be in Auckland by now. She’d been with him for a good eight hours, so it was at least that long since she’d done whatever. If this guy could track her, why now?
He led her through the crowd. She followed with frightened glances up at him.
“Is he following us?” she asked.
He risked a glance behind them. The man had come out the door of the chemist studying his phone again and then looking around, but he didn’t seem to be focussing on them.
Well he didn’t know him, and as long as he didn’t see her face he probably wouldn’t recognise Gene
viève as a hood rat if the last time he’d seen her she’d had that cocktail dress on.
The guy definitely moved in the same direction they were headed, and he still kept glancing at the phone in his hand. That’s right, they’d just picked up her phone. There must be some sort of locate setting on it that had been activated.
“Where’s your phone?” he asked Geneviève. He glanced back again.
“In my purse.”
“Give it to me.”
Still moving towards the exit at the other end of the mall, she unzipped the backpack and pulled the phone out and handed it to him. He flicked through the settings. Lucky, the same model as his. They kept moving. If they didn’t stand still it would be harder to find them.
He showed her the setting. “Did you turn this on.”
She shook her head. “No, I never lose my phone. Mason must have turned it on. Bastard,” she said.
That sounded cute. In fact, not much about her wasn’t cute.
He turned it off. “It’s good now.” That would keep the bastard off their trail for a while. He considered ditching the phone. Then decided if the guy wasn’t a cop he probably didn’t have access to the technology needed to find the phone now.
He put it in his pocket and glanced back again. The guy stopped, stared at his phone for a moment. His lips formed ‘fuck’ then he stood hands on hips and looked around the way he’d done in the carpark.
Well that confirmed three things, Geneviève was running from that guy. He’d been tracking them with his phone, and he needed to get her out of here before she got spotted. Maybe the guy noticed them leaving the chemist in a hurry and would put two and two together soon.
They were going past what looked like a storage room. No, it would be locked. Then he saw the door to the bathroom. That would work. A tunnel with two exits.
“In here,” he said to Geneviève and shoved the door open then pushed her in front of him. He glanced back. The guy had started moving in their direction again. Adam let the door swing shut and turned back to Geneviève.
“Change your hoodie,” he said. “Put on a different colour.” She nodded and unzipped the canvas roll bag and opened the big red plastic bag with the clothes she’d bought in.