by Zoe Chant
“We just got here,” Tex told her, as Marie protested, “I barely touched it!”
“My laptop,” Laura said weakly, and Juan scoffed, “I don’t know what kind of place this is!”
The fire alarm was still shrieking.
“Enough!” Scarlet said, holding up her hand.
Marie buried her face in Juan’s chest with a squeak, but the fire alarm, to Laura’s wry surprise, did not silence at her command.
“Tex, go turn off the alarm.”
Tex, beside Laura, stiffened, and Laura thought he was going to protest, then he agreed, “Can’t hear yourself think this way.” To Laura he said, “I’ll be right back.”
Laura didn’t have time to tell him it was irrelevant to her. For such a big man, he certainly moved quickly.
Scarlet pointed at Juan. “You, explain.”
Juan drew himself up, facing the challenge in Scarlet’s voice. “I was walking past when I heard the explosion and the scream. The door was open, and I went in to find the desk on fire. I used the fire extinguisher to put out the flames just as the smoke detector went off.”
“He saved my life!” Marie added at that point.
“Are you hurt?” Scarlet asked Marie briskly.
Marie shook her head vigorously, remaining in the protective circle of Juan’s arms. “No,” she said in a trembling voice. “I barely touched it,” she repeated. “I was just dusting.”
Scarlet frowned at the desk, and picked up a sooty pen that had rolled to the ground. “This isn’t how laptops usually fail,” she said dryly.
The fire alarm abruptly went still, and the silence seemed remarkable.
“Clearly this is another attempt on Miss Smith’s life,” Juan announced into the space it left.
Laura had been looking in despair at the black disaster of the laptop. All of her memories of Jenny were there.
But at Juan’s statement, she looked up, and the enormity of the situation crashed down on her.
Someone really was trying to kill her. And it was more the cartel’s style to slit throats in sleep, not poison lattes and blow up laptops. Someone else was after her. Or after Jenny.
“Jenny? Jenny?” Fred pushed into the room through the growing crowd, panting and sweating. “Are you okay? Oh, Jenny, what happened?”
Juan was happy to repeat his tale of heroics for him, while Scarlet thoughtfully took pictures on her phone of the mess. Tex returned during the tale, to find there was no space in the tiny hotel room for him to squeeze in. Laura was equal parts glad to see him sulk at the doorway and sorry not to have him at her side; Fred was a disappointing replacement, and even though she was furious with Tex, she felt safer with him at her side than with Fred.
“What were you doing cleaning the hotel room so late?” Fred asked Marie suspiciously.
Marie, who had finally stopped crying, burst into tears again. “I couldn’t get all the rooms done any earlier!”
Scarlet swooped to her defense at once. “We are all working odd shifts right now. The Mr. Shifter event has left us spread thin.”
Juan sniffed and muttered something barely audible about being under-staffed and unprepared. Scarlet shot him an unappreciative look and he snapped his mouth shut.
“Are you okay,” Fred asked Laura again. He was rubbing her arm in a familiar way, and even though she knew that Jenny wouldn’t have, Laura pushed him away with a growl.
“I’m fine,” she insisted. “I wasn’t even here.”
“Your poor laptop,” Fred said. “Did you have much that wasn’t backed up?”
“No,” Laura lied. “I have everything I need on the cloud.”
Jenny would do that.
Scarlet turned to Laura decisively. “You can’t stay here tonight,” she said firmly. “Tex...”
Laura was about to stop her, but Scarlet only told him, “Get Travis and find every free fan that you can to get the smoke in the hallway cleared out.”
Tex looked at Laura, who ignored him, before agreeing. “Yes, Ma’am.” He vanished back into the audience.
Scarlet turned her scowl to them next. “There’s nothing more to see here, people.” They scattered obediently, chattering excitedly as they went.
To Juan she said, “Thank you for your quick thinking.”
“He’s my hero,” Marie said, still tangled around him.
He looked pleased, if not quite sure what to do with the housekeeper clinging to him. “It was my pleasure,” he finally said, and took Scarlet’s hint to leave, Marie trailing alongside him.
The door shut behind them, and Laura and Scarlet were alone in the little room, which felt much larger with everyone gone.
“Pack up your personal items, but leave your clothing,” Scarlet commanded. “We’ll launder everything to get the smoke smell out and bring it to the cottage I’ll put you up in. It’s on the rustic side, the shower is outside and only has cold water, but it’s the last unoccupied room we have, and it will do in a pinch. I’ll see about replacing the laptop, of course, and I’ll be placing a guard on you at all times.”
Scarlet did not so much as hint that Laura room with Tex, which she was grateful for, and Laura knew better than to argue about a guard at this point.
“Thank you,” she said weakly.
“I’ll wait in the hallway while you get your things together,” Scarlet said gently.
Alone in the hotel room, Laura wandered about aimlessly for a moment, putting things randomly in her carry-on bag. She stared at the burnt-up laptop, and tried to imagine what she was going to do next. Most of her wanted to sit down on the extinguisher-dusted bed and sob her eyes out, but she was afraid that if she started, she would never stop.
So she shouldered her bag and went out to let Scarlet lead her on.
Chapter 20
Tex finished out the night at the bar in a stupor. He didn’t have the energy for any stunts, and had to ask people to repeat their orders more times than he had ever had to in his life.
Laura’s flashing eyes and bared teeth were burned into his brain. His bear, always a blustery, self-confident brute he had to restrain, was as shocked and dismayed as he was, and offered no help.
She doesn’t want us? Bear was crushed in his head.
Had he done what she accused him of? Had he betrayed her trust? It simply hadn’t occurred to him not to tell Scarlet the truth. At the best of times, he was a miserable liar, and there was something about Scarlet that made falsehood feel pointless. Besides, his first priority was Laura’s protection, and Scarlet was her best hope of that, next to him.
Not that he’d been able to help her today.
“I asked for a beer like ten minutes ago,” Mr. Canada groused, and Tex stared at him stupidly while the girl hanging on his arm tittered drunkenly.
“Sorry, sir,” Tex said automatically. “What kind was that?”
“A pilsner,” Mr. Canada scoffed. The girl giggled again.
Tex looked at the clock, which seemed to be crawling towards closing time too slowly, and poured the beer more sloppily than he usually did, requiring him to mop up the counter afterwards.
Mr. Canada was unimpressed. “Americans,” he said scornfully to his armcandy as they moved away from the bar to one of the tables overlooking the pool.
Her silly laugh made Tex long for Laura’s intelligent warm chuckle.
But… she doesn’t want us? Bear was not the swiftest animal that could have shared his head.
She will, Tex replied to him, not entirely convinced himself. She has to.
He tried not to think too hard about the fact that he’d always considered himself unlucky in love… and that maybe that was really the truth.
The cottage that Travis had put Laura up in was at the very edge of the jungle, nearly swallowed in vines and flowers. The path was an obstacle course of concrete fractured by roots, not yet replaced with white gravel like the rest of the updated paths.
Tex wandered there directly following last call, and nearly lost his ha
t to one of the overhanging branches.
Graham was sitting on the lowest front step, a menacing shadow with a machete, but when Tex approached, he stood up. They exchanged a look that didn’t require words, and Graham shrugged and left Tex to take his vigil.
Tex mauled his hat in his hands as he stood at the doorstep, but didn’t knock.
Finally, he simply sat where Graham had been.
He could no more push himself on her than he could leave her unprotected. Her doorstep was the best place for him, for now.
Chapter 21
Laura didn’t sleep until Tex arrived.
She sensed him changing places with the surly landscaper, and spent several long moments anticipating the knock on the door before she realized he wasn’t going to.
It was strange to be courted by someone who listened to her refusals, who treated her with respect.
Once she figured out that he planned to stay the night on her doorstep, she fell easily into a deep, restful sleep. Her dreams were of a strange field of tall grass, brightly lit as if by daylight, but the sky had no sun.
The cottage had not been fitted with curtains or blinds, so the rising sun woke her early. She looked at it curiously for several moments, trying to recall the details of the fleeting dream.
Laura dressed in the same sundress she had been wearing the night before, and went out onto the front porch to find a gigantic brown bear that took up not a step, but all the steps, head laying on crossed paws next to a tidy pile of Tex’s clothing topped by his ridiculous hat. He sat up when she came out, moving aside so she could get down the stairs.
He is a fine bear, her wolf told her suggestively.
He is a fine man, she responded with a sigh.
Instead of walking past, she sat down beside him. She ought to be afraid, she thought. Each of his paws was the size of her head, trimmed with sharp claws as long as her fingers.
“My secrets are mine to keep,” she said severely. “I choose who to share them with, not you. I get to decide how to keep myself safe.”
The bear gave a whine, then shifted gracefully down to the form of a man sitting beside her. A gorgeous man.
A gorgeous, very naked man.
And to Laura’s surprise, the gorgeous, naked man did not offer a single excuse. He could have pointed out, rightfully, that Scarlet would probably have figured it out anyway, or that he needed her help to protect her.
All he said was, “It was wrong of me. I am sorry.”
Laura waited, too experienced with men not to expect the ‘but…’
It didn’t come.
“You won’t always be able to protect me,” Laura pointed out.
His sorrowful look cut her to the heart. “I can always try,” he said fiercely. “I couldn’t rest if you weren’t safe.”
Laura picked up his hat, running a finger along the band before setting it on her head. It was big on her, but she had enough hair to hold it up from her eyes.
“I know you meant well,” she conceded. “I’m not used to having someone willing to run to my rescue,” she confessed. “I’m not sure what to do with it.”
“I like you in that hat,” Tex said shyly, with a crooked smile.
Laura tipped it at him, an echo of his own habits. “Pleased ta meetcha,” she drawled.
“I am so glad I met you,” Tex said, all sincerity and chivalry.
Laura gave a laugh that was more snort. “Me, with all of my baggage.”
“Ma’am,” Tex said seriously, “I’m happy to carry all of your baggage.”
Laura tipped forward to kiss him, forgetting that his hat was still on her head. It hit him in the forehead, and he lifted it off her head in one smooth motion, cupping her face with his big, gentle hands.
She had not forgotten that he was naked, however hard she was trying to ignore it. Her whole body tingled to be so close to him, and she put one of her hands on his chest. Fine hair curled over her dark fingers. He felt like the softest leather imaginable, warm in the early sun.
He shivered at her touch and drew her in for another, deeper kiss.
They kissed until they had to break apart for breath, hands exploring over muscles and the planes of their bodies. Tex had his hand up under her sundress, barely touching the wet heat of her entrance, while she just accidentally brushed the attentive member that Tex was sporting. And kept accidentally brushing it.
“Scarlet wants you to take the boat to the mainland, Tex. Travis can’t go because he is fixing the toilet in cottage eight.”
The voice that interrupted them was matter-of-fact and Laura and Tex scrambled apart hastily to find a woman standing in the overgrown path, looking at them with open curiosity. Her salt-and-pepper hair was wild around her face, and her feet were bare beneath a short, flowing sundress.
“Gizelle,” Tex said, strangled. He pulled his hat over his lap. “This is Laura.”
Gizelle stared at Laura. “Your skin is much browner than mine,” she said candidly.
Laura blinked at her unexpected statement, and slowly agreed, “Yes, it is.” Gizelle had pale, freckled skin and Laura couldn’t decide if she looked very young, with her straight, innocent gaze, or very old, with the white that streaked her hair and the unexpected wariness in her expression.
Tex coughed. “Gizelle hasn’t been in human form very long,” he explained, hinting at a deeper story.
Gizelle finally turned her intense stare from Laura to Tex and she felt like she could breathe again. “Scarlet says we need more things before the bonfire tonight, and Travis wants duct tape that isn’t pink. I like the pink duct tape. Chef wants strawberries, twenty pounds if you can get them. What were you doing when I walked up?”
Laura blessed the dark skin that kept the heat of embarrassment from showing. Tex, not so lucky, was scarlet-faced. The blush extended down to his chest, Laura was amused to see.
“I’ll explain it to you later,” Tex promised. He stood up and grabbed his pile of clothing, keeping the hat in place in front of him. “I’ll go grab a quick shower…”
He paused just a few strides down the path. “Do you want to come to the mainland with me?”
Laura had to consider only a moment — escape from the crowded resort in a boat with only Tex? — and she said, “Yes!” exactly as Gizelle primly said, “No, thank you.”
The two women looked at each other, and Gizelle explained, “Scarlet says I shouldn’t, until I stay human when I get frightened. You’ll have a nice trip. The sunlight will be pouring before the ocean gets in.”
“How long will it take you to get ready?” Tex asked Laura.
Laura shrugged. It wasn’t like she spent a lot of time on makeup, and the shower was too chilly to tempt her to stay long in it. She did want a quick bite first, though. “Thirty minutes?”
“You know the staff house by the cliffs? The one closest to the beach?” At Laura’s nod, Tex said, “Meet me there when you’re ready to go.”
Then he left, and once his adorable bare buttcheeks had vanished around the corner, Gizelle turned to Laura.
“Will you explain what you were doing?” she asked directly.
Laura felt her cheeks heat again. “He’s my mate,” she finally said, simply.
“Ah,” Gizelle said knowingly.
Laura braced herself to explain further, but Gizelle tossed her head as if she were scenting the air and said, “He likes you,” before she turned and scampered off.
Probably, her befuddled look was similar to the look Fred gave her when she caught him leaving the buffet. “I’m headed to the mainland today,” she told him. “So don’t worry if you don’t see me around!” Then she was off to grab the quickest food available at the buffet before she went to meet Tex.
Laura wasn’t sure what to expect when she tapped at the door to the staff house, but it definitely wasn’t the cheerful roar of welcome that the staff gave her.
“Come in!” Breck hollered from the kitchen. “Mi castle, es so castle, or something! Can I get
you a breakfast beer? Some juice?”
Travis stood at the bottom of the stairs and shouted up, “Tex, your girlfriend is here!” He wandered back into the kitchen to take a plate of eggs from Breck. “It’s supposed to be mi casa, my house.”
“Compared to our last place, this is totally a castle,” Breck retorted. “It’s also one of the only buildings in the place with its own kitchen. Do you want some eggs Miss Smith?”
Bastian, who had answered the door, smiled down at her. “We’re watching last night’s speeches, join us?” He was already wearing his lifeguard’s uniform, the first aid kit strapped to his waist.
Even Graham thawed enough to smile and stand up to remove a pile of questionable literature from the end of the loveseat so she could sit.
Laura did sit, gingerly, and accepted the juice Breck brought her with a flourish.
The Mr. Shifter competition being streamed on the big TV was returning from a promotional break, and the little blonde hostess was standing in front of the red curtains of the little theatre, all her charm turned on. If Laura hadn’t watched her stridently return a perfectly good meal at the restaurant two nights before, she might have believed the charismatic little act.
Mr. India took the stage and flashed a perfect white smile before launching into a well-rehearsed tirade about responsibility to the environment.
“Keep it down,” Breck told Tex, as he stomped down the stairs in his cowboy boots. “This one’s actually coherent.”
“Unlike Mr. Canada, who might have written his speech from a Tim Hortons menu. Maple syrup and donuts, eh?” Travis was clearly unimpressed.
The bachelor banter faded to Laura’s ears at the sight of Tex. Mr. India, in his crisp white shirt, was forgotten.
Cowboys had never done it for her, but there was something about Tex, something that made Mr. India look inconsequential. It was something that made Laura forgive the foolish boots and the big buckle. And the hat was perfect.