Page 16 of Shark’s Edge

“What? That was the most tasteful thing I could come up with. He has the superpower of getting under a person’s skin in record time. Haven’t you noticed that?”

Silence. I was still trying to digest the fact that she told Sebastian Shark it was none of his damn business.

“Or is that just me?” Rio asked hurriedly. She never could stand quietude.

A laugh burst out before I could stop it. “Superpower for sure. I think that might be one of the reasons his business is so successful. People just give in and do what he wants.”

“Hmm. Well, anyhow, that was all the explanation he got from me regarding your absence.”

That, along with my laugh, helped me take a normal breath again. “Sorry, girl, but seriously, to have been a fly on that expensive wallpaper . . . ”

Her mirror of a chuckle had me wondering whether to be heartened or worried. “Well, I’m glad to hear that longing.”

“Do I even want to know what you’re talking about, Rio?” Suddenly, the stomachache I’d dropped a few exits back on the 405 was back.

“Pretty simple, Abs. If Abstract Catering wants to keep Shark’s business, you will be delivering his lunch tomorrow. Not me. You.” She pushed out a final defined breath in emphasis. “Tomorrow.”

“Are you messing with me, Rio? This isn’t funny. I don’t joke about business, and you know that.” My voice grew louder as I finished my sentence.

“Wish I were, mami—but no. Shark insisted I bring his decree back to you. Word for word.” She sucked in a breath so sharply, I feared something might have happened to her.

“And, Abbigail,” she breathed more than spoke.

“Rio, you’re freaking me out! What? What is it?”

“If you saw the look on that man’s face when he was telling me all that? Holy. Mother. Of. God. I’m pretty sure I’ve never been so scared and turned on and confused . . . and turned on.” She drifted off for a few seconds and then, as if catching herself, said, “Shit, I said that already—but yeah . . . just from a look. Why doesn’t he have a wife? Or a girlfriend at the very least? My guess is he’s lethal in bed with all that game.”

I really didn’t need the syllable-by-syllable breakdown. My imagination was already at work just from what Rio had supplied, hearing every note of his lush baritone . . . and seeing it roll off his broad, full lips . . .

“I’m sorry, honey. I know you needed space from him, even if the media circus wasn’t the real reason”—her defined drop in tone betrayed how she knew that part this whole time—“but he told me that if you’re not the one delivering his lunch tomorrow, with the silverware wrapped in a dark-red linen, he will terminate our current contract and reject your bid for the Edge as well.”

I sat up so high and stiff, I bounced up off the seat. “He’ll do what?”

Rio cleared her throat. “You really need me to repeat it?”

I answered with the defined thwonk of my hand against the steering wheel. “Dammit! Sparkle City Catering is probably waiting for his call.”

“Well, of course they are. On their knees with their mouths open.”

“I really want to laugh at that.”

Rio’s shrug was evident in her comeback. “Well, you know what they say.”

“If you’re not laughing, you’re crying?”

“Yep. And if you’re not crying, you’re not sucking hard enough.”

This time I did laugh. “Christ, you’re impossible.”

“And you love me this way.” She meshed her good-natured chuckle to mine. “Just tell me this isn’t going to be impossible for you.”

“Impossible?” I countered. “What do you mean by—”

“It’s really none of my business, okay? But the truth is, I’m worried about you, Abs. I mean, about you and him. About Shark.”

“Huh?” I hated how I had to bring out my Oscar contender skills to play innocent about her words. “Why? I . . . I mean, what are you worried about?”

“What am I not worried about?” she rebutted. “That man . . . he’s a real hunter. I don’t know, and don’t want to know, all the things that make him tick. But that shark celebrates the smell of blood. Rejoices in it.”