Page 82 of Cosplay & Consequences

“Promise,” he replied and leaned over to give me a kiss.

I melted into it. Feeling greedy, I rolled on top of him.

“I thought you were hungry,” he mumbled against my lips.

“Food can wait,” I said, moving my lips to his neck. “I’d rather not miss this moment.”

Danny

We planned to sleep in. The next step was to go out for breakfast. Pancakes for her, egg whites for me. Jess didn’t have anything scheduled for the Con other than to meet a couple of her writers she had edited for, and I had media interviews later this morning followed by my torture session with Jorge in the afternoon.

These were the thoughts in my head when my phone’s incessant ringing dragged me from the cozy depths of our hotel room bed. Disentangling myself from Jess, I fumbled with my free hand until I grabbed the phone, but by that time I had missed the call.

“Too early,” Jess mumbled, trying to entangle herself with me again.

I checked my phone. Paige had called and she had sent four texts before that.

Criminal: You awake?

Criminal: Call me.

Criminal: Seriously. Call me.

Criminal: It’s bad.

A cold sense of dread crept into my mind, but I pushed it away. It could be anything. Paige thought anything remotely annoying was ‘bad.’ I tapped Paige’s number and called her back.

“Get up here,” she answered.

“Hello to you, too,” I responded lightly. “What’s going on?”

Her voice was tight and tense. “I can’t talk to you when you’re not wearing pants. Get up here.”

I rolled my eyes. “I could be wearing pants, you don’t know.”

“Danny!”

A foreboding feeling grew in my gut, but I pushed it aside. It was probably nothing. I pulled myself out of bed. “I’ll be up in a minute.”

Jess groaned in disappointment, pulling the covers over her head. “Nooooo. Sleep in. Then pancakes.”

“Paige is in a twist about something,” I explained as I pulled on whatever clothing that happened to be nearby. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Ugh. I’m awake now,” she muttered.

I pulled down the comforter so I could see her face and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. “Get dressed while I’m gone. When I’m done sorting out whatever it is with Paige, we’ll have pancakes.”

“I’m having pancakes. You are having egg whites. But I’m going to let you steal some pancake bites from my plate, and I’ll pretend not to notice,” she corrected me.

“Deal.” I grinned and gave her another kiss before heading out to the elevator.

It wasn’t until the elevator doors closed that my nerves kicked into high gear. I tried to remind myself again that Paige thought every slight inconvenience was terrible. She once declared the world was ending because Faye ate the last of her chocolate and peanut butter ice cream.

When I got to her suite, Paige stood in the entry hallway with an intensity that made me jump back as soon as I walked through the door. “Okay. You’re being creepy.”

She shoved her phone in my face.

I blinked. “Your Amazon order is arriving today?”