Page 63 of Born for Starlight

I turned off the faucet and trailed my hand through the hot water.

Penis thoughts.

All I could think of was a woman telling some guy not to think with his dick.

I sat up straight, splashing water on myself. That was it.

It’s an auction. This is our big chance. Don’t blow it thinking with your dick.

“Holy fuck. Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”

Chapter Twenty

The door to the second bedroom opened, and Angelica came out wrapped in one of the hotel's white robes.

She'd been in the bath a long time. Her skin was flushed and dewy, her hair pinned up, with a few strands loose around her face. The robe gaped just enough at the top to make me forget what I'd been doing on my phone. Long bare legs finished the job.

"I'm getting dressed." She headed for the main bedroom. "Room service is coming. Let them in."

The door shut.

No yelling, no freeze-out, just instructions about lunch.

Room service, huh? After the morning we'd had, I figured whatever was on that cart would be a meal for one.

I figured wrong.

Two waiters wheeled in enough food for a fire brigade. Grilled fish, rice, beans, farofa, a fish stew that smelled incredible. Two brigadeiros in little glass cups, the kind you eat with a spoon and not surprisingly, two glasses of milk. Thank God there was a bottle of sparkling water for the grown-ups.

One of the servers pulled another bottle from under the cart and I realized I’d thought too soon as I looked at a bottle of Blantons. I wondered just how much the bottle of bourbon was going to cost me.

I tipped the servers and stood there trying to figure her out. Either she'd been thinking kind thoughts about me, wanted to put me in the poor house, or she wanted something.

Whatever she was thinking, I needed to be on guard.

The Blantons hurt. Any other day I'd have poured two fingers and toasted the woman's taste. Today there were too many moving pieces, and every one of them could get somebody killed. I opened the sparkling water instead.

Angelica came out in jeans and a t-shirt, barefoot, hair still pinned up.

Damn.

Seduction wasn't on the table. Pity.

Maybe this was exactly what it looked like. Lunch, a truce, some questions about how Layla was going to help find Luzia. I could field those.

Maybe.

Probably.

Sure, I could.

I pulled out her chair. "Thank you for this. You didn't have to."

"Of course I did." She gave me a regal nod. "We skipped breakfast. And all that wine talk makes a person hungry."

There it was. The needle, tucked inside the hospitality. I let it sail past and served her some of the stew.

We ate. The food was as good as it smelled, and I barely tasted it, because I was watching her.