Page 44 of Ravaged With You

“I never doubted it.” His reply is so soft and mumbled I barely make it out.

“I mean it. We were right there at the hotel.”

“What?” He rolls over to face me.

“You said it yourself. Hotels have safe deposit boxes. Some do anyway.”

At first, he looks baffled. Then I see the remnants of sleep clear, replaced by a smile. He bends forward and presses a soft kiss to my forehead.

“And now we have a plan for tomorrow,” he says.

Chapter Thirteen

“This has to be it,” Jo said as they left Red’s hybrid with The Terrace Hotel’s valet. “He had something to protect, apparently he came here all the time, so of course he’d lock it up here. It’s elementary, my dear Mr. Cooper.”

Red chuckled, glancing sideways at her. “You’re in a good mood.”

She lifted her shoulders. “I feel like we’re finally on to something. There’s going to be something here. You know I’m right.”

“It’s a good bet, I won’t deny that.”

She hipchecked him as they stepped into the lobby. “That’s not optimism. That’s a lack of pessimism.”

“I’m going to go with pragmatism.”

“Fair enough. Of our dynamic duo, I’ll be the one with vision. You can be the one who slogs.”

“Seems like a fair trade to me.”

“That’s not the only thing supporting my good mood,” she added.

“No?” They retraced their steps from yesterday across the gilded lobby to the registration desk. “Dare I ask?”

“It’s because of you. Us. Last night.”

He cocked his head. She’d been angling for sex, which he’d firmly shut down. So unless he’d done more than talk in his sleep…

“I can so read your mind, pervo, and no we didn’t, but it would serve you right if we had.”

He laughed, not surprised at all that she really could read his mind. “If it wasn’t mind-blowing sex, then tell me what life transformative thing happened last night that I missed?”

They’d reached the counter. “We talked,” she said, her smile as bright as sunshine. “I was afraid we’d lost that, but we haven’t. And that, Mr. Pragmatist, makes me happy.”

She turned away to signal the clerk, leaving him reeling a bit. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but this … well, she was right. They’d talked more last night than they had in years. He’d feared they’d lost that connection, too, but clearly they hadn’t.

Despite this hellish situation they were trying to navigate, they’d found the core of their friendship again, and that truly was incredible.

The only thing better, in fact, would be to take that friendship to the next level, but as he’d told her last night, that would never—could never—happen. So all he said as the clerk approached was, “Yeah. That makes me happy, too.”

He moved closer to the counter, his arm brushing hers. As if in contradiction to his thoughts, the contact sent sparks of awareness shooting through him, forcing him to stifle a groan.

Shut it down, Red. You know it’s not happening, so just shut it the fuck down.

“You’re certain?”

Red glanced up, realized Jo was talking to the clerk, and kicked himself for being so off his game that he’d actually tuned their conversation out.

“You don’t even do short term boxes for hotel guests?”