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It shouldn’t be so easy to make somebody happy, but here she is, practically ready to burst. “Yes! Yes, that sounds good. Whatever it takes. We’ll get out of this. I know we will.” Folding her hands in the shape of a gun, she adds, “Bonnie and Clyde are on the case.”

“It’s Robert,” I remind her as we pull into the garage attached to the hotel. There are valets in front, but I’m not taking the chance of handing over a car that doesn’t belong to me. I’ll have to switch it out at some point—one more thing to add to a growing list of concerns that feels pretty damn insurmountable, though I’m sure fatigue has something to do with it.

She’s smart enough to stay quiet while I’m checking in, or too busy looking around us like a wide-eyed tourist. Probably hoping to spot a celebrity, though this is hardly an area where we’d find any. Besides, we aren’t here to relax and pamper ourselves.

Even though the girl by my side has other ideas. “They have a spa here,” she whispers, looking over a list of amenities. “And a business center, concierge services, all kinds of things.”

“We won’t be doing any of that.” When she pouts, I grind my teeth against any sharp words. “Stop pouting.”

“I’m only trying to make the best of things.”

“You can make the best of things by staying quiet and letting me do what I need to do without distractions.” On our way to the elevator, I hand her one of the two electronic key cards. “And don’t lose this.”

“You have no faith in me whatsoever, do you?” It’s safer to let that go without a response.

She brightens up when we reach our room. “It’s huge!” she whispers, awestruck as she almost skips to the window. “Nice view! I want to be down there so bad.”

“Remember. First, we take care of business.” The only business I’m interested in now is the king-size bed piled high with thick pillows begging for the weight of my head. Forget taking a shower first. My bags have barely hit the floor before I’m taking off my shoes and my shirt. “Pull the curtains.”

“Can I join you?” she asks while pulling the blackout curtains and plunging us into darkness.

“So long as you stay quiet and let me sleep.” Thinking back to our first night together, I add, “Or do I need to make a pillow wall between us to protect myself from your advances?”

“You really are such a jerk sometimes.”

“The pizza is just not as good out here.” June looks disappointed while staring down at her choice of early dinner from room service.

“I didn’t know Florida was the pizza capital of the country,” I murmur, deep in research but aware of her as always. How could I not be? She makes it impossible to forget she’s here.

“It isn’t, but even what I get at home is better than this.” Taking a bite, she adds, “If I wasn’t so hungry, I wouldn’t eat it.”

I’m finding it difficult to care now that I’ve hit on something that could prove to be exactly what I’m looking for. “Masquerade ball,” I whisper, reading the write-up from last week’s paper.

“What?” The scent of vanilla clinging to her skin threatens to steal my focus once she leans in to read from my screen. For the briefest flash, I can’t help wishing this was a normal trip, a vacation where we could spend time enjoying each other. I could throw her over my shoulder now and toss her onto the bed, where we could—

Down, boy. I can’t be distracted thinking about how soon I can get my dick wet.

“I thought you said this guy is a big criminal,” she murmurs. “All violent and stuff.”

“He is.”

“So this is his cover? This vineyard in Malibu?”

For someone without the first clue how any of this works, she’s fairly quick on the pickup. “Yeah, something like that.”

Finally, she gets it. “Do you want to go to this?” she squeaks.

“I’m not going to wait for him to find us, you know.”

“How would we even get in?”

“‘We’?”

“I’m sure as hell not going to sit back and twiddle my thumbs while I’m waiting for you.”

“It would be too dangerous.”

“I thought that was the whole point of me training! So I could help you when the time comes.”