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He pats me on the shoulder, affectionately but mockingly. “My boy, you make your old man proud.”
I push his hand away. “Oh, stop it!”
“I’m sorry.” Archie laughs. “But Dr. Logan Spencer breaking his own rules—to never mix business and pleasure—and for a woman! Not an everyday sight. But, heck, I’ve met the lady… so I understand, buddy, and I forgive you.”
“Forgive me for what?”
“For placing yourself before the mission…” With pretend gravity, he repeats back to me all the warnings about dating a colleague I’d given him weeks ago at the resort. “For risking the expedition on a skirt and a pair of legs, for—”
“Okay, okay, I get it,” I interrupt. “The moral high ground is yours.”
Archie throws his last T-shirt into the rucksack and ties the cover, then, turning to me, he asks, “So is it just sex, or”—he cups his hands under his chin and, eyes exasperatingly wide, bats his eyelashes—“are there feelings involved?”
A knock on the door prevents me from answering.
“Is everyone decent?” Winter asks from the other side.
Archie answers first. “Nothing you haven’t seen before, Snowflake.” Then he looks at me in a you’re-not-off-the-hook way. His unanswered question hangs in the air between us.
Winter comes in and gives me a paper coffee cup. Instinctively, I wrap an arm around her waist and stamp a kiss on her full lips.
Startled blue eyes stare up at me.
“We’re busted,” I explain. “He knows.”
Winter turns to Archie, smiles, and shakes her head. “Oh, we’re never going to hear the end of it, are we?”
If Archie’s devilish grin is any indication, no, we’re not.
Winter hands Archie his coffee, then takes a sip from her cup. “Can you at least wait until I’m properly caffeinated before unloading the heavy artillery?”
Archie gives a magnanimous nod. “Sure, Snowflake.” And, with a teasing grin, he adds, “I’ll think of all the things I can blow 200 bucks on in the meantime.”
She rolls her eyes, but with a smile, and changes the subject. “Are we good to go?”
“Yes,” I say.
“Actually,” Archie says, “would you mind waiting for us downstairs?”
Winter raises her brows at him in a silent question.
“One bandage is hitching,” he explains. “I’d like my boy here to take a quick look.”
It sounds like an excuse, and from the small frown on Winter’s face, I know she’s thinking the same. But she doesn’t question it. She shrugs in a boys-will-be-boys way, pulls on her rucksack, and with her coffee-free hand grabs the suitcase of city clothes she used to torture me with at the resort. But I can’t blame her; I was an ass back then and deserved being messed with.
I hold the door open for her.
“Don’t be too long,” she says. “Traffic can be unpredictable in Bangkok, and we already don’t have much of a cushion.”
I nod and give her a quick kiss on the forehead.
When she’s gone, I turn to Archie. “What is it?”
He stands leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, studying me. “You haven’t answered my question.”
“What question?”
“Are you in love with her?”
