Maid for Each Other(68)

A vacuum was moving out in the hallway, so close to the door that I heard it bump, and I wondered if that was what triggered that fucking monster to move.

Shut the fuck up, housekeeping!

“Stay in the shower,” I yelled at Abi as I sidestepped over to the door and pulled it open, hoping that guy would leave on his own. The little fucker was still moving in my direction, come on, buddy, but suddenly I realized that I was going to send a killer out into the hallway in the direction of an oblivious housekeeper.

“Damn it!”

Without thinking, or even looking at the woman, I wrenched the vacuum from her hand and rushed back into the hotel room.

It was a Dyson, so maybe it would work.

I drove that vacuum over it, and holy fucking shit—it sucked up the scorpion.

Or did something to it, by the sound of it.

My eyes frantically searched the floor, but it wasn’t there anymore.

“Did it work?” I heard Abi ask by the bathroom doorway.

“Was that a scorpion?” I heard from the housekeeper in the hallway.

“Did you get him?” Abi asked from where she was crouched.

I looked up and we stared at each other in disbelief, almost as if we each expected that thing to come creeping back out, even though the sound inside the vacuum made it clear that thing had been good and truly shredded.

I turned off the vacuum and literally threw it out into the hallway with both hands, yelling, “Sorry and thank you!”

And then I shut the door and locked it, as if that’d keep any future scorpions from coming into our room.

“Holy shit, you very effective man, did you seriously just utilize your brain and save our lives?” Abi asked, holding onto the top of her towel as she came closer.

“I did.” My heart was racing and I was still breathing heavily; that’d been fucking scary.

Abi came closer, grinning as she impressively secured the top of her towel.

“Did that seriously just happen?” she said, starting to laugh, and I couldn’t help it.

I joined her and we lost it over the whole ridiculous thing.

“Did you actually,” she cackled, “throw a scorpion-occupied vacuum at housekeeping? Do you not remember my vocation?”

“The twirling canister killed that thing,” I managed. “Probably.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, her smile dropping just a little. “What if it crawls out and stings her?”

God, could she be right?

I opened the hallway door and the maid, who was staring at her vacuum, looked over at me.

“You should call maintenance to double-check it’s dead,” I said. “And keep your shoes on.”

“Why would I take off my shoes?” the woman asked, looking at me like I was nuts.

“I have no idea. Sorry.”

I closed the door and turned around to find Abi was laughing again.

“Thank you,” she managed to say through her giggles.

“I didn’t do it for you, Mariano. I’d just never forgive myself if I killed a maid by throwing a scorpion-filled vacuum at her.”

She lost it again, her face tilted up to grin at me when she said, “Is that really a sentence we can use?”

“I can’t believe it, but yes,” I said, laughing.

That was the thing with Abi. We were both cry-laughing over something that should’ve been traumatic. But instead, it was refreshing and freeing.

As I looked down at her, wiping her teary eyes, I noticed everything. The smell of her wet hair, all that naked skin above and beneath her towel, the dip of that little bow on the center of her top lip.

I swallowed and tried to think of something else.

Anything else.

But my brain wasn’t budging. I was locked in on her and I couldn’t break free.

She blinked in awareness, our situation coming into focus.

I watched her throat move around a swallow, my eyes tracking her exposed neck like a predator looking for a vulnerability.

“You’ve got to help me, honey,” I said, leaning down toward her mouth, struggling to make my voice sound like anything other than a rasp of wanting as her big amber eyes looked up at me.

Those eyes.

Suddenly my hands were underneath the back of her wet hair and I wasn’t sure how they’d gotten there.

“Help you with what?” she asked, her voice a near whisper.

“To remember why this might be a bad idea,” I confessed, nipping at the full bottom lip that was suddenly the greatest temptation I’d ever encountered. I wanted to consume it, consume her, as the softness of her breath became my new oxygen.

“I can’t,” she said, her voice more air than sound as she nipped me back, electricity shocking through me at the feel of her teeth on my lip. “I can’t help you because I can’t remember, either.”

33

LFG

Abi

What should I do?

Our breaths were mingling, his hot green eyes my entire universe, and my brain was at war with my body. Because dear Lord, I’d never wanted anything as much as I wanted to give in to this. To follow these sparks and set the world on fire.

But what did it mean?

Was it part of one of our deals, the genuine progression of our relationship, or straight-up chemistry?

It seemed like this was my constant inner monologue when it came to Declan now—what does it mean?—and I was getting tired of it. I wanted to know what it meant without worrying. I wanted to turn myself over to the feelings and let it burn.