“Sorry, man.” Jeff shrugged, and then set his sights on Shelby, giving her a sloppy lopsided grin.
“Yeah, that’ll happen.” She snorted out a laugh, and then popped the cherry from her drink into her mouth.
Jeff just shrugged before he jumped into the pool, and the rest of them moved quickly toward the bar to avoid being splashed.
“Just so you know,” Mia said to David, “I totally could have taken him.”
He gave a grudging smile, telling her he hadn’t shaken all his anger. “I should’ve backed off. I would’ve liked to have seen that.”
She bumped him with her shoulder. “How about I buy my big strong hero a drink?”
He hesitated, glanced briefly at Shelby and moved his arm away from Mia. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I only came down for a swim.”
“You’re not intruding. We were just spying on our friend Lindsey.” Shelby shrugged. “We got busted.”
Mia pressed her lips together and gave her friend a withering look.
David laughed. “Spying?”
“No, not spying.” Mia sniffed. “We hadn’t seen her since yesterday and we wanted—”
“To check out the guy she was with.” Shelby’s eyes sparkled with mischief.
“That’s not quite accurate,” Mia said.
“And?” David was clearly trying to control a smile. “Did you approve?”
Shelby’s light brows knitted. “Surprised the hell out of me. Really cute, but not what I expected.” She looked to Mia for confirmation. “Not for Linds.”
Mia stared back at her, dumbfounded that she’d speak so freely in front of David. “Okay.” She stepped back. “I am going to my room and take a nice long shower. You two—” She waved a hand. “Do whatever.”
“Wait.” Chuckling, David caught her hand. “I’m going up with you.”
Mia hesitated, momentarily meeting Shelby’s eyes. She didn’t want to ditch her friend.
“Go. Good riddance.” Shelby made a shooing motion with her hand. “You guys are screwing me up. How am I supposed to get lucky with you hanging around?”
Mia groaned, shook her head.
“Bye-bye,” Shelby said, grinning, and then sauntered away, an exaggerated sway to her hips.
One of David’s eyebrows went up as he stared after her. “She keeps that up and she’s going to have more luck than she can handle.”
“She took a hula lesson this afternoon.”
“Ah.”
“You’re drooling.”
He took his gaze away from Shelby’s retreating back, and smiled at Mia. “Jealous?”
She coyly toyed with the top button of his tennis shirt. “Mmm, maybe a little.”
“Just so you know, I wasn’t drooling. At least, not over Shelby.” Ignoring the few remaining guests at the bar, he slid an arm around her waist, brought her close, stared at her mouth with an intensity that sent a shiver of anticipation down her spine. “I think it’s time we go to my suite.”
“I still have to shower.”
“Just so happens I have one, along with a sunken tub big enough for two.”
“But—”
He nudged her chin up and kissed her. A firm but leisurely kiss, nothing too risqué or demanding, but still his boldness surprised her. This spot wasn’t like the beach where trees or cliffs hid them. Here they had an audience. “Now,” he whispered.
DAVID KISSED HER AGAIN as they waited for the elevator, then kept his distance until the couple who’d followed them into the car got off on the fourth floor. The doors had barely slid closed when he leaned against the back, taking her with him, spreading his legs and cradling her between his thighs.
“You’re crazy,” she whispered breathlessly, her lips damp, her eyes glazed.
He took her face between his hands, kissed her deeply and almost didn’t hear the elevator signal its approaching stop on the eighteenth floor.
Mia quickly spun around to face the doors as they slid open. A stooped elderly couple, the man walking with the aid of a cane, slowly entered the car. David had immediately straightened, but stayed cautiously behind Mia to hide his aroused state. She moved back, to give the couple room, her bottom intimately bumping him.
David hissed in a sharp breath.
Mia’s back went ramrod stiff. She’d clearly figured out the problem and eased away from him. Though not much. Not enough to stop his body from reacting to the snug feel of that sweet, curvy ass.
The white-haired woman considered the numbered panel, peering closely, both through and then over her glasses, while David prayed that the pair would get off on the next floor.
Her gnarled finger hovered a moment, the doors already starting to close. “Is this elevator going down, dear?” she asked, turning to Mia.
The woman blinked, then tilted her head and frowned over her glasses at David as if seeing him for the first time. Her gaze swept Mia’s face, and then went back to David, her eyes narrowing in indignation.
He stuck his head out to the right so it wouldn’t look as if he were hiding. “We’re going up, ma’am,” he said politely, wondering why Mia hadn’t answered.
With an air of disgust, the woman abruptly gave them her back. “Harold, we’re on the wrong elevator. We need to get off.” She stared up at the flashing floor numbers as they ascended.
“So what,” the man snapped. “We’ll ride the darn thing back down.”
The woman stubbornly searched the panel, but by the time she figured out which button to press, they arrived at David’s floor. “Excuse us,” he said, his hand pressed to Mia’s back as they both exited.
He walked them out of view, then stopped to look at Mia. Her face was stained a guilty red, and she looked as if she were ready to explode at any second. They heard the doors sliding close, and she burst out laughing.
“What?”
“That woman—” Mia sniffed, dabbed at her watery eyes, laughed some more. “Did you see her face? I don’t know what she thought we were doing.”
“We weren’t exactly innocent.” David couldn’t help but join in on the infectious laughter, though he wasn’t entirely comfortable that they’d been caught.
“We were only kissing, and not even in front of them.”
“Right.”
“Oh, David, she didn’t see you.” Mia automatically glanced at his fly.
He said nothing as they continued toward the suite, while digging in his pocket for his key card. It wasn’t like him to behave in such an undignified manner. In fact, he’d indulged himself quite a few times today. Funny, he’d never pictured Mia letting her hair down that way, either.
“You’re not upset, are you?”
“No, of course not. No one knows us here.” He stopped at his door, opened it and stepped aside for her.
Her brows had drawn together in a slight frown, but as soon as she stepped over the threshold, her pensive mood appeared to vanish. “Whoa. This is some hovel. And what a view.”
She seemed to take everything in at once, her gaze sweeping the rich, dark hardwood floors, Oriental rugs, the Hawaiian artwork on