“I don’t think I can wait that long.” Mia pouts. Her full red lips teasing my blood.
Shit, Day’s meeting may just have to wait and with a groan, I frown down at the blond, “Mia.”
“It’s okay. I’ve brought my friend. We can play.”
The buzz in my head grows and the blood flowing through me turns cold. “What friend,” I ask, scanning the room for Cole.
“Humphrey Hummingway.”
“Who.”
Mia leans forward. Her mouth brushing against my ear. “My portable little friend.”
“Shit, Mia. You keep away from Humphrey Hummingway until I join you.” The throb in my pants matches the throb in my head and I rub my forehead. How the fuck will I be able to concentrate with images of Mia self-pleasuring herself while I was at church. “Have you and Humphrey been friendly while I was on the road?”
Mia leans back. Her smile lopsided. The gleam in her eyes has me releasing a groan. “It was either Hump or Cole.”
“There’s no more Cole now. If and when you get an itch. You come looking for me.”
Mia raises an eyebrow, “I have and you’re making me wait.”
Over Mia’s shoulder, I watch Day stand and signal the room. “I have to wait, Mia. Just think how intense it’s going to be when we finally hit the sack.” I stand, pulling her to her feet and slap her ass as I turn to leave. “Now go and tidy the cabin. It looks as though there’s been an implosion of material in there.”
Chapter 18
Mia – Noir Valley’s Diner, Noir Valley
I pull into the parking lot of the local diner, and instead of going inside, I scan the street and wave at Hank as he leaves the sheriff’s office. He hesitates at the bottom step, then walks towards me. His lips set straight, and his gaze hidden behind his aviator glasses.
“Mia. I didn’t think I’d bump into you so soon.”
I shrug. I moved onto Demon’s Lair last night and spent a total of ten minutes in Alex’s company before he abandoned me for a meeting then work. In my excitement in the move and being with Alex, I hadn’t thought about the boredom I would find on the riverboat. Alex and I may have hooked up and I might be friends with Firebird and Eve, but I am still an outsider. Someone not to be trusted, it would seem.
“What did you think? That Alex was going to turn me into his sex-slave. And never leave Demon’s Lair again until my body came floating down the Mississippi.” Hell, after Alex disappeared to his meeting, instead of clearing my clothes away, which are still scattered about the room, I had grabbed my laptop and arranged to meet Cole for a coffee.
Hank scratches his forehead, rocking his hat as he chuckles. “Not quite. But I hear Alex only just got back. Hence my surprised at seeing you in town.” As a bike pulls into the parking lot, Hank’s gaze flickers over my shoulder and I turn and watch Cole park his bike next to the Corolla, then Hank is looking at me again. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Mia?”
“So do I. Alex is your friend, Hank. Give us a chance.”
“I guess I’d best stock up on ice-cream.”
“A couple of bottles of Tennessee’s best will go down a treat.”
“You’ve a date. And the way Cole is watching us, I guess he’s waiting on you.”
I watch Hank swagger over to the sheriff’s car. He’s a man in demand with the ladies of Noir Valley, and I smile at him as he drives past, then turn to Cole to find him waiting at the door to the diner. When we enter, he finds a table at the rear of the diner and orders two coffees.
“There are rumors flying around, Mia. Are they true?”
“News travels fast in small places.”
The gleam in his eyes is bright. His fingers tap on this coffee mug, then he flashes his teeth as he smiles. “Who set me up, Mia? You or Alex.”
I blink. There’s no anger in his voice, just an underlined amusement. “Alex.”
“Did you use me to get at him?”
“No.” I take a sip of my coffee. “Alex and I had a thing several years ago.” A thing is overstating it. We had a one-night stand, but Cole doesn’t need to know the details. “He was still raw from his wife’s death and it didn’t go anywhere.” It’s a half lie I can live with.
“A thing. And now you’re picking up where you left off.”
“I should have told you.”
Cole frowns. The dark bushes above his eyes meeting in a deep v. “Baton Rouge. Were you with him then?”
There was no point in lying. “Yes.”
Cole shakes his head and chuckles. “That card game was to get you away from me.”
“I didn’t know he was going to that. We had an agreement.”
“An agreement. Fuck, Mia. It would have been nice to have been in the loop.” Cole brushes his hand through his hair. There’s a raw magmatism about him and if I wasn’t hooked on Alex, I think I would have been on him. “I’m supposed to be a journalist.” Cole stares at me; his right eyebrow rises as he snorts. “You know what the means. I’m supposed to have my finger on the pulse. Know what’s going on around me. Shit, I knew about Dale.”
I gulp my coffee and choke on it as it goes down the wrong way. “Dale.”
“Yeah, Dale. I read your blogs, Mia.”
“Ah, Dale.”
“Is that all you’ve got to say for yourself?”
I squirm in my seat. There are more truths to be revealed, and I bite my lip to suppress my laughter. “Dale’s not real.”
Cole’s belly laugh fills the
