she’d come to her senses and realize he was too much effort, too much like her father, and change her mind. If not, they were going to have five glorious days spent in bed. Hell, maybe they should have stayed home. It wasn’t like he had plans to let her out from under him for long.
Mason grabbed his bag from where he’d tossed it through the door earlier and dropped it on the bed. He jammed his phone between his ear and shoulder while it rang.
“Sit rep?” Zain said.
“Hello to you, too,” Mason grumbled. He adjusted his aching dick and pushed thoughts of Hannah out of his mind.
“You guys get there okay?”
“Yeah, place looks good. Spotted a dozen resort security on my way in so I’d say we’re fine. We’ll just stay on the resort.”
“Bit of bad news for you.”
“Yeah?” Mason’s gut tightened.
“Hannah’s roommate tagged her in some post about leaving on a jet plane —”
“And Stevens has already called you, wanting to know where she is?”
Zain blew out a breath.
“It’s okay.” Mason could feel the proverbial noose tightening around his neck.
“I’m putting him off until tomorrow morning, but expect a phone call. Or a unit.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
“Man, have a little fun while you’re there, okay?”
“This coming from the man who plays with dolls for fun?”
“Action figures—and I don’t play with them. I collect them, fuck you very much.”
“No thanks, I’m not into dudes or family.”
Mason and Zain’s laughter mingled over the airwaves.
“Seriously, there’s nothing you can do about Stevens finding out, so you might as well have fun. Maybe not the kind of fun he thinks you’re having, but at least drink a cocktail or whatever it is you do down there.”
“Coming from the man who never takes a vacation...”
“I’ve seen them in movies. Looks boring. Gotta go.”
“Later, man, thanks.”
Mason hung up and tossed the phone on the bed.
Shit.
He scrubbed a hand across his face and grabbed his toiletry bag. Brushing his teeth never ceased to knock at least one idea loose. He squirted paste on the brush and stared at his reflection while working the bristles over his teeth.
It wasn’t a question of right and wrong. There was nothing wrong about him and Hannah being together—there was just her father. Mason’s future. And where the two intersected. If he had other skills, some other way of supporting himself, he could live with saying goodbye to Aegis, but he had nothing. Just the stuff he learned in the SEALs, and the Navy didn’t want him. Not after what had happened. So where did that leave him?
With a hard-on and an empty bed, that was where.
The adjoining door jiggled. He stuck his head out of the bathroom and watched it open.
Hannah stood in the doorway in some kind of see-through, loose dress thing. He had to do a double take to realize she was actually wearing some kind of peach-colored bikini under the cover-up.
Fuck him sideways.
The only reason a woman wore an outfit like that was to get laid.
He was screwed no matter how he split this. The only question was, did he want to regret what he’d never had, or not being able to keep it?
4.
D ylan kicked off his flip-flops and left them under a deck chair on the resort boardwalk. The sun was setting, throwing brilliant shades of orange and purple against the clouds, and the music was cranking up. Soon the vacationing guests would flock to the sound and booze it up on the beach, ready to live it up Mexico style. Whatever that was.
He’d only been to the resort a handful of times, usually for Cruz’s business meetings , as he liked to call them. Never for actual business. More like sampling the merchandise.
Dylan meandered around the pool and toward the sand. Tonight the bar would experience a liquor shortage, planned of course, which would result in only one of the three beach bars being open. This meant that every guest had to see the same bartenders and order from the
Learning to Kill: Stories