Page 55 of The Scenic Route
She shrieked with laughter as they landed with her underneath him, Bennett catching himself on his elbows to avoid crushing her into the bed. “You’re not an octopus,” she said between giggles. “You’re a kraken.”
Growling, he nuzzled his face into the side of her neck, making her laugh even more. He switched to kisses, little sucks and bites that made her shiver, and heat flooded her.
“How do you do that?” she asked breathlessly, tipping her chin up to give him better access.
His grunt was muffled against her skin, but she interpreted it as a “What?”
“Make me want you so badly so quickly.”
His entire body stilled for a moment, and then his lips were on hers. She kissed him back, immediately as caught up in him as she’d been the night before. A beep wormed its way into herconsciousness, though, an obnoxious reminder that they weren’t the only two people in the universe and that a world existed outside this room.
With a groan, she pulled back, laughing softly when he followed her retreating lips. Knowing she couldn’t give in or they’d spend the whole day in bed, Felicity half stepped, half rolled off the bed, sitting on the floor with a thump.
“There’s a chair,” Bennett said, sounding amused.
Grabbing her phone, she used it to wave off his suggestion. “The hard floor keeps me focused.”So I don’t hop right back into bed with you.She knew she couldn’t say the last part, or he’d do his kraken thing again and scoop her right back up. Then they’d be in bed for amonth, Dino would be free to do all sorts of nefarious drug-dealing militia stuff, her mom would never be found, she and her sisters would lose their childhood home, and then Bennett would probably lose interest in her after all that.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“What?” She looked up at him.
“You looked really sad all of a sudden.”
She started to reply but didn’t think he’d appreciate her answer of “I thought about staying in bed with you for a month” was a satisfactory reason for why she was suddenly morose. She smiled at her silly thoughts, and he instantly mirrored her before leaning down to give her a quick upside-down kiss on the lips.
“That’s better,” he said with satisfaction as her smile grew at the sweet little peck.
Realizing that the hard floor wasn’t doing much to keeptemptation at bay, she rolled to her feet and headed for the bathroom, checking her phone on the way.
It was Charlie, with a text that said she was alive and well but Jane had given her the slip again. Felicity groaned quietly, feeling like they’d never be able to bring her in. Maybe all the running around and chasing dead ends was futile. If after all this, they ended up losing their house, what was the point? Maybe she should just have lots of amazing sex with Bennett in the honeymoon suite of a boutique hotel rather than chase after skips and get drugged and shot at.
“Everything okay?” Bennett asked, glancing at her phone and then her face.
“Not really,” she said, still feeling gloomy. “But no one’s dead yet, so that’s something?”
Before he could ask for details, the recounting of which would just depress her more, she gave him a quick smile and scooted into the bathroom. Shooting Charlie a quick I’m-glad-you’re-not-dead response, she sent Molly her own everything’s-fine text and then lost herself for a time in the huge shower.
***
Once she worked out in the fitness center and got some breakfast inside her at the hotel’s very nice restaurant, Felicity’s outlook grew a lot sunnier.
“Are you ready to find Dino and pull his lower intestine out through his nose?” she asked Bennett cheerfully.
He side-eyed her for a long moment, taking a final sip of his coffee before pushing his chair back and standing. “Let’s do that.”
Felicity bounced up, reenergized and ready to tackle some skips—and one drug-dealing ass in particular. Turning around, she almost ran into their server, who was frozen with a horrified stare fixed on her.
“Everything was wonderful, thank you,” she said cheerily.
He didn’t move except for a small twitch under his left eye.
Puzzled, Felicity gave him an awkward half wave and was out of the restaurant before she realized he’d overheard her earlier comment about her plan for Dino’s lower intestine. “Oops.”
“He thinks you’re a serial killer,” Bennett said casually, walking beside her, his gaze alert as he scanned the tourists milling around.
“He does.” The words came out as a groan. “And an especially sadistic one too. How many places of lodging are we going to get kicked out of before we pick up Dino?”
Bennett scratched his nose—hiding a smile, she was sure. “We’ll likely break a record. For this area at least.”
