Page 70 of Devil's Riches

“Do you know her name?”

“No.” He scraped a hand through his hair. “Fuck.”

I was about to ask him what we should do when he turned on his heel and called out to the elderly couple. “Excuse me. Are you staying on this floor?”

They stopped and turned to look at us. “Yes, we are,” the woman said primly, raising her thin brows. “Why?”

Nate gestured for me to follow him, and we stepped right up to the couple again.

“Sorry to disturb you,” Nate said, giving them a friendly smile. “But we’re staying on this floor too, and we found a credit card that someone dropped. We were about to take it down to the reception desk to see if they can return it to the owner, but it has a woman’s name on it, and it just occurred to me that it might be yours.” He paused and reached into his pocket to retrieve his wallet. “Would you mind telling me your name so I can check?”

I smiled inwardly. In most cases, it would be considered strange or rude to ask a complete stranger for their name, but the ‘I found a credit card’ angle was a clever one that made it seem normal. The person who supposedly found the card wouldn’t want to read the name off it to a stranger, because that stranger could easily say ‘yes, that’s mine’ and take it even if it didn’t belong to them. Getting their name first made sense.

“I’m Adeline Marin,” the woman said.

Nate pulled out a random credit card from his wallet, glanced at it, and flattened his lips. “Damn. It’s not yours,” he said. “I guess I’ll have to take it down to reception after all.”

Ms. Marin smiled. “How gentlemanly of you.”

“It’s no big deal,” Nate said. “Anyway, sorry to bother you. Have a good night.”

The couple bade us goodnight before turning back around. Nate and I contained our excitement long enough to reach the other end of the hall and turn a corner. Then we stopped and stared at each other in shock and awe.

“I want to scream so badly,” I said, trembling with exhilaration. “I can’t believe we actually did it. We got all twelve!”

Nate’s eyes locked with mine as I spoke. There it was again, the arc of electricity between us that never seemed to quit. My heart began to pound even faster, and I tilted my chin up and kissed him before he could respond to me.

He kissed me back without hesitation, hands tangling in my hair. He was warm and tense, muscles bunched beneath my hands as I ran them over his back and shoulders.

When his tongue slid into my mouth, fighting for dominance over my own, my knees went weak, and I let out a low, blissful moan. My mind was muddled and I couldn’t think straight, just like every other time I let myself fall for the wild attraction between us. I didn’t care, either. Every ounce of fight in me had vanished.

“Excuse me,” came a sharp voice from somewhere near us.

Fear skittered up my spine. Someone must’ve caught on to what we were doing here.

I dropped my hands from Nate’s shoulders. He did the same, taking a step back.

We stood there, chests heaving, and we turned our heads to see a room attendant standing a few yards away from us. In our excitement, we hadn’t noticed him step into the hall.

“Sorry to disturb you,” he said with a polite smile. “I was just wondering if you wanted me to book a private suite for you.”

Relief cascaded over me, and I turned back to Nate and looked up at him. He didn’t need to say anything. His answer was gleaming in his eyes.

I looked back at the attendant, lips curving into a smile. “Yes.”

---