Page 96 of Maid For Each Other

“Holy shit, you very effective man, did you seriously just utilize your brain and save our lives?” Abi asked, holding onto the top of her towel as she came closer.

“I did.” My heart was racing and I was still breathing heavily; that’d been fucking scary.

Abi came closer, grinning as she impressively secured the top of her towel.

“Did that seriously just happen?” she said, starting to laugh, and I couldn’t help it.

I joined her and we lost it over the whole ridiculous thing.

“Did you actually,” she cackled, “throw a scorpion-occupied vacuum at housekeeping? Do you not remember my vocation?”

“The twirling canister killed that thing,” I managed. “Probably.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, her smile dropping just a little. “What if it crawls out and stings her?”

God, could she be right?

I opened the hallway door and the maid, who was staring at her vacuum, looked over at me.

“You should call maintenance to double-check it’s dead,” I said. “And keep your shoes on.”

“Why would I take off my shoes?” the woman asked, looking at me like I was nuts.

“I have no idea. Sorry.”

I closed the door and turned around to find Abi was laughing again.

“Thank you,” she managed to say through her giggles.

“I didn’t do it for you, Mariano. I’d just never forgive myself if I killed a maid by throwing a scorpion-filled vacuum at her.”

She lost it again, her face tilted up to grin at me when she said, “Is that really a sentence we can use?”

“I can’t believe it, but yes,” I said, laughing.

That was the thing with Abi. We were both cry-laughing over something that should’ve been traumatic. But instead, it was refreshing and freeing.

As I looked down at her, wiping her teary eyes, I noticed everything. The smell of her wet hair, all that naked skin above and beneath her towel, the dip of that little bow on the center of her top lip.

I swallowed and tried to think of something else.

Anything else.

But my brain wasn’t budging. I was locked in on her and I couldn’t break free.

She blinked in awareness, our situation coming into focus.

I watched her throat move around a swallow, my eyes tracking her exposed neck like a predator looking for a vulnerability.

“You’ve got to help me, honey,” I said, leaning down toward her mouth, struggling to make my voice sound like anything other than a rasp of wanting as her big amber eyes looked up at me.

Those eyes.

Suddenly my hands were underneath the back of her wet hair and I wasn’t sure how they’d gotten there.

“Help you with what?” she asked, her voice a near whisper.

“To remember why this might be a bad idea,” I confessed,nipping at the full bottom lip that was suddenly the greatest temptation I’d ever encountered. I wanted to consume it, consume her, as the softness of her breath became my new oxygen.

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