Page 102 of Lady and the Hitman
She gaped.
I didn’t know how to explain it. I wasn’t even sure I understood it. Ronan wasn’t a boyfriend. He wasn’t a fling. He was something else entirely. Something with hands that knew exactly how to tear me apart and a voice that could command the ground out from under me.
I’d never felt so exposed. Or so seen.
Mina leaned back slowly, studying me like I’d grown antlers. “You’re not telling me everything. Come on. I want to know.”
“It’s complicated.”
“You think?”
Mina folded her arms and leaned in like a lawyer about to cross-examine a witness. “My guy met me at a boutique hotel on East Bay. He came in, said very few words, did his job—very well, I’ll give him that—and left before I could ask his name. That was it. No texts. No second night. Just a clean, hot escape from my disastrous dating life.”
I swallowed, glancing around the coworking space. “It wasn’t like that with me.”
“No shit.”
I looked at her. “You have to promise you won’t tell anyone.”
She held up three fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
“I’m serious, Mina.”
“So am I. Spill.”
I hesitated, then exhaled. “We went to Miami.”
Her mouth fell open. “You did what?”
“Yeah. Like … got-on-a-plane went.”
“That wasn’t in the brochure.”
I laughed under my breath, shaky. “You think I don’t know that?”
“And you just said we. As in, plural. As in, you didn’t go alone.”
I gave her a flat look.
She leaned back, wide-eyed. “Holy shit.”
“I didn’t know what I was agreeing to,” I said quickly. “It all happened fast. He showed up, we barely talked, and then suddenly we’re in an SUV headed for the airport.”
She blinked. “You got in a car with a stranger and went out of state?”
“I know how it sounds.”
“Zara, that sounds like the first ten minutes of a true crime podcast.”
I ignored that. “It wasn’t like that. He was … I don’t know. Commanding. Safe, somehow. But also not. I can’t explain it.”
She looked at me like she was worried I might be concussed. “So you flew to Miami with a stranger from Alpha Mail. What the hell happened there?”
I felt heat crawl up my neck. “Not what you think.”
Mina’s brows shot up. “You didn’t have sex with him?”
“Not fully. Not there.”
