Page 90 of The Mentor
“In private,” I said with a polite smile plastered on my face that did nothing to hide the annoyance in my voice.
Finn leisurely got up and excused himself before we walked to the side.
“I need you to say goodbye to your new friends, and remember that you’re here to do a job.”
Finn’s eyes crinkled with a smile. “I’m doing my job, all right – Pearl said that we were supposed to behave ourselves and make the women like us.” He gave a small nod back to the women. “They’re freakinglovingme and I think I have a pretty good shot at taking all three of them to bed.”
“That’s not the job I was referring to,” I said. “We have twenty children that need us to be good role models. Did you know that two of them almost drowned before?”
“What?” Finn pivoted around to look at the water. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Yeah, although I don’t see the fun in leaving one teenager to look out for twenty kids on a beach. One of them could’ve drowned and you wouldn’t even have noticed.”
“Sorry.” At least he looked a little apologetic. “But nothing happened and now you and Archer are here, so leave me alone for a few hours, will ya?”
“No.” I shook my head. “We have two more days left of this trip and I need all five of us adults to work together and clean up the mess that stupid competition made. We need the children to become one group again.” I pointed my thumb over my shoulder. “Either you go say goodbye to those women, or I will say it for you.”
“Take it easy, mama bear, you look like you drank a whole glass of lemon juice.” Finn crossed his arms. “You really need to learn how to chill and enjoy life a little.”
Turning on my heels, I put on a sugar-sweet smile and walked back to the women with a sway in my hips. “I just want to offer my profound gratitude. It was so nice of you to entertain my fiancé. He’s been so down lately, and you really boosted his ego by talking to him.”
“He’s your fiancé?” one of the women asked me.
“Yes, but I’m a little embarrassed about it so don’t tell anyone, please.”
Finn cleared his throat behind me, but before he got a chance to speak up, I snaked my hand around his waist and leaned against him. “I’ve told Finn that women in the Motherlands don’t marry, but the Nmen are so old-fashioned in that sense.”
Finn gave me a wicked smile. “That’s right,” he said and slid his hand down to squeeze my behind, which made me jump. “We are terribly old-fashioned in some ways, and yet very open-minded in other areas.”
“When are you getting married?” the three women wanted to know.
“Oh, we’ll see.” I smiled up at Finn and batted my eyelashes. “First we have to find a doctor who can help Finn get rid of any sexually transmitted diseases that he might be carrying around.”
A gasp sounded from the women, and I felt Finn’s fingers pinch me hard.
“Darling, I should’ve never told you about my bladder infection,” Finn said with his eyes narrowed. “You keep confusing it with a sexually transmitted disease but it’s not, and it was five years ago.”
“That’s nice, honey.” I patted his chest and gave the women a last smile. “It was so nice meeting you all, and again thank you for being so welcoming to my soon-to-be-husband. I really appreciate it.”
I didn’t let go of Finn when I steered him back to our group, but I should’ve known my strategy came with a price. With a smug smile, his hand started going up until it reached my bikini top. “Since we’re apparently a couple now, I hope you don’t mind.” He chuckled.
“Get your fucking hands off her.” The deep male rumble had us both look up to see Archer with fury in his eyes.
“Relax,” Finn said with a disarming smile. “Kya just decided to do a little role-playing to get me back to the group. In fact, she just agreed to marry me.”
Archer should’ve known that Finn was joking, but he was fueled by possessive jealousy and didn’t ask questions before he attacked.
With a loud “Umph,” all the air was knocked out of Finn when he landed on his back with Archer on top of him.
“Fight, fight, fight,” the boys chanted and quickly circled around the growling and grunting men.
“Stop it!” I shouted in desperation. But when I tried to launch myself forward to pull them apart, Solomon grabbed me around my waist and dragged me back. He might only be a teenager, but he was taller than me and much stronger.
Archer and Finn were no longer rolling around on the ground, but fighting each other with kicks and punches, attracting an even bigger crowd than before. Even through my tears I could tell that the Motlanders were shocked at the aggressive behavior. Hands were covering their mouths, and they were bunching together like scared children.
And then Marco came running to the scene, throwing himself in the middle to split Archer and Finn apart. It was brave of him but he only managed to get punched in the nose himself. Blood was dripping on the white sand, making everything look even more dramatic.
“Move aside.” Varna and Cindy came storming in.
