Page 34 of Reaper Released

“Hey, don’t panic. I’ll grab some clothes and come with you to find her, okay?”

Then the gorgeous rumble of Steel’s voice comes from behind me. “She’s fine.”

Spinning round and stepping back, Tali steps into the room. “Who are you? Do you know where she is?”

“Tali, this is Steel, he’s my—”

Steel cuts in with. “Fiancé.”

“Fiancé?” Tali repeats at the same time I do. She raises an eyebrow at me, then smiles.

“Nice to meet you. So where’s my mother?”

“She's in a… business meeting.”

“Meeting?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. She’s fine, okay?”

Tali nods but looks at me again, and I nod. “Can’t hurt to go look for her anyway, can it?”

“Nope, she’s fine. She will come to find you when she’s done.”

“Steel, what are you talking about? Who's the meeting with?”

Blowing out a breath, he asks, “If I tell you, will you stay here and not go looking for her?”

“Fine,” I huff out.

Glancing over at Tali and back to me, he says, “I didn’t come alone, okay? Once I said where I was going, Viking came with me. He called Carmen before we set off, and she met him at the gates. She’s with him somewhere.”

“Viking?”

“Yep, Viking!”

“Oh, Viking,” Tali says.

Glancing over at her, I ask, “What do you know, kid?”

“Erm, just that she has a thing for him… Ew, maybe I don’t wanna find her right now. Do you guys wanna hang out by the pool?”

“Yeah, sure, kiddo. We’ll be there in a sec, okay?”

Nodding, she backs out the door. “Nice to meet you, Steel.”

“You too, kid!”

It’s lunch before we see Carmen and Viking. They both arrive by the pool. Carmen looks extremely relaxed.

Viking’s wearing shorts. He throws a pair at Steel. “Thought you could use these.”

Tali’s staring open-mouthed at Viking, blatantly eye fucking him as much as a fifteen-year-old can. It’s slightly uncomfortable.

Steel’s sat there in his jeans and T-shirt barefoot and looking incredibly hot in more ways than one. He goes back to the room and comes out in his shorts. Fuck, he’s sexy, and I’m not the only one to notice.

“Tali, you have a little something at the corner of your mouth.” Reaching up, she rubs at the side of her mouth as I laugh. “Drool, Tali… It’s drool!”

She flushes red. “You’re horrible.” She grins back at me.

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