Around the World in 80 Men Series: Boxed Set 21-30 (109 page)

“
Wake
up, beautiful. We still have six hours to drive,” Mannie slid
his hand down Morgan's side, and over her hip. “Morgan?”
He poked her buttcheek, and that finally warranted a response.

“
Hey!”
She rolled to her back and pushed the long hair out of her face.

“
You
look like an angel.” Mannie didn't know why he said the words,
and he felt his face heating with embarrassment. Truth was, he had
never woken up next to someone so beautiful in his life, and the most
attractive part about it, Morgan had no clue.

She
laughed and rolled back over to her side, covering her head with the
blanket. “More like a troll who just came out from under the
bridge to...”

“
Really?”
Manuel grabbed her shoulder and rolled her back over to her back,
then pulled the blanket off of her face. “A troll?”

Morgan
nodded, biting her lip so she didn't laugh. “Yep.”

“
What
am I going to do with you?” Manuel stood again and grabbed
Morgan's hands, pulling her to a sitting position.

“
You
could start by feeding me...” Morgan smiled wide, and it
reminded Manuel of the Cheshire Cat. “I'm starving!”

“
Okay,
get your ass out of the bed, and we'll go find food. Just waiting on
you.” Morgan looked around the room, and the only things there
were her zebra bag, and one of her larger pink bags. “If you
need that other one...well, fuck. I hope you don't need it. Feels
like a bag of boulders.” They both laughed again and Morgan
nodded.

“
Yeah,
I've got a friend in Australia who has a room for me, I've got to
make a trip and drop...some...stuff....” The words came out of
her mouth before thinking, and the pain of what had happened surfaced
quickly. “Um, thank you. For bringing these in, guess I'll get
ready.” She gave Manuel a quick kiss on his cheek and grabbed
her zebra bag, then dragged it behind her to the bathroom.

“
That
was weird, Morgan.” Mannie sounded amused, but he wasn't going
to let Morgan off the hook for her odd behavior. Something was up
with the
friend in Australia
, and it was obviously eating at
her.

A
few moments later, Morgan opened the bathroom door, wearing a clean,
light blue spaghetti strap tank and white cut off shorts. “I'm
sorry, didn't mean to go all...”

“Weird?”
Morgan nodded and gave Mannie a playful push on his arm.

“My
friend, in Australia, well, he has...or had...a room set up for me
there.” Morgan looked down at her fingernails, and picked at
the polish on her thumb. “Well, I pissed him off pretty bad,
and for a second, I forgot. So, when I said I would drop some of my
things off, it just sort of hit me, that it probably is never going
to happen again.”

“Ah,
I see. And this is just a...friend?” Morgan turned her back to
Mannie and finished drying her face in the mirror.

“Yeah.”
Morgan met his eyes in the mirror, and he cocked his head to the side
in question. “Sort of.” He gave her another look, but she
didn't want to go into the whole story. “He's a good friend of
mine, and my last client, before you...was his cousin.”

“And
I'll assume you didn't know?” Mannie leaned on the door frame
and smiled.

“No,
of course I didn't know. It doesn't matter if I had,” Morgan
defended herself. “It's my job.”

The
reaction from Manuel was not what she expected. It was laughter,
uncontrollable laughter.

“So,
you have this client in Australia,” he began.

“I
never said he was a client...”

“But
we both know he was...” Morgan nodded.

“And
you two become...
friends.
” Morgan looked down at her
hands and Manuel continued. “And then, you just happen to pick
a client...that is this Aussie's cousin? Well, did the cousin know?”

“No,
of course not. He sent me away when he found out.”

“Morgan,
there's nothing to be embarrassed about. This is your job. To me,
it's no different than any other job. Some people work on cars,
they're hired for a service. You are hired for a service.”

“I
appreciate that. But I don't think it would matter much if I had
worked on his cousin's car.”

“Morgan,
it doesn't matter. And from the sound of it, you
didn't
work
on his
car.
So, your little friend has no fucking leg to stand
on. You got it?”

He
was right, and she nodded. Tanner had absolutely nothing to be pissy
about, and she wasn't going to let it bother her for one more minute.
If he was going to allow the incident to be the end of them, whatever
that was, then he was no man for her anyway. At least, that's what
she planned to keep telling herself. “Thank you.” Manuel
didn't treat her like an employee. She was treated like a woman, and
Morgan appreciated that more than anything. Then again, she thought,
so did Tanner.

“Let's
find you some food.” Morgan nodded as she walked to the door,
shaking all thoughts of the Aussie from her mind.

“By
the way,” Mannie opened Morgan's door and helped her in before
putting their bags into the trunk, “you look beautiful without
makeup.” Her hands went to her face and she let out a long,
audible breath. It had been months since she started her day without
war paint, and it caught her off guard how easy it was to do. Minutes
later, Mannie was in the car and they were pulling out of the hotel
parking lot.

“I'm
sorry. I think I'm in camping mode already. If you want, I could put
some on and...,”

“No,”
Mannie grabbed her hand that was going back up to her face, “I
meant it, Morgan. You're beautiful.” Her face heated and he
smiled when she rolled her eyes. He liked that she had no idea how
pretty she was, and it made her that much more attractive. “So,
about that breakfast.” He pulled her hand to his lap, and drove
them to a small diner where they both enjoyed a breakfast large
enough to hold them the rest of the morning, and into the afternoon.

The
road trip was also something that Morgan enjoyed, just as she did
when she was a young girl. She and Mannie talked about their pasts,
their present, and a bit about each of their dreams. It didn't take
long for her to recognize Manuel for who he was, a true kind heart
that was also a man who wanted nothing more than to live like he
meant it. She wanted to help him shed the burden of his father and
step-mother, but she reminded herself that she wasn't going to
fix
anyone that week.

What
she also saw in him, was a touch of boy-next-door, a dash or two of
alpha, and someone who could have have fun in any situation like her
Angel. He was, as Morgan smiled to herself while thinking, quite
dangerous. Deliciously dangerous.

Chapter
Two

“
Oh
my God, this is beautiful!” Morgan opened her door before
Mannie turned the car off. He joined her as quickly as he could, and
stood by her side.

“This
is Sequoia National Park. It's where my family would come every
year.” He wanted to say,
before Eva ruined everything
,
but he bit his tongue and pulled Morgan closer. “I think you'll
love it.”

“I
already do.” She turned to face him, feeling the excitement of
their upcoming adventure course through her entire body. It had been
years since she had been camping, and the kid in her wanted nothing
more than to run through the woods and look at all that Mother Nature
offered. Instead, she raised to her toes and kissed his cheek.
“Thank you.”

“Okay,
one last detail,” his hands remained around her waist as he
pulled back slightly, “cabin or tent?” Morgan smiled, and
nearly shouted her answer.

“Tent!”
His head fell back as he laughed and she squeezed his middle tightly.
His lips then came down and landed on her forehead. It was easy to be
with Morgan, she had a way of making him feel comfortable, something
that he hadn't been used to in years.

“Tent
it is. But you'll have to give up your phone, and computer, for a few
days. I'm afraid there isn't much service around here.”
Morgan's brows came together as she took a step back. She wasn't
concerned about her lack of service, but she knew that she had to
check in with Julianne and Angel if she were going to give up her
phone for the rest of the week.

“Well,
if you don't mind, I'll need a few minutes to take care of some
things.” She pulled her phone from her back pocket and moved it
back and forth in the air. His smile was all the answer that she
needed.

“I
guess I should as well.” He too took his phone from his
pocket. “I'm going to go in the office and check in, go ahead
and take care of things, I'll be back in a few minutes.”
Morgan agreed and walked several feet until she found the most
perfect tree to sit under. It was there that she began to check her
messages.

There
was the usual sight of several messages from her best friend, one
from Sean, one from Julianne, one from Kala, and one from...
“Tanner.” Morgan whispered his name and the flood of
emotions came once again. Even the mention of his name pained her
heart.
I said I wouldn't let it bother me, and it's not going to!
Morgan opened his message first, getting it out of the way.

Morgan.
I've been a real fucking dick. I need to tell you something, call me
when you can.

She
let out a breath of relief and smiled down at the short message. A
part of her was worried about what he needed to tell her, but she
wasn't going to let it eat at her the whole week. “Okay, let's
make this quick.” Morgan took a look around, making sure Mannie
was still in the office, and made the call to Tanner.

“Morgan?”
Her name on his lips brought a smile to her face. She nodded
silently, then realized she had to actually answer the man.

“Yes.”

“Morgan,
I didn't do it.”

“Didn't
do what?” Morgan picked at one of the strings on her shorts
before ripping it off.

“I
didn't...the girl. Julianne sent me a girl, and I canceled.”
Tanner spilled the words quickly, and it took Morgan a second to put
it together.

“Tanner,
I don't know why you're telling me this.” Morgan didn't care if
he had spent the week with one of Julianne's women, or any woman for
that matter. It was his life, and whatever or
whoever
he chose
to do, was exactly that; his choice.

“I
am telling you because I didn't want you to think that I did. I don't
know what to say. I feel stupid about everything. The other night,
when I sent you the wrong message, it wasn't about a girl. It was a
dinner meeting with the guys I work with.” Tanner let out a
long sigh, and she could picture him, running his fingers through his
blonde hair.

“Hey,
Tanner?” Morgan stood and wiped the dirt off her butt.

“Yeah?”

“We
don't owe each other any kind of explanations.” That included
Morgan's clients, or Tanner's company.

“I
know, but I...” Tanner was still speaking quickly, but Morgan
cut him off again.

“No
'buts'. We don't owe each other anything, but to just enjoy one
another when the time comes. Until then, we're going to live our own
lives, and live it like we mean it. You hear me?” Morgan pulled
another string off her jeans, as she paced around the tree.