Around the World in 80 Men Series: Boxed Set 21-30 (6 page)

“Yeah,
I'm good. I just.. I don't care about Ian right now, I need to know
about that damn ring and what you plan to do about it.” Morgan
leaned back against the rim of the tub and smiled. The man was even
more pushy about it than she thought he would be, but she wasn't too
surprised.

“Nothing,
Angel. I plan to do nothing.” He didn't answer her, it wasn't
what he wanted to hear, so she continued. “Who proposes with a
secret letter, and a Man in Black? It's ridiculous and I'm not
playing the game. You have to understand that much, right?”
She twirled her hair in one finger as she stared at the ceiling. She
sighed at the huff she heard on the other end.

“Okay,
forget the way it was done... even though I think that shit was
fuckin' slick, and just tell me which one you think it is.”
Angel cared mostly about what Morgan's feelings were, and not who she
thought had sent it, but he had to start somewhere with prying the
information from her. Morgan thought about her words before handing
them over, then came up with the perfect answer.

“I
think it was either Finlay, Tanner, or Sean. There, that's as close
as I can get to an answer.” Angel stood to his feet, and
Morgan could hear his shoes clicking against Gio's marble floor.

“What
if your plan works, Sticky? What if the one who sent it gives in,
and calls you... today? What then?” Morgan stopped twirling
and looked at her painted pink toenails that were barely above the
water's surface at the end of the tub. She took a deep breath, and
began to answer honestly.

“That
depends.... I guess. If it were..”

“Morgan?
Can I come in?” Ian's sexy voice sounded from outside the
door, and Morgan moved the phone to her chest to tell him that she
needed a moment.

“He's
back, I'll call you later.” She kissed a few times into the
phone, but Angel didn't return them.

“Your
ass better call me, I can't take this shit much longer. Love you.”
He ended the call, and Morgan stared at her phone for a few moments
until she put it down beside the tub.

“Yes,
you may,” she answered the handsome man on the other side of
the door and within seconds, he was knelt down beside the tub and
reaching across her body for a wash cloth.

“May
I do this too?” he asked, pouring a generous amount of vanilla
scented body wash onto the light yellow cloth. Morgan nodded, then
gathered her long hair from her neck and brought it around one
shoulder, then sat up and leaned forward a bit so Ian could wash her
back.

His
sensual cleansing led to a whole afternoon of foreplay, their only
interruption came when Morgan's stomach insisted it be fed. Their
evening was full of relieving the sexual tension they'd brought upon
each other all morning. The man wasn't shy about sex, which was one
thing that made Morgan's job even easier.

*****

Tanner
texted me. I won't jump to conclusions, but he asked if there was
'anything new' going on. I know, it's a simple question and maybe I'm
reading too much into it..but there is still a possibility he's
wanting me to say I got a suspicious ring delivered to me, gee, do
you know who it's from?
Morgan sighed and shoved her phone back
into her pocket after sending a text to her Brazilian friend. It was
true, Tanner had texted her. It ran through Morgan's mind again.
Hey,
beautiful. How've you been? Anything new happen?
“It's an
innocent question, I'm losing my mind. Stop this.” Morgan shook
her head, then made her way into the kitchen to find something to
eat. What she settled on though was another cup of coffee.

Ian
was gone for the morning again, but Morgan was thankful he had things
to attend to. Her morning text from Tan Man had really hit home with
her and she would have to figure out a way to deal with it. If it had
been just a simple question from one friend to another, then she
could write back that nothing was new and she was doing well. But if
he was the one who sent the ring and she were to write the same
message, he would be hurt for not bringing it up, or suggesting that
it was him. “Oh, hi Tanner...your proposal? Yes, I got it. I'll
have to take a rain check though. This week isn't good for me. Yep,
I'm losing my mind. Angel, hurry up, text me back!”

She
paced back and forth through the kitchen, from one side of the island
to the other, waiting for an answer to pop into her head. Of course
she knew she couldn't just avoid all of her friends until one of them
confessed. If Finlay texted her, she'd have to avoid him too. Just
the thought made her heart race. “No, I can't avoid
everyone...c'mon, Angel.” She didn't know what she was waiting
for but a part of her hoped that her best friend would have a magic
answer to her problems. Morgan drank half her cup of coffee, then
filled it again before pacing in front of, then landing on, the couch
in the center of the living room.

Just
as she was about to turn on the television to provide herself with
another mindless distraction, her phone vibrated in her back pocket.

Morgan
read the message aloud, “baby girl, you know what you gotta do.
Honesty, boo. Tell him you got a ring and you want to know if he sent
it.” She fell back against the couch, then shook her head at
Angel's message. Morgan brought her phone up in front of her, then
pressed the call button on Angel's contact.

“Angel,
I'm not going to do that and you know it. I'm not asking any of them,
end of story.”

“So,
your ass if just going to ignore everyone?” Angel tsk'd loudly
into the phone, making Morgan pull it away from her ear.

“And
what if none of the muthafucka's step forward, don't you think that
would hurt them worse if you never bring it up?”

“No.”
She knew she was wrong. “Maybe they'll just think it never made
it to me...”

“Right,
because the FBI guy wouldn't deliver the message that the mission was
accomplished.” His sarcasm came through clear and Morgan was
becoming more frustrated with every word.

“
I didn't even ask for the damn thing!”

“That's
right, baby, let it all out,” Angel spoke calmly in return.
Before Morgan could reply, Angel announced Gio was back from work and
needed dinner prepared. “Text Tanner back, Stick.” That
was his last advice before hanging up and Morgan didn't like it.

She
ended the call, then went back to Tanner's message. “To text or
not to text?” Morgan stood, then shoved her phone back into her
pocket and dropped back down on the couch. “No, I'm..working.
Busy...very busy. No time to text.”

Morgan
sat in the silent room for several moments as she stared blindly
towards the large bay window.
Who proposes like that? This can't
be for real... it...
“It can't be for real! One of them is
just messing with me! Asshole... whoever you are!” She stood
and reached around her body, pulling the phone from her pocket once
again. “If it's games you wanna play, it's games you'll have.”
She found Tanner's name and called the handsome Aussie. Her plan to
hold out and make them come forward had just been dissolved in one
fleeting moment.

“Hey
Beautiful!” He sounded happy, he sounded like her normal,
non-playing-games, Tanner. She continued walking to the kitchen, and
leaned her backside against the counter.

“Hey,
how's it going?” As she asked the question, Morgan could hear
people talking in the background. “Where are you?”
Tanner laughed loudly into the phone, and since her question wasn't
funny in the slightest, she knew that he was having a good time....
wherever he was.

“Having
a party on Lady Godiva, wish ya were here, Love.” He laughed
again, and Morgan knew instantly that Tanner wasn't her mystery
fiance. If he were, he would be asking more questions and waiting
for her response, not partying with his friends and almost ignoring
her. Even if it was all a joke, she knew that he would still have
been more interested in seeing it through.

“Tanner,
why are texting me when you're having a party?” She smiled as
she asked the question, and Tanner could hear the amusement in her
voice. Her anger at the game-player was gone, and she just enjoyed
hearing Tan Man's voice again.

“Doesn't
matter where I am or what I'm doin', I'm always thinking of you.”
She smiled again as her head dropped with shyness at his sweet
words.

They
spoke for nearly ten minutes while Tanner told her about the two day
party he was throwing for his employees, and what Morgan had been up
to in the last week, minus any mention of the ring. Tanner had been
officially marked off of the list of suspects, and she felt much
better about the situation by the time they finished talking.

Angel,
it's not Tanner.
She sent the text to her best friend, then
walked out on to the patio to await his reply. The sun warmed her
bare arms quickly and she had just leaned back on the full length
lounge chair when his reply came through.

Are
you happy that it wasn't the Tan Man? Sad? Give me something,
Bitch! Underwear, Stick, underwear!”
She laughed at the
crazy man and was quick to reply.

Happy,
very, very, very happy! One down, two to go. How's Cedric? Are you
happy?
The ring fiasco had to be put on hold, for her sanity and
for the fact that she and Angel had much more to discuss than the
proposal. She waited for nearly fifteen minutes on his reply, but
Gio must have interrupted their chat.

She
watched people walking down below, and smiled as couples passed, hand
in hand, daring her to be jealous of what they had. Morgan shook her
head slowly, “nope, not jealous at all.” The ring ordeal
had shaken her to the core, but when the shaking ended, the girl was
beginning to realize just how much she wasn't ready for marriage.
More than that, she knew then that she wasn't even ready for a
serious relationship. The girl leaned back again, and watched a
flock of seagulls fly in unison from one building top to another.
A
flock. I wanted to be a part of the flock, and now I don't.
The
memories of chasing men, hoping to find a relationship with the ones
that she liked the most, felt like a whole other lifetime ago. She
was embarrassed by it all, but grateful for having the opportunity of
living it, and to learn from it.

Another
fifteen minutes passed and Angel still hadn't replied, and Ian wasn't
due back for another hour. With time to kill, she went back into the
suite, grabbed her scrapbook and a few supplies, then went back to
the warm patio. She sat down on the long white and green striped
lounge chair and opened the pink book across her lap. On the first
page, Finlay stared back at her, making her heart race. The idea of
it all being a game was still on her mind, but she knew Finny Fin
wouldn't play those kinds of games. So that left her with two
options.

“It
could still be you,” she told the picture of Finlay in front of
the large castle. Then she flipped a few pages ahead, “or it's
you.” Morgan's finger traced over a picture of Sean in front of
the herd of sheep on his kitchen counter. He had a big, carefree grin
on his face and he was holding a fuzzy sheep in bright red high heels
in the palm of his hand. Sean might be one to play a trick on her,
but what would be the motive? Just to see if she cared?

Morgan
went to the second page, the one dedicated to her Aussie. She was
relieved it wasn't him, but it didn't help the situation at all. A
part of her wished he would have said it was all a joke and she could
just move on with it. “Then again, I had no problem believing
it was Jake...”

With
that realization, she was more overwhelmed than before.
It could
be any of them.
Just because
she
cared about Finlay,
Tanner and Sean didn't mean they were only ones who cared for her.
After all, she had no idea Jake's whole life had been altered because
of her. It was a far stretch to believe any of the other men had
fallen in love with her, but it wasn't something she would completely
deny. Quickly, she flipped through the pages of her scrapbook.

“Let's
see. Fin? Maybe. Tanner? No. Dante? Hell no. Sean? Possibly. Kole...”
Her heart sunk. He wasn't one she would ever pursue to find out the
answer, but if it came down to a process of elimination, he was a
possibility.