10 Ways to Steal Your Lover (8 page)

 
      
“Even better.”

 
      
He offered his hand, ridiculously
gratified when she slipped hers into it as if she did it every day.

 
      
From now on, she would.

 
      
They joined the lines, grabbing a tray
each and moving through what looked like a never ending line of food. Raw
fruit, fruit compote, scrambled eggs, every breakfast meat he could think of
and a few he had to ask about. That didn’t even count the breads, the sweets,
the donuts and who knew what else at the other side.

 
      
But it was when Delilah was giving her
omelet order to the very patient chef that he found the soup tureens filed with
chili, posole, creamed chicken noodle and egg-flower soups that the three guys
found him.

 
      
They all stared at him and the full
half-raised ladle of fragrant chili. He poured it into the bowl, all the while
watching them watch him. Yeah, that wasn’t going to work if he planned to actually
eat. “Something I can help you boys with?”

 
      
“Oh, sorry, man, we just…well, you just
totally blew our minds last night. It was just so freaking awesome!” The
trio—clearly frat brothers, given the shoulder bumping and chuckling amongst
each other—al grinned at him like he should have the slightest clue what they
were talking about. Since the kid in the middle was making coherent-ish
sentences, Kane concentrated on him.

 
      
The ladle clanked back into the pot.
“What was so awesome?”

 
      
“Dude, you laid out TK Hughes with one
punch, man! What else?” The boys went on amongst themselves, one of them mimicking
an uppercut that Kane unfortunately recognized. The one his grandfather finally
figured Kane just wasn’t going to get right, back when the old man was trying
to teach him self-defense in high school. “He never even saw it coming, man. It
was beautiful!”

 
      
Kane looked down at his knuckles, trying
not to wince at the bruises he found. That so could not be good. “You’re saying
I knocked someone out?”

 
      
“Not someone, man. TK “Take No Prisoners”
Hughes. The middleweight champ! We were here to watch the fight tonight, but
that’s blown now so we’re just gonna party instead.”

 
      
“Blown?” He knew he was starting to sound
like a parrot, but what these guys were gushing over wasn’t possible. Kane was
a lot of things, but he wasn’t a fighter. Not a good one, anyway. He was a
horse trainer, his job was to teach, not destroy.

 
      
“Man, even if you didn’t break his nose,
you still knocked his ass out like he was made of glass. It’s all over the
internet! Viral! Probably even made it on the news. all the sports channels are
showing it. You’re like a bad ass celebrity! Plus, everyone who sees it is
gonna know how to take Hughes down now. He’s, like, totally doomed!”

 
      
Great. First he steals his best friend’s
bride and now he’s destroyed another man’s career. What else could he possibly
have done in the last twenty-four hours?

 
      
Kidnap the Pope? Burn down a school?
Shoot a three-legged puppy in the ass?

 
      
It did bring up an interesting question
though. “Are the cops looking for me?”

 
      
“Probably, but no one really cares, man.
Hughes is like a total asshole and it’s not like he’s going to be pressing
charges. Last thing he wants is more publicity on this. According to the site
description, the guy who put it online was only filming because Hughes keeps
feeling up the waitresses and one of them wanted proof. When he went for your
wife though, it was on like Fei Long, dude!”

 
      
That took no time to register at al. “He
what?”

 
      
“Yeah, the chick in the wedding dress.
Her!” The middle one pointed at Delilah, who looked up from smelling her fresh
omelet with wide eyes, only now realizing these three were interested in the
two of them. Her gaze darted to Kane, but all he could do was shrug.

 
      
Clearly exasperated with the two of them,
the kid pulled out his phone and tapped it’s face a few times. “Here, look, its
fucking awesome.”

 
      
The boy held it out for them, loading
screen facing their way. It showed a slightly distanced view of a roulette
table with a crowd around it. Kane felt Delilah coming closer, her warmth
against his arm as they both leaned forward to look into the phone.

 
      
Not surprisingly, the kid wasn’t wrong.
That was the two of them all right, arms around each other, still dressed from
the wedding, cheering loudly as the ball went around the wheel again and again.
Not because it stopped, given everyone’s intent gaze, but just because the ball
was continuing to run and they seemed to think that was the point. Oh yeah,
they were both high off their asses.

 
      
On Delilah’s other side was a burly guy
in a black suit with even bigger, burlier guys standing all around him, eyeing
the crowd for encroachers. The boxer, Kane surmised, given that his neck was
thicker than Delilah’s waist. The guy bumped her, his leer roving up and down
her body while the two of them remained oblivious to anything but the rolling
bal. Hughes’ hand went behind Delilah, his nodding laugh directed at his
friends behind him. With their jumping, she must not have realized what was
happening.

 
      
She realized it now, though, her body
stiffening against him. “That pig!”

 
      
“Just wait,” the kid replied while his
buddies came around next to Kane and Delilah to watch, too.

 
      
On the screen, Hughes went for another
grope, causing Delilah to jump with a shriek suddenly and to Kane’s shock, he
saw himself shove the Neanderthal back once, twice, and when the maddened
Hughes shoved back, it happened. His grandfather’s lightning fast uppercut.
Just like that, wham! Hughes went down and the crowd swallowed him, but not
before the camera caught his eyes going in different directions, his hands
jerking out bonelessly. The video stopped as Kane puled Delilah with him out of
the frame.

 
      
“We just walked away from that?” Kane
asked. “What about all that security?”

 
      
“Who knows?” The kid shrugged while his
buddy offered a fist bump to Kane. “Looks like everyone was more interested in
Hughes right then. Hey, is there any chance we can take a picture with you
guys? No one’s gonna believe us when we tell them we met you.”

 
      
Kane looked to Delilah in question, but
she didn’t seem to have any response either. Not that it mattered, the three
crowded around them and the kid with the phone asked someone else in line to
snap the pic. Twenty seconds later they were gone, acting like they’d just
gotten the address to the biggest kegger of the year.

 
      
“You beat up a boxer for me,” Delilah
said as people passed them, blinking as if she could hardly believe it.

 
      
He’d be affronted if he could believe it
either. “You promise to still be impressed if I get arrested for you, too?”

 
      
The corners of her mouth curled upward,
that impish, too-damn-sexy grin of hers forming at a slow, delicious pace. She
sashayed forward in the line, looking at him over her shoulder in what could
only be called sinful temptation. “I always did have a secret thing for bad
boys.”

 
      
It was a strange time for his life to
pass in front of his eyes. Every good grade, every merit award, all the boy
scout badges. Hel, every time he simply clenched his teeth and did the right
thing… Wasted.

 
      
“You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?”

 
      
All he heard in response was the trill of
her laughter.

 
      
Well, at least they knew one thing they
did the night before. Now how the hell was he going to find out the rest?

***

       
Delilah
chewed her nail, her other hand gripping her bouncing knee. Normally, she could
restrain herself from giving into her nervous tics, but the concierge had asked
them to wait in these chairs thirty minutes ago. Thirty. Given everything that
had happened to them in the last twenty-four hours, half-an-hour was a looooong
time to do nothing. And every time she thought she was getting control of her
fears, someone would come in to offer them something. Water, a snack, a meal, a
gift basket. If that door opened one more time with another complimentary gift
she swore she was going to gnaw their leg off.

 
      
Worse, she could feel Kane smiling.

 
      
“Stop it,” she growled, ripping her hand
out of her mouth in frustration.

 
      
“Stop what?” he asked mildly, leaning
back in his seat. As if the damn thing were comfortable or something. As if he
had no reason at all to be worried at al.

 
      
“We’re waiting for a wedding coordinator,
Del, not an executioner.”

 
      
“They could be calling the police and
we’re just sitting here, waiting for you to get arrested.” She didn’t even
realize her hands were flapping around as she talked until he grabbed hold of
them, pulling them onto his own lap.

 
      
“Come on, if they were to turn me in,
don’t you think the police would have come up to the room? It’s not like they
didn’t know where we were.”

 
      
She opened her mouth to argue but his
cool reasoning finally made it past her nerves. Well, that and his amused,
almost indulgent half-smile. How many times had she been the recipient of that
particular grin. The one that said, “You’re so cute when you’re out of your
mind.”

 
      
Before, she always had the urge to smack
him for it and, well, this time was no different, but she was too busy being
relieved that he was right. The stress deflated right out of her. So much so
that she didn’t bother to pull her hands from his. Or fight it when he pressed
a soft kiss to her lips, lingering there as if he just couldn’t help himself.

 
      
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take so
long,” came a woman’s voice from the doorway.

 
      
Delilah sprang back guiltily, but Kane
didn’t even jump. She noticed he didn’t let go of her hands, either. She
tugged, hoping the smiling woman in the pink dress suit with a perfect little
pink rose on the lapel didn’t notice. She didn’t hold out hope when the woman’s
lips curved and she suddenly had to cough into her hand.

 
      
Delilah glared at Kane but he wasn’t even
remotely fazed.

 
      
“Wife, remember?”

 
      
“More than you do, anyway.” While they’d
eaten—thankfully without interruption—they’d compared the fragments of their
memories, trying to figure out where to start running down what had happened.
They both remembered the colored lights and the stars above the gazebo, but
only Delilah remembered saying any actual words there. What those words were,
she couldn’t guess, but what other words could she have said but “I do”?

 
      
Either way, it was the stars that had
given Kane the idea to ask the concierge if they had a wedding coordinator in
the hotel. Someone who might recognize a chapel with moving, otherworldly
lights in the ceiling.

 
      
The coordinator, who introduced herself
as Elaine, took a moment to herself after Kane asked the question. Delilah
could see the curiosity brewing in the woman’s brown eyes, but she didn’t ask
why they needed that particular chapel. Right now, that restraint made her
Delilah’s new best friend.

 
      
“Well, I’m sure there’s more than a few
places with twinkling fake stars overhead, but the only one I can think of with
realistic-appearing stars across the entire ceiling would be the Fantasy Castle
Wedding Plaza. all the ceilings there are paneled with high-definition,
borderless screens. They can create virtually any atmosphere they want. If
you’d like, I can arrange an appointment and a car for you.”