Around the World in 80 Men Series: Books 11-20 (96 page)

Again,
Angel just thought he was helping. Sometimes, the man had a weird way
of doing things, but truth was, she was happy to have Tanner there.
Whether it helped with her Finlay situation or not, she didn't know,
but the company of two of her favorite men was nice either way.

When
the time came for them to crash for the night, Angel offered to sleep
in the one bed alone and let the other two enjoy their time together.
It was a hard choice for him to make, then again, Tanner didn't get
to even talk to her as much as Angel did, so he only thought it was
right to make the sacrifice. He was asleep before them, but while
he'd been awake, it had made him happy to see the two cuddled up.

Even with no sex involved, Morgan loved having her Aussie's arms
around her and she was even more thankful Angel had invited him
there.

*****

Breakfast
had been going great for the small group, and the two men had a good
laugh over the fact that Angel had spread the word with his cousins
to supply the breakfast bar with an endless offering of blueberry
muffins. Morgan was in muffin heaven, and they watched her put away
four of them with at least as many cups of coffee.

“Don't
look at me like that, it isn't easy to find muffins this good!”
She had pulled a napkin from the tin holder and threw it at Angel
when he started making quiet piggy noises. “I'm a pig now?
Really?” Another napkin was tossed, and more pig noises had
followed. “You're so mean.” She laughed at both of them
for teasing her, but she meant what she said, they were the best
muffins she'd had in quite some time. “I can't help it! I
haven't had a muffin this good since Fin made some for me.”
Angel looked at Tanner and the laughter was gone. Morgan realized
what came out of her mouth, and she lowered her head to focus on
wiping the crumbs from her jeans under the table. It was up to her
to break the awkward silence, and she finally looked up to say
something to the quiet Aussie. It was too late, he was already
responding.

“He
made
you muffins?” Tanner couldn't picture the man with
an apron, baking anything for anyone. Morgan nodded, then gave Angel
a quick look for help. He wouldn't offer any, there was nothing that
came to mind at the moment to get her off the hook. “Don't do
that. Really, I thought we were past this. You can talk about him,
just not too much, okay?” As usual, Tanner managed to smooth
things over with ease.

“He
won't be making muffins for her again if he doesn't fix his shit!”
Morgan couldn't believe that Angel said that. She shot him another
look, one that clearly told him that the argument was over, and he
didn't need to bring Tanner in the middle of it. It was too late,
and Tanner was all ears.

“What
did he do? Morgan?” He sat without moving, without smiling,
and waited for an answer. If he had hurt her in some way, then he
wanted to know about it. Morgan checked for crumbs again, but the
several silent moments between them all had forced her to reply.

“It's
not that big of a deal... Angel is just being dramatic.” She
squinted at the man to her right, and Angel just shook his head.
“The short version is, I told Angel that I didn't like Fin
using Julianne's service... I was jealous. Angel called him and told
him off, then he got mad at me. We argued, we apologized, and it's
all over.” She watched Tanner's face, waiting for the smile,
but he didn't give her one.

Tanner
couldn't make sense of Fin getting mad at her, and that's all that he
focused on at the moment. “What did ya do? Why did he get mad
at you if Angel called him?” Tanner pointed to
the
Angel in question, but never stopped staring at Morgan. She shrugged
her shoulders and looked down at her hands.

“He
said... that I was immature, a child is the word he used, for telling
Angel and not him.” The rest of their morning time was spent
with Tanner asking questions, Angel nodding at everything Morgan
said, and Morgan giving basic answers and wishing that the
interrogation would end.

They
had finally moved on from the topic of Finlay as they had all decided
to take a walk so that Angel could show them around. “But I
have to go back to the house and see if the G man needs his wheels.
PoPo needs fed too, or he'll eat G's lilac panties for breakfast.”
Morgan had to laugh at the fun Angel always had at the expense of
his boss. “I'll meet your asses in half an hour.” The
antique shop, about four buildings down according to Angel, is where
he would meet them after he saved Gio's
panties
from the bird.

“So,
I know you're not hungry,” Tanner teased Morgan again about her
muffin intake, “what would you like to do?”

“What
I would really like to
do
,” she gave him a naughty smile
and wrapped her arm around his as they continued walking, “and
what I
can
do are quite different, but I'll settle for that
antique shop.” He wrapped his free hand around her arm and held
her tight.

“You
know, as much as I love to do...that...with you, I'm really enjoying
just seeing you and...this,” he told her, giving her arm a
squeeze. With his words, Morgan realized that even if it wasn't by
choice, she was doing
that
again. The 'that' in question was
the one Angel had pointed out...the same 'that' in which she'd done
with Finlay. Spending time together with no physical involvement.
Angel said it was dangerous, only for her heart, and it was. Of
course, she grew more attached to both of them each time she saw
them, so she didn't see it as any more dangerous than what she would
have been doing.

In
fact, the only thing that flashed like neon in her mind was both
Finlay and Tanner had, on different occasions, flown to where ever
she was just to spend time with her. She thought of Michael at that
moment as well, all three of the men were willing to see her without
her 'doing her job'. Was it for free sex? No, because any of them
would have left the first chance they got after knowing she wasn't
going to have naked time with them.

No,
these men are special.
“Me too,” she finally answered
Tanner. “I'm glad you're here.” She meant it, after all,
up to that point, he'd been the only man in her life she'd ever said
she loved. Aside from Angel, but that was different. Yes, she loved
Finlay, but even more than she and Tanner, she and Finlay were
nowhere near that step of admitting it.

The two of them silently agreed to not talk about it any longer,
mostly to avoid another awkward conversation like they'd had on the
hood of his truck the last time she'd seen him. They knew how they
felt and what they had discussed, that was enough. Tanner walked her
to the shop and laughed as she left his side and ran off to explore.

“Oh,
Tanner, look!” He came behind her and wrapped his arms around
her waist, then set his chin on her shoulder as he looked at what
she'd called him over for. In front of him was a collection of small
boats, some sailboats, some small rowboats, some similar to his.

“I
like this little guy.” Tanner, still behind Morgan, reached out
and grabbed one of the tiny sailboats. It definitely looked antique
and certainly hand crafted. “My dad has one like this,”
he explained, turning the small thing in front of their faces to
check out the detail.

“Well,
that's settled!” Morgan took the little boat right from his
fingers and ran off with it down the aisle of nautical things before
Tanner could protest.

“Morgan,
no,” he followed behind her and found that she was already
picking out her next item. “Let me get it,” he held his
hand out for her to give the sailboat back but she shook her head and
stuck her tongue out.

“Aw,”
she barely whispered. In front of her was a beautiful silver watch.
It didn't look like it was an antique and its design was simple, but
in perfect condition and still classy. On the face was a silver
engraved seahorse with two small diamonds on either side. Since she
was always looking for the time, a watch had been something on her
list of things to keep an eye out for. She picked it up carefully,
then slid it right over her hand. It was far too big for her small
wrist, so after a few moments of admiring it, she set it back on its
little display.

“Give
me the boat,” Tanner said, ignoring Morgan's effort to distract
him.

“No.”
She smiled at him, then walked off to another part of the store.
Morgan admired pieces of furniture and art, imagining them in her
future home. She couldn't wait to decorate it, whenever that time
came.
My future home. Hell, I don't even know where I'm going to
live. I'm not going back to Ohio...somewhere warm. That's all I know.
She smiled at her far away thoughts as she ran her fingers across
an old dresser.

The
time flew by, before either of them noticed, and Angel was back.
“Okay, I know one of you sexy bitches bought me something!”
His voice was loud, announcing his presence to the whole shop. Morgan
popped her head around the corner and laughed when she saw her friend
standing in the middle with his hand on his hip.

“Angel,
come here!” She waved him over and he ran to her side. She was
paying for the little sailboat and thankfully, Tanner was nowhere in
sight or he would have stopped the transaction. When it was paid for
and back in her hands, she and Angel set off to find the Aussie. In
the back of the store, they found him walking around and told him
Angel was back, then the three of them left the store. Once outside,
Morgan wrapped an arm around each of the men.

“So,
were Gio's panties alright?” she looked over to the shorter of
the two men and asked.

“Baby,
he was spiraling! I swear, he was just walking around in circles, all
confused. I bet he hadn't even eaten since breakfast yesterday!”

All
three of them laughed at Gio's fake inability to take care of
himself. Surely he was capable of finding his own clothing or
preparing his own meal, but it was always entertaining to hear
Angel's account of what
really
went on.

“Speaking
of food, I
am
hungry!” Both of them men looked to her in
surprise, then all three broke out in laughter and set off to find
lunch.

Chapter
Four

“
I'll
miss ya.” Tanner held Morgan tightly against him as he took in
the scent of her freshly washed, and still damp hair.

The
man had spent the last thirty minutes in the bathroom, talking to
Morgan as she tried to get ready for the day. It was taking far too
long to get herself together because the two of them kept talking and
she gave in to the welcomed distraction. Angel had given them the
morning together, as he claimed that Gio needed help with finding his
own mouth with the fork that Angel had to hand him. They both knew
that he just wanted to give them time alone, but Gio more than likely
really did need help with something.

“I
already miss you.” She leaned her head back and stared at the
man in the bathroom mirror. The last few days had been perfect, and
Angel was right, Tanner reminded her of the things that are
important.
Laughter and friendship.
She also thought about
Finlay and Michael, and felt beyond grateful to have friends like all
of them in her life. Sure, the sex was great and it was a bonus that
she'd never turn down when possible, but being with Tanner showed her
that the friendship that she shared with all of them was the most
important thing of all. “When will I see you again?”
She closed her eyes when his lips touched her neck, and the warmth of
his mouth sparked a familiar feeling that she was forced to shake.

“As
soon as possible.” It was a vague answer, but it was probably
the same one that she would have given him if he were the one that
had asked. “Let's just enjoy the time we have.” She
nodded, then straightened and pulled away from him slightly.

He
took the subtle hint to let her finish getting ready, he too knew
that their time together couldn't be spent entirely in the hotel
bathroom.

Thirty
minutes after that, Morgan was finally ready and the two decided to
take a walk along Rio's beautiful beach. It was there that Tanner
told Morgan something that had changed everything that she had
thought about earlier. He stopped walking and put his arms around
her waist. “I know we talked about not using the L word...
but...,”