Around the World in 80 Men Series: Books 11-20 (13 page)

Portugal

Book
Twelve

Chapter One

Morgan awoke to the gentle
nudging of a beautiful flight attendant. “We're landing, ma'am.
Please put your seat in the upright position.” The girl did as
she was told and stretched her arms high above her head with a quiet
yawn. Sleeping on planes wasn't her favorite thing to do, but she had
learned that it passed the time much more quickly.

Her
first flight from Winnipeg to Chicago had been less than two hours
long, but she had managed a little nap along the way. During the
short layover, she hadn't had time to do much of anything aside from
grab a burger, use the restroom and get right on the next plane. She
was dying to find out about her next client, but it had to wait.

She
was tired from her on and off napping and realized that the flight
from Chicago to Dublin had already brought her into the next day.
Morgan yawned again as she stepped off the plane and found her way to
the little coffee stand that she had discovered the last time she was
at the Dublin airport. Once she ordered her delicious caffeinated
beverage, she found her way to her designated terminal and found a
comfortable spot in the corner.

“Sean
would kill me if he knew I was here,” Morgan talked to herself
as she opened up her laptop. She wished there was a way to see her
friend, and it sucked that she couldn't tell him, but she knew the
consequences. For one, she'd have to leave the airport, then go
through security again just to see him, and there simply wasn't time.
Two, even if she did go through that to see him, it would only hurt
to say goodbye and her mind needed to be clear for her next client.

She
broke the thoughts with a shake of her head, then navigated to the
database. “Okay, Julianne. Let's just see who ya picked...”
Morgan clicked on Portugal and a list of nine men appeared. Fourth on
the list was the most attractive man out of the group, and his name
happened to be Carlos. He was also new, because a small yellow flag
was next to his name. That meant that he passed all of Julianne's
screening, but he hadn't been with any of the women yet.

“Well,
don't you think you're hot shit?” Morgan leaned closer to her
computer to get a better look. The man looked exotic. His dark, olive
skin, light green eyes, dark brown-black hair and a dangerously
gorgeous smile. He reminded her a bit of Gio, but she knew
immediately that the guy was going to be Gio times fifty.

The
man was propped up against a jet, his shirt unbuttoned completely to
where it was blowing in the wind, showing off his hardened torso. He
had on a watch encrusted with diamonds that reflected in the sun, one
diamond earring and some kind of tribal tattoo across his chest. Even
though he was attractive, Morgan wasn't interested. He was definitely
a category three. Hell, maybe she'd need a new category for the man.
She closed her laptop and whispered aloud, “no, Julianne,
that
is not my type...oh well.”

Maybe
it won't be so bad,
she told
herself. He could be a lot like Cade, only cocky in appearance, but
is actually pretty cool.
It could just be a silly pose.
Yep, that's all. I'm sure this is going to be a lot of fun.
She
was also excited to see what kind of mansion he was going to have.
It's going to be one of
those weeks of glitz, glamor and the high life.

When
Morgan was finished convincing herself about Carlos, she secured her
laptop in her bag and exchanged it for her phone. She needed to call
Kole first, that was for sure.

When he answered the phone,
Morgan couldn't help the smile that came with hearing his voice.
“Kole!!!!”

“Morgan! It's been
forever! How are you? Where are you? What's going on?” Kole was
clearly excited.

“I'm in Dublin on
layover. Going to Portugal next, but guess what?” Morgan asked.

“I get to see you in less
than two weeks!?” Morgan couldn't differentiate the statement
between an exclamation and a question, but she laughed nonetheless.

“Exactly! Oh my God! I
can't wait!” She hadn't even realized how much she was looking
forward to it until the words came out of her mouth. Less than two
weeks and she'd see the sexy Hawaiian again. Christmas was just
around the corner and Morgan had a feeling that it was going to be
her best holiday yet.

“I can't wait either,
gorgeous. I've missed the hell out of you. I can't wait to hear
everything and catch up. There's a surprise waiting for you here as
well, so you better be here!”

“Surprise? Tell me, what
is it!?” Morgan racked her brain over the possibilities, and
she came up with nothing.

“You'll
love it, trust me!” Kole never told her as they continued their
conversation, he wouldn't even give her a hint, but it gave Morgan
another sense of excitement and anticipation to find out. They talked
about Angela and Kala and Kole's parents, then Morgan told him about
Tyler and the arrangement she had with him. Of course, Kole thought
it was hilarious and he laughed harder when he heard about Uncle Matt
and Oswald.

Morgan regretfully had to cut
the call short because there were other people that she wanted to
call and she would have easily talked to Kole until her plane
boarded. They said their “see you later's” instead of
goodbye's and hung up.

Tanner was next on the list.
She had so much to tell him, and of course, she wanted to hear about
him. They caught up for nearly a half-hour about his newest boat and
she told him about the Tyler experience as well. His only response
had been that he hoped she didn't take the 'pretend relationship'
into the bedroom. Morgan loved how he was always jealous when it came
to the other men. He was jealous in a cute way, not an overbearing,
'I'll-kill-any-man-who-looks-at-you', way. When he asked when he'd
see her again, she couldn't give him an answer, but she told him that
whenever that time came, it wasn't soon enough. Before hey hung up,
both of them kissed into the phone, but again, skipped the 'I love
you's'.

By
the time she got off the phone with him, she didn't even have time to
call her friends, Angela, nor Angel, but she knew she'd see Angela
soon and she'd definitely be talking to her sweet Angel, even in text
messages, there was no way she could go without her friend for a
whole week.

The attendants made a boarding
call and for once, Morgan was one of the first people to get on the
plane and one of the first to fall asleep after takeoff. The day had
taken a toll on her. She had left Thursday around two in the
afternoon and with her flights, layovers and time differences, she
was to arrive in Portugal on Friday around twelve-thirty PM. Almost a
whole days worth of traveling, and of course, since she was arriving
in the afternoon, she still had a whole day ahead of her.

The flight from Ireland to
Portugal wasn't very long, but she was going to take advantage of the
sleeping opportunity that she had. As the plane bumped down the
runway, the girl's eyes popped open and she saw the the plane was
back on the ground. It had been the quickest flight she could ever
recall, but the fact was she had been passed out from takeoff to
landing.

“Okay,
here we go,” Morgan took a deep breath and picked her carry on
bag up off of the floor when the plane had come to a halt. The fact
she hadn't picked her own client made her nervous.
I don't
know why...it's the same as any other trip.
She
made another deep inhale-exhale combo and excited the plane. After a
short walk, she came to baggage claim, but her bags didn't catch her
eye first.

Carlos
was already there, standing up against the wall, propped up just as
he had been in his photograph. But something was different. His face
didn't hold the same inviting, cocky, smile that he had worn in his
photo and his eyes didn't have that bright sparkle. They looked cold
and hard, even from across the room. He also looked like he hadn't
shaven in a week and Morgan wondered if he was just having a bad day,
or week. Maybe he was going to cancel and get her off the hook.

Morgan noticed pink out of the
corner of her eye and directed her attention back to the belt. As she
walked toward her bags, she kept an eye on the man, trying to read
him, but she couldn't quite figure him out.

He
wore a perfectly fitted black suit and Morgan watched as he gruffly
adjusted the collar, then run his hand through his shoulder length
hair. She also noticed the long sigh that came afterward as his eyes
scanned the room. Morgan turned quickly so he wouldn't see her
staring and waited for her luggage to get closer.
He
looks
...
bothered?
Angry? Oh, I don't think I want to do this..
.

“You're mine, right?”

M
i
ne?
The quick question came from behind her, right behind her, and she
turned around to see her client staring down at her, almost
expressionless. “Uh, I'm Morgan. You're Carlos, right?' She
smiled nervously, extending her hand for a formal shake.

“These yours?” His
thick accent made it hard to understand at first, but then she nodded
when she realized he was pointing at her bags. “Good, let's
go.” Without looking at her again, Carlos grabbed her bags and
started walking in the opposite direction.

“Sure,
I'd love to join you. Oh, you're pleased to meet me? How nice of
you to not say.” She kept her eyes on his back that was nearly
fifteen feet ahead of her as she had a quiet conversation with
herself. “What's that? You're a total asshole who is going to
treat me like a....”
Whore.
Her playful chatter to herself ended with her own reminder of what
her job really was. Her mind flashed to her previous clients, all
of them like photographs being handed to her memory, one after
another. Not one of them treated her like a, well, that word that
she wouldn't speak out loud.
I knew I would get one
eventually. They don't all want to be your friend, Morgan. Just do
your freaking job and get out of here.

“Get in.” The
hurried client opened the door to the largest black limo that she had
ever seen, then slammed it shut merely a second after her legs were
safely inside. When he finally joined her, after talking to the
driver for several minutes a few feet from the vehicle, she found
that his door slamming ritual wasn't reserved just for her. “I'm
glad your flight was on time, I'm not very good at waiting.”
Carlos kept his eyes straight ahead, and Morgan wanted to remind him
that eye contact was still in style where she came from.

Don't
be a bitch.
“Yeah, I'm
glad too.” She looked down at her hands, having no idea what
to say to the man who obviously wasn't very happy about something.
“So, do you live around here?” That was good, she
thought, at least it was something to start the resemblance of a
conversation.

“No. But I have us a
room not far from here.” Still, he looked ahead and refused to
show her the common decency of friendly conversation.

Morgan just nodded in reply,
not that he would notice, and turned her head to take in the sights
as they made their way to their room. She was already thinking of
the bath that she needed, and her stomach was reminding her of the
meal that she had missed, but all of that would have to wait until
she found out what Mister Happy had planned for the two of them.

Ten minutes into their silent
drive, the terrain started to change drastically. Shops and heavy
traffic turned to worn down buildings and men standing in front of
bars, the kind of men that stared at the limo as if their meal ticket
had just arrived. She straightened in her seat and pulled her jacket
together on impulse, as she wondered why the driver would go through
such a bad part of town on their way to the hotel. It was when
Carlos told the driver to 'pull up in front,' that she realized she
wasn't on her way to the hotel, she was already there.

“Get out.” His
simple demand was all that had been uttered as Carlos got out of the
car and walked to the trunk to get her bags.

“Shit. Shit...this isn't
good...shit.” Morgan looked around again, trying to see the
shitty building that she was expected to stay in. “Why are we
here...what the...?”

“Let's go.” Her
door flew open and Carlos put his hand out for her. The gesture was
almost shocking, especially since he was actually looking right at
her as he spoke.

“Carlos, I don't know
about this...” She put her hand out and let him guide her from
the car, then looked across the top of the limo to see the small,
dirty, brown hotel. “Do you think we could go somewhere else?”
His immediate response was to shut the door and guide her once
again, that time, to the front of the building.

“I live far from here,
and there aren't any other rooms available right now. There's a
celebration in town, and they're all booked. This will have to do,
but I'll try to make it nice for you, yes?” He smiled again,
but his eyes didn't quite fill with the humor or friendliness that
his words were trying to convey.