Around the World in 80 Men Series: Boxed Set 21-30 (33 page)

“Yer
a wee minx. But I'll hear those words from yer lips, lass.
Someday.”

“Aye,
Fin. Ye will.” Her fake accent had improved, and the man felt
a stir in his heart that made him wish even more that he could stay
with her much longer than time allowed.

He
finally left the bed, still without the blanket to Morgan's delight,
and called Clay for the last time. “Tell him that ye must meet
with yer security team at,” he looked to Morgan for an idea,
and she quickly looked out the window of their room, then whispered
the name of the next building over, “Treasure Island.”
Clay spoke to him as if he were someone else, since Angel was right
beside him, but he verified the meeting to happen in thirty minutes.

“Well,
time to get dressed, huh?” Finlay groaned as Morgan left the
bed, also without a blanket, and he cursed the whole situation that
was keeping him from having Morgan in his room for the next few
hours.

Twenty
minutes later, Morgan and Finlay were pretending to search their
menus in a dimly lit restaurant within the casino.

“
Ye
goin' te eat again?” Finlay couldn't hold back the joke any
longer. As expected, Morgan gave him a good punch to the arm, one
that actually made him flinch.

“
You're
an ass.”

“
It
was just a question, lass.” He was still laughing as he brought
the menu up to cover her face. Morgan on the other hand, dropped her
menu to the table and crossed her arms to give Finlay the hairy eye.
Soon though, she couldn't fight it and laughed with him.

Morgan
was nervous about revealing herself to Angel, and Finlay was anxious
to get it over with, so that he could have her all to himself.

They
both agreed on a bottle of wine when Morgan's eyes opened wide at the
sight that was walking through the front door. “Shit.”
Fin put his hand on her leg and squeezed, and she looked at him, he
smiled in a way that calmed her instantly.

She
looked at the three men entering, and Clay was the only one that was
looking directly at them. Angel and Cedric were looking around for
their personal security team that we were supposed to meet with. The
smile on Clay's face made both Morgan and Finlay laugh, then he did a
little twirl with his finger at his side to have them hide their
faces. Finlay leaned across Morgan and put his large back to the
front, then proceeded to kiss her for way more time than was
necessary.

“Where's
your team, Boo? They ain't no Men in Black up in this place!”
Clay put his hand at Angel's back briefly, and guided the man, with
Cedric following, to a table that was only feet from Morgan.

“Excuse
me.. excuse me, sir?” Clay was talking to Finlay's back, and
trying not to laugh. Angel had no idea why Clay needed the
stranger's attention, but he wasn't going to stand around and wait
for Mister Lip Lock to answer.

“Cuddle
fucks!” He clapped his hands together loudly. “Up
here!” Morgan laughed against Finlay's lips, and then very
slowly, he turned around.

“Aye?”

Angel's
eyes nearly strained as they darted between the faces of Morgan,
Finlay, and Clay.

“All
of you muthafuckas can kiss my ass!” He started to turn
around, when Cedric caught his arm.

“No,
you're not running away. You messed with her life again, Angel. Ya
had it coming.” Finlay nodded, then stood from the table.

“She's
been with me the whole time. And now ye know what it's like to have
yer emotions toyed with, aye?” Angel crossed his arms over his
chest and looked away. Clay was next to speak.

“You
tried to get him mad at me. Or me him. Either way.. not cool.”
Angel looked the other way, still refusing eye contact. Finally,
Morgan stood and walked up to him, grabbing his hands and forcing him
to hold hers in return.

“It's
alright that you wanted time together with Cedric, I get that.. I
really do. But playing games with the people that I care about...
Angel.. you have to stop.” The man's eyes had started to shine
with the threat of tears, and he let go of her hands and hugged her
tightly.

“I
thought your ass was gone. I thought someone took you away from me.
I can't lose you, Stick. I'm sorry.. so mothafuckin' sorry.”
She hugged him back, and their shared tears were a promise from both
of them. Angel wouldn't interfere with her personal life, and Morgan
wouldn't put him through hell like that ever again.

Chapter
Seven

“
Alright...I
think that's the last of it.” Morgan wiped her hands together
like they were covered in dirt, then dropped them to her thighs with
a loud yawn.

“Good
thing, we need to get your ass to the airport right the fuck now.”
Angel dragged the last of Morgan's bags to the door, then looked at
his watch again. “Baby girl, we've got to go!”

It
was Friday afternoon, and that meant it was time for Morgan to move
on to her next client. She was thankful Angel had gotten her up when
he did because she was sure she still would have been asleep. “Did
you get any sleep last night?” Morgan grabbed Angel's hands and
he pulled her to her feet.

“You
kiddin', Stick?” He raised a brow, then nodded profusely. “I
don't get this beautiful without sleep.” Morgan giggled and
agreed that he was indeed, beautiful. The day prior had been a
whirlwind of fun and adventure. They'd had a wonderful lunch
together, then they played a few rounds of miniature golf. That
night, Morgan took them to see what Angel called the Dancing Tan Mans
and had ended it with a night of gambling at Shaw's. Between the
three of them, they'd managed to win somewhere between five and six
thousand dollars, but everything they made had been given to Angel.
Of course, he tried to give it back and when they wouldn't accept it,
he tried to get Clay to give them their winnings, but Morgan and
Cedric still said no. Eventually, Angel dissolved into a puddle of
drunk gratitude and the three of them returned back to their own
hotel at some point in the middle of the night. “That shit was
fun though.”

Morgan
gave his hand a squeeze and nodded. “So much fun.”

“This
ain't the time to be nostalgic, bitches, we've got to go!”
Cedric filled a travel mug with coffee and handed it to Morgan, along
with an arsenal of coffee and creamer, then he quickly walked over to
the door to help with Morgan's bags.

“Oh,
shit! I didn't call a taxi!” Morgan nearly dropped her coffee
as she suddenly remembered they didn't have a ride. As she reached
for her phone, Cedric saved the day and told her that Clay had
already made arrangements for them. “Thank you so much!”
she yelled out to Clay, even though he was way down on the other end
of the Vegas strip. She followed the men out of the room, then
practically ran to keep up with them. A few minutes later and they
were running outside and to the black car with tinted windows that
was waiting for them.

“Time,”
Cedric pointed to Angel after the three of them were packed into the
backseat of the car. Angel looked down to his wrist then let out a
long breath of relief.

“We're
good. We're muthafuckin' good.” It was just a little past noon
and her flight was at one-twenty-six. They were still cutting it
close, but as long as traffic didn't hold them up, they'd get to the
airport with plenty of time to spare.

“Now,
listen to me,” Morgan was still trying to catch her breath as
she looked back and forth between the two men. “Nobody will be
here to bail you guys out of jail if you do something stupid! Angel,”
she warned when he began to laugh, “I'm not kidding! What you
did at the restaurant will get you arrested.” He was still
fighting the urge to giggle. “Okay, fine. But if you get into
trouble, you have to call Clay to get you out of jail.” She
crossed her arms and stared straight ahead. Angel and Cedric wouldn't
be leaving Las Vegas for another two days. Their flights were due out
Sunday, which gave them almost three days to destroy the city.
Angel
could do that in an hour.

“Aw,
fuck no. We settled ourselves out but we ain't BFF's and shit now.”
It was Morgan's turn to laugh. “Show me Tee-fuckin-he-tee
again...I've got to see whose long board you'll be riding the waves
with.” Morgan laughed again and pulled out her phone as she
inched to the far side of the backseat. The two men slid in beside
her, and they were on their way.

“This
is a different picture. Wow, his hair is lo...”

“Let
me see that shit,” Angel took the phone from her hands and
brought the screen closer to his eyes, then gasped loudly. “Oh..
he looks... nice.”

“Nice....what?”
Morgan leaned over to look at the picture and see what
he was
referring to. “I hope that means he has a big co...”

“Morgan!”
Cedric clasped his hand over her mouth and tried to lean across her
to see the picture too, but she put her hand on his face and pushed
back.

“No,
no, no. I didn't see it before, but he's
definitely
muthafuckin'
nice.”

“What
are you talking about?” Morgan's mumbled words sounded between
Cedric's fingers. “Cedric, tell me!”

Angel
held the phone out for Cedric to see and give his opinion. “Nice.
As. Hell.”

“You
two are weird. He's hot... and you want to ride him through...
something, right?” Morgan couldn't understand why they were
acting so strange, but she finally figured it out. “You think
he's ugly! He's not ugly.... there are ugly guys in that database,
but he's not one of them!” She defended her choice, then
looked at a giggling Angel. “Wait! You chose him! I didn't.
And now he's ugly?” Angel was laughing so hard that he fell
over onto Morgan's lap.

“Boo,
he's... nice. I just.. didn't see... how... mothafuckin' nice he was
the first time.” He snorted. He actually snorted. Morgan
pushed him off of her and started to laugh with him.

“I
don't care what either of you say. He's gorgeous.. and I'm going to
have a great time with him.” Both of the men fell against her
shoulders, and she continued to laugh at their poor judgment.

They
were still laughing at her
nice
client, even when they were
about to send her off on her flight to Tahiti. “I love ya,
Stick. You're my best boo.. you know that shit is true, right?”
Morgan had already started to cry, and he wiped the first tear from
her cheek. “You're goin' to cry your face off... that ain't
cute. Your ass is going to be around people.... you'll need a
cosmetic to fix that shit, and you can't be doing that on a plane.”
He too was starting to tear up, and she nodded then put her head on
his shoulder.

“I
love you, Angel. Take care of my heart, because you're the only man
that I've ever given it to.” Angel squeezed her hard as her
words brought a flood of tears that he hadn't been ready for.

“Okay...,”
he wiped his eyes and held his head high, “ya need to go.
Text a bitch when you land. Oh... and this is for you. Read it on
the plane. I love you.” His voice cracked as he handed her an
envelope, and Morgan began to laugh.

“Seriously?
Another one? Hell... no!” She pushed it away and both Cedric
and Angel laughed as they both pushed it back into her hand.

“No
ring this time.. I promise. And, it's from me, so there's no mystery
to this shit either.” She tilted her head and narrowed her
eyes at both of them. “Honest.” She nodded slowly, and
took the envelope. The next few moments she spent hugging both of
the men again, and a last promise that she'd text a bitch soon.

*****

Morgan
took her seat as she sniffed loudly from her heartbreaking goodbye.
She wanted to read the letter from Angel, but decided to wait until
they were in the air before getting it back out. Her scrapbook was
in desperate need of attention as well, and it would be a perfect
distraction from her overwhelming sadness.

She
waited an additional half an hour after they were in flight before
she removed her large book from her bag, and put it across her lap.
Then, she grabbed the envelope from her bag, and slid out the letter.
Morgan took a deep breath, and read her best friend's words.