Around the World in 80 Men Series: Boxed Set 21-30 (82 page)

“
Alright,
I think my tits are calm now,” Morgan took a deep breath and
nodded to confirm her own words as she gave Tanner a small shove with
her elbow.

“
Sure
about that?” he asked when she released another small giggle.
She nodded again, followed by a ferocious growl of her stomach. “Are
you ever not hungry?” Her brows came together and her green
eyes narrowed onto his. It was a look he'd never seen on her. “Have
I ever told you how sexy you are when you're angry?”

Morgan
groaned loudly and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “If
you hadn't knocked me down, I'd be enjoying my pizza right this
second!” She wasn't going to mention the fact she'd hit him
with the door first.

“
Well,”
Tanner began. “I wanted pizza too...” He cocked his head
to the side and ran his hand through his blonde hair, giving off a
look of innocence. “So, how about we pick up Angel and find
ourselves some pizza? Will that make ya feel better?”

“
No,”
Morgan said quickly, then cracked a smile and nodded. “Yes.”
Both of them laughed again and the talk of what they were going to
get on their pizza continued until they arrived at the airport.
Tanner paid the driver and the two climbed out of the car on their
own sides and met near the trunk. It wasn't until then that Morgan
noticed he wasn't lugging around any bags, which meant he must have
already booked a hotel room.
Good, just me and my Angel tonight.

She
smiled to herself as the two of them walked toward a long wooden
bench outside the front doors of the airport. Morgan knew it was
going to be rough, entertaining her three favorite men. On top of it
all, two of them had some explaining to do. She hadn't seen Angel
since she'd heard about Gio's dating adventures, she hadn't seen
Finlay...
oh, Fin.
Well, she hadn't seen Finlay since he'd gone
off and had a baby. The thought made her shudder and she shook the
urge to turn to Tanner and shout that Finlay was a father. Even since
she'd first heard about it, it had never really dissolved into her
conscious. It had been a thought that she had kept afloat, riding the
waves in a sea of other things she didn't want to think about since
that first phone call, the one from... “Angel!”

Morgan's
phone rang in her hand and she hit the answer button before the first
ring had ended. “Angel! I'm so sorry!”

“
Booberry!
Where is your sticky ass?”

“
I'm
at the airport! Where are you?” Morgan stood and looked around,
halfway expecting to see her best friend running toward her. A small
group of people wearing California sweatshirts stood near the
doorway, other than that, the sidewalk was pretty vacant.

“
Turn
around,” Angel told her, and when she turned to her left, he
yelled into the phone, making Morgan pull the device away from her
ear. “Who says turn around and they look left? Morgan fuckin'
Holland, turn your ass a-round!” That time it was clear she was
supposed to look behind her. When she did, she squinted her eyes to
look through the tinted glass and saw her Angel sitting cross-legged,
waving like he was under attack by an angry mob of fruit bats.

“
Angel!”

“
I
can see your roots from here baby girl and I'm sure your brows need
addressed. And when was the last time you ma'amscaped?” Morgan
giggled and shook her head as she ended the call and shoved her phone
in the back pocket of her jeans.

“
Wait
right here, I'll bring him out,” Morgan told Tanner and ran
inside the airport.

Chapter
Three

Tanner
watched Morgan walk-skip to her best friend. He leaned his upper
body against a wall, and crossed one boot over the other. His smile
widened when he watched Morgan and Angel collide in a frenzied
embrace that ended with Angel nearly being lifted off the ground. He
would have loved hearing them as well, but they were too far away.
He could only imagine the words being exchanged between the two of
them.

“
Easy,
Sticky Ass! Don't wrinkle my shit!” Morgan eased her grip on
Angel and giggled.

“Your
shit isn't wrinkled, you look great!” Her eyes shined with
tears of happiness as she scanned the perfectly assembled man in her
arms. He was wearing his only pair of three hundred dollar
distressed jeans that look like an alligator used them for a chew
toy, a black v neck that wouldn't have room for one wrinkle because
it hugged tightly around every inch of his chest, and a leather
jacket with a popped collar. He looked...like Angel. “Going
with the bad boy look in Paris, huh?” She shook her head and
hugged him again. Angel laughed and nodded as he wrapped his arms
around her tightly.

“
It's
so good to see your ass. Now get me some mothafuckin' food before
I...,” his eyes caught something over Morgan's shoulder, “is
that...is that the Tan Man?” He let go and moved to her left.
“It is! Hi!” Angel waved wildly and his smile was
enough to brighten the entire airport. Morgan turned around and
nodded in Tanner's direction.

“
Yeah,
I sort of mentioned that I would be here, and...well,”

“
He
helped himself to your party?” Angel never looked at Morgan as
he spoke.

“
It
would appear so.” Morgan helped Angel with his bags, and the
two looked at Tanner as they walked in his direction. “Ow!”
The cramps were back, and caused Morgan to stop in her tracks for a
few seconds.

“
Is
mothafuckin' Nature stranglin' your ovarians?” Angel dropped
his small bag and put his hand on Morgan's back. What he felt was
Morgan's response to his ridiculous question.

“
Ovarians!
Oh...my...god....,” she snorted into her hand as she tried to
stand upright. Angel laughed as well, and grabbed his bag from the
ground again.

“
Get
your shit under control, you can't be snorting like that in front of
Tan Man. It's bad enough that your roots look like a landing strip
on the top of your damn head, and your brows are mating between your
mothafuckin' eyes.” He smoothed a chunk of her hair from the
side of her face as she snorted again. “That shit ain't cute.
Stop it.” He knew it wasn't going to get her to stop, so he
walked quickly to get to Tanner first, hoping she would 'get her shit
under control' before reaching them.

Tanner
watched them walk, then stop, laugh, then walk again. He couldn't
help but smile at the pair, and he shook his head as he pushed from
the wall and walked toward the giggling duo.

“
Mmm,
mmm, mmm,” Angel hummed loudly through pursed lips as he got a
better look of the man from Down Under. “Baby girl, you best be
telling
Nature
down there,” he pointed to Morgan's lower
half, “to hold the fuck off. I'm sure Tan Man would love to
give you a personal tour of
his
Tower of Pizza and if you're
on your mothafuckin'...”

“
Angel!”
Morgan laughed, yet scorned. “First off,” she leaned in
and whispered quickly in Angel's ear, “we're in Paris.”

Angel
nodded. “Duh.”

“
Paris
has the Eiffel Tower.”

“
Whatever,”
Angel shrugged.

“
And
it's not 'pizza',” Morgan corrected him once more, both of them
still laughing.

“
Whatever,”
Angel replied again. “Then you can climb that to...”

“
And
lastly,” she cut him off, speaking even more softly, making
sure Tanner couldn't hear her, “I am not doing anything with
any
towers
this week.” Angel huffed loudly and shook
his head back and forth, then narrowed his eyes at Morgan playfully.
Morgan leaned in again to say something else, but Tanner was too
close and she stood upright again, with a large smile across her
lips. He looked good. Too good. She almost regretted saying something
to him about Paris. It was nice to see him, but she had no idea if
she'd be able to resist him all week. Ovarian strangling or not, she
knew she still had Finlay to deal with and she wouldn't dare give one
that kind of personal attention with the other around.

“
Ya
hungry?” Tanner gave Morgan and Angel his beautiful wink. He
already knew the answer. “Where is your hotel, Morgan? We can
get Angel set up in his room, then find something to eat.”

Morgan
started to reply with the name of the street her hotel was on, but it
hit her.
Get Angel set up in
his
room? So that means you
think you're staying in my room, huh?
Morgan smiled even wider as
she realized she'd figured out Tanner's brilliant plan. She waited
for Tanner to get off the phone with the cab driver and told him the
name of her hotel and the street, then added, “Angel is staying
in my room, by the way.” Tanner's smile faded slightly, but he
nodded. Surely, he couldn't have expected to just show up in Paris
and stay the week with Morgan in her room, right? When she looked to
Angel, she saw that his smile had also diminished a bit. Her brows
came together in confusion before he spoke.

“
Stick....I
uh...I have a room already...” Angel's eyes moved to the ground
and he watched as his toes moved an empty candy wrapper a few inches
across the ground.

“
Oh...okay.”
She met Angel's eyes and smiled. Morgan wasn't sure why he would do
that, but she didn't know what else to say. The plan had been for the
two of them to spend the week together. Regardless of Tanner and
Finlay inviting themselves.

“
It's
at the same hotel though,” Angel smiled back and Morgan and
Tanner nodded. He could still see the look of worry in Morgan's eyes,
so he explained. “Okay, look...I didn't have a mothafuckin'
choice! I was talking to CiCi and I said I was coming up here to see
your sticky ass and he was already in the area and I couldn't say
no...I haven't seen his ass since...”

Morgan
began laughing. “It's okay, Angel!” She knew he hadn't
seen Cedric since...
since I've seen Fin.
It was in Nevada, the
last time she'd seen either of the two men. Las Vegas, the thought
reminded her of Clay, and she felt the heat rise to her cheeks. She
dipped her face, hoping to hide any signs of her blushing skin. “I've
got a confession to make too.”

The
cab pulled up beside the three of them and Morgan put her confession
on hold and helped Angel load his luggage into the back of the car.
As she climbed into the back seat, she swore she heard her name being
called from behind her, but when she looked nobody was there. By the
time the three of them were settled into the car and talking about
what they were going to eat, the men had forgotten about the
confession, and Morgan decided it could wait until after dinner.

*****

“
Oh
my goodness, I'm so full!” Morgan doubled over in fake pain,
grabbing Tanner's shoulder as they walked out of the restaurant. It
was a small Italian place, but it was casual, and that made it easier
to keep Angel from yelling about multiple forks or elevator music.

Morgan's
phone sounded a text message notification in her back pocket and
Angel quickly grabbed it from her jeans and ran ahead of the them so
he could be nosy. Normally, Morgan wouldn't have cared if he took a
look at her messages, but...

“
Stick...”
He looked up from her phone and met her green eyes with a look that
Morgan couldn't identify. His lip twitched with a smile and he looked
to Tanner, then back to Morgan, back to the phone. His thumbs came
into position over the virtual keyboard and his smile grew.

“
Angel,
don't!” Morgan knew exactly who he was about to reply to, and
that was one thing she didn't want to happen. She lunged forward, and
nearly fell for the third time that day, but Tanner caught her. She
thanked the Aussie quickly and reached for her phone, just as Angel
dodged. “Angel, give me my phone!”

He
gave the screen one more forceful tap of his index finger, stood
straight and slowly held his hand, with her phone, out in front of
him. She rolled her eyes and grabbed the phone from his fingers,
knowing he'd just sent whatever message he'd been typing.

The
response was to Finlay's text, which she read first before facing the
words that Angel had sent.

You
couldn't invite me to Paris, but you've given the wee Australian lad
a nice welcome, aye?
A long sigh
left her body, one that both Tanner and Angel could hear.
Oh
Fin, I didn't invite him here.
The
next line, from Angel, made her gasp loudly.
Keep your
little Irish skirt on, Finstick, you know her ass loves you.
Morgan
put her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes. The responses
fought to all come out at once.
Scottish, not Irish.
Kilt, not skirt. He doesn't even wear a kilt. Wait!
She opened her eyes and looked at Angel, her face was suddenly
drained of color. “How does he know that Tanner is here? Was
that...?” She realized that she really had heard her name
being called, and exactly who it had been. When her eyes moved to
Tanner, she could tell instantly that he had a good idea of what was
going on.