Page 23 of Hidden Resolution

His frustration spiked. “And if you aren’t? How do you think I’ll feel if something happens to you, knowing I could have prevented it?”

“Mason…”

“No!” he shouted, finally losing his temper with her continued stubbornness. “Shonda, there are things at play here you’re clueless about.”

“Such as?”

“Earlier tonight, I saw a woman who was identical to you at the bar.” He ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. “My gut tells me she’s behind this. Do you honestly believe re-keying a lock will prevent her from obtaining a copy of the new key card? I doubt if she stood in front of the hotel manager at this point, he could tell the difference.” Mason fingered her double-strand necklace. “Hell, if it weren’t for the fact that this tangled with my button when we were dancing and your dress is a different shade, I’d have believed she was you, too.”

“It makes no damn sense,” she argued. All traces of her earlier intoxication were gone as she paced. “Are you sure about what you saw? I mean, the bar was dimly lit. How can you be positive?”

He’d never wanted to strangle someone more than he did her right then. Exasperation had him rubbing his palms up and down his face to counter the compulsion. A ten count, then twenty, made him no less irritated.

“I need glasses now?” he growled.

She threw up her hands. “Will you stop taking offense at everything I say? Every time someone questions you, you get angry.”

Admittedly, she wasn’t wrong. Around her, his emotions were closer to the surface.

Softening her tone and expression, she placed her palm on his chest. “I’m an only child. There is no possible way someone can be identical to me. And what are the odds of two of us being in the same location?”

“First, I do not get angry. I get annoyed. There’s a difference,” he clarified with exaggerated patience.

A smirk teased her mouth. “I stand corrected.”

He ignored her to make his next point. “Second, I’m not mistaken. She was purposely watching you, Shonda.”

Stunned into silence, she simply stared.

“Third, the odds would be fairly high that the two of you were in the same location if she happens to know your itinerary and is stalking you.”

“Okay.”

“Okay, what?” he asked.

Her sudden shift was confusing. And since when did a woman give in to logic? And what exactly was she giving in to?

“Okay, I’ll stay with you until my flight home. But you need to agree you won’t freak out again like you did today in the cab.”

He nodded. “Thank you. But, uh… please don’t think?—”

“I get it, Mason,” she said with a tired sigh. “You don’t do long-term.”

Shonda returned to sorting her strewn items.

Leaving her to her chore, he stepped out onto the patio. An escape of sorts.

Cowardly? Hell, yeah. But he’d never claimed to be Superman in the face of emotional drama.

The ocean breeze, the stars, and the distant tiki bar music all contributed to calming him. Between their fight, the break-in, and the stress of needing to find out who wanted to terrorize Shonda, he was wound tight. Possibly too tight.

“Mason? I’m ready to go.”

He faced her, bracing his hands behind him on the railing.

She hovered in the doorway, still wearing the sundress from earlier. The halter top propped up her breasts, creating a mouth-watering display of cleavage. The desire to hold her overtook him.

“Come here.” His voice was hoarse, but they both ignored it.