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“What the fuck?” Bobby sighed harshly. “Let me go handle her.”

Maybe Vanessa had underestimated how much Zoe had had to drink at the concert.

Highly amused, she watched Bobby try to talk her out of the pool where she bobbed up and down with a trio of semi or fully nude women.

When she pulled him in instead of him pulling her out, Vanessa gasped, then chuckled.

Santino turned to her with his palms open and grinned, then turned back to Tenzin and Ling, with whom he was having an animated conversation.

Still laughing to herself, Vanessa turned and went back to the paintings in the room, drifting from one to the other while ambient beats piped in from hidden speakers, letting their bold colors and tones wash over her.

They were similar in style to the one in the suite, but more soothing.

The wall extended several more feet, where she discovered another row of paintings on the opposite side.

She couldn’t see the pool or the deck any longer. This space was more intimate, with lower lighting to highlight each piece. The paintings were darker, more subdued, shaded with erotic vermillion and sensuous swirls of midnight black.

“If I’d known you were an art lover, I would have taken you to a couple galleries back home,” a voice said from over her shoulder.

Immediately, she stiffened, knowing the owner of that gravelly baritone without having to look.

“Should I even ask what you’re doing here?” Vanessa glanced over her shoulder at Scott, who emerged from the shadows.

He stood gazing at the canvas before her. He seemed to match it, dressed in similar dark, somber colors.

“I met Virgil a few years back when my company starting getting international attention. He wanted to build his hotel to be environmentally sustainable, even beyond city and provincial mandates. I know you’d find the details boring, so I’ll spare you.

” She flushed, not acknowledging his statement was true.

“Anyway, we became friends. I did tell you I have friends here. I’m going to assume Virg is friends with your husband.

I saw him outside with Ling. Sexy, accomplished Ling. ”

Scott walked up to stand beside her. His gaze was heavy on her, then he turned to the art.

She was grateful for the dim lighting. Maybe it would hide the way she tensed at his mention of Ling’s sexiness and achievements or the way she suddenly felt nervous being in an area with him where they couldn’t be seen.

“Tenzin’s a genius. Gotta give him that.” After a thick silence, he glanced at her again. “Did you enjoy the concert? You looked like you were having a good time.”

So, he had been watching them after all. Her heart pumped the tiniest bit faster. Vanessa huffed, turning to face him.

“What do you want, Scott? An apology? A confession?”

“I want you to admit you were seeing him this whole time. That’s all.”

She couldn’t tell in this low lighting if his gaze was hot or ice cold, but it was trained on her either way. And in this darkness, those eyes glowed feral green again, glowed like the whites of his teeth.

“I wasn’t. At this point, I don’t owe you an explanation, but I really wasn’t. If you hadn’t broken it off the way you did —”

“It’s my actions that got you back together? Or did being with me make you realize how much you still loved him? It’s fucked up either way.” Scott raised his hands, then lowered them. “But, hey. Happy to be of service to you.”

Vanessa stepped back, rubbing the raised flesh on her arms. Anger rolled off him in palpable waves. “I should go.”

“Yeah, you should,” Scott replied in a soft voice. “I’ll be seeing your brother and his wife later back at the hotel. Maybe I’ll see you and your man, too.”

Shit. She forgot. He’d booked a room at the same hotel in anticipation of this being a trip for the four of them. She didn’t like the tone of his voice when he said that. Didn’t like the idea that they might see him again at all.

“This doesn’t have to get weird, Scott,” she said as he slowly backed away, still facing her.

“I think it’s probably too late for that.” The last thing she saw was his flash of a smile before he was swallowed up by the darkness at the end of the hallway.

O-kay, time to go .

Vanessa tried not to run back the way she’d come, but it was hard to will herself to stay calm.

She smoothed her hand over her volume of curls and nearly tripped on the slight rise in the doorway to the pool area.

Santino turned when she slid her arm around his waist and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Hey, where were you? I turned to look, and you disappeared,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulders. After taking a closer look at her, he murmured, “Are you okay?”

“I’m good. Just checking out more of your beautiful work.” She addressed Tenzin with a smile, despite her speedy pulse and the goosebumps still raised like bas relief on her arms.

Ling introduced her to Tenzin formally, and she fell silent as they resumed their conversation about the origins of graffiti in 1980s New York City. Right up Santino’s alley.

Bobby had disappeared from the pool, most likely drying off somewhere. Zoe, who had pulled down the top of her jumpsuit to expose her breasts, was kissing some random man. That would have been shocking if she wasn’t still numb from the encounter on the shadowy side of the wall.

The dance music suddenly got turned up. Virgil appeared out of nowhere, dressed in swim trunks and showing off quite the package. “Everybody in the motherfucking pool!” he shouted and jumped in.

“Yeah, I’m done,” Vanessa said with an abrupt laugh. “Can we go back to the hotel?”

Santino didn’t seem fazed by the soiree suddenly turning into a horny pool party, but he didn’t look reluctant to leave either, glancing at Zoe with an unmistakable look of distaste.

“It was great to meet you,” he told Tenzin, shaking his hand.

“Take my card. I’ll be in New York in a few weeks. I can introduce you to some people,” Tenzin offered. “Nice meeting you, Vanessa.”

They talked about the concert and the party on the way back to the hotel. It was late when they arrived. Vanessa still couldn’t shake the nerves from that unexpected meet up with Scott and the royal couples’ bizarre behavior. When had Montreal turned into the goddamned Twilight Zone?