“And your cougar,” Caden said, grinning.
Dalton sighed. “And she’s my good friend.” Neither Caden nor Jace could get beyond the fact that Victoria was twenty years his senior. She had been more than just his lover. She had been his close friend and confidante. “And just so neither of you will be surprised when it appears in the newspapers in a few months, I’ll tell you right now that Victoria is getting married.” He thought the look on his brothers’ faces was priceless. Both of their jaws dropped at the same time.
“You seem to be taking it well,” Jace said.
“There’s no reason I shouldn’t. I’m happy for her. Sir Isaac Muldrow will do right by her and make her happy. She deserves it,” Dalton said, standing to gather up the papers he’d scattered on the table. “Now, if you guys will excuse me, I need to go home and pack.”
“You didn’t say where you’re going,” Caden reminded him.
“Didn’t I?”
“No,” Jace said smoothly.
Dalton smiled. “I thought Florida would be nice this time of year. It’s been years since I’ve been to South Beach.”
Jace leaned forward and placed his palms flat on the table. He arched a brow. “Now, isn’t that a coincidence? Shana mentioned at breakfast that Jules left this morning for Miami. But I’m sure you didn’t know that.”
Dalton’s smile widened. He couldn’t forget it was Jace who’d walked in on him and Jules kissing on the patio, so there was no need to play dumb. But he would do so, anyway. “Why would I know Jules’s whereabouts?”
Dalton knew his brother. A part of Jace wanted to call him out, but he wouldn’t. If something more was going on between him and Jules than that kiss he’d witnessed, Jace would leave it up to him to ’fess up when he was ready.
“And just in case the two of you try to get cute, I’m turning the tracker off my phone,” Dalton said, smiling.
Caden laughed. “We don’t need a tracker when we have Stonewall.”
“Stonewall?” The smile vanished from Dalton’s face. “Stonewall is not following me to Miami.”
Jace chuckled. “I’d like to see you try to stop him. If Quasar can follow me on my honeymoon to South Africa, then Stonewall can certainly follow you to Miami.”
Dalton frowned; his grip on the papers in his hand was unusually tight. “We’ll see about that.”
He then turned and stalked out of the room.
Seventeen
Jules stepped off the elevator feeling like a woman on the prowl. A real man-hunter. Never in her life had she taken such drastic measures, but it couldn’t be helped. When a woman had gone without sex for as long as she had, it was time to take action.
It didn’t take her long to walk across the hotel’s lobby to the jazz club. The moment she stepped inside, she felt gazes turn her way as she headed toward the bar. The live entertainment would start in an hour, and until then, she intended to scope out the prospects. She was anxious, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be selective. She loved her life, and when it came to safe sex, she was on top of her game, which is why her purse was full of condoms.
Not seeing an empty table, she crossed the room and slid onto a bar stool before glancing around the room. The lighting in the club was dim, but she could see the room was full of couples, sitting snug, all lovey-dovey and sharing drinks. To her disappointment, she didn’t see one man sitting alone. But that didn’t stop the guys from checking her out when they thought their female companions weren’t aware of it. She shook her head. Men could be such fools at times. Didn’t they know a woman could detect when her man had a roving eye?
“What are you having?” the bartender asked her, smiling and trying not to be so obvious while checking out her outfit.
She smiled back. “A martini. Dirty.”
“One dirty martini coming up.”