“I thought this was sunscreen application?”
“Okay. All activities that include my hands on you end happily.” He winked and moved those greedy hands farther up my stomach until they were resting just below the swell of my breasts.
Oh boy, this man was perfect. If he kept it up, I’d start purring like a fucking cat.
Purring like a cat? For some reason, I felt like I’d been down this line of thinking before.
Oh, shit! Cat! The cat!
I sat up abruptly, forcing Kline’s hands to fall from my skin.
“Hey, I wasn’t done,” he responded, hands moving toward me again. They found my ribs and started tickling me into giggling.
“Stop it!” I playfully slapped him away and grabbed my beach bag, rummaging through it in search of my phone.
“You bring some toys to the beach, Benny?”
“No, you kinky bastard,” I said through a laugh. I pulled my phone from the bag and held it up for him to see. “I forgot to call Cass and check on Walter.”
His expression changed from devilish smirk to something a lot less excited in the span of a heartbeat.
“What’s wrong?” I tilted my head to the side, taken aback by his sudden change in mood.
Silent and brooding, he stared into my eyes and searched for an answer to an unknown question.
“Kline?”
He grimaced before he spoke. “I need to tell you something.”
My nose crinkled involuntarily. “Is everything okay?”
“I talked to Thatch and—”
“Oh, my God!” My hand covered my mouth. “Did something happen? Did something happen to Cass?”
He shook his head. “No, baby. Cassie is fine.”
I put my hand to my chest, trying to slow my racing heart. “Don’t scare me like that. I thought something terrible happened.”
“Baby, Thatch called yesterday to tell me that…” He trailed off, watching me with concerned and cautious eyes. He took a deep breath and then finally added, “Walter got out of the apartment, and they’re having a hard time locating him.”
“What?” My eyes bugged out and I shot to my feet, pointing an accusatory finger in Kline’s face. “Walter is missing, and you didn’t fucking tell me?!”
His face was a mask of shame and Ah, shit, yes, and the combination of the two sent me running for our bungalow.
“Georgia!” I heard him call after me.
But I was at a damn near sprint, racing to get inside and pack my shit. Call me a lunatic, I didn’t care. My baby was missing, and I’d be damned if he spent another lonely night in some decrepit alley in New York.
Tears filled my eyes as I pictured him walking the streets, cold, wet, and with no goddamn food.
My husband found me in the bedroom, tossing my suitcase onto the mattress.
“Baby,” he said, voice hesitant. “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” I threw my hands out in front of me in a wild, erratic gesture of isn’t it fucking obvious. “I’m packing my shit. I need to get home! Walter is missing and cold and wet and lonely and just walking the streets of New York looking for me.”
I moved toward the closet to get my clothes, but I stopped in my tracks as my brain started conjuring all of the worst scenarios. “Oh, my God!” I covered my mouth with my hand as a shocked gasp escaped my lungs. “What if he becomes desperate, Kline? What if he has no other choice but to start prostituting himself for food? You know he’s not good at making new friends! There’s no way he’s been accepted by the good crowd. He’s probably already addicted to heroin!”
“Georgie,” Kline cooed in my ear, arms wrapping around my body and pulling my back into his chest. “I’m sure Walter is fine. You know Maureen. She made sure he has one of those GPS tracking chips. I bet Cass and Thatch have already found him by this point.”
“You don’t know that! They would’ve called if they found him.” I pushed his arms away and moved into the closet, yanking clothes off the hangers.
Kline was standing by my suitcase when I strode back in with both arms full of sundresses and bikinis.
“Call the airline! We have to get on the next flight out.” I threw everything into my suitcase and headed for the bathroom to grab my toiletries.
But my husband stopped my momentum, wrapping his arms around me again and pulling me into a tight bear hug.
“We don’t have time for this!”
He kept his hold on me, lifting me into his arms and carrying me into the hallway.
“Put me down!” I tried like hell to get out of his hold as he walked down the stairs, but it was pointless. He was too strong, no matter how much adrenaline I had running through my system.
He sat me down on the kitchen island, stood between my knees, and his hands gripped my thighs to hold me in place. “I need you to take a deep breath and calm down for a minute.” His voice should have been calming, but it was just pissing me off more.