Page 58 of Risky Obsession
And I still had a bad feeling that something about this quest from Aria wasn’t right.
“Hey,” Tory whispered, wrapping her hand over the back of mine. “I’m sorry for not reacting to your statement better. I’m . . . I’m just not used to such honesty. Like you find with women, I seem to be a magnet for men who lie.”
Is that her way of telling me that her injuries were from an asshole?
She squeezed my hand. “Please don’t make this weird.”
“It’s already weird,sis,” I joked and forced a smile.
She giggled and slipped her hand away. “I was lucky I got away with that lie. We don’t look anything like siblings.”
“No, but it’s a great cover if we get into any more situations like that.”
“So, do you agree with me that Gunter saw something?”
I sighed. “Yes, I agree.”
“Cool.” She sipped her mulled wine and plonked the stein down. “What’s our next move?”
A bell tolled from the steeple of the church that dominated the center of town, and I checked my watch. “It’s four-thirty. I say we find a magnifying glass while we’re here and take these maps back to our hotel and have a closer look at them.”
She clicked her fingers. “I saw a magnifying glassin Gunter’s shop.”
“Perfect, let’s grab it.” We slipped off our barstools and I hooked the framed map beneath my elbow.
“We need two magnifying glasses,” Tory said, digging her elbow to my side. “One each.”
“Yes, boss.” I smirked.
She tilted her face toward me and the smile that crossed her lips stole every thought from my mind.
Hot damn, she’s beautiful.
“Do you think Gunter will be happy to see us again?” she asked.
“Nope.”
The crowd was thinning out a fraction yet seemed to be becoming more boisterous. Probably because of the abundance of stalls that had added mulled wine to their afternoon sales plan. Lively music played from somewhere, and I was torn between convincing Tory to stay here a little longer, and our current plan to return to the hotel.
At the squeeze into the laneway, Tory nudged into my side and my damn dick gave me another idea for the rest of our day: the pair of us getting naked in our tiny hotel bed.
I forced my brain away from the throbbing in my groin, to the row of antique shops ahead.
As we approached Gunter’s antique shop, an uneasy feeling washed over me. Unlike the shops around his store, his windows were dark. Tory and I groaned in unison as we reached his door.
“Damn it.” Tory rattled his handle. It was locked.
A hand-scribbled sign was taped to the door.
Tory spun to a couple walking past. “Excuse me, do you speak English?”
The man nodded.
“Can you translate that for me?”
He stepped closer to the door. “Shop closed due to illness. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
“Lucky there are heaps more shops to explore.” The woman hooked her hand into her partner’s elbow and guided him away.