Malichai wanted to cover that brief touch with his palm and hold it to him. He made himself sit very still, knowing all three women at the table were watching.
“I hope you’ve reassured everyone.” Amaryllis flashed a smile at the other women. “I’m afraid I need him at my table now. We have so much business to discuss.” Her long lashes swept down and then back up.
She was saving him. That was what she was doing. She didn’t have business she needed to go over, and she wouldn’t discuss the murders in the dining room where they could be overheard. This was about saving him from the three sisters she’d allowed to steal him out from under her. He’d never been more grateful in his life. He picked up his plate and silverware, standing as he did so.
“Thank you, ladies, for the good conversation. I hope you know you’re safe,” he added as he started away from the table.
Amaryllis tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow, slowing him down. “Thanks for looking after my man for me while I worked.”
“Thanks for lending him to us,” Linda said.
Lorrie and Lexie looked pouty, and neither said a word as they walked away.
Malichai looked down at the top of Amaryllis’s head. Her hair was that silvery platinum blond that shone like a waterfall. His breath caught in his throat. What if someone was targeting blondes?
“Malichai?” Amaryllis looked up at him, her blue eyes like twin jewels. “What is it?”
He placed his plate very precisely onto the table and looked around the room, noting each person, pushing them into his brain so he would remember them. “Just something crazy the loony sisters came up with, excluding Linda. She’s not nearly as loony as the other two.”
“What did they come up with?”
“They were speculating that the killer is a serial killer after blondes. Anna’s hair was nearly the same color as yours.”
She slipped into the little chair facing the room. He always moved his chair to the side where the wall was. No one could come up behind him and he could see anything coming at him.
“You know that’s crazy. Anna is the only woman reported dead. And they killed Bryon as well. He had dark hair. Honey, really, those women are just determined to scare themselves.”
He nodded. He did know it was crazy. Ezekiel had interrogated a hit man who had confirmed that he had targeted several people connected to the San Diego Convention Center. This wasn’t about a serial killer. This was about something altogether different. He just wanted his woman tucked safely away somewhere—like in another state.
“Your friends haven’t been in. I thought they might come for the food.”
That was blatant fishing. She wanted to know what had happened after she went back to the bed-and-breakfast. He couldn’t blame her, but he couldn’t tell her yet either. “Tonight, on the roof,” he said.
She nodded. “What do you think of the ribs?” She pushed over the plate she’d heaped ribs on for him.
“I’m so in love with you, baby, we need to get married immediately. You don’t just cook in the kitchen and bake, you actually grill.”
She burst out laughing. “You’re going to marry me because I can grill?”
“Sex first. I’m marrying you for the sex, baby. After that, for your awesome culinary abilities.”
“You don’t know if I’m good in bed or not, Malichai. I’m beginning to think the loony tunes have rubbed off on you.”
Deliberately, his gaze drifted over her body and then moved back up to her face. “Babe.”
She raised her eyebrow and picked up her corn on the cob. “That supposed to mean something to me?”
“I’ll show you what it means tonight.”
She blinked her feathery lashes at him and then started laughing. “You’re so insane, I don’t know when you’re serious and when you’re not.”
“There’s two things I never joke about, Amaryllis.” He leaned toward her, looking her in the eyes so she knew he meant what he said. “I don’t joke about sex, not when it comes to you. I’m absolutely serious about it. And there’s never joking about marriage. That’s a sacred, serious topic.”
She went very still, her long lashes sweeping down to cover her expression. He just laid it out on the table for her. He expected sex and marriage.
“I’m not a patient man when it comes to those things. I just discovered that about myself. I thought I could be, but I’m not. I want you wearing my ring. I want you in my bed. And I want it now, not some time in the future.”
She regarded him as she chewed her corn, her gaze steady on his face. “Malichai.” She swallowed the corn, those blue eyes finding the way inside him. “The fiancée thing wasn’t true. We used it to get us out of trouble.”