Wrath's Storm: A Masters' Admiralty Novel by Mari Carr (desktop ebook reader .txt) 📕

put a little space between them, Jakob glared back at him.

Maybe Jakob was channeling his sexual frustration into hyper-bodyguard mode.

Walt found it slightly amusing that Jakob could talk up a storm when it came to feelings and handing out sexual commands, but he was suddenly mute again when he shifted back into protector mode. Perhaps it would be more than slightly amusing if Walt wasn’t still so turned on and pissed off by the interruption.

Blue balls fucking sucked.

Their rooms were on one of the upper floors, and that meant that with each step they took, more and more people filed in from the lower floors, until the stairwell was packed with people, some of whom looked a little panicked, others of whom looked either bewildered or—like him—annoyed.

At the bottom of the stairs, a hotel staff member was directing everyone out through the lobby and onto the sidewalk. Jakob grabbed Annalise and tried to veer off down a side hall that led toward the back of the building. They were intercepted by another member of the hotel staff who didn’t speak English, and neither Annalise’s restaurant-focused nor Jakob’s curse-word fluency in Polish were particularly helpful.

Walt and Annalise took pity on the staff member and turned around. Jakob’s shoulders tensed as he took point again, his eyes sweeping left and right with the cold, commanding look of someone who could and would take out anyone he found to be a threat.

“Stop a second,” Annalise murmured. She backed up, moving closer to one of the lobby walls.

Jakob scanned her as she stood with her back to the wall. “What’s wrong?”

She had her hands behind her, elbows out.

Walt clapped Jakob on the shoulder. “She’s fastening her bra, man. Take a breath.”

“I don’t like this.”

“Fire alarms, or coitus interruptus?” Walt asked innocently.

Jakob stared at him.

Annalise sighed. “Jakob, we’re in Krakow, my stalker isn’t anywhere near here.”

“We’re hunting a killer,” Jakob rumbled.

“No, I’m building a profile so other people can hunt him.”

“A stalker and a serial killer? You know, if this was a romantic suspense, it would be two books,” Walt joked. “And I’m pretty sure it’s not ‘people’ so much as Eric himself who is going to hunt this guy down.”

“Stand in front of me, please,” Annalise said.

Walt shifted, facing her, while Jakob kept his back to them, scanning the now thinning crowd of hotel guests, whom they could see gathered on the sidewalk through the glass front doors.

Annalise reached into her shirt through the neck hole and adjusted her breasts, and Walt’s blood headed south again.

Dammit, he’d just gotten his dick under control.

“Want some help with that?” he asked.

His tone must have alerted Jakob, who leaned a little toward Walt. “What’s she doing now?” he asked without shifting his attention from the surrounding area.

“Playing with her tits,” Walt murmured.

“Adjusting my bra,” Annalise corrected, but then one brow twitched, and she reached out a hand, cupping Walt’s crotch. “Do you need any help adjusting things?”

He grabbed her wrist, jerking her hand away, but it was too late. His cock, which hadn’t entirely given up hope, hardened again.

“Excuse me. Please make your way outside.” The accented customer service voice took Walt by surprise, but the pleased little smile Annalise shot him made it clear she’d seen the person coming and had timed it like this.

Walt shoved his hands in his pockets before turning around. Jakob glanced down at his crotch, then at Annalise, before leading them out of the hotel onto the sidewalk.

“That was mean,” Walt murmured as they emerged into the cool, crisp light. There was snow on the ground, but the sidewalk was clear. What little snow remained was mounds of dirty brown-gray sludge in the gutters and in shadowed corners where the sun couldn’t hit it.

There were people all around them, milling about. Some seemed to be heading off down the sidewalk. Maybe looking for cafes where they could sit and kill time.

Shit, had any of them brought their wallets? He’d emptied his pockets of everything but his phone back up in the room and was pretty sure Jakob had too.

The crowd parted and Walt caught sight of a woman sitting in a lobby chair that had been pulled out onto the sidewalk. One of the members of the hotel staff hovered near her. She was grimacing and holding one leg out stiffly.

“I’m going to see if I can help,” Walt said, his focus immediately shifting from sexy times to rendering aid. Before he could move, someone knocked into Jakob so hard that he stumbled into Annalise, who in turn fell into Walt. Walt staggered and managed to keep them all from going over like dominos. Jakob rubbed his shoulder, looking back, apparently for the person who’d hit him.

“Too many people,” Jakob muttered. Then he grimaced, still rubbing the shoulder.

“You two want to go somewhere, meet me back here later?” Walt asked. He was antsy to get over to the woman and check her ankle, which looked a little swollen. It would have been easy to stumble on those stairs, packed as they’d been.

“We stay together,” Jakob countered.

“Okay then, come with me.”

Jakob growled and wrapped his arm around Annalise, clearly ready to double down on his bodyguard duties, as Walt pushed through the crowd, dropping to his knee. He looked from the staff member to the woman. “I’m a doctor. Do either of you speak English?”

“I do,” the staff member answered. “We have called an ambulance.”

“Can you translate for me, uh,” Walt glanced at the woman’s name tag, “Agnieszka. Sorry, I know I pronounced that wrong. I might be able to help until paramedics get here.”

She smiled at Walt, clearly amused at his fumbling attempt at her name. “Yes.”

“Tell her that I’m a doctor, and I’d like permission to touch her ankle.”

Agnieszka repeated his words, and the woman’s attention shifted to Walt. He carefully kept his focus on her as he asked what had happened, and then began a quick exam. Gentle as he was, she winced a few times but was able