by Ava Storm
I’d taken the next elevator up. I didn’t know her room number, but luckily it was one long hallway. I looked left and then right—there they were. She was fumbling in her purse; he was taking the key from her. My mouth twisted as he pushed the door open.
And then she’d stopped him.
But he hadn’t stopped.
Now he was laid out on the floor, taking up all of the narrow entrance way into her hotel room. I’d followed the hit to his stomach with an uppercut to his nose. There were splatters of blood on my white shirt. Paige was staring down at him. She was holding one of her wrists, massaging it. For several seconds after he hit the floor, all three of us were dead silent. Then Will started screaming.
Paige looked up at me, wide-eyed.
“Are you okay?” I asked her shortly, reaching into my jacket pocket for my cell phone.
“You’d better be calling the police,” Will screamed from the floor. “That’s assault!”
“Yeah, so was what you were doing,” Paige yelled down at him. She tried to draw back her foot to kick him in the ribs, but she was still backed up against the wall. Frustrated, she lifted her foot and would have stomped down on his wrist if I hadn’t stopped her.
“Don’t,” I warned, pushing her further into the room. “We can only justify so much damage to him.”
“Justify to whom?” she snapped, trying to get past me.
“To Kai.” I was already calling him. As I said his name, he answered. At first, all I could hear was “Sympathy for the Devil” blasting in the background, but then he stepped out of the ballroom and I could hear him saying, “I said what the hell do you want?”
“I need you in Room—”
I looked at Paige.
“836.”
“Did you hear that?”
“Is that Paige? Fuck no I’m not going to her room. You leave her room right now.”
“I’m going to fucking sue you motherfuckers!” Will screamed from the floor. His face was bright red and contorted with rage. Blood was still streaming out of his nose, down his chin. It looked like he was wearing a red collar over his white button up.
“Jesus,” Kai said. “I’m on my way.”
Kai looked at what I did to Will and said down to him, “You must have really pissed him off.”
I used to fight a lot, but in the last five years, I’d only hit three people. One was Kai. One was an asshole who’d started a fight with Griffin when he was too wasted to fight back.
Will was sitting up now, his back pressed against the mirror, his elbows on his knees. His head was leaned forward, the blood dripping out onto one of the thick white hotel towels. He’d made the rookie mistake of tilting his head back at first, but I’d corrected him.
“You should’ve let him choke on it,” Paige muttered. She was sitting on the bed, my jacket around her shoulders.
“I don’t want to have to hide the body,” I said. “I’m not sure we have enough lawyers for that.”
Kai already had our lawyers on the phone. He squatted down in front of Will now. “Listen, pal. We’re letting you go for inappropriate conduct. I suggest you leave quietly.”
Will snorted wetly. “And my broken nose is what, a severance package? Fuck no. You all are going to pay.”
I stepped forward, but Kai shot me a look. He reached out and grabbed Will by the chin, forcing it up.
In my periphery, I felt Paige recoil. The golden boy was a monster now. His eyes were wild. His teeth were bloodstained. He finally looked like what he was on the inside. “Ten million or I get a lawyer,” Will hissed.
Kai laughed pityingly. “Your nose isn’t worth ten million, Will. And if you’re getting legal representation, make sure you get a defense lawyer.”
“I didn’t do anything!” Will snapped.
“Because you didn’t get a chance, you sick fuck,” Paige snapped from the bed. She latched onto the lapels of my jacket and pulled it tightly around herself.
“Don’t act like you weren’t interested,” he snarled, turning the full horror of his face on her. “You’re only pretending you weren’t because your next appointment came early.”
This time when I moved forward, Kai let me. I wrapped my hand around his throat. His Adam’s apple bobbed against the vice of my thumb and pointer finger as he tried to swallow his own blood. Slowly, I dragged him to his feet. “If you ever so much as speak her name again, all bets are off,” I said quietly. “And if I ever hear about you forcing yourself on anyone else, ever, I will kill you.”
“And I can confirm we do have enough lawyers for that,” Kai said over my shoulder.
Will blinked rapidly, his chest heaving.
“Let him go,” Kai said quietly.
When I did, Will fell back against the mirror hard, coughing out a spray of bright red droplets. When he got his breath back, he said, “Fuck all of you.”
“Does that mean we have a deal?”
Will moved for the door, but Kai stopped him. “I said, do we have a deal, Will? Because if we don’t, we’ll get the police up here now and have you arrested for attempted rape.”
“Yes, we have a fucking deal a fucking deal,” Will snapped. He cast one last furious look over his shoulder at Paige. I stepped between them. “It wouldn’t have been assault,” he said to me, and left
“I’m surprised you didn’t hit him again,” Kai said. “You’ve mellowed.”
“I think he believes it,” I said, chilled.
“I think he does, too,” Paige said quietly from the bed. “When you knocked, he asked if I’d ordered room service.”
“Jesus,” Kai scrubbed a hand down his face. “If that’s the case, something needs to be done. If the asshole doesn’t know what consent is, threats aren’t going to keep him in line.”
I turned my back to Paige. “I don’t want her involved any more than she has to be,” I said to Kai in a low voice.
Kai’s wintry smile didn’t touch his eyes. “She doesn’t need to be involved at all, little brother. I wasn’t going to call the lawyers for this one.” He left after that, his cell phone already back in his hand. I hoped Will’s head start hadn’t gotten him very far. It didn’t matter if it did though--Kai would find him. I had a hot head and a quick fist, but my brother was the worse enemy.
Paige was still on the bed when I turned around. She had a pensive look on her face. She was chewing on the inside of her lower lip again, but for once, it didn’t turn me on. I walked over and sat beside her, leaving a good foot between us. “Are you okay?”
She nodded slowly. “I feel fine. Is that weird? It’s like I never had a chance to fully believe it was happening. I was just starting to when you stopped it. It’s like it didn’t get a chance to sink in. I can feel it though--” she made a vague sweeping gesture “--like it’s still trying to get in.”
“Like what’s still trying to get in?” I asked, trying to understand.
“The fear.”
We were both quiet for a moment. Hot, sick rage pumping through my body. I was taking deep breaths, trying to cool down. Kai was taking care of Will. I needed to take care of Paige.
“What do you need tonight?” I asked after a moment. “I can have security posted at your door.”
“No,” she said. “The entire Chicago office would see it. There would be questions.”
There were going to be questions anyway when Will wasn’t around tomorrow, but I didn’t tell her that.
“We can move you to another floor where the Chicago office won’t see. Or,” I hesitated. “I can stay.”
Paige smiled a little. “Then there would definitely be questions.” She looked down at the carpet for a long moment. “What if I stayed with you?”
I swallowed, wondering what she was asking. “No one would ask any questions,” I said finally.
I’d make sure of it.
25
Paige
We took the back staircase to avoid questions. I wanted to go separately and meet at his room, but Ford
wouldn’t even consider it. Not until we got word from Kai that Will wasn’t going to be bothering us again.
I tried not to think about what that meant. I hadn’t been able to catch their whispered conversation, but I’d seen the look on Kai’s face. It was so cold it made me shiver, and I almost felt sorry for Will. Almost.
Ford’s suite was as nice as the resort had advertised. I walked into it ahead of him, feeling a sense of deja vu. I half expected to see a wall of windows overlooking the city, but of course we weren’t in Chicago anymore. Instead, he had sliding glass doors that opened onto a rooftop terrace. He’d left them open. I went over and closed them, locking the dowel in place.
“You’re safe here,” he said, watching me.
I knew that. I always felt safe with Ford, even when he’d been a stranger in a bar. Still, I knew I’d be locking windows and doors for a long time.
He walked to the small kitchen and pulled two beers out of the refrigerator. “I know you’re never drinking again, but I need one.” He opened both and slid one to the edge of the counter. “This can be yours, or it can be my second one.”
I took it. “Never again isn’t as long as I thought.” I watched him tip his back before I tipped my own. He was so good looking. Suprisingly, I found my body responding to him even with the terror still singing in my veins. He had protected me, defended me, saved me. He had made me feel like I would never be safer thn I was when I was with him.
I placed my hand on his chest and felt his racing heart beneath my palm. The staccato beat matched my own.
“I don’t want to think about him anymore tonight,” I said. Ford’s heart leapt under my touch. His hand came up to my wrist. The knuckles were red, but not split. Without thinking about what I was doing, I lowered my mouth to them and brushed my lips across the ridges.
Ford sucked in his breath. “It’s been a long night,” he said warningly.
“It’s been a shitty night,” I corrected. “But it doesn’t have to end that way.” I looked up at him, rose up on tiptoe to kiss the underside of his tense jaw. Why wasn’t he kissing me back?
“I’ve waited too long for this to fuck it up,” he answered my unspoken question.
“So have I.” I moved my mouth to his ear, but he firmly set me back, holding me a foot away from him.
“If we do this, it’s going to be part of the pattern, Paige. You fuck me to forget someone else. And part of me doesn’t care, so long as I get to have you. But a bigger part of me does.”
Annoyed, I tried to twist out of his grip. “Then why am I even here, Ford?”
“Because you’re safe here,” he held me firmly. “Eventually we’re going to end up in bed, and it’ll just be the two of us. No Alex. No Will. No one but you and me.”
When he let me go, I put away the rest of my beer in two long, angry gulps. Here we were, finally alone together, finally ready to give up on professionalism, and he’d thrown up another obstacle.
He gave me a wary distance as we got ready for bed. “I can sleep on the couch,” he said.
“Oh just sleep in the bed,” I said irritably. “Unlike some people, I know the meaning of consent.”
Part of me was aware that I was taking something out on him that he didn’t deserve, but I didn’t care. We could be tangled up in one another right now, not stiffly setting into opposite sides of the king-sized bed. It’s not like we were sleeping anyway. I could tell from his breathing in the dark that he was awake for a long time after we snapped off the light. I hoped he was regretting it. I held out hope he’d change his mind until finally, his breathing deepened and he rolled over on his side. Great. Now he was asleep, and I was trapped in the dark with my thoughts.
After two hours of laying there, staring at the ceiling, I gave up on sleep. Deja vu settled in again as I snuck out of bed, gathered up my things, and let myself out without saying goodbye. I was too mentally worn down to be scared of running into Will as I traveled the quiet corridors back to my room. I was relieved to see that the ballrooms were darkened, and the hotel bar closed as I traveled between the elevator banks in the lobby. I wouldn’t have had an explanation if I’d run into anyone. I wouldn’t have even been able to try.
I felt curiously safe when I shut and locked the door of my room behind me. The industrial carpet has absorbed and concealed the evidence of what had happened. The girl in the mirror didn’t look a thing like the one from earlier. I checked the closet and the bathroom just in case, then set my alarm. I had two and a half hours until I had to wake up.
I fell asleep instantly.
Before I had Madelyn, I’d taken naps longer than two and a half hours, so I was surprised when my alarm went off and my body agreed to get out of bed. I didn’t even feel that tired. The shower washed away any lingering grogginess. By the time I was ready for the last day of the conference, last night felt like a bad dream--nothing that had happened to me.
Except when I thought about Ford. Strangely, that felt realer than anything else. Surely, I hadn’t been assaulted by a colleague, but I had absolutely been rejected by my boss, the father of my daughter. One memory was a dull, distant ache. The other memory was a sharp stick that jabbed into my heart every time I thought about it.
I made coffee in my room again instead of leaving in time to go to the cafe. I had a feeling he’d be there, waiting for me, and I wasn’t ready to see him again yet. It was too fresh and humiliating. My tongue practically in his ear before he foisted me off. God.
In the morning meeting, I sat in the back of the conference room.
“Where’s Will?” Priya asked me when it was nearly time to start and he still hadn’t shown up.
“How the hell should I know, Priya?” I snapped. This coffee wasn’t nearly strong enough.
She looked miffed. “You guys left together last night. I just thought--”
“That I slept with him because we shared an elevator?” I set down my coffee. I could feel my eyes narrowing, something dangerous clawing its way up from where I’d buried it. “What’s your problem with me anyway? Did I do something to you other than cancel your stupid convertible?”
“I was going to pay the difference,” she said stiffly.
“The hell you were.” I snatched up my coffee again so I wouldn’t hit her. “I saw what you got away with when Melanie was travel manager. If you want a convertible so bad, Priya, why don’t you sleep with the boss instead of spreading lies about me?”
Priya’s face turned red, and she snuck a glance around the room to see who was listening. Everyone, as it turned out. Including Ford, who was standing at the front of the room, staring daggers at me.
After the morning meeting, he caught me on the way out. “Can I have a word, Miss Stafford?”
He said it pleasantly enough for the benefit of those in hearing range, but his eyes were steel. He led me into one of the small conference rooms at the end of the hall and shut the door.
“What the fuck,” he said slowly, “were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that Priya is a bitch, I said defiantly. “And I should have shut her down a long time ago.”
“I don’t give a damn about Priya. I mean what were you thinking sneaking back to your room in the middle of the fucking night?” He advanced slowly. “What if Will had still been in the building? What if he’d been waiting for you?”
“Then I guess you wouldn’t have taken care of it as well as you thought.” I crossed my arms and stood my ground. I wasn’t going to back away from Ford. “There was at least one thing you didn’t take care of last night.”
His eyes went black just as he reached me. His arms shot out, and before I could take another breath, he was hauling me against him. “You’re not an idiot, Paige, but you’re doing such a good fucking impression I can’t tell anymore. You open yourself up to danger, and then you taunt me for protecting you. Who do you think you are?”
“Someone who just fucks you to forget, apparently,” I didn’t struggle because I didn’t want
him to let me go.
“You want to forget?” his eyes glittered as he looked down at me. He couldn’t miss that I was pushing myself up against him. He was holding me tightly, but it was me who was pushing my breasts against his chest, my hips into his. “I’ll make you forget. Tonight.”
“Now,” I whispered. He wanted me, too, I could feel it.
He pushed me away. “No.”
Without another word, he strode out of the door.
Without even touching me again, he fulfilled his promise. My thoughts were so consumed by Ford that I didn’t have room to think about Will or much of anything else. I went through the motions of the day mechanically--my head and heart already hours ahead. For the first time since I took the job, I gave myself permission to relive that first night with Ford. Every word and touch that were still branded in my soul all this time later.
By the time we went to dinner, I felt breathless and combustible. I wore the dress Shelly had insisted I pack without a second thought and left my hair loose.
“You’re making it hard to get through dinner,” Ford whispered in my ear when he met me outside the ballroom.
“Should we skip it?” I was serious. I knew that if we both missed dinner, it would lend credence to Priya’s rumors. On the other hand, nobody would miss the heat between us if we stayed. It was electric, shimmering.
“I wish we could,” Ford said grimly. His hand was on the small of my back as we wove through the crowd to our table. I wonder if he even knew he was touching me, or if it was unconscious, uncontrollable.
Dinner was as torturous as I expected. Each course seemed to take a lifetime. The ceremony afterward was an eternity. Ford had to give a speech, and then he had to wait in the wings with the others so that the four founders could all go out on stage together at the end.
