“Oh, the woman from last night!” She surveyed the situation, quickly catching on. “You gonna rescue her? Look at you being everyone’s knight in shining armor.”
I cringed. I was not a hero. I was definitely not Jolie’s hero.
What I was, apparently, was a masochist, because I kept finding myself drawn to the woman who had become synonymous with pain. “Let me know if you don’t find your purse,” I said dismissively.
Jolie had angled her body after spotting me so she didn’t notice me come up until I was already there. “What seems to be the trouble?” I did that douchebag man thing where I addressed the clerk instead of her. To be fair, it wasn’t because she was a woman—it was because she was her.
“It’s nothing, Cade. A problem with my card.” Jolie dismissed me without even looking at me.
She wanted me gone, and for some fucked-up reason, that was exactly the reason why I stayed.
Nine
“I’ve tried three times,” the clerk said patiently, handing the credit card back to Jolie. “It’s still showing…” He lowered his voice, trying to be discreet. “Declined.”
Her cheeks flushed, but her expression stayed cool. She took the card back and pulled another from the wallet open on the counter in front of her. “Please, can you run this one instead?”
“Yes, Ms.—”
She cut him off sharply. “It’s Jolie. Please.”
“I’ll try it right now, Jolie.”
“Thank you.” I could feel her vibrating with anxiety as the clerk ran the card through the reader.
I stepped closer, needing to soak up her energy. Not because I thought I could take it from her or because I liked negative emotions, but because it was palpable and hers, and I’d spent so many years yearning to be close enough to her to know what she was feeling that I couldn’t help being drawn into it now.
Her eyes flicked to me, then back to the clerk. “Go away, Cade.”
I didn’t move. The clerk, on the other hand, looked up, assessing the situation, probably trying to decide if he should interfere with whatever was going on between the guests standing in front of him.
After a beat, he smiled brightly. “Give me a moment. It might be the machine. Let me try another.”
Without waiting for a response, he took Jolie’s credit card and disappeared into the back room under the pretenses of trying to run it again. I strongly suspected he was giving us time to resolve our altercation on our own so he wouldn’t have to deal with me. People often found me intimidating like that.
As soon as he was gone, I turned to Jolie. “Are you strapped—”
She wouldn’t let me even finish the sentence. “This isn’t your problem. You don’t need to get involved.”
It was a little nervy for her to push my help away a day after she’d come begging for it. “Little late for that, don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t think. You made it blatantly clear that you had no interest.”
It didn’t matter that she was speaking fact. Being dismissed pissed me off all the same. Unreasonably. I huffed, trying to come up with some pointed comeback when I caught the eye of Blondie returning from the bar. She held her purse up for me to see and gave me a wave.
At least that was resolved. I’d have my suite back to myself.
When I waved back, Jolie followed my eyeline to see Blondie scurrying to the elevator.
“Is she your girlfriend?” Her voice was even tighter than before.
I considered for a moment, trying to decide if I wanted to answer what Jolie had asked or give her the answer I was sure she wanted. “Not really,” I said, not feeling generous enough to tell her I didn’t do girlfriends.
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, one of those.” I didn’t get a chance to drill her on her meaning before she asked, “What’s her name?”
“Cassie,” I said, thinking quickly.
“Weird that her purse has Addie stitched across it.”
I squinted toward my one-night stand waiting for the elevator. “You couldn’t see that from here.”
“I saw it last night.”
Cassie/Addie. Close enough. More importantly… “If you already knew her name, why did you ask?”
“I wanted to see if you knew it.” The triumphant look on her face was so familiar, reminding me how she always loved to be right, and how she loved to revel in her victory, and how I loved to kiss that look right off of her lips.
Her lips were just as plump and tempting as they’d been back then.
Fuck her and her lips and her trap to one-up me. “Seems weird that you noticed her purse.”
She turned away from me, facing straight ahead, her triumph tempered with a mask of disinterest that she couldn’t quite pull off. “Why? Girls notice each other’s things.”
“In my experience, they only notice when they’re being catty.” I was pulling shit from my ass, but I liked how it sounded. “Why would you be spiteful to a girl you just met? Are you jealous?”
Her head turned toward me so fast, her hair swung. “Jealous?! You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I hadn’t believed it when I said it. I was just trying to poke her a bit because I resented her and enjoyed seeing her provoked.
But the way she reacted—her face red, her eyes blazing—I almost wondered if there was something to it.
No way I wasn’t leaning into that. “I think it’s a reasonable enough question. Can’t figure why else you’d care. And your reaction now confirms it.”
“There was no reaction. I was curious. Politely curious. And now I’m—”
The clerk returned, and her expression quickly shifted to something friendlier. “Did it work?”
Her tone said she knew it hadn’t gone through before the guy answered. “I was able to get your current room charge to go through, but it won’t accept the prepayment for the rest of your stay.”
Two credit cards with no credit available.
“You don’t have money?” It came out like an accusation. I hadn’t meant that exactly. I was more just...surprised. I had a real nice bank account now, but when I’d known her, she’d been the one with money. Her father, anyway. A decent amount, too. The kind of amount that made him look noble for continuing to headmaster the school that had been in his family for generations instead of hiring someone else to do it. The kind of money that would not be used up before he died.
So why the hell was Old Man Stark not taking care of the daughter he’d always been so protective of?
Things were beginning to click. “Is that why…? Because you need his—”
“I don’t want to discuss this here,” she snapped. “Please.”
Fair enough.
“We’re going to get the bill covered,” I said to the clerk, ignoring Jolie’s attempt to disagree. “We just need a moment to discuss the finances. Be right back. I’m leaving this for insurance.” I didn’t know if he actually needed insurance, but I dropped my duffel bag on the counter all the same.
“All right. Sure.” The clerk appeared relieved to see us go as I grabbed Jolie’s elbow and pulled her with me down the hall, trying the handles of closed doors, searching for one that would open to someplace private where I could drill her more thoroughly.
She fought me verbally the entire way. “Where are you taking me? Let me go. This isn’t any of your business, Cade. Stay out of this.”
Despite her protests, she didn’t once try to yank her arm away. She was wearing another weather-appropriate sweater, material much thicker than the thin dress Blondie/Cassie/Addie had been wearing, but my hand felt the heat of her skin. Heat so intense my palm burned, and I wondered if I’d ever be able to let it go or if I’d be fused to her forever.
Eventually, one of the doors I tried was unlocked. I opened it, glancing at the sign that said Business Center before stepping in and pulling her with me, then turning us so that my back was blocking the door.
“What is your problem?” Now she jerked her arm and stumbled, apparen
tly surprised when I let her go right away.
I guess that answered that question.
I shoved my still burning hand into my pocket. “I don’t have a problem. You, it seems, do.”
“It’s not a problem that needs you.”
“It’s not? I thought I came to New York specifically so you could ask me to help with your problem.”
“I don’t need help with money.”
“Is this why you want him gone? Because he cut you off?” That son of a bitch, if he did. I was beginning to want him dead after all.
“It’s not that simple.” Her mouth quivered, and I recognized it as a gesture she made when she was on the edge of breaking down.
God, if she cried…
I might kill her if she pulled that on me. I couldn’t deal with tears from anyone, least of all her. Especially when I couldn’t know if they were real or a manipulative tactic.
I leaned my back against the door, getting comfortable. “Tell me the complicated version then.”
She folded her arms across her chest and shot me a death glare. After a long, silent minute, she spoke. “You can’t keep this room blocked off forever.”
I surveyed our surroundings. For a nice hotel, it was a pathetic business center. Just a desk with two computers and a printer on it. Most likely, the type of clientele that stayed here had the hotel concierge handle any of their needs for them.
In other words, we weren’t going to be bothered anytime soon. “Let’s just see if I can’t. I’m waiting.”
“You’ll be waiting a long time then because I don’t owe you any explanation.”
I could have begged to disagree.
But she was right about one thing—I couldn’t keep her in this room forever. Because every second that passed with her two feet away—her cherry-blossom scent tickling my nose, her lips trembling and tempting, her eyes big and penetrating—was a torturous second. Her features and gestures were too achingly familiar. The longer I stood in here with her, the closer I was to giving in.
Giving in to what, I didn’t know. Giving in to everything.
I needed another tactic before I lost my grip. “You told the clerk you need the room until Friday. Is that when you’re leaving New York?”
She sighed. “My flight home is Friday night.”
I didn’t let myself wonder where home was. “You can’t change your flight?”
“Not without an outrageous change fee.” Now that I wasn’t asking about the particulars of how she got in her situation, she seemed more forthcoming.
“And you don’t know anyone else in town?”
Her arms dropped to her sides, and she shook her head slowly, reluctantly, as though it cost her something to let me know that.
Probably because that meant she’d come just for me. She’d booked a whole week here, just for me.
She seemed to read my mind. “I didn’t know how much time it would take to get you on my side.”
“Seems you didn’t count on me shutting you down on day one.”
She shrugged, and I had a feeling the shrug meant she hadn’t really accepted yet that I had shut her down. She sure as hell wasn’t going to be closer to accepting it if I stepped in and helped her out.
Don’t do it. Do not do it.
Just like that, I was back there again, to the past. “He has money in his safe at the cabin. Gobs of it. I’ll give you the combo. Take all of it, Cade. Every penny.”
It hadn’t been hers to offer, but if she’d had money of her own, she would have drained her piggy bank for me. Whether or not she’d ever planned to leave with me, I knew she wouldn’t have let me go empty-handed.
Without that stolen cash from her father, I would have had to do a lot uglier things than I had to survive.
With a groan, I wiped my palm over my beard. The money might have saved me, but I didn’t owe her shit. Still, I couldn’t leave a woman stranded in New York City. Not even her. “I’ll pay your hotel bill. Let me get to a cash machine, and I can give you some extra for anything else you need.”
And I could take the next flight out to Tokyo and not think about her ever again.
Her eyes flashed with the spitfire temper I remembered from her. “No way. I’m not a charity case.”
I laughed. “You’ll ask me to commit murder, but you can’t take my money?”
“I was hoping you’d be invested in that for yourself.” Her arms were folded across her chest again, in just the right way so it propped up her breasts, and fuck, I did not need to be thinking about her tits right now.
I focused my eyes on hers, refusing to let them drift lower. “Well, I’m not, and if the whole reason you want your father dead is because you need money, then you should just cut out the murder part and take mine.” I’d give her more than what I’d offered. I’d write her a blank check.
I seriously hated myself for it, but it was true.
“I don’t need your money.” She stuck out her chin. Insistent. “I do fine.”
“‘Fine,’ but you’re getting kicked out of your hotel room—”
“Fine doesn’t mean I can spare the money for an impromptu trip to NYC and a fancy hotel room. Regular people don’t have gobs of cash lying around.”
The comment about regular people hit me in the gut. Because I’d always been the regular one, and she’d never been anything close to “regular.”
But I understood what she was saying. She wasn’t desperate. She could take care of herself. She just couldn’t take care of this, and to make matters worse, the reason she’d splurged on this was because she’d put all of her hope in me saying I’d help her out, and I refused.
“Then let me pay for the room,” I said, softer. I didn’t have any reason to feel guilty, and I didn’t, but I could help her out. It wasn’t a rescue. It was being a good human.
“You’re not paying for my room.”
“Let me—”
“I said you’re not paying for my room.”
“Then you can stay in my room.” It was out of my mouth before I had time to think it through. I imagined I looked as shocked as she did about it.
She had the decency to realize it was something I never should have said. “I can’t stay with you, Cade.”
She was right. She couldn’t. Worst idea on the planet. “It’s a suite. There’s plenty of space.”
“I...can’t…”
“I’m either paying for your room or you’re staying in mine. Choose, Jol—.” I caught myself. “Choose.”
“You’re not paying for my room.” Stubborn, defiant. Like she’d always been.
Well, she’d made her choice.
And I was as stubborn and defiant as she was.
I whirled around, opened the door, and trekked down the hallway back toward the front desk.
“Cade? What are you doing now? Whatever it is, no.” She followed after me, skipping now and then to keep up.
Ignoring her, I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket, went up to the desk clerk, and laid my ID and a hundred in front of him. “Add her to my room. She’ll need her own key. Then have a bellhop help her move her stuff over.”
It was outrageous and showy to give a hundred dollar tip, but I had a point to prove. I had money. Helping her out like this was nothing. She could have just let me pay for her room.
She stood next to me, silent, vibrating again, this time with rage, but also relief. I could feel it, and if I didn’t know her better—and it could be argued that I didn’t know her at all—I might have thought I’d been conned.
“Thank you,” she said when it was all settled, and the clerk had called a bellhop and given her a key. I could tell it was hard for her to say it, but it didn’t make me any less pissed.
I picked up my duffel bag. “You’re sleeping on the couch.”
“Of course.”
“I’m sure you can find your way to the room on your own.” I turned toward the front doors, needing the boxing club more now than ever.
Before I�
��d taken a step, she put a hand out on my bicep to stop me. “I want to be honest with you. It’s like you said—I’m still here because I’m hoping you’ll change your mind. I want you to know I’m going to take advantage of this situation.”
I should have been scared. Instead, I took it as a challenge. “Go ahead and try.”
I could take advantage of the situation too, I told myself as I stormed out into the cold December day. I could learn her secrets. I could leave no reason to still be curious. I could get my closure.
Or I could end up right where I’d always been—on my knees in love with a woman who would never love me back.
Ten
“Oh, it’s you.” Sabrina appeared just as surprised to see me when she opened Donovan’s door as I was to see her. “I thought you were our lunch.”
She stepped back so I could walk in past her. “Domesticating together already?” I’d known Donovan long enough to know he’d never had women in his apartment. He didn’t even let them in for a romp before kicking them out. He didn’t let them in period.
Based on Sabrina’s outfit, which consisted of men’s boxer shorts and an oversized T-shirt, it was obvious she’d stayed the night. And she was still here in the afternoon.
When the man said “girlfriend,” he went all the way.
Sabrina apparently wasn’t yet comfortable with their relationship status. “Uh...I mean, um. We had some work to go over…” She couldn’t look at me, her cheeks bright pink.
I chuckled. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. No explanation needed. Is he here?”
“In his office.” She nodded toward the stairs, but I was already headed in that direction. I knew the layout of the place, having stayed there several times over the course of our relationship. I was probably more familiar with the place than she was.
I bounded up the stairs two at a time, then knocked once on the closed door. I didn’t wait for a reply before I opened it.
Donovan glanced up from his computer without moving his head. “I thought it was too fast for the food to be here. You’re here sooner than I expected as well.”
I looked at my watch. I’d spent a couple of hours at the boxing club, then hit the sauna before heading over to his building. Still, it was early in the day, only a little past one. “You said afternoon. It’s after noon.”
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