16. Luke
SIXTEEN
LUKE
“What the fuck?”
It’s six in the morning, and I just opened my hotel room door to find Calla sleeping on the floor outside it, wrapped in a strange jacket. Not only that, it looks like her hair is… pink.
I was planning on grabbing Calla from her room and heading down to the hotel gym. I know Ashley and Brayden don’t like to give her any days off—because God forbid the woman gets to relax—so I figured they’d make her get up and work out since there’s no show tonight.
But… I guess not since Calla is currently passed out in front of my door.
I squat down and gently shake her. “Calla?”
She doesn’t move, and my mind instantly goes in the worst possible direction. Is she hurt?
My eyes immediately go to her chest, which is moving up and down. Thank God.
“Calla,” I say again, a bit more firmly this time. Still nothing.
I need to get her out of the hallway before someone else opens their door and sees her lying here. Kneeling down, I grab one of her arms and put it over my shoulder. I squat down and slide one hand under her legs and one under her back. I count to three and lift. I stumble a bit before I get myself together. She moans as I kick the door open and get her in my hotel room.
I lay her down on my rumpled bed and quickly look her over to make sure there aren’t any injuries. Thankfully, nothing seems to be physically wrong with her, at least from what I can tell.
“Calla, wake up, baby.” I shake her again and tuck some of her newly pink hair behind her ear. My heart is racing, but I’m trying to remain calm. How did she end up in the hallway? And how did she end up with pink fucking hair?
Her brows furrow as I shake her more. “What?” she finally groans.
“You need to wake up. I need to know what happened.”
“To who?” she asks sleepily.
“To you!”
When she groans and stretches her arms up, I notice what I hadn’t before…. a tattoo on her forearm.
What the hell happened from the time I left her at her hotel room door until now?
“Calla, you better wake the fuck up and tell me what happened right now.”
My tone makes her eyes fly open. “Alright, alright.”
“Care to explain the hair and the new tattoo?” I ask with a raised brow.
“No, not really.”
I cross my arms over my chest and stare down at her. “Too damn bad. Explain yourself.”
“Well, I found out that Thompson is cheating on me,” she states casually. “Which I’m apparently supposed to just be ok with. So, I got so mad and ended things with him. I was going to do that anyway, but I got so damn mad when he made it seem like I was crazy for wanting him to be in a monogamous relationship. I needed to get out of here. I needed to breathe, so I took a walk.”
“You took a walk in the middle of Chicago at night?” I’m definitely getting fired.
“Yes. So, when I was on my walk, I came across a tattoo shop.”
“Fuck.”
“Stop interrupting me if you want to hear what happened.” I gesture impatiently for her to continue. “They were about to close, but my new friend Jacob said he could take me.”
“Yeah, I bet he did.”
“So we talked for a while.” Great. “And we decided to do a phoenix. I really like the colors.”
The tattoo itself is really nice. It’s an outline of a phoenix in black with the inside coloring starting with red on the bottom and changing to orange and then yellow at the top. But that’s not the issue. The issue is she left this hotel by herself after I explicitly told her not to.
“Ok, so did your new best friend also color your hair?”
“Huh?” She grabs a piece of her pink hair and looks at it. A smile crosses her lips as if she’s remembering something. “Oh yeah. No, this wasn’t Jacob. I mean, Jacob was there, but this was me and Elaina.”
I nod my head as if this is the most normal thing in the world. “Right, right. And who the fuck is Elaina?”
“She’s the receptionist from the tattoo shop.”
“Huh. Alright. So she held you down and colored your hair pink?” I ask. Every step of this story just pisses me off even more. She should’ve come to my room. I would have stopped her from doing this or, at the very, very least, been there with her.
“No. We were talking while Jacob was working on my arm, and I was telling her about, well, everything, and she said something that helps her when she’s going through a breakup is changing her hair. It’s like making a new version of yourself. I told her I didn’t have time to go to a hair salon, and she said we didn’t need one. So, when Jacob finished my arm, we ran across the street to a twenty-four-hour pharmacy and grabbed some hair dye. She took me back to her apartment—don’t worry, Jacob was there too.” Yeah, that makes this all ok. “And she colored my hair.”
“And how did you get back here?” I ask. If she says she walked, I’m going to lose my shit.
“Oh. My new friends helped me get an Uber. Jacob rode back with me and made sure I got into the hotel ok.”
“So sweet of him,” I say dryly. “Hope it was worth it, Calla.”
She sits up in bed and crosses her arms, her face telling me how much she does not appreciate my tone, but you know what? I don’t care.
“It was worth it, actually. I needed a night away from everything where I could do whatever the fuck I wanted. I deserved it.”
“I’m not saying you didn’t,” I argue. “But going out on your own was reckless and dangerous. What if something happened to you? Huh? What if Jacob wasn’t as nice as he pretended to be and took you somewhere where no one could hear you scream? What if Elaina played you for a fool and stole your card information while you were at the pharmacy? What if a random stranger thought you looked too pretty to be walking down the street by yourself and grabbed you?”
“Alright, Luke. I get it.”
“I’m not sure you do, Calla. You promised me you wouldn’t go out by yourself.”
“You would’ve stopped me.”
“Yeah, I probably would’ve tried. And you know why? You showing up with a tattoo and pink hair is not on your goddamn schedule. So, guess who’s probably getting fired? Me. So, I hope it was fucking worth it.”
She rolls her eyes. “You’re not getting fired, Luke. I won’t let that happen.”
I scoff. “I think it’s been proven that these people don’t give a fuck about your opinion or what you want, Calla, so excuse me for not believing you.”
She swallows, and for the first time since she started her story, she has a small look of regret in her eyes.
“Luke, I didn’t think?—”
“No, you didn’t fucking think, Calla! It’s not just me. It’s my best friend’s company that will have a black mark against it now because I lost him his biggest client.”
I can see the tears start to well in her eyes, so I quickly turn away. I’m pissed, and watching her cry is not going to help that.
I walk toward the door even though I know I’m not leaving. I’ve got to come up with some way to spin this. I can’t let Cody’s brand and reputation go down like this. Realistically, I know this is not my fault. I followed protocol. I told her to come get me. I’m allowed time off, and I’m allowed to fucking sleep. She’s the one who snuck out. Unfortunately, the people who work with Calla don’t seem to think logically, so I already know that this is going to blow back on me.
“Luke, I’m sorry,” she says quietly. I can hear the tremor in her voice, which lets me know she couldn’t hold the tears back. “My first and only long-term relationship completely fell apart in front of my face. My team is running me into the ground with my work schedule. I’m tired. I’m hungry. I feel like no one listens to me. Do you know how insane that makes a person feel? When you tell people over and over again that you need a break and they just keep telling you that you don’t. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. I don’t know who I am. I needed one night to not be Calla James. You have to know that I would never hurt you on purpose. You’re the only person in my life who sees me. I promise I will do everything in my power to make sure this doesn’t come back on you or your friend.”
I sigh and feel my shoulders slump in defeat. I know she didn’t do this to get me in trouble. I know that she needs time to be a real human. I just wish her night out didn’t come with such obvious souvenirs.
I tug my shirt off over my head and walk toward the bathroom. Guess my workout isn’t happening this morning. “I’m going to take a shower. Do not leave that fucking bed. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she says quietly. I don’t look at her as I close the door and turn the water on.
The hot water cascades off my body, and I hope that it’ll take away some of the tension. I’m pissed that I left her alone with that asshole last night. I’m pissed at him for being a fucking asshole. I’m pissed that she left this hotel without me. But I’m also pissed because I was fucking jealous, of all things, when she mentioned another man’s name.
It should’ve been me. I should’ve been with her, but I left her alone, thinking she needed time with her stupid boyfriend.
I finish and turn off the shower, wrapping a towel around my waist. There’s a ninety-five percent chance I’m getting fired today. My only hope is that Jacob and Elaina haven’t sold the details of their night with Calla James to some gossip magazine. Maybe Calla and I can spin this in a way that won’t make my best friend hate me for the rest of my life.
When I walk back into the bedroom, Calla is sitting in the same spot I left her. Her eyes move from my wet hair down to my bare chest.
“Oh, so you can actually follow directions,” I say.
It takes her a second to process my words, but she finally pulls her eyes away from my half-naked body.
A knock on my room door stops her from saying whatever smart-ass comment she was going to make.
“I ordered room service. Can I go answer the door, or should I keep sitting here, sir?” She cocks an eyebrow at me. I swear she is one of the most infuriating women that I have ever met, and yet all I can think about is what it would be like to kiss her smart-mouthed lips.
“Stay put,” I tell her.
I answer the door, and one of the hotel staff members rolls a cart into the room quickly and leaves before either of us can say anything. Not sure if they ran out so quickly because of my near nakedness or Calla’s presence in the room.
“I hope you ordered more than just green shit,” I say, lifting one of the food covers. I’m pleasantly surprised to see a plate of eggs, bacon, and croissants.
“I’m not the one who orders the green shit. That’s always Ashley. She currently thinks I’m in the gym working out, so I ordered my own breakfast.”
I huff a laugh. It seems she’s started to grow a bit of a backbone after her little night out.
“Can I eat, sir? Or do I have to sit here and watch you eat first?”
I pick up a piece of bacon, actual bacon, not that weird turkey shit she eats at home, and say, “I should make you watch.”
She sighs. “The least you could do would be to give me a nice view.” She nods to my towel. She wants me to drop the towel? After what she pulled, no freaking way.
“That sounds like a reward to me, princess, and you haven’t been a very good girl, have you?”
Her eyes narrow at me as she watches me take another bite of her bacon. She finally stands from the bed and walks over to me. She stops mere inches from me, leans in, and whispers, “I’m kinda tired of people telling me what to do.” The light tone of her voice sends a spark down my spine and straight to my dick, which is dangerous since any movement would be very visible through this towel.
She takes a step back, grabs a piece of bacon, and takes a bite.
“Now, let’s eat so we can get this show on the road. Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll get to avoid seeing my cheating ex-boyfriend before we leave.”
She sits at the small table in my room. I take a seat across from her and can’t help but wonder if this is going to be our last meal together.
“I’m sorry about your breakup,” I say, but I think we both know I don’t mean it.
She lets out a single laugh and sighs. “It’s alright. It needed to happen. I guess I’m more upset that he’s not the man I thought he was.”
“How’d he take it?”
“Eh, could’ve been better. He tried to tell me that he’s slept with other women, but they meant nothing because he loves me. He also thinks I’m sleeping with you.”
I nearly choke on my food. “Why does he think that?”
“Who knows? Unfortunately, it’s not true.”
“You know it’s against my company policy, Calla.”
“Is that the only reason?”
I swallow as I take in her eyes. They’re begging me for something that I can’t give her, no matter how much I want to. “It wouldn’t be a good idea. The number one reason is that I could get fired if I’m not already on the chopping block after they see you today. I also couldn’t watch out for your safety if I wasn’t focused.”
“You think I’ll make you unfocused?” Yes, absolutely.
I don’t answer her question. “Eat your food, Calla. Let’s get this over with.”
She rolls her eyes. “You’re not getting fired, Luke. Trust me.”
“I did trust you and look what happened,” I snap.
She throws her toast down on her plate and stands. “Fine. I’m going to take a shower, and then we’ll go.”
“Fine,” I grumble.
She grabs the hem of her oversized shirt and drags it up over her head, revealing the fact that she’s not wearing a bra. I suck in a silent breath but try my best to remain unfazed. I instantly remember how her tits felt when I played with them the other day. How soft her skin is. How responsive she was when I kissed her neck.
I shake the thoughts from my head. She’s trying to goad me. She wants me to break. And while I want her, I’m stronger than a pair of tits. Even if they’re really nice tits.
She turns away from the table. “You don’t mind if I use your shower, do you?”
“Go ahead,” I say, surprised that my voice doesn’t crack. I’m glad she’s looking away because there’s no hiding my erection at this point.
She slides her shorts down her legs and steps out of them. Her back is to me, but she’s completely naked in front of me. I should get an award for my restraint right now.
It amazes me that she’s this brave with me but can’t stand up to everyone else in her life.
“Calla,” I practically growl.
She looks at me from over her shoulder. “What? Can’t take a shower with clothes on, can I?”
I watch her walk to the bathroom. Fine. If she’s going to get naked in front of me, I’m going to fucking look.
The water turns on, and I finally exhale and try to think of anything else to get my dick to calm the fuck down.
Oh yeah, I can just think about my upcoming termination.
Instant mood killer.