Chapter 5
brOOKE
“I’m so glad I was at my door when you ran from those guys,” Roy said.
We were on the couch with a huge room service spread covering the coffee table. After we cleaned up in the shower, Roy had called down for a variety of food. Too much food. Burgers, French fries, pasta, lasagna, and a slice of cheesecake.
I was in a hotel robe and nothing else, the plate of dessert on my lap. I was licking the fork, and Roy was watching.
Roy had eaten a burger and a thick slice of lasagna and was now sipping a whiskey he’d poured from the bar. Yeah, the penthouse even had a full bar. This guy had to be loaded. Except he dressed like a lumberjack. I couldn’t figure out his deal.
But I didn’t care what he drank. It was hard to pay attention to anything but how insanely hot he was in only a towel around his waist. It didn’t do much more than keep his ass and balls from making contact with the furniture.
The bandages on his arm held through the shower.
They were tinged with blood from when I originally put them on, but there was no damage from our… vigorous activities.
In fact, it didn’t even seem like he remembered he’d been shot. Nothing seemed to faze him.
“I’m so glad, too,” I said, forcing myself to stop staring. It all still felt like a dream. Or an out-of-body experience. At least the bad part. The sex was a very in-the-body-in-the-best-kind-of-way experience. “But…”
He arched his brows. “But?”
“No, I mean, not a but. Just… I’m realizing I don’t know anything about you. I mean, I ran into your room, led you downstairs to get shot, and then ended up back here and… the rest.” I couldn’t help but smile thinking about that. “I don’t even know you.”
Reaching out, he took the cheesecake from my hand and set the plate on the coffee table. He turned back and tipped my chin up, so our eyes held. “Well, what can I tell you? Let’s see–I’m a woodworker.” He held up his hands and grinned. “Not in the mob.”
“You’re obviously from out of town if you’re staying here.” I glanced around the penthouse. It had to be a few thousand dollars a night. Ridiculously expensive. I didn’t judge him for having money, but how could he be just a woodworker ? I couldn’t afford a regular room at this hotel.
“I’m from Montana,” he continued. “Cooper Valley. I’m here for the home show at the convention center. I have a booth displaying my handmade furniture. I’d just come from wrapping things up there when you ran into me.”
I took his hand from my face and flipped it over to study the palm. It was calloused from working with wood.
“And you?” he countered. “Are you in town for that meeting or–”
I dropped his hand, but he set it on my thigh over my robe.
I leaned back and settled in. “I live here in Denver. I work for Marks and Fields, an accounting firm. I took my CPA exam and am waiting to hear the results. Which means I’ll be dealing with the IRS and tax loopholes the rest of my life. See? Stable but not exciting.”
He flicked his brows. “I’d say what happened between us was exciting.”
I laughed. “Very. But I could skip the being chased part.” The tension relieved from the incredible sex and shower started to curl in my belly again. I was still in mortal danger. I had a lot to figure out. “Maybe dull isn’t so bad.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
He reached out and tugged me. I fell into him, and he settled me into his side, his arm flung over my shoulder. I adjusted the bottom of my robe and tucked my feet beneath me. My cheek was on his bare chest. This was comfortable. Cozy. Safe.
It was one thing to have sex with him, which was even more intimate than this, but that had been in the heat of the moment. Passion-filled. We had chemistry, that was for sure.
But this? It just felt good. Crazy, because we were literally getting to know each other, but, somehow, it also felt familiar, as if this was exactly the right place for me to be.
“You said you were filling in for your boss?” he asked, his voice soft in my hair.
I nodded, and his lips brushed the top of my head. “He got hit by a car this morning and couldn’t make the meeting, so I was called to fill in. The client had a business meeting here at the hotel. Down the hall.”
“The mob boss, you mean?”
“No, the client isn’t the mob boss. It was the guy he was doing business with.
” My gaze roved over the room without really seeing anything.
“I’ve never met either of them before. They aren’t one of the clients I work on.
Like I said, it was my boss’s client, which makes sense.
He handles the bigger, more important clients.
Maybe he was in on it. Or scared. There was a guy who owns some bowling alleys, and he seemed really freaking nervous. That was the first red flag.”
Roy made a rumbling noise. My pitbull, growling.
“I thought I was there to notarize paperwork, maybe fill out receipts and wire money. But the guys looked like thugs–I mean, you saw them! When I pushed for an ID for my logbook, the one guy didn’t like that.
Refused. I got freaked out, so after the transfer went through, I said I had to go to the bathroom, and I left the laptop and paperwork and ?bolted. You know the rest.”
I couldn’t help but shiver remembering how scared I’d been.
“It’s safe. You’re safe. They have no reason to believe you’re in this room. Remember, they’ve already knocked on the door.”
That made sense and was somehow reassuring even though they might still be right down the hall. I did feel safe with Roy. I wouldn’t have had sex with him otherwise. Or sit here now.
“Stay the night,” he added. “We’ll figure out what to do in the morning.”
In his arms like this, I didn’t have to think about it. Or anything else. All I did was say yes. Then he pulled me up, so I was in his lap. I shifted my legs, so I straddled him, my robe parting. His hands cupped my cheeks, so our eyes met. Held. I would swear he could see into my soul.
“I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”
All I could do was nod and let him kiss me again.