75. Chapter 75
The last time he slipped into a dark hotel room with his hands on a woman’s body, it was Lindsey’s in Austin. Tonight, this was the best he could do.
She wore that skirt like she knew what it’d do to me.
He kissed Kelly harder. Or was it Kim? She reminded him of a Kim he picked up in Reno.
Or Kelly. Something with a K. Whatever. She forgave him for running off in the middle of the concert and followed him back to his room after a couple more drinks.
With Kim already down to her bra, Jase could make out the flowers and skulls inked on her skin in the glow from the streetlamp outside.
Cheaply done, he guessed. Still, she was the kind of woman to get him back on track.
He needed space from Lindsey he wasn’t going to get in the car tomorrow.
If she got back in the car at all.
Jase looked down at the top of the wrong head, and that had never happened to him before.
She’s in this hotel. Right now. With someone else.
He closed his eyes. This was wrong—every which way wrong. What did she see in Declan anyway? And why was Jase having such a hard time getting hard? That had never happened to him before either.
His eyes snapped open at a knock at his door. He wasn’t as annoyed as he should’ve been to pull his pants back up. Kelly groaned and plopped herself on the bed while he answered it.
There, in smudged makeup too dark for her face and Billy’s damn leather, Lindsey stood in his doorway, catching her breath.
“Hey,” he said. Jase stepped out and pulled the door mostly shut behind him. He’d already forgotten he was supposed to be pissed at her. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry to bust in on you. I just left Declan—”
“What did he do? Did he put his hands on you?”
“No, it’s fine. It’s not him.” She swallowed hard. “I don’t like the way we left things at the concert. I think I was just surprised to see you with another woman.”
Another woman…who was still in his room, half-naked.
“It’s fine,” he said, suddenly eager for her to walk away so he could clear Kelly out of his bed.
“There’s no reason you can’t be with someone else,” she said quickly. “I just didn’t like it.”
There was more she wanted to say, and he wouldn’t mind hearing it another time—when he wasn’t about to blow his one chance at salvaging the trip.
“I thought you were hooking up with dipshit, so…”
“I’m not,” she said. “Can I come in?”
“You know what? How about we go down and get a drink. On me. There’s a bar downstairs. We can talk, or whatever.”
Lindsey licked her lips. “Talking wasn’t what I had in mind.”
Jase momentarily blacked out. Did she really just—
“Jase? Are you coming back?”
It was a voice he wouldn’t have recognized if it didn’t come from his own hotel room.
“Shit.”
His face fell to the floor where talking wasn’t what I had in mind lay in six million pieces on the hall carpet.
Lindsey took in his naked chest, noticing his pants undone for the first time.
“Oh my God—”
“Just give me five minutes.”
“You know what? Never mind.”
“Lindsey, it’s not what you’re thinking.”
Did he really just say that? Idiot. It was exactly what she was thinking.
“Forget it, Jase,” she called out as she stalked away. “Just fucking forget it.”
“Lindsey, wait!”
She didn’t, and he couldn’t blame her. Six million in a leather skirt turned the corner without slowing her stride, leaving Jase cursing in an empty hallway.
“Shit. Shit.”
Kelly had turned on a bedside lamp and was propped topless on the pillows. The pink roses coiled around her tits would’ve been fun to trace with his tongue.
“What’s going on?” Kim asked.
Nothing, just my future running away.
“I’m sorry. I’ve got to go.”
She sat up and kept him from buttoning his pants. It killed him a little—uncurling Kim’s fingers from his zipper.
“What’s the matter with you?” she asked.
So many things.
“Kelly, I—”
“My name’s Alison.”
“Shit. I’m sorry about that too.”