25
On the road, as a 'rock star,' there's superficial attention, and adulation is thrown at you for a couple of hours—then you're alone in your room and it's lonely.—Melissa Etheridge
Rhett groaned as she stretched on the luxurious, high-thread count hotel sheets. Every muscle in her body was liquified, and all her nerves endings still sizzled. She looked over at Rhys who was propped up on one elbow next to her wearing a Cheshire cat grin.
"Ordinarily I'd be all kinds of pissed off at that satisfied smile of yours." The smile in question widened, and Rhett tried to repress one of her own. "But I'll let it slide this time because you so deserve it."
"I had to step up my game. When we left the radio station you said you were tired." Rhys leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose. "There was no way I was going to let you fall asleep on me."
"Like that'll ever happen," Rhett said. "But I was only tired when you dragged me out of this wonderfully amazing bed at seven o'clock after I'd only slept in it for an hour.
By the time we left the radio station I was exhausted.
Don't get me wrong, I had fun today. But I'm not used to running on so little sleep. "
"I need to get you acclimated to my schedule then." He wrapped his arms around her and rolled her on top of him. "But we'll stay in and order room service tonight, and I guess I'll let you sleep after that."
"But I don't want to sleep. I have to leave tomorrow, and before I do I want to be the one wearing the satisfied smile while you groan next to me." With delight, Rhett wriggled against him, loving the way his body felt against hers. "I can sleep on the plane or something."
"Yes, you can." He took her face between his hands and pulled her down into a scorching kiss. "But you'll need to let me recharge a bit first."
"I will. Just make sure room service brings up a lot of coffee, because my batteries need a charge, too."
A knock at the suite's outer door made them raise their heads in unison.
"Did Sara say anything to you about coming by?" Rhys asked.
"No. In fact, I told her I'd personally strangle her if she interrupted us." Rhett rolled to her own side of the bed and pulled the sheet up over her breasts as if whoever was at the door had X-ray vision. "It can't be her."
The knock came again, this time accompanied by a voice calling out, "Dad! It's me."
"Shit." Rhys sat up like he'd been shot from a cannon. "That's Sienna."
"Your daughter?" Panicked, Rhett dropped the sheet and scrambled at the foot of the bed for the plush hotel robe she tossed there earlier. "Did you know she was coming?"
"No." Rhys was already out of the bed and pulling on his jeans. He got one leg in and hopped on the other as he tried to pull them up. "When I saw her last week she didn't say anything about coming to New York."
Rhett finally located the robe and yanked it on. She tied the sash in a hasty knot and ran her hands through her hair, even though she was sure it wouldn't do any good.
"Dad?" Sienna's voice sounded again. "Seriously. Open the door."
"Do you know what happened to my shirt?" Rhys flung the sheets back as he searched the bed.
"Um..." Closing her eyes, Rhett tried to think back to when they returned from the radio station where the band was interviewed. By the time they got through the door, she already had his shirt unbuttoned, and...
"It's in the living room. I took it off you and threw it...somewhere." She rushed into the suite's outer room and looked around frantically until she located the shirt on the floor in front of the couch. "Here." She held it out so he could slip his arms in the sleeves.
By this time, Sienna's knocking escalated into hammering. Not bothering with the buttons, Rhys jerked the shirt up over his shoulders and rushed to the door. The minute he opened it, Sienna danced in, her eyes sparkling at the success of surprising her father.
"Betcha didn't expect to see me again so soon, did you?" She wrapped her arms around Rhys and gave him a quick hug. "But here we are."
"We?" Rhys took her by the shoulders and pushed her back enough so that he could see her face. "Who's we?"
"Surprise!"
The sultry voice from the doorway made Rhys go rigid and sent Rhett's heart plummeting to her feet. Hayley Hamilton Collinsworth Monroe stepped into the room like she owned the damn thing.
"Isn't this great?" Sienna was bouncing on her toes with excitement. "We're going to take you out to dinner, and then we're going to come to your concert tomor—” Her voice cut off when she caught sight of Rhett. "Who are you?"
Stunned, Rhett recoiled from the instant hatred that flared in the girl's eyes. Her hand rose to the neck of her robe and bunched it together as though it would shield her from the malevolence that flowed from Rhys's daughter.
Rhys stepped to Rhett's side and put his arm around her shoulders. "Sienna, this is Rhett. She—”
"I don't care who she is." Sienna folded her arms across her chest. "She's not invited to come with us."
Rhys sighed and tried again. "Rhett is my girlfriend. She and I already have plans this evening since she has to leave tomorrow. I'm sorry, but if I'd known you were coming I would have scheduled things differently. Tomorrow’s full, but I’ll see if I can find some time to—"
"Are you kidding me?" Sienna stared at her father, eyes wide with shock. "You're blowing me off for her? You'd rather be with her than go to dinner with me and Mom?"
Though Rhys kept his voice gentle, Rhett could feel the tension in the arm across her shoulders. "I'd like to go to dinner with you, Sienna, but not tonight. I’ll try to make sure we can spend some time together tomorrow before the concert, and then—"
"No. Way." The girl's blue eyes took on the flat shine of anger. "Screw this. I'm going back to Chicago tonight." She whirled around and ran out of the room.
"Damn it." Rhys rushed after her, leaving Rhett alone with Hayley.
"Well, this is awkward, isn't it?" Rhett tried to make her voice light and unaffected despite being caught in a robe right after having blistering sex with Rhys.
"For you, maybe." Hayley's gaze took in Rhett from the top of her tousled head, down the hastily donned robe, and rested for a moment on her bare feet. The woman turned away, but not before Rhett saw the smile on her face.
A shiver of recognition jittered down Rhett's spine.
She couldn't count the number of times she'd seen that smug, superior little smile stitched onto the mouths of the girls who tormented her throughout her school years.
It was a smile that expressed amusement at Rhett's discomfort, a smile that dismissed her, a smile that clearly stated that Rhett shouldn't even bother to try, because no matter what she did, she would always be lacking.
For an instant she felt the shame she lived with so long that it had become a part of her, the shame of not being good enough, of being somehow inferior.
But battling those feelings of inadequacies was the rush she felt from being with Rhys.
She thought of the glorious day they'd just spent together, and the mind-blowing passion with which he made love to her right before they'd been interrupted.
Rhys didn't think she was inferior, and that knowledge gave Rhett the strength to lift her chin.
She released the neck of her robe, not caring if it gaped open.
She didn't give two shits what his ex-wife thought about it.
Hayley's sherry-colored eyes darted back to Rhett, and then behind her to the door where the bed was clearly visible, its sheets trailing on the floor. A hard look replaced the amusement, and in that instant Rhett understood everything she needed to know about the woman.
"I cannot believe you used Rhys's daughter like that. Dragging her here, not caring how upset she might get. How dare you use a child to try to slither your way back into the life of a man who doesn't want you."
Hayley drew back as if she'd been slapped. "Do not presume to lecture me about my daughter."
"Someone obviously needs to." The warmth of righteous anger coursed through her.
"You've upset not only your child, but Rhys as well.
And I will not allow anyone to upset him.
He's mine, got that? Mine, and I'm not letting him go.
So, you just slink your rejected little ass back to Chicago, and the next time you think you might want to make a play for him, just remember the sight of that bed in there and know that I'm the one in it with him.
Now get the hell out of mine and Rhys's room. "
Reaction set in the minute the door closed behind Hayley's huffed departure, and Rhett put her hands to her burning cheeks.
She shouldn't have said those things. It would only make everything worse.
Hadn't she recognized that Hayley was an amped up version of a Claiborne Golden Girl?
Bitches like that never backed down, and their tactics were always down and dirty.
Only a woman who had been on the receiving end of that kind of vindictiveness knew how low someone like Hayley would go to achieve what she wanted.
Dear God, the woman just put her own child through hell in her play for Rhys.
What wouldn't she do next? And Rhett all but lit her fuse and sent her out to do it.
She hurried across the room and jerked open the door. Before she'd let that scheming bitch tear into Rhys, she'd hog-tie the woman and stuff her into a closet.
When she poked her head into the hall, she saw Hayley's stiff back as she retreated.
But then the elevator doors at the end of the hall opened and Rhys stepped out, his expression dark and dangerous.
When he caught sight of his ex-wife, the danger escalated.
He came to a halt in front of her and pointed a finger at her chest. His voice, though low and controlled, carried to where Rhett stood at the door of the room.