Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Sam
I t’s the last thing in the world I expect her to say, and it takes me a full moment to process.
Fran gets there quicker than I do.
“What?” she asks, looking over her shoulder at Naomi standing in the lobby.
I look at Naomi myself and see the truth of the statement written across her face.
I’ve got to get Fran and Reina out of here right away.
“I think I’ll walk Naomi up to her room after all.”
I mime taking a drink to insinuate that the woman’s a bit tipsy. Reina smiles in understanding, but Fran’s eyes narrow at me before she glances back at where Naomi stands in the center of the lobby.
I usher them out without another word. Dom and Ave have the carts waiting in the pickup loop, arguing about something stupid. They pause and walk toward the women as they exit the building. I close the door and lean against it, finally face-to-face with Naomi.
“What did you say?” I ask. Surely I misunderstood. Hell, maybe she is drunk.
“I…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”
Relief pours through me at her words. I almost laugh. I can’t believe I let myself think that she?—
“I didn’t mean to say that with other people around. I’ve been trying to get you alone all night so I could figure out a way to tell you…” She trails off again and dread creeps up my spine.
I’ve been avoiding her, worrying that she was going to say or do something that would give us away. I guess I should have let her get me alone.
“Why don’t we head up to your room. I’ll get you settled.” Whatever’s going on here, it’s not going on in the lobby of my resort, where anyone could be listening.
I walk down the hallway and up the stairs without waiting for her to acknowledge what I said. When I glance back from the top of the stairs, she’s trudging up them, head hung low.
The sight of the usually confident, vivacious Naomi, reduced to this silent, sullen woman scares me more than anything she’s said so far. I haven’t even started to process the implication of her words. I just need to get her alone and get her talking.
After she lets us into her room, I close the door and lean against it, inhaling deeply. Preparing.
“Okay. What on earth did you mean down there? It sounded like you said you filmed us?”
She nods, and I start to panic but force myself to remain calm.
“At your apartment in Austin?” Gotta get the facts straight here so I know what I’m dealing with.
Another nod.
That’s when I lose it.
“Why?” I shout the word and then look around myself frantically, cringing at the walls to other rooms mere feet away.
When I look back at Naomi, she’s cowered even further, perched on the arm of a chair, looking at the floor, wringing her hands.
“Naomi?” I can’t stand the silence.
“I just…film things. It’s what I do.” Her voice is desperate and for a moment, I almost move to comfort her.
But then I remember.
“You film things for your social media channel. Is that what you did?” I can hear the panic in my own voice as I try to keep it down. “Did you post the video somewhere?” The last words come out as a hissed whisper.
Naomi jumps to her feet, meeting my gaze for the first time in what feels like an hour.
“No! Of course not. I would never post it anywhere. I would never show anyone.”
I let my head fall back and close my eyes. That’s a relief. I calm down enough to take a deep breath and let it out slowly. When I look back down, Naomi’s eyes are begging me to understand. To forgive her.
But I’m not sure I’m ready for that.
“Then why? Why would you do something like that?”
She offers me a guilty smile. “I like to watch.”
My eyes widen and then close at this new bit of information. It’s a lot to process.
“You watch the video?”
“Over and over and over.”
A new feeling rises up from my stomach, mixing with the dread and sending my whole nervous system into chaos. It’s not a bad feeling. If anything, it’s kind of…curious.
“But we didn’t even have sex. ”
I try to imagine her, alone in her room, watching a video of herself giving me head, but my brain starts to short circuit.
Naomi just stares. Some of the timidness from a moment before lifts and she’s standing straighter, looking at me more directly. “I watch what we did, and then I close my eyes and imagine you fucking me.”
Her words send a shockwave through my entire system, like all the water in my body is gathering into a tsunami.
I can’t think of a response fast enough, so Naomi drops another bomb on the smoldering ruins of my mind.
“It’s really hot. If you ever want to watch it?—”
“I don’t,” I say quickly, before anything else can sneak out of my mouth.
The last thing in the world I want is to curl up on that sofa with this woman and watch a video of us fooling around on her phone.
Right?
Naomi just shrugs, as if she offered me a soda and I turned her down. I feel alarm starting to rise again at her nonchalance.
“I would be far more comfortable with you deleting it off your phone.”
She cocks her head to the side, watching my unease with narrowed eyes. I marvel at how quickly the tables have turned. Not two minutes ago, I was the one standing tall while she cowered. Now, I’m starting to feel like I might crumble.
“It’s not on my phone. I have a secure server. Heavily encrypted. You have nothing to worry about.”
Her dismissive tone sets something off in me. “Says the woman who just got taken down by the online community for untrustworthiness.” It’s a low blow, but I haven’t got much else to work with here.
I watch my words hit her.
She flinches slightly, not validating my words with a response.
“I should go,” I say, finally coming to my senses.
“Sam, stay.”
She reaches me as my hand hits the door handle, her firm touch on my shoulder making me pause.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. This could be fun. We had fun before, right?”
I can’t go down this road with her, so I just shake my head. She tries to remove my hand from the knob, but I don’t let her.
“That’s a big, fat lie,” she says, her voice unnervingly calm. “I know you had fun because I watch you almost every night.”
I close my eyes and wish I was anywhere else. “You did not have my permission to film me.”
Naomi lets out a sigh and takes a few steps back, her hands hitting her sides with a soft thud. “I know. And I shouldn’t have done that. That’s why I’m telling you now.”
I grip the door handle like a life raft. “What? Why?”
“Because I want to ask for your permission.”
“My permission for what? You already did it.”
“I want your permission to keep watching it.”
“Why?” I ask again, apparently only capable of one-word questions in this headspace.
“Why do I want to keep watching it? Because it’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”
I can’t force my lungs to take a breath as I white knuckle the door handle.
“I watch it with my phone in one hand and my little black vibrator in the other.”
Images of that very vibrator in my own hand flash through my mind. My breath finally comes, but it’s audible, like a gasp.
Naomi laughs softly from right behind me, and I jump.
How did she get so close again so quickly?
“You remember that vibrator, right?”
I pull the door open and practically run into the hallway instead of answering. My dick’s going to get me in trouble if a certain iPhone-wielding voyeur spots it.
“Sam, wait.”
I don’t wait, hurrying down the hall toward the stairs as quickly as I can without flat out running.
“Let me send it to you. You can watch it, and if you think it’s crap and want me to delete it, I will.”
I whirl to face her. “What?” The question comes out too loud and I look wildly from side to side at the hotel doors next to me, praying I didn’t wake anyone.
“Let me send it to you.”
“No. I don’t want it anywhere near me.” I take a few steps toward where she stands in the hall. “This could ruin me. Do you understand that?”
Naomi stands her ground. “If you watch it and still want me to delete it, I will. Deal?”
I shake my head and turn back down the hall. “No way.”
“Aren’t you at least a little bit curious?”
The realanswer is too frightening to be allowed in my own mind.
“No.”
“Say you’ll watch it.”
“No.”
“Fine,” she says before turning to head back into her room.
Madness overtakes me as she starts to disappear from view.
“Fine.” My voice comes out sounding far more confident than I feel. “Send it to me.”
Her head pops out of the doorway, a devilish grin on her face. “Coming right up.”