Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Winnie
I’ve settled on a perfect nickname for James: Houdini.
It’s wild how a man easily a head taller and a whole lot broader than most everyone at this conference can manage to disappear. And I know he’s here somewhere. Every so often I do catch a glimpse of his dark head, usually ducking away like he knows I’ve spotted him and he’s trying to remain hidden.
Whatever, man. Give me whiplash with your back-and-forth. I care not.
I check my phone again for the time. And maybe to see if James has texted me. His bags are still by the door, but so far as I can tell, he hasn’t been back up to the room. I’m not sure when he’s going to Tank’s house or if he’s having dinner first.
More importantly, I don’t know if he meant it about going to the party with me. Based on what I know about his aversion to people, my guess is he has no plans of going.
And I’m not waiting for him.
When it’s almost seven and the party has already started on the roof, I decide I don’t care about James.
James, who? I’m definitely not dressing for him in my tight black pants, sky-high heels, and favorite pink blouse.
I put my hair in a signature high ponytail, curl the ends, and ride the elevator up to the roof. Alone.
Without mini clowns or legging ladies to distract me, my nerves build. I should have gotten Kyoko’s number earlier. I lost track of her after the afternoon sessions and hope she’ll be up there.
When the elevator doors slide open, I step off and spot Kyoko almost immediately. She waves like a maniac, her smile easing the tension in my chest.
“Winnie!” Kyoko grabs my arm and hauls me toward one of several bars set up around the patio. “Thank the stars you’re here. It’s a total bro fest. I was about to leave.”
I snort and let her pull me over to one of the bars. “I almost went right back down to my room, so good thing you were standing there.”
“What do you want to drink?”
What I WANT is something like a Tom Collins or vodka tonic, but because this is a craft beer conference, my choices are beer. Or other beer.
“Order for me? I don’t know what I like, except less hoppy, please. Maybe a stout?”
Kyoko steps up to the bar. While she’s ordering, I glance around.
The rooftop has a heated pool in the center, the steam rising lightly off the surface.
There are topiaries and larger potted plants giving it a garden party feel.
Space heaters placed sporadically keep it from being too chilly, even with the light breeze.
Some kind of indie rock plays through speakers I don’t see, and the mood is raucous.
If possible, there are even fewer women here than there were at the conference today.
I feel eyes on me and understand why Kyoko was about to leave before I got here. I won’t last long, even with her. I’d rather risk a horde of legging ladies and go down to the lobby bar.
Of course, in my quick scan, I don’t see James, not that I was looking. (I was totally looking.) He’d probably rather hang with the child clowns than attend a party. My guess is that he left his bags in the room in order to avoid me and just went back to Tank’s house as planned.
“Here you go. I got you a coffee stout.” Kyoko hands me a plastic cup with a wry grin. “Clearly, they spared no expense on the glasses. But I won’t complain about an open bar.”
I stuff a ten in the tip jar because very few other people seem to be tipping. My wallet cries out in protest, but I make it a silent promise that we’ll get back on our feet soon.
We manage to snag a cabana area being vacated by a group of men who could be lumberjacks, claiming two cushioned lounge chairs.
We kick off our shoes, laughing. Kyoko taps her glass to mine and we drink, the beer cool and rich on my tongue.
Okay, I could get used to this. Before we start talking, I make sure to get her phone number.
I’m sticking to her like superglue’s stickier cousin for the rest of the conference.
“So, you want to give me a crash course in craft beer?” I ask, taking another sip. Yep—I’m a fan of coffee stout. “This is perfect, by the way.”
She grins. “I saw how many cups of coffee you went through in the afternoon sessions. And you seem to have a thing for rich and dark.” She winks, and I groan.
“Are you making a reference to my boss? Who is, might I remind you, my boss .”
“Yeah, yeah. Where is he, by the way? I’m shocked he’s not here since you are.”
“I think you’re confused. James is not here because this is where I am. The man has found a way to be everywhere I’m not all day.”
I spot Daniel at that moment, and he lifts a hand, smiling in greeting, then starts to move our way, followed by a few other guys. Oh, great.
Kyoko, meanwhile, is laughing.
“What?” I ask.
“Honey, you may not have seen him, but James Graham had his eye on you all day. He was like some kind of ghoul, hanging in the shadows, always with you in his sights.”
This thought, absurd as it sounds, makes my skin prickle with a strange awareness. “No way.”
“Very much way. I noticed, even before I met you. Because the man is hard to ignore. Every time I saw him, he was totally focused on something across the room. You were that something, Winnie.”
Daniel reaches us then so I don’t have a chance to argue anymore with Kyoko, who is definitely wrong. She must have confused James with some other tall, dark, and broody male, not bearded or in flannel.
“Hey, Winnie,” Daniel says, smiling as he runs his hand over his ponytail. It seems to be his nervous habit, one I noticed at lunch. It’s kind of cute, just as Daniel, with hazel eyes and crooked smile, is kind of cute.
And I realize suddenly that James with his hot sulkiness has reduced perfectly attractive men to kind of cute . I am ruined.
“Daniel, this is Kyoko.”
He says hello and introduces the other guys he’s with. Without being asked, they descend, not unlike locusts. Or bed bugs. A few grab other chairs, dragging them over. Daniel sits down right on my chair, forcing me to move my legs over, and one of his friends does the same to Kyoko.
She and I exchange a glance, and I wish we had taken the elevator down when I arrived.
“Where’s your, uh, date?” Daniel asks. “Or boss? I wasn’t sure which he was.”
You and me both, Daniel. You and me BOTH.
I shrug. “He has a way of disappearing.”
When Daniel smiles, it warms his hazel eyes. I try to elbow James out of my head and see Daniel through untainted eyes. I’m not wild about the long hair, but he seems like a genuinely okay guy.
Do you want another okay guy?
Or a difficult, broody one who definitely doesn’t like you?
I don’t want a guy at all.
And that’s the crux of it. I need to remember that simple fact. No men.
“His loss,” Daniel says, then rubs a hand over his jaw. “I would say that I’d never let you out of my sight, but that would be cheesy, huh?”
“Cheesy, but not terrible ,” I offer, trying to find the fine line between friendly but nowhere near flirty.
Daniel laughs. “Is not terrible considered good?”
I’m grateful when Kyoko jumps in, steering the conversation to beer, which this group is happy to talk about. Loudly. I pick up what I can, making mental notes. The guys refill their beers once or twice as the evening wears on, but I sip mine, slow and steady.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Daniel says, leaning a little closer.
His hand drops to my bare ankle. As his face moves a little closer than I’d like, I realize how red-rimmed his eyes are and how strong the scent of beer is. His smile has definitely moved out of kind of cute territory.
“I’m not really interested in talking,” I say.
“Me neither.”
Daniel’s hand slides farther up my leg, and I am officially done . I sit up, dislodging his hand and kicking my feet over the side of the lounge chair. I slip on my shoes and grab my bag. Kyoko gives me a little nod, and then her gaze flies to something behind me, going wide.
“I told you,” she says, a smile breaking over her face.
I don’t have time to see what she means because Daniel grabs my arm. I’m too distracted to shake him off, and whatever he’s saying becomes like a gnat’s one-note whine in my ears.
Because my heart is thudding like one of those giant orchestra drums, drowning out all other sound.
James Graham has just stepped off the elevator, looking like some quintessential vengeful bad boy in his leather jacket and motorcycle boots.
His hair falls over his eye, and I’m delighted to see that his clean-shaven jaw from this morning has disappeared under a layer of dark stubble.
James scans the crowd until his gaze lands and sticks right on me. I swear, the intensity in his dark eyes reaches all the way through my chest and grabs hold of my spine. When his gaze drops to where Daniel grips my elbow, the darkness becomes lethal.
I can’t take my eyes off him as James stalks through the crowd, which parts for him. It should be terrifying, but it’s dead sexy.
Daniel is the only one in our group who fails to notice James, and by the time he reaches us, the other guys are gone.
“… okay, baby.”
Daniel’s voice comes into focus at those last two words. I have no idea what else he said or why he thinks he can call me baby, but it doesn’t matter.
“Go.” James says only one word, but it’s a single syllable ranking at least a nine on the Richter scale. It causes a tremble in me, starting in my toes and working its way up to my heart.
Daniel, unfortunately, is a little slower to react. He turns, startling at the sight of James looming over us. Daniel’s hand loosens but does not let go of my arm, and it’s this point of contact James fixates on, not Daniel’s face as he answers.
“Oh, hey, man. I asked about you earlier but—”
In a move that will forever be etched into my fantasies, James grabs Daniel, and like he’s no heavier than a throw pillow, tosses him into the pool.
James turns away, totally dismissive, and holds out a hand to me. When I don’t immediately respond, a low, rumbling sound comes out of him, rattling my chest like a tiny echo.
I’m a lot of things—awed, angry, confused, irritated, and absolutely turned on. But I slide my hand into James’s larger one, and he pulls me to my feet with a gentle strength totally unlike what he just used to throw Daniel into the pool.
On the way to the elevator, as I scramble to keep up with James’s long stride, he pauses long enough to direct a bearded man’s attention to the pool. “Don’t let him drown.” The man nods quickly, eyes wide, and James continues tugging me along.
The elevator doors slide open, and though a whole group is waiting to get on, one look from James has them stepping back and away.
As the doors close, I settle on a single emotion—anger—and yank my hand out of his. Whirling on James, I give his impressive chest a shove, which moves him exactly nowhere. Because he’s a Marvel superhero, not a mortal man.
“That was—this is—completely out of line!”
He crosses his arms, his eyes never leaving my face. A single muscle tics in his jaw.
“Half the time you ignore me. The other half, you’re actively dismissing me. And then the rest of the time—and ignore my bad math because I know I’m over 100%—you’re acting like some possessive beast who thinks he has some right to claim me!”
I’m breathing heavily when I finish shouting, and still, James stands there, expression infuriatingly blank.
“Well? Aren't you going to say anything?”
“I’m sorry.”
“The least you could do is—wait, what?” I think my emotions must have shorted out my brain, because did James just apologize?
“I’m sorry.”
Nope, there it is again. An apology.
“You’re right,” he continues, “and I’m sorry. For all of it.”
As I try to dissect his soft words, for once devoid of all growling and grumping, and attempt to make sense of the sudden heat flaring in his eyes, James steps forward, crowding me against the elevator wall.
His big, rough hands cup my cheeks with a tenderness that knocks the breath straight out of me.
“I’m sorry, Winnie,” he says again, and I could listen to him say my name with that sweetness all day, every day, for the rest of my life.
His eyes drop to my mouth, and all the air leaves my lungs. “May I—” he starts to ask.
“ Please .”
And then my eyes flutter closed as James drags one hand into my hair and fuses his lips to mine.