CHAPTER 4
Present Day
“I’m home!” Tired out of my mind, and my emotions still all over the place, I stepped into my apartment and took off my shoes in the cramped hallway. I was still breathless from climbing the three flights of stairs. There was an elevator in the building, but it had been broken for longer than I had lived here. It wasn’t as if I held my breath. The building was built in 1931, and it looked as if nothing other than appliances had been replaced in all that time.
“Rose?” I said.
No answer. Huh. She must be out with her friends.
I threw my bag onto the gray leather sofa and headed straight for the freezer. It had been such a shitty day and one that called for a tub of ice cream. Ben and Jerry’s chocolate chip cookie dough in hand, I headed for my small bedroom and threw myself onto the mattress, lying face up as I studied the water stains in the ceiling.
I didn’t want to think about the asshole, nor the fact that he got me fired today. I took a bite of my ice cream. I didn’t want to still feel his eyes burning on me, nor the forbidden, yet delicious things his presence did to my body. I took another bite and let it melt on my tongue. It had been almost an hour since I saw Spencer, but his effect on me hadn’t lessened in the least.
God dammit.
After I finished the ice cream, I undressed. Next, I went to remove my grandmother’s necklace, but my fingers met with nothing but my bare neck.
And it was then that I realized to my great horror that my grandmother’s necklace was missing. Dammit! In my rush to leave the hotel, I left my necklace in my locker. I scurried to my phone and dialed Glenda’s number. With any luck, she was still there, and she could grab my necklace and keep it safe until I picked it up.
“Hello?” Glenda said on the other end.
“Hey, It’s me, Ellie. Are you still at the hotel?” I asked.
“Yes, but I was just about to head out. Why?” she asked.
“Can you check my locker and see if my necklace is there?” I asked.
“Sure.” There was silence on the other end of the line for several anxiety-inducing seconds.
“Found it,” she finally said.
I exhaled a long sigh of relief. “Thank you. Can you keep it for me until tomorrow? I’ll stop by and pick it up then.”
“Sure thing,” she said.
The tension that had gripped my chest slowly lost its hold.
“Thank you.”
“Of course,” she said. “I know how important the necklace is to you. I’ll keep it safe.”
After hanging up, I soaked in the tub while listening to Prince. The artist could usually always make me feel better, even in the worst of moments. However, all I could think about was how seethingly furious I was at Spencer for screwing me over yet again. But more than that, I was livid with myself for letting him crawl under my skin and I was hating my body for yearning for his touch.
Once I was done, I towel dried my body and hair and put new bandages on my knees. I dressed in a pair of faded jeans and a T-shirt and flipped my laptop open. No use in waiting to find another job. The longer I’d wait, the less money I’d make and then I’d have to revert to student loans, which was something I was not willing to consider for a single second.
I applied to a half dozen other hotels and a few retail shops. I knew the money wouldn’t be great, but at least they would bring in something.
I poured myself a glass of cheap wine and sat on the couch. It was hard to keep my eyelids open, eve while watching my favorite sitcom. There was a knock at the door. Huh, who could be here? Did Rose forget her key again?
“Come in,” I mumbled in my groggy state. I looked up, and to my surprise, I saw my dad walking toward me. I must be dreaming.
Vaguely, I noticed that we were back in my parents’ old house. I sat up and he sat on the couch by the fireplace. I joined him. These past few years had worn on him, I could tell. His wrinkles were deeper, the bags under his eyes saggier. He’d lost some weight, and he wore a serious expression. For a brief moment, I missed the dad who had been so willing to play with us as children, who took us on spontaneous vacations, who brought us gifts just because, and who stayed up late with us to teach us how to play chess.
“Hey.” I leaned my head on his shoulder. Oh, how I missed the feeling of having someone take care of me. Life had become so hard recently, and I felt as if we weren’t a family anymore. I felt guilty all the time for not being better at taking care of Rose. She really needed someone who was more of a mother-figure than me, someone with more time.
“Do you have a minute to talk?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure,” I said.
“I need you to talk to your mom about Rose.”
“Ok,” I said.
“It hasn’t been easy for Rose since I passed on.”
I felt the tears press behind my eyes. “No, it hasn’t.”
A loud knock at the door startled me awake. I dried my tears and dragged myself off the couch to answer the door. When I opened, there stood Rose and her boyfriend, Wayne. Her arm was draped over his shoulder and she was laughing loudly, her voice laced with intoxication.
“Have you been drinking?” I asked, appalled. Then her breath hit me in the face, alcohol oozing from it.
Wayne gave me a halfway guilty, halfway concerned look, then pushed past me through the door.
“She…uh… she wanted to play beer pong, and things got a little out of hand,” he said.
“She’s sixteen. Why the hell is she playing beer pong?” My voice sounded furious, something that reflected how I felt on the inside. I hadn’t realized it was this bad, that Rose was partying with who knows what kind of people, doing all sorts of crazy things.
Wayne led her… more like carried her across the small living room and into our bedroom. She dropped like a sack of potatoes onto her bed situated across from mine and laughed before closing her eyes and passing out.
Wayne’s droopy hazel eyes met mine. “I’m sorry…I…I…It was… I was… We were…were…”
I knew he had a stutter, but I’d never heard him stutter this badly.
“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” I snapped. I swiveled him around by his shoulders, marched him to the front door, and shoved him into the hallway. “Good-bye, Wayne.”
He turned to face my and inhaled a breath right before opening his mouth to speak. I slammed the door in his face before he could get a single word in.
I walked back to Rose, but there was no use in trying to communicate with a comatose drunk. I figured I’d just have to talk with her tomorrow about all this. This day had been far too eventful for my frazzled nerves.
Thoroughly done with everything, I dragged myself to bed. Just as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard my phone ping in with a text message. God, what now? I was done with today. I went to turn my phone on silent but saw that the message was from Glenda.
I was going to put your necklace in my locker to keep it safe for you until tomorrow. But Spencer King confiscated it. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to do. Please call me.
Without a second thought, immediately energized by my anger, I flung the blanket off my body and jumped out of bed. I threw on my raincoat and boots and headed out the door. Once outside, I hopped into my dad’s old BMW and headed straight to the hotel. I didn’t usually drive. I was a conscientious citizen who cared about the environment. But who could care about saving the environment when there was a dire emergency?
I must have run every red light there was from my apartment to the hotel, but I didn’t give a rat’s ass. Spencer wasn’t going to get away with stealing my grandmother’s necklace.
I parked in the parking garage and stormed into the hotel lobby right past Casper, the receptionist. Once inside the elevator, I pushed the number 10 at least twenty times and the elevator whisked me upward. I wished the damn elevator would go faster.
Once the doors opened, I ran to Spencer’s room and knocked on the door as loudly as I could. And I didn’t stop until he opened. He stood there in silk boxers and a bare upper chest. But this time, I didn’t let his god-like features affect me. Well… not as much anyway.
“What the hell are—” he started.
“Where is it?” I snapped.
He looked at me with the same bored expression he always did.
“Where’s what?” he asked.
“My goddamn necklace. The one you took from Glenda.”
I shoved the door open and stepped inside his suite. I was done playing nice. I was done being respectful. I was done being civil. On his bed was a blonde in black lingerie.
“Spencer… Who’s that?” Her voice was so high-pitched and sugar sweet it made me sick. Never mind that her body was an exact replica of a Victoria’s Secret model, with curves in all the right places.
“Get out, bitch,” Spencer barked toward me.
“Give me my necklace.” I faced him and I could feel the pulse in my temples.
His left eyebrow arched ever so slightly. Oh, he was definitely playing games with me.
“Hand it over,” I said.
“Get out before I call security,” he said.
“I’ll tell them you stole my necklace.” I folded my arms in front of my chest as I watched Miss Perfect Victoria’s Secret scurry to get her black silk robe on.
“I’ll tell them this is a lover’s quarrel. With me being the new owner of this hotel, whose side do you think they’ll be on?” He stepped toward me, threateningly.
“You touch me, and I’ll scream,” I said.
He looked me up and down. “You look like shit, Ellie. Seriously…”
That was not the time to use my name. Instead of calming me, my name on his lips only flamed my anger.
“Why did you fire me today?” I asked. “I needed this job to pay for my college tuition.”
“I can’t have you work at my hotel,” he said. “Not looking like that.”
I knew that he knew that I knew that wasn’t the real reason he had dismissed me. But I also knew that he would never admit to anything when it came to me and that discussing this was pointless.
“Just… just give me my necklace and we can part ways,” I said.
“I don’t know what necklace you’re talking about,” he said.
I stared at him, scheming about what to do next. Murder was definitely on the top of the what-to-do-next list. But I settled on stubbornness.
I took off my boots and raincoat and sat on the bed. I knew how much he loved sex, and if he wasn’t going to give me back what was rightfully mine, I was going to be the biggest cock-blocker he’d ever seen.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m not leaving until you give me my necklace,” I said.
His nostrils flared, something I’d never seen before. It was a sign of frustration on his usually calm, I-don’t-give-a-shit face. Good. I was getting to him. Finally. After all these years I could make him react. His reaction pleased me more than I could express.
“Emma. I need you to leave,” he said without taking his eyes off me.
“Spencer…” The Victoria’s Secret model look-alike said.
“You heard me.” He shot her a glance that would have chilled me to the bone had it been directed at me. Oh, he was pissed.
She remained calm, poised even, and proceeded to get dressed, after which she headed out the door with her head held high. The door slammed shut behind her.
Spencer stared at me as if he was scheming for my demise. And perhaps he was. Come to think of it, it seemed that was his only mode with me.
He walked over to the floor to ceiling windows and looked out. His back was broad, tan, and muscular and I found my hands twitching, desiring to explore every peak and groove. Ugh! Why did he always have this effect on me? Not wanting to let my mind run wild, I trained my gaze to the floor. Focus, Ellie. Focus.
“I’ll give you back your necklace.” He turned to face me, not a shadow of kindness shining through his harsh features.
For a split second, I couldn’t believe my ears and I thought that maybe something had knocked some sense into him. But the longer he stared at me, the more I realized there had to be strings attached—major strings attached—to his comment. Strings I somehow felt deep in my gut were too severe for me to agree to.
“What do you want?” I asked.
He raised an evil eyebrow. “I was going to return it to you for nothing. But since you’re offering.”
“You were not.” I rolled my eyes big time and huffed. But seriously. How could I not?
“Are you rolling your eyes at me?” He walked toward me like a tiger chasing its prey. The energy in the room dropped like deadweight and suddenly I was unable to breathe. His black eyes, oh, how I remembered them. And suddenly, I knew I was in a situation where my willpower was melting away faster than an ice cream cone on a hot Arizona day.
“Just give me my necklace and I’ll be out of your life forever,” I said.
“What if I don’t want you out of my life?” he asked, slinking toward me. He was two feet away now and I had to retreat back into the hallway. His closeness was too overwhelming, and every cell in my body vibrated with awareness of him.
“Stop,” I said.
“What if I want you in my life?” he asked.
“Stop.” That familiar draw that I had tried to for the past few years forget about took hold of me, threatening to unravel me at the basest level.
“Just one night, Ellie,” he said. “Then we can part ways as friends. Not enemies.”
“You’re not my enemy. You’re nothing to me.” My voice sounded feeble at best.
“I can see how you look at me. When I was turned away from you, I could feel your eyes burning into my back. It’s still there. This raw, insane attraction.”
He lifted a hand and I should have known better than to let him touch me. But I didn’t move. I couldn’t move. His hand lightly caressed my cheek and where his fingertips went, he left a burning trail of fire.
“Your skin… always so soft.” He stepped closer, and now I could feel the heat of his bare chest against my face.
“Just give me my necklace. Please,” I begged.
“Let me fuck you. Then I’ll give it to you.”
His words felt like a soccer ball in the gut. He was holding my most precious possession ransom, making me choose between prostituting myself and my grandmother’s necklace. It was a sick request, a sordid one. But with how turned on I was, I almost considered giving into him.
However, in these past few years, I’d learned a few things. Like how to be true to my values. How to not let a sexy body and handsome face make me do things I knew I shouldn’t. And to not let a wolf in sheep’s clothing fool me into anything.
I slapped his hand away, spun on my heel, and stormed out of the suite. I’d have to find some other way to get my necklace back. Just as the door slammed shut, I heard Spencer call my name. I hated hearing my name on his lips. It reminded me of the first time he had spoken it… It was the night of my eighteenth birthday, when he thoroughly, unequivocally, connivingly shattered my heart…