Red Hot Rose Boxed Set (19 page)

I pushed away the warm and cuddly feelings his grand statement had generated and stared at him like he had two heads.

He swiped at his forehead, pretending to be nervous.
 
“What?
 
Is it my hair?”
 
It made him seem much less intimidating, almost silly.
 
And that just made me cranky seeing him get all charming and cute that way.
 
He was supposed to stay mean, pushy, and somewhat callous; it would make it so much easier to walk away.

“Shut up, Alexander, you know why I’m looking at you like this.
 
You’ve obviously lost your mind.”
 
Angrily, I struggled to disentangle myself from the sheets, casting my eyes about the room for my missing clothes.
 
The black dress and my underthings were draped neatly over a chair on the other side of the room.

He lost his playful mood in a second, and went back to being the businessman I’d met at the party.
 
“I can assure you, I’m perfectly sane.”
 

I frowned at him, measuring the distance between the bed and the clothes.
 
For some reason, even though we’d just shared the most intimate moment I’d ever had with another person in my life, I didn’t want him to see me walking across the room naked.

“Stop looking at your clothes.
 
I’m not letting you leave yet.”

That pissed me off, feeling like I had no say in what I was doing or where I was.
 
Something in me snapped, and my previous timidity disappeared in a flash.
 
I flung the sheets off and stood in front of him at the side of the bed.
 
“Listen,
Alex
.
 
I appreciate the whole he-man thing in bed, but that crap doesn’t cut it for me anywhere else, you got it?”
 
I had my finger up in his face, almost hoping he’d challenge me.
 
I was ready for a fight.
 
All this emotion was apparently making me crazy.
 
This hot-headed temper thing was new for me, but I was going with it, letting it fuel my escape.

He held his hands up in surrender, taking a step back.
 
“Hey, no harm meant.”
 
He gestured to the clothes.
 
“Go ahead and get dressed.
 
We’ll have breakfast and discuss it.”
 
He was using his negotiating voice again.

I strode over to the chair, quickly strapping my bra on and stepping into my panties, ignoring the sensitive spot the string was going to be rubbing on soon.
 
The dress was next, over my head and zipped up by me with no help from porn-star guy, even though he was looking like he wanted to come over and do it for me.
 
A warning glance in his direction kept him rooted to the spot.

Turning to face him again, I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly while carefully considering my next words.

“Stop right there,” he said before I could say anything, walking towards me.

I tried to keep my eyes on his face, but his swinging dick made it impossible.
 
I felt my color rise as the full appreciation for that magic wand settled in - the one that had held me enthralled when I should have been flying out of there like a bat out of hell.
 
Holy crap, I can’t believe he did all that stuff to me with that.
 
My eyes roamed up from there to his trim waist and tightly-sculpted torso.
 
A light sprinkling of dark hair across his chest drew my eyes back down the trail of it that led past his belly button and then lower.
 
His body was better than a Greek god’s; he was like one of those fitness magazine models, but with so much money to his name he didn’t know what to do with it.
 
The ugly painting on the wall directly behind him probably cost more than my scooter had brand new.
 
Seeing all of this together in one spot made me wonder for the hundredth time what he was doing with me of all people.

“You’ve got that look on your face again,” he said.

“What look?” I asked, backing up a step, trying to keep some distance between us.

“The one that says you’re going to try and resist me.”
 
He stopped a few feet away from me.

“Yes.
 
I am, as a matter of fact.
 
You’re being ridiculous.
 
Obviously you got caught up in the … booty love or whatever, and got a little nuts.
 
I totally get that, believe me.
 
But we need to just come back down to earth and be real for a minute, okay?
 
Or an hour.
 
Or how about a year?
 
Because this …” I gestured at him and me and the space between us, “… whatever it is … is not going to work.”
 
I shook my head at the unrealness of it all.

He said nothing.
 
He just stared at me.

Instead of waiting for a response that I knew would never make sense to me and would likely just make me more upset, I leaned down and grabbed my shoes from the floor, walking quickly to the door and ignoring his stony expression.

“It’s not like that, Rose,” he said angrily at my back.

“Yes it is.”
 
I grabbed the handle and pulled the door open.
 
“Thanks for taking care of me when I’d obviously had too much to drink.
 
I’m not really sure why you brought me here and not to my apartment, but whatever.
 
I have to go.”
 
I left the room, slamming the door behind me.
 
Walking quickly down the hall and then the stairs, I stopped only long enough to grab my purse off a table on the landing and shove my feet into my sandals before continuing to the front door.

I stepped out the front door and was surprised to see my roommate’s car pulling into the driveway.
 
What the hell?
 
I walked over slowly as it pulled even with me, trying to figure out how she’d known to come and where I’d be.
 
The passenger window rolled down as she came to stop.

“Hey, chickie!!
 
Sorry I’m late!
 
Come on, lezz go!”

She grinned so hard it was almost painful to look at her, especially when life was such a big pile of crap for me right now.
 
I swallowed the sob that wanted to leap out of my throat.

She frowned.
 
“What’s
that
face for?
 
Who pooped in your corn flakes?”
 
She gestured impatiently at me.
 
“Come on, come on, we have places to go, people to see, things to do!
 
You can tell me on the way.”

I came down the steps, and opened the passenger door, glancing back at the closed entrance to the huge house.
 
A stupid piece of me almost expected Alexander to come running out to stop me from leaving and declare his undying love.
 
Yeah, right
, I scoffed at myself.
 
Grow up.

I sighed, getting in and slamming the car door shut.
 
The clock on the dashboard said nine-thirty in the morning.
 
“Take me back to the apartment,” I said grouchily, wrestling with my seatbelt while staring out the window.

“Sorry, babe.
 
No can do.”
 
She patted my leg before shifting into first gear.
 
“But don’t worry!
 
I’ve got everything aaaaall arranged.
 
You’re going to be feeling better in no time flat, I promise.”

I turned to her, now concerned I’d blown her off.
 
“You’re worrying me right now.
 
Did we have some sort of plan for something that I’ve totally forgotten?
 
I had a lot to drink last night.
 
Total blackout.”
 
I shook my head, so disappointed in myself.
 
“I can’t be held responsible.”
 
I pulled my cell phone out of my bag and started pressing buttons to find my text messages.
 
I have been known to tipsy-text once or twice in the past.
 
Maybe I’d told her to come pick me up and take me somewhere.
 
I had to figure out how much apologizing was in order.

“You can’t be held responsible for what?” she asked.

I looked over in time to see an evil grin fixed firmly in place on her way-too-happy face.

“Were you a bad girl last night?” she asked, glancing down at her phone as we sat at a stop sign, responding to a text she’d just received.

My aching butt said
definitely yes
.
 
And my heart was in full agreement.
 
“Let’s just say that whatever happened last night, is never
ever
going to happen again.”

Jessica turned onto the main road, still smiling like a lunatic.
 
“Never say never.
 
Never
ever
say never ever.”

She giggled at her own wit, ignoring the rest of my dirty looks and complaints all the way to the spa where she’d booked us a day of beauty and relaxation.
 
All of it apparently paid for - tip included - by none other than Alexander Blackstone.

“He said he wanted you to be relaxed and ready for your first week on the team, and my job is to make sure that happens,” said Jessica, pushing me forward into the lobby.
 
“He texted me last night super late,
and
he apparently emailed some important people so that they’d clear a spot for us here today.
 
Normally this place is packed for weeks in advance.”

The fountain lightly trickling the sparkling water over smooth rocks worked in perfect harmony with the Japanese-style music playing softly in the background.
 
Jessica adopted her best science fiction bad guy voice as we made our way up to the front desk, walking backwards and staring at me with her head down.
 
“Resistance.
 
Is.
 
Futile.”

I went along with her because I was just too tired to fight, and feeling too sorry for myself to think up any valid arguments against relaxing.
 
I stood at the reception counter, my eyes roaming absently around the comfortably cool space as Jessica chatted with the lady checking us in.
 
Her voice faded into the background as my brain shifted over to contemplating the big mess I’d made of my life in such a short period of time.
 
Obviously, Alex had arranged all of this before I’d screwed it up by going too far and before I’d majorly blown him off.
 
He was probably regretting this spa-day right this very second.
 
I sighed.
 
Thank goodness my roommate has money.
 
He’s probably going to refuse to pay.
 
Without her, I’d be washing dishes to get out of here.
 
Do they even have dishes to wash?
 
Maybe I’d have to wash towels or robes …

My morose train of thought was interrupted by my way-too-enthusiastic roommate.
 
“Come on, mopeyhead.
 
Let’s go get spoiled.”

I let her drag me along to the locker rooms.
 
“I’m not a mopeyhead.”

“Shush.
 
No more talking unless it’s to tell me all the dirty bad-girl things you did with mister hot and sexy.”

I rolled my eyes, not just to let her know how stupid I thought her topic of conversation was, but also so I wouldn’t start crying.
 
I’d really screwed things up in an epic way.
 
Regret sucked.

We were floating in the salt-water pool under an already blazing morning sun when the interrogation began.

“All right, that’s enough of the pity party,” declared Jessica.
 
“Tell me everything.
 
And leave nothing out, or I’ll let my imagination run wild, and that’s never a good thing.”

“No, I’m not telling you any of it.
 
It’s too embarrassing.”
 
I could feel the shame heating up my face even more than the sun’s rays already had.
 
The water was doing nothing to cool it down, either.

“Blow job?” she asked, fishing for information a little too loudly.

I sat up in the water, some of it sloshing over my face into my eyes.
 
I recovered quickly and splashed in her direction.
 
“
Shhhh!
 
Do you want someone to hear you?”

“I don’t care who hears me ...
 
Blow job!”
she said louder.

“Errrgh!
 
I’m
not
telling you
anything
if you’re going to blab it out to the world.”
 
I went back to floating, swirling my hands in circles to move myself farther away from her.
 
I now felt perfectly justified in keeping these secrets to myself.
 
No way could I risk anyone but her knowing my shame, and I was in no hurry for her to know it either, even though a part of me was dying to figure out if I really had killed the spark that I’d felt for a brief moment between Alex and me - not the hot sexy spark, but the sweet one.
 
The one that had my heart going pitter patter and my schoolgirl brain dreaming of something more than just sleeping together and doing
the deed.
 
Jessica was really good at reading people and situations, so I wanted to hear her opinion; but that would have to include telling her
all
the details, and I just wasn’t even sure I wanted to think too hard about them myself, let alone allow my crazy roommate to analyze them.