Stay for Me (11 page)

“I get it. Not my favorite bit of news
today,” she said.

He returned to his stare-down with the
door.

Chapter Nine

Sam eyed the damn chair.

If he could, he’d rip it out of the
floor and go pay Luka a visit. See how he liked being tied up and forgotten
about. Forget about Boulder City. The busiest corner on the Vegas strip sounded
like the perfect place to desert him.

“Sam?
You still here
with me?
I know you’ve come up with a few already, but please forget the
plans you’ve probably made for him. This is one I really want to forget.”

Then he didn’t have a choice, really. That’s
what he’d do—for now. Sam bit his molars together and then softened for her.
“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Good, you promised me something,
remember?”

“
Wha
—?
How can you even stand it in here?”

“Well, I think I’ve realized that’s the
point.”

“Come again. What is?”

“You.
Me. The fact we
can
now and we want to.
At least…
I…do. I love these guys and this place.
Even Ellen, because even though she wanted to suspend you, it was
because she was worried about your well-being.”
Emma’s fingers gently
touched over the circles under his eyes. If he could, he would stop time and
just hold her here and now. But they didn’t have that luxury. He wanted to tell
her but she kept on. “And if I do want to take over for her someday, I need to
be able to embrace what this room really stands for. Not fear or hate it. Sam,
you’re the only guy I trust that much to show me the experience every woman
wants when she bravely comes back here.

“I want that
S
to stand for
special
,
not
scared
. I want to walk past it to
my office and blush, and think ‘Sam stayed for me in there’. Can we make that
happen? Please, Sam. I realize now, I need this.
With you.
Only with you.
Right now.”

Damn, her words were stealing his
breath, his will to do the right thing and get her dressed and out of here. The
thing was
,
he believed her with every shred of his
being. But she had no idea about the situation Gabe had brought to his
attention.

Please
don’t hate me for this, Emma.

No. He couldn’t ask this from her. She
trusted him. She’d just plainly stated he was the only one. Damn that she
needed it so badly to happen in this room.

“We can’t.”

“Oh, Okay. It’s okay,” she stuttered.
He’d hurt her, again. “I shouldn’t have pushed. I’ll let myself out. You should…you
should go.” She turned her back to him, cutting all the way to his heart.

Her words were random, short bits of
lies.

“You don’t understand, Emma. We can’t
stay in this room. Not alone. We ran out of time. I didn’t want us to run out
of time. I was willing to stay in here. I swear.” He went over to where she’d
retreated to and rested his hand on her shoulder. She shrugged out of his touch,
but he was persistent and reached for her again. “I need this, too.”

That got her to turn around. For the
first time tonight, her eyes were wet.

“Then stay. Do this with me,” she said.
The tears didn’t fall, but they were there.

He looked again at the door.
If there was any other way.
Any other room she needed him to
make better for her. “Damn. We’re out of options. The only one left requires
you to trust one other person,” he said, visibly startling her. “Can you do
that?”

Chapter Ten

“Um, hi?
Gabe?” she said
and pulled whatever else she could find that was lying on the floor to cover
herself up. “Sam? What’s going on?”

“Tell me you hate me for this and I’ll
send him out. I promise,” Sam said, meaning every word.

“Well, okay, but I have no idea what
‘this’ is,” she said.

“The three of us have to hang out in
here for a while,” he told her, feeling like a teenager again with ass for brains.
Did he really think he was going to be able to suggest they carry on while Gabe
sat in the corner? Emma currently sat with her legs folded to the best of their
ability and had moved to one of the far walls. He ached to go be by her side. This
idiotic act of his lost him that right.

“O-kay.
How long?” she
asked.

“Until Donovan and Jay leave for the
night,” Gabe added for him. “Sorry. It was the best I could do to keep your
business private. They think I’m in here on a meet-n-greet.”

The three of them looked at the wall
clock. It was ten-thirty. Donovan would cut out early. Jay, however, always stuck
around in the photo area until every last one of the show patrons had been
greeted, thanked, and hugged. They could be here until midnight.

He watched her face fall. He knew that
look.
Disappointment.
It hadn’t changed in the ten
years he’d known her.

Sam exchanged looks with Gabe who nonchalantly
popped earbuds in and slid over to the farthest corner, then sat and closed his
eyes. Except for the slight movement of his head swaying to the music, he
looked like he’d fallen asleep on command. It was an old trick of the trade
that most soldiers learned quickly, but Sam wasn’t sure if this was just a show
for their benefit. Not that it mattered. He wouldn’t be reckless with Emma ever
again.
Having Gabe in the room while working through intimacy
issues with Emma fell into that category.

Ten feet away she sat.

Why did he still want her so
desperately? It couldn’t happen now. No matter that she’d laid her feelings out
on the line before he’d
peeked
his head out to check
in with Gabe.

Please,
Sam. I realize now, I need this.
With you.
Only with you.
Right now.

Sam walked over to her and sat down
because it was physically impossible for him to stay away. She was his best
friend. He found her hand and she let him hold it. He kissed her cheek, then
turned back to face front, feeling her breathing through the rise and fall of
her arm that touched his.

So lightly he barely heard it, she
whispered something.

“Hmm?
I couldn’t hear
you, hon,” he said and leaned into her more. The second her lips touched his
ear, his body reacted in the same way it had before.
With
desperate, years-old desire.
A protective instinct added another layer
to his feelings for her.

“I said, I still
need you.
Tonight.
Now.
In here.”

Together, they glanced over at Gabe who
looked like a sleeping statue. Not even a bob or sway came from his musically
engulfed head. Sam shook his head. “I won’t do this to you, Emma.”

“What if I told you I wanted you to? And
I trust you, no matter what.”

He’d say she was out of her mind.

Just then he realized that was the
problem.

Without this closure—over their past,
over this room’s ugly reminder—she’d never be in her right mind.

****

Ten
minutes later…

“Gabe is snoring. See, he’s asleep.
We’re practically alone,” she said.

“Can I ask you something?” He didn’t
wait for an okay. “Why does this have to happen tonight?”

She blinked and looked down at her
hands. “This room—”

“No, I know. I get the
where
part. And I want more than
anything to leave you with good memories to replace the bad ones. But I could
come back another night. You know, we could reserve the room next week. I’m not
an employee here anymore. We wouldn’t have to sneak around. It doesn’t have to
be tonight. I don’t understand.”

“Now it’s my turn to stop you, Sam. As
much as I love everyone here like family, I still need a private life. This
room, it’s not about…oh, I don’t know how to say this to you because I have no
idea where we’re at,
with
whatever it is we are to
each other.”

“We’re best friends, Emma. Tell me. This
room, it’s not about what?”

She blew out and let her head loll
against his. “This room isn’t about couples. It’s not about relationships. It’s
about who you are before that.
The part of you who’s intrigued
by the possibilities.
The fantasy.
The person
inside who is still brave enough to explore and then take the leap because you
still have it in you to trust wholeheartedly that your fantasy is exactly what
you dreamed it would be. This room is about the magical place before anything
is made real. At least that’s the way I saw it before…him. That’s what I
imagine it being, again.
After you.”

“You’re brave, Emma Chester. The bravest
girl I know.” He rubbed her knuckles with his thumb.

“Sam, I took that leap in here once
before. The unknown slapped me in the face with a barbwire-laced palm full of
hurt.” She shied away from him. “It was so ugly, that feeling he left me with.
I wanted so badly to go crying to you. You’ve always been my rock. You’ve always
been the one I wanted to…but I couldn’t.”

“What are you not telling me?”

Seconds passed.

“Emma, come on,” he pleaded.

“Maybe I have hopes for something more.
With you, after you leave here tonight. Something a little more
like
boyfriend and girlfriend.”

Her skin felt warm under his constant
rubbing. His thumb couldn’t stop.

“Maybe I feel like we’re this close,”
she said to him and held her fingers up showing the teeny-tiny fraction of
space between her thumb and index finger indicating how close she thought they
were. “I’m scared. I don’t want to let myself love you that much, in that way,
until I know.”

“Wow. I’m…thank you for being honest.”

“I don’t want to hide anything from you
ever again,” she said.

“Emma, until you know what?” Sam asked.

“You caught that.” She sighed, wishing
he hadn’t,
then
exhaled loudly. Her sniffle caught his
ear. “I can’t handle falling for you again until I know for sure whether we’re
going to work, as lovers.” Not for her sake, but for his. “I need it to be
tonight because,” she held up her fingers again to show how close they
were
, “I’m about one breath away from falling madly in love
with you again. But if this isn’t
gonna
work…”

“I want it to work, Emma.” His jaw
looked tight as steel. Determination was hard at work in his eyes. “I want it
to work,” he practically breathed out the words.

“Then hear me one last time. I trust
you. So much so that there could be a hundred other people in here, a thousand
more bad memories needing erased right now, or just you, me, Gabe, and the one
bad night. I trust you, Sam. I need this.”

Sam glanced to a sleeping Gabe propped
in the corner of the room.

“Take off my clothes, hon. I want to be
stripped by you,” he said.

Emma’s words to him earlier about what
the club should be hit home. She wanted something real with him but she needed
assurances that this time the fantasy wouldn’t blow up in her face. She had no
idea the thrill that gave him. His only job right now was to show her.

Except for this.
He had to tell
her this.

“So, after I prove to you how good the
fantasy is, I hope you’re planning on letting me stick around for the reality
part.” He had a feeling that’s where the real fun would begin. Looking at her
sitting there after just having unleashed a gallon of raw truth on him, admitting
things that stole his air, he knew he was that close, too. That’s why his heart
was currently lodged in his throat. She’d just plainly stated that if they
couldn’t be together physically, there could be no relationship. Maybe he’d
felt that, too. Maybe that’s why he’d strung her along at this job that kept
them together but apart. Knowing they were meant to take their friendship-love
to the next level had scared the crap out of him, because maybe it would never
work.

He couldn’t lose Emma, and something
inside told him it would be damn hard to go back to being just friends after
this.

Things had to work between them.

And it had to happen now, before she
leaped right out of his grasp and he lost her for good.

Her fingers fell gently from the top of
his head, skimmed down his sideburns, and left his jaw aching in their wake.

“Let’s don’t think too much,” she said
softly.

Her dainty fingers pressed into his
pecs
, leaving indentations.

“Okay,” he said and caught her head
twist in Gabe’s direction. Sam cupped her chin in his hand and pulled her face
back to his.
“Just you and me.”