Authors: Kori Roberts
“Well, this one didn’t start off as an out-of-state job.” Nick forced his voice to sound casual. “Mr. Erickson was living down in Beloit until a few weeks ago.”
Nick finished packing up the truck, avoiding eye contact with Noah, hating that he wasn’t being completely honest with his brother.
“Besides,” he continued, “I’ve been training Mandi since she was a puppy. I figured the least I could do is see her off to her new home. Right, Mandi girl?” That much was true. Everybody knew Mandi was one of his favorites out of all the dogs they currently had at the training facility, and he was going to miss her. He reached in to pet the dog again. She made little whimpering barking noises, nuzzling and licking his hand.
He turned to see Noah still watching him closely. Finally, Noah sighed. “Well, I don’t have another training session or a client until tomorrow afternoon. You want some company?”
“No, I’m good,” Nick said quickly. “I’m just dropping her off and heading right back.”
He climbed into the truck and tried not to seem too anxious to leave. “Listen bro, I gotta go. I got a client coming to see one of the dogs first thing in the morning, so I need to get out of here if I’m going to make it back in time.”
Noah just looked at him for a moment before he finally backed away from the truck.
“Yeah…okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Cool. Later.” Nick drove off down the road, glancing in his rearview mirror at Noah, who was still standing there watching him. Noah knew him too well, and Nick was sure that he suspected something was up. Nick just wasn’t ready to tell him yet.
Hell, what was he going to say, anyway? That he’d met a woman who was so
incredible, so unbelievable, that she had completely and thoroughly turned him inside out and ruined him for anybody else?
Nick snorted. Not likely. Noah would probably never let him hear the end of how he’d gotten himself pussy whipped by a woman.
And that’s exactly what he was. It had been three weeks since he’d met Rylee.
Although their schedules had been so busy they hadn’t had a chance to see each other again, they’d talked to each other on the phone every night since that first weekend together.
When Nick heard about this delivery to Chicago, he jumped at it. It gave him the chance to finally see Rylee again, and the perfect excuse to be in Chicago without feeling like
he needed to explain himself to Noah, from whom he’d just end up hearing a lot of shit about him being stupid for chasing a piece of ass.
Not that Noah could say anything that would change his mind. Nick had spent that weekend having the best sex of his life with the most amazing woman he’d ever met. He knew after only being around her for a couple of days that Rylee was a woman who had her shit together. And the time they’d spent talking together since then only confirmed his beliefs.
A woman like Rylee could have any man she wanted, and Nick knew that he probably had no right to think he was anywhere near good enough for anything serious with her. But it didn’t stop him from wanting to be with her all the same.
Nick didn’t know what type of sorry assholes Rylee had dated in the past, couldn’t comprehend how they could let a woman like her get away. But as far as he was concerned, their loss was his gain, and he had no intention of repeating their mistakes. They may have been too dumb to see it, but Nick knew that Rylee was a woman of worth; someone he wanted to be with long-term.
No, Nick definitely wasn’t over Rylee, and he had no intention of trying to get over her. In fact, he was on his way to Chicago to make sure that a certain redhead knew exactly how he felt.
The past week had been pure hell for Rylee. The hotel was packed with guests
attending two large conventions in town, and Murphy’s Law had been in full effect, causing one catastrophe after another.
She’d been running around putting out so many fires, it had been three days since she’d seen her bed for more than hour-long catnaps.
Finally, she’d gotten the chance to be away from work for longer than it took to use the toilet, feeling thankful for the first time ever that she was so pathetic that she actually lived in the same hotel where she worked. She only had to ride up the elevator a few floors to get home.
When she got there, however, the last thing she’d expected — or wanted — was to have to stand in the middle of her living room floor and explain to her ex-fiancé, yet again, why she’d rather step into oncoming traffic than get back together with him.
“Dammit, Rylee, I just don’t get it.” Ethan’s expression was a mixture of confusion and irritation. “You’re acting like I asked you to do something that you’d never done before. We included other people during sex many times, and you never seemed to have a problem with it before. I can’t understand why it was such an issue for you this time.” And that’s the problem. Rylee just stared at Ethan. She was fresh out of ways to explain to someone who was more than old enough to know better that there was a time and a place for most things, and there was some shit that should just never happen at all.
Rylee knew that when it came to sex, she would never be mistaken for a prude. She was the first to admit that she’d enjoyed the sex games she and Ethan had played with each other, and with others during the two years they’d been together.
But even she had limits. Some things just went too far and crossed too many lines. And finding her fiancé tongue fucking another woman the night before they were supposed to get married was one of them.
“Ethan, listen to me.” She struggled to stay calm. “I haven’t slept in days. I have a headache, I’m hungry…”
“You know, I can help you with all of those if you just give me a chance.” Ethan gave her what was supposed to be his most charming smile, and it only managed to piss her off even more.
“You know what? You can save your caring routine for somebody who gives a shit, okay?” she finally snapped. “You never worried about my needs before, so do us both a favor and don’t act like you give a damn now.”
“Fine.” He glared at her. “If that’s how you feel, I’ll just get my things and be on my way.” He headed toward the bedroom, and Rylee stepped in his path.
“All of your crap is in boxes in there.” She pointed to the hall closet. “You can take it, or I can trash it. It makes no difference to me. Either way, you’re out of here in ten minutes.”
She turned and walked back to her bedroom.
*
Nick knocked on the door, trying to control his rising anxiety, suddenly rethinking his decision to show up, uninvited, on Rylee’s doorstep. He knew he was taking a chance, but he’d just wanted to see her so damn bad that he decided it was worth the risk.
The front desk clerk had already told him that Rylee was off duty, and he just hoped that she was home. He was about to knock again when the door suddenly opened, and he found himself staring into the face of some pissed-off looking man.
“What do you want?” The man demanded. His cool, gray eyes were sizing Nick up.
“I’m looking for Rylee.” Nick tried hard not to get a little pissy himself.
The man’s eyes narrowed at the mention of Rylee’s name. “What do you want with my fiancée? Oh, wait. You must be a new employee here, right?”
He didn’t wait for Nick’s response before he continued, his tone cold and
condescending.
“Well, let me explain something to you. Her name is Ms. Putnam to you, not Rylee.
And these are Ms. Putnam’s personal living quarters. Staff is not to disturb her when she’s here, unless it’s an emergency. Understood?”
Nick was thankful that he’d gone into shock after he’d heard the word ‘fiancée,’
otherwise, he’d be beating this motherfucker into the carpet. Rylee was engaged? And to this asswipe? No. She couldn’t be. He refused to believe that she would spend nearly an entire month lying about wanting to build a relationship with him when she was already engaged to someone else.
“Hey! Are you listening to me?” One finger poked him in the chest, and he just lost it.
Before he knew it, he’d grabbed the prick by the throat and slammed him against the door.
“You put that fucking finger anywhere near me again, and I will chew it off and spit it down your goddamned throat. Got it, pussy?”
Gurgling sounds poured from the man’s lips, his face changing from red to purple in mere seconds, his fingers frantically struggling to loosen Nick’s hold on him. “Nick! Let him go! You’re going to kill him!”
The sound of Rylee’s voice, filled with shock and fear, finally made him release the man, who promptly collapsed to the floor and gasped for air.
“I’m going to make sure you’re fired after this,” he managed to choke out.
Nick laughed bitterly, looking into Rylee’s terror-stricken face. “Don’t bother. I was just the weekend coverage anyway.”
*
Shortly after Rylee had left Ethan to collect his things, she heard voices coming from the living room. She couldn’t believe her eyes when she walked out to find Nick with his hand wrapped around Ethan’s throat. Ethan’s feet dangled a good three inches off the floor, and his face had turned a deep shade of purple.
She didn’t want to imagine what would have happened if she hadn’t come out of her room when she did. It didn’t look like Nick had any intention of letting Ethan go anytime soon.
Before she even had a chance to feel excited that the man who had consumed her every thought, dream, and fantasy during the last three weeks was finally standing in her living room again, he turned to walk out, without so much as acknowledging her.
“Nick, wait!” She started toward him, but he turned around and gave her a look filled with so much contempt, hurt, and anger, it froze her in place and damn near stopped her heart, before he stormed out the door.
“That crazy bastard.” Ethan struggled to stand up, his voice sounded raw and hoarse. “I should fucking press charges.”
She whirled on him. “What the fuck did you say to him, Ethan?” She yelled, her fury barely contained, her hands itching to beat the shit out of him. “You’re worried about him? I’m the one he almost killed. What kind of people are you hiring at this damn hotel, anyway?”
“Nick doesn’t work here, and you damn well know it!”
Ethan looked at her in shock for a moment. “Oh, my God!” His head fell back in laughter. “Are you kidding me? You’re fucking that kid?”
“That kid gave me more orgasms in two days than you ever did in the entire two years we were together. Fucking asshole!” She grabbed her purse and keys off the table by the door.
“Be gone by the time I get back,” she told him, seething, as she walked out the door, “or I’ll finish what Nick started myself.”
Nick walked down the street, too overwhelmed to focus long enough to figure out where he was going. He just needed to put as much space as possible between him, that hotel, that woman, and her asshole man. He must have been out of his fucking mind to have come here.
He turned the corner when he got to Wacker Drive, and he could see the Merchandise Mart a few blocks away. He remembered going with Noah to a bar across the street from there. The place had good food and even better drinks, and he headed in that direction. He needed a drink in the worst way at the moment.
“Nick!” He tensed at the sound of Rylee’s voice behind him, but kept walking.
“Nick, please!” He could tell she was getting closer, could hear the sound of her heels against the pavement, but he ignored it; ignored her.
“Goddammit Nick, would you just wait a moment!” Rylee ran up behind him and
grabbed him by the arm.
She huffed out a breath. “Listen, I’m sorry about what happened back there, okay? I don’t know what Ethan said to you —” “Oh, your fiancé made it perfectly clear that I had no business bothering you.” He glared down at her.
“Is that what he told you?” She looked incredulous. “He’s lying. He’s not my fiancé!”
“Oh, yeah? Does he know that? Because he seemed pretty fucking sure that you were!”
He was yelling, so angry that he was oblivious to the scene they were causing in the middle of the sidewalk.
“Damn, Rylee, I never would have thought you were the type who was so desperate for a man that you’d be willing to settle for a piece of shit like that.”
He looked her up and down, his expression filled with disdain. “But then, you gave it up to me after only a couple of hours, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.”
Rylee’s hand whipped out and slapped him hard across the face.
“Fuck you!” She slapped him again. “Who in the hell do you think you are? Just because we fucked and talk on the phone, you suddenly think you know me well enough to pass judgment on me? You don’t know shit!”
Nick regretted his words as soon as they left his mouth. Seeing the anguished look on Rylee’s face, watching those beautiful amber eyes fill with tears, hurt him more than her hand ever could. He felt sick, knowing he’d gone too far.
Rylee turned to walk away, and he reached for her arm. “Rylee, wait. I —”
“Don’t!” Rylee snatched her arm away. “I have enough shit in my life, Nick. I don’t need more from you.” She turned and headed back toward the hotel.
“Rylee, please.” Nick caught up with her and pulled her back against his chest. His arms wrapped tightly around her and refused to let go, even as she struggled against him.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered into her hair, repeating the apology over and over again, holding onto her until she finally calmed down.
“I didn’t lie to you, Nick,” she said softly, her response barely audible over the noise around them. “I broke up with Ethan a month before I met you.” Nick turned her to face him and cupped her face with his hands. He rested his forehead against hers. “You still love him?” He looked directly into her eyes, almost afraid of her answer.
“No.” Her response was immediate, without any hesitation, her gaze never looking away from his.
“I believe you.” They just stood there, each drinking in the sight of the other, his thumbs caressing her jawline. Finally, he tilted her head up and kissed her, slow and easy, reveling in the feel of her, the taste of her again.