Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 66330 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66330 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
My nerves were jumping all up and down my spine as I turned the knob and pushed the door open slowly, half expecting to see him glaring back at me from the other side, asking what the fuck I thought I was doing. The room was empty though. Wide and spare. The dark gray flooring continued throughout. A king-sized bed that looked like something you’d find in a luxury hotel stood against one wall. It had crisp white sheets folded over a dark gray comforter. There was a sliding glass door that led out to the wrap around patio against one wall. Two armchairs with a small table between them in one corner. There was some sort of fern on the small table, but other than that, the room was curiously bare. It really did look like a hotel room instead of someone’s bedroom.
Maybe that was why I felt emboldened to walk in. To walk all the way to the sliding glass doors and peek out through the wooden blinds at the view. That was where I was standing when I heard the elevator doors slide open in the lobby.
Panic balled itself up and lodged in my throat. I froze for a few crucial moments, ridiculous ideas running through my head. I could hide under the bed. No, there was no dust ruffle. He’d see me. I could try to let myself out onto the patio, but there was no way he wouldn’t hear me. And what was my plan after that, exactly? To hide out there until he left for work tomorrow morning? I turned around, threw one panicked look at the bathroom, then flew across the room.
I didn’t need to hide. I had a reason to be here. I just couldn’t be caught in his bedroom. But my delay had cost me. I was just stepping out of the room when Con appeared at the mouth of the short hallway.
My mouth went dry at the sight of him. He’d never looked taller, broader, more imposing. There was a darkly incredulous look spreading across his face as he registered what door I was trying to pull shut behind me.
“Lily,” he said, his voice almost pleasant but for the iron undertone. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
17
CON
Maureen texted me when I was at happy hour.
Courier arrived with a package. Contract(?). Sent Lily to your place with it. It’ll be on your desk.
“Something the matter?” Landon asked astutely, seeing the expression on my face change.
“Nothing.” I shoved my phone back in my pocket and picked up my beer. I tried to listen to whatever Dominic was saying, but my mind was warped by the image of Lily in my space. I had to keep my muscles tensed to keep them from springing into action and carrying me home to intercept her. It would be very, very stupid to try.
I downed my beer.
Or maybe I needed to go home and make sure she understood in no uncertain terms that she was never to come back. I didn’t care if God himself ordered her to drop something off at my place, she had better leave it with the fucking concierge.
And then I remembered pulling up her Instagram page on my home computer a few nights ago. Fuck. Had I ever closed it out? Was there any chance at all that she would look at my computer? My home one wasn’t password protected. An oversight I would correct immediately.
“I have to go,” I said suddenly, breaking into Dominic’s story. The odds of Lily waking up my computer and her Instagram profile still being up on the screen were about as slim as the anorexic model selling lipstick on the billboard across the street, but I still couldn’t take the risk.
Dominic nodded goodbye and launched right back into his story. Not much could stop Dominic when he was on a roll. The others said quick goodbyes and went back to listening—all except Landon, who gave me an inscrutable look.
“What?” I asked, signaling the bartender for my check.
“You’re in a hurry all of a sudden.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
He shrugged, like he was waiting for me to answer that question. He knew it had something to do with Lily. Landon seemed to always know shit like that. It was why he was such a good security expert. He could get inside people’s heads.
I didn’t want him in my head though, not now. There were things in there I couldn’t even let my best friends see.
“Some of us have to hustle for a living,” I deflected. “A big contract just came in, and I have to get it squared away before the actress thinks of anything else to ask for.”
“So it’s a demanding woman?” Landon asked, knowing full well I was bullshitting him. I had over explained myself, a mistake he always caught onto.