Take Me (22 page)

“Yeah?” He picked up the hundred and slipped it in his pocket, not bothering to ask if she wanted any change.

“The penthouse,” she said. “What would a room like that cost?”

“I dunno.” He shrugged. “A couple grand a night?”

He said it so cavalier, so casual, like he was used to people spending so much money just for the privilege of sleeping. Then he picked up her empty glass and walked away.

And before Kenley could talk herself out of it, she decided she
would
go and meet Chad. It didn’t mean she was going to sleep with him. She just wanted to check out the penthouse. It would be silly not to -- after all, she might never get another chance to see a room that cost two thousands dollars a night.

***

It turned out that you had to use some kind of special touchpad to get into the penthouse, which Kenley thought was ridiculous. They couldn’t have given it the same keycard system as the rest of the hotel? She ran her finger over the pad. Next to it, there was a small doorbell, but she didn’t ring it. Now that she was here, she was kind of losing her nerve.

She looked down at herself, wondering if it would be way too obvious that she’d stopped at her room to fix herself up. She was wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a black sleeveless sweater. She’d given her makeup a touchup, swiping some mascara over her eyes and lining her lips with a shiny pink gloss.

She thought she’d looked good when she’d surveyed herself in the mirror a few minutes ago, but now she just felt ridiculous. What had she been thinking, coming up here? She must have been crazy. This wasn’t who she was, the type of girl who just went following some guy to his hotel room. Yes, Chad was hot. And yes, he was obviously rich. But still. That didn’t mean anything. Money wasn’t important to her, and besides, it was always the rich ones who were getting crazy and killing people.

Like that Jordan Vandersloot kid. He was super rich, and always luring women back to his hotel room so he could chop them up. The thought of getting chopped up was enough to do it, and she turned around, ready to head back to the elevator and back to her room when the door to the penthouse opened.

Chad stood there, grinning. His baseball hat was gone, and his navy blue sweatshirt had been replaced by a black t-shirt. It was the kind of t-shirt that looked expensive, and it hung on his body, hugging his biceps perfectly. “What’s up?” he said easily, and leaned against the doorframe.

“How did you know I was out here?” Kenley asked.

“I saw you on the security monitor.”

“There’s a security monitor?”

“Of course.” He nodded, like it should have been obvious. He was probably one of those rich types that were always getting nervous that someone was going to break in and steal all of their super expensive things. People like that were so annoying. If you had to spend more time worrying about your stuff than enjoying it, what was the point?

“Oh.” She swallowed, and then smoothed her hair back. Now that he knew she was out here, he was probably going to expect her to come in. “Well, I was just leaving.”

“Don’t you want to come inside?” He must have sensed her hesitation, because he added, “Don’t worry, I’m not a psycho or anything.”

“Really?” she asked. “Because ‘I’m not a psycho or anything’ is exactly what psychos say right before they kill you.” Her jeans were sliding down on her hips a little bit, and she reached down and hiked them up. Damn low rise jeans. They were supposed to be sexy, but how sexy could you look when you kept having to pull your pants up?

“Is it?” Chad asked. He sounded amused.

“Yes.”

“Well, do you want to come in anyway?” He glanced over her shoulder into the room, like he had something important to get back to and didn’t care either way. “I ordered room service. We can sit out on the balcony, watch the people down by the pool and eat hamburgers.”

It sounded so innocent, the way he said it. Just hanging out on the balcony, eating hamburgers, people watching and chatting like two old friends. It really was completely harmless, when you thought about it. And besides, isn’t that what people did when they went on vacation by themselves? Meet new people and hang out with them? Kenley’s sister Melissa was always traveling around by herself, meeting random strangers as she went. One time in Paris she met a friend she stayed in touch with for, like, years, and then later met up with in Australia. Kenley had always been jealous of this – the ability to just start talking to people, to forge bonds with them and make friendships out of nothing. She’d never been good at that sort of thing, which probably had something to do with why she was having such a hard time finding a new job.

She didn’t know how to network. At conferences and wine parties she’d just freeze up, and spend most of her time sitting at the bar sipping a drink, making herself look busy whenever anyone approached her. Small talk wasn’t her forte. It wasn’t that she was shy – it was more that she just wasn’t a people person. She liked to be by herself.

“So are you coming in?” Chad asked again. He held the side of the door between his two hands and pushed it back and forth, waiting to see if he was going to open it further, letting her in, or close it, leaving her to head back down to her room alone.

Kenley took a deep breath. “Yes,” she said. “I’m coming in.” And then she followed him into the room.

***

Chad couldn’t believe this chick. She was so bold, the way she was still pretending like she didn’t know who he was. When he’d left her in the bar, he’d been almost positive she wouldn’t follow him upstairs. He was hoping she would, of course –

despite the messy hair and the oversized t-shirt, there was something about her that he found intriguing. And she certainly looked a lot better now, with that sleeveless top she was wearing and the way her jeans hugged her curves. She kept having to pull them up as they slid down over her hips, and he imagined what kind of silky, sexy little things she was wearing underneath.

“So what do you want to eat?” he asked, crossing the room to the huge mahogany desk in the corner and picking up the phone. “We can order whatever you want.”

“Order?” Kenley asked. She was standing in the middle of the room looking around, and it was obvious she was trying not to show how impressed she was. Not that Chad could blame her. The room
was
impressive, even to him, and he’d stayed in some of the best hotels in the world.

The penthouse took up the whole top story, with floor to ceiling windows encasing the suite, and a balcony that spanned one whole side of the room. There were gleaming dark hardwood floors, a huge circular bed on top of a cream-colored shag rug, and shiny crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. There was a bar in the corner with black leather stools, and crystal wine glasses hanging from a rack hooked to the wall behind it.

“Yeah,” Chad said. “We can call down to room service.”

“I thought you said you already ordered hamburgers.”

“Did I say that?”’ He put a fake-confused looked on his face.

“Yes.” She whirled around and looked at him. “You said we were going to eat hamburgers on the balcony like two old friends.”

“I never would have said something as corny as ‘like two old friends,” he said.

“But is that what you want? A hamburger?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen the menu.” She crossed the room and sat down at the bar. She set her purse down and crossed her legs primly in front of her.

“We don’t need a menu,” Chad said.

He saw the look pass over her face as she realized what he meant– that he was in the penthouse, and so he could order whatever he wanted, whether it was on the menu or not, and they would make it for him, no questions asked.

“Cheeseburger and fries,” Kenley said, “with bacon. And some barbeque sauce on the side.”

Chad nodded his approval, then picked up the phone to order. Kenley walked behind the bar and started glancing through the bottles of wine.

After Chad got off the phone with room service, he walked over and joined her.

She was struggling with the wine opener, trying to get it into the cork of a bottle of red.

He took it out of her hand, and their fingers brushed. “Opus One,” he said, popping the cork and pouring it into two glasses. “Expensive tastes.”

“Did I pick the Opus One?” she asked innocently. “I didn’t notice.”

He shrugged, like it didn’t matter. Obviously this was all part of her plan. First she was pretending that she didn’t know who he was. And now she was taking it even further, opening expensive bottles of wine and acting like she hadn’t noticed.

He

took a sip and wondered if he should just put an end to the charade right now --- if he should tell her that he knew that she worked at Expera and that it was time to drop the big game. But that would be giving up. And Chad hated to give up.

“So what do you do that you have this big room to yourself?” Kenley asked.

“What do I do?” He almost spit out his drink. It was one thing to pretend she didn’t know who he was, but to come right out and ask him what he did for a living? His first impression had been right – she really was bold. Well, whatever. She wasn’t going to break him. In fact, it would be fun to knock her down a peg or two.

“Yeah, are you here for business or something?” She cocked her head and looked at him. She had big blue eyes, and blonde curls that tumbled over her shoulders in loose waves. He had the sudden urge to reach over and push one of her curls off her forehead.

Her skin looked smooth and tan, the kind of skin you could spend hours exploring. He wondered if the rest of her body was just as tan and soft.

“Yes, I’m here for business,” he said.

“You don’t look like you’re in finance or anything,” she said. “You’re too relaxed.”

“Who said I was in finance?”

She blushed. “Sorry,” she said, “I just assumed since you’re staying in the penthouse…”

“That I must have tons of money?”

He moved closer to her now, hoping that he would be able to get her to admit what was really going on here. His leg pushed up against hers. He felt himself get hard and suddenly, he wanted to plunge his hands into her curls and pull her close, kissing her over and over again.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I just figured you must be in an industry that allowed you to live this kind of lifestyle.”

He moved even closer to her, telling himself he was doing it so that he could break her down, get her to admit that she knew who he was, and that he was scheduled to have a meeting with her tomorrow. But deep down he knew it was more that that -- for some reason, he needed to be next to her, needed to get closer to her.

“I am in an industry like that.”

She turned her head, and cocked it to the side, giving him that same adorable look she’d given him a few minutes earlier. “Really?” she asked. “What industry?”

“I don’t really like to broadcast it,” he said, not wanting to be the one to blink first.

“Drugs?” she whispered, her eyes widening in mock surprise.

There was a witty comeback on the tip of his tongue, but he bit it back.
Fuck it,
he thought. If she was determined to pretend she didn’t know him, if that’s how this was going to go, then so be it. He would have his way with her in the bedroom, and that would be the way he won.

He put his hand on the back of her neck, pulled her toward him, and kissed her.

***

The kiss surprised Kenley, even though she’d been wanting him, almost begging him, in her mind to kiss her. He was getting so close to her while they were sitting there, and she could see the stubble on his chin, the small scar he had right over his lip, the way his tongue darted out and licked his lip when he looked at her.

Even so, she’d thought he’d been playing with her, teasing her, wanting her to want him. It was working, but when he finally went in and kissed her, she was surprised that he would be so forceful. So surprised that she tried to pull away, but his hand was in her hair, on the back of her neck, and he pulled her toward him, refusing to let go, pressing his lips into hers.

Finally, she surrendered to the kiss, letting his tongue into her mouth. Heat coursed through her body and settled, pulsing, between her legs. Chad’s tongue was on hers, and the next moment he was pulling back, teasing her, sucking on her bottom lip before returning and claiming her mouth again.

She’d never been kissed like this – it was taking over her whole body, and she prayed he would pick her up, take her over to the bed and continue what he started.

He stood up and swung her bar stool around until she was facing him, then pushed himself in between her legs, his mouth never leaving hers. She could feel his hardness against her. He pulled her even closer, and now his hands were in her hair, on the back of her neck, on her shoulders. His mouth moved down, tracing kisses over her collarbone, soft and quick, a contradiction to the hard, deep kisses he’d just been giving her, and she shivered.

He pulled back and looked at her. She could see the want in his dark eyes, and she could tell he was enjoying how much she wanted him.

“Hi,” he said softly, and rubbed his finger over her cheek.

“Hi,” she said, struggling to keep her voice even, to not let him see the affect he was having on her.

He just stayed there, looking into her eyes for a few more seconds, like he was deciding what to do with her next. She shivered again.

“Cold?” he asked, and ran his hands up her bare shoulders.

She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak.

“Me neither,” he said. He leaned back down toward her, and she tilted her chin up, praying he would kiss her like he was kissing her before. But just as his lips grazed hers, there was a knock on the door.

“Room service,” Chad said. He kissed her again, softly on the lips, then took a step back. “I’ll be right back.”

Kenley bit back the groan that was in her throat, and tried to calm her beating heart. She couldn’t believe how easily Chad just moved away from her, walking confidently toward the door like he could take her or leave her.