by KB Winters
“Okay, ma’am. I’ll send someone right up.”
I chucked the phone down but missed the base. I reached for it over the side of the bed and landed in a crumpled heap on the floor. “Ouch! Hey…” I cast a glare at the bed. “Take it easy!”
I picked up the phone but then set it down. Something under the bed caught my eye. I reached for it. My cell phone! Oh good. The screen lit up and I saw everything in my purse was spilled on the floor. What happened? I shoved up and stretched my legs out in front of me.
With unsteady fingers, I flipped through my contacts page. At first I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. I just liked the way it looked when the names whizzed by. “Wheee!” I giggled at that and did it again.
Finally, through the blur, one name stood out. A sudden sense of urgency swelled within me and I punched my finger at the screen. The ringing sound was loud and I held the phone away from my ear for a moment.
“Hello?”
I sighed. There. That was all I needed. That voice in my ear.
“Hello? Is anyone there?”
“Finn?”
“Lyss?”
I nodded.
“Lyss? Is that you?”
“Yep!” Too loud. I winced.
“Are you okay? Is it Peanut?”
I shook my head and the room started to spin even though I was seated on the floor. A knock on the door startled me and I dropped the phone. I scrambled to scoop it up. “My TV’s broked. I think I need to get the door now…”
“Alyssa, are you drunk?”
“Pshhhh! No, silly. You’re drunk!”
“Shit.” Why did he sound mad? “Where are you?”
I looked up at the ceiling. Where was I? I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to remember.
“Lyss? Please, tell me where you are. I’ll come get you.”
My eyes fluttered open. Yes. That was a good idea. Finn would save me. He always did…
“Hotel maintenance,” a gruff voice said on the other side of the door.
“Hotel! Yes, a hotel!”
“Okay, which one?”
I struggled to get off the floor and made a wobbly path, weaving around the three bottles on the floor, and went to the door of the suite. I tugged it open and through bleary eyes read the name on the uniform. “The Hilton.”
“Atlanta?”
I creased my brow. “Sir, are we in the Atlanta?”
The man at the door reared back. What? Did I smell?
I shoved the phone at him. “Here. Tell my boyfriend where I am. He’s going to come save me.”
Bam. As soon as the phone was out of my hands, the room spun and I hit the floor.
Chapter Seventeen
Finn
After a two-minute conversation with the maintenance man, I threw on a pair of jeans and my riding jacket and boots and hit the highway. I raced like a bat of out hell, flying past exits until I reached Atlanta. I cursed the miles the entire way even as I tried to get my heart to stop pounding in my head like a sledgehammer.
An hour and fifteen minutes later, I was bursting into the hotel lobby. The man I’d spoken to on the phone was there and vouched for me so I could get the concierge to give me Alyssa’s room key.
“She’s on the couch,” the man said as we rode the elevator up to her room. “I didn’t know if I should call an ambulance but she seems to be sleeping it off.”
I tore my fingers through my hair. What the hell was she thinking? Why was she even in a hotel by herself?
“There’s uh—something else…” the man said.
“What?”
“She has strange marks on her neck. I think they’re bruises. I saw them while taking her pulse.”
I stopped breathing. Pulse? Bruises on her neck?
“Did she say anything about them?” I said, hints of red creeping in at the edges of my vision. If that piece of shit hurt her…
“No. I asked her but she wasn’t exactly…” his words trailed off.
I nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”
The elevator doors slid open. “Third door on the right,” the man said, gesturing me in the right direction.
“Thanks again. I appreciate it.” I ran off the elevator, narrowly missed running into a couple of kids who were playing with a ball, and found Alyssa’s door. I swiped the card and crashed through the door.
“Fuck,” I whispered upon seeing her.
She was sprawled out on the couch, one leg dangling over the edge. She wasn’t wearing anything but a black lace bra and a matching pair of panties. Her hair was swept over her face. I soundlessly shut the door and then moved to her side. I checked her pulse and then brushed her hair away to see the bruises. Sure enough, what looked like fingerprints were starting to appear on either side of her throat. My rage soared to new heights and I took a few deep, slow breaths to keep my shit together.
I went into the bedroom and pulled the comforter from the bed. Three wine bottles lay discarded on the floor and a half empty glass sat on the bedside table. I heaved a sigh and took the comforter back out to the couch. I draped it over her, tucking it in close at her sides, and then knelt back down beside her.
“Lyss? Hey, baby, can you hear me?”
Her blue eyes appeared as narrow slits. She raised a hand to my face and my racing heart stilled as she set it on the side of my face. “You’re here.”
I nodded. “I’m here. Are you all right? How are you feeling? We can call a cab and go get you checked out if you want.”
I placed my hand on her head. No fever.
“I’m just tired.”
My eyes raked over the bruises and wished I’d checked the rest of her for signs of trauma. “What happened, Lyss? Who did this to you?”
She shook her head and shifted her eyes to the ceiling. “I drank too much,” she whispered. “That’s all.”
“Lyss…” Her eyes dropped back to mine, wide and pleading. I sighed and nodded slowly. “Okay. Let’s get you into bed then. You’ll sleep it off. I’ll get you some Tylenol.”
I pushed off the floor and scooped her into my arms. Her head lolled against my chest and she let out a contented sigh. Once she was in bed, I set about cleaning the empty bottles and turned off the TV. I found an extra blanket in the bathroom closet and dropped it on the couch before circling back through to check on her one last time. My fingers smoothed through her hair as I leaned in close to whisper, “I’m going to be right out there on the couch, okay? If you need anything, come get me.”
“Finn,” she murmured. “Stay with me.”
“I am, darlin’. I’m not going anywhere.”
She tugged at the covers. No…here…I don’t want you to go.”
I straightened. The couch was by far the safer option. But how could I say no to her after everything she’d been through?
“Are you sure?” I asked her.
She nodded, her eyes still closed.
I drew in a steady breath. “All right. Let me go lock the door. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.”
I killed the lights on my way out of the bedroom and lingered in the living room for a long moment after flipping the lock on the door. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust myself. There was no way anything was going to happen. She was drunk and had clearly been through a helluva lot. But spending the night beside her…it would thrash what was left of my heart.
“Finn?” Lyss’s weak voice carried out to me.
I sighed and went into the bedroom. “Right here.”
“Okay.” Her breathing evened out. She’d been right on the edge of sleep. As if she couldn’t quite slip over until she knew I was beside her.
I tugged my jacket and shirt off and set them on the bedside table and slid my jeans off. I slipped between the cover and the sheets, leaving her between the sheets alone. I couldn’t risk her skin brushing up against mine. It would make me lose my damn mind. And Lord knew I was barely holding on as it was.
Chapter Eighteen
Alyssa
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br /> My sleep was riddled with nightmares. I tossed and turned violently in the bed until I crashed into something—or rather, someone—solid. I recoiled but then remembered the scent. Clean, fresh, like a forest after a rain.
Finn.
Everything came back in a fuzzy flash that left me breathless and scared and relieved all at once.
“Lyss?” a sleepy mumble said into the dark room.
I reached out again and my fingertips found bare skin. “Sorry,” I whispered, drawing my hand back.
He shifted beside me and although I couldn’t see him, I knew he was facing me. “You okay?” he asked, his voice still thick, the way it usually sounded first thing in the morning. Graveled and sexy as hell.
“My head hurts.”
“Shit! I forgot to get you some pills. Hold on. I’ll go downstairs and see if the front desk has any.”
He moved to get out of bed but I caught his arm. The feel of his smooth, thick muscled bicep in my hand made me melt. “I have some. In my purse. Wherever that ended up.”
“I put it in the living room. Hold on.”
I begrudgingly let him go and felt the bed move as he got up. Footsteps and the clicking on of a light followed. Moments later, he returned. “I’m gonna turn on the light for a second. Is that okay?”
I dove under the covers. “Go ahead.”
He chuckled softly as soft light filled the room. “You can’t take pills if your head is buried under there, you know.”
I nodded and he laughed. “Come on. You’ll feel better once you’ve had some water.”
“What time is it?” I asked. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and peeked out.
“Eh, looks like four thirty. You’ve been asleep for a few hours. I got here a little after ten. Looks like you were having quite the little party for one.”
I turned my head and pried my eyes open. They adjusted slowly and I blinked a few times to clear the fuzzy lines at the edges. God, he looks even better than he smells or feels. He’d stripped down to his navy-blue boxer briefs and they weren’t hiding much. He was hotter than I’d even remembered in my most vivid fantasy. His muscles were smooth and segmented with deep grooves just begging to be licked and kissed. A tattoo scrawled up the right side of his rib cage. That’s new. I cocked my pounding head and studied it, it was a black and white piece with a tribal design and some script wound throughout.
Finn smiled down at me. “Someone’s feeling better.”
I snapped my eyes to his and felt my skin flush. “I—uh—”
He laughed and sat down on the edge of the bed. He handed me a bottle of water and two white pills. “It’s all right. Gawk away, it’s been a while since someone has paid such studious attention to me.” He waggled his eyebrows and I rolled my eyes.
“Ouch. Even rolling my eyes hurts.”
Finn winced. “All right, well take the pills, down that bottle, and I’ll shut the lights off. Course then you’ll just have to remember what all this looks like.”
I scowled at him. “I’ll throw this at your head.”
He laughed and reclined back on his side of the bed. I noticed it was the same side he used to always be on. He’d set us up exactly like it used to be. I briefly wondered if it had been intentional or simply out of habit. Maybe he made all his dates sleep on this side.
I finished the bottle of water, and he took the empty from me and then clicked the lights off, bathing the room in pure black again. We shuffled to get burrowed back under the covers and as I stared, unseeing, up at the ceiling, my stomach flipped at the images of Finn that popped into my head.
“So, you wanna talk about it?” Finn asked, rolling back to face me.
I rolled my head on the pillow to look at him, even though I couldn’t make out his face. “Not really.”
“Lyss…you need to file a police report. That’s assault. At best.”
Tears stung my eyes and I rolled my head back to the center of the pillow. “I just want it all to go away. I don’t want to think about it right now. My head really hurts.”
Finn scooted closer and my body automatically moved to let him cradle me in his arms. “You know you don’t have to face this alone, but I can’t help you if I don’t know what happened.”
Tears welled up in my eyes and Finn squeezed me a little closer. I turned and my cheek landed on his bare chest. Sensations flooded me and even in the darkness of the memory of what happened with Rafe several hours before, I couldn’t fight a wave of attraction and desire as his warm skin met mine. Heat tingled over my skin and I was suddenly hyper aware of the fact that I was only wearing my bra and panties. Finn had situated it so the sheet separated our bodies from touching but for some strange reason that excited me more, the silky soft sheets pressed between our warm bodies, a thin barrier to unimaginable pleasure.
What am I doing? I shouldn’t be thinking about that right now. Or ever, for that matter. Hadn’t I learned my lesson?
“Rafe got home last night, from his trip to Toronto. I was supposed to be there waiting to pick him up from the airport. The flight got in early and I got stuck in traffic. I was late—only by a few minutes—but he was pissy about it.”
Finn tensed and I knew the expression he was wearing, even without seeing his face.
“We argued in the car and when we got back home…I told him that I thought we needed to move on. That I clearly wasn’t going to measure up to his standards. That I didn’t fit in his world and that more and more it was becoming clear that I—” My breath hitched as fresh tears gathered. “I never would.”
Finn stroked a hand over my arm that stuck out the top of the sheets. I swiped away my tears before they could splash down onto his skin and continued my confession into the dark, “I didn’t think he’d get so angry. I thought he saw it too. Rafe isn’t the kind of man who is desperate. Ever. But he lost it. He snapped.” I shook my head, the image of his fierce expression as he’d hurtled over the center console still too fresh in my mind. “He grabbed me and shook me and when I told him to let me go, he—”
My fingertips went to my throat. I knew the bruises would be darker today.
Finn captured my hand and raised it to his lips. He brushed a soft kiss against my knuckles and then intertwined my fingers with his and set our hands on his chest beside my face. “I’ll kill him.”
A soft laugh slipped from my lips. “No you won’t.”
Finn tensed. “Like hell I won’t.”
“Finn…”
He shuffled about and the bedside lamp clicked on. I winced against the light but my eyes adjusted quickly and the look on Finn’s face made me draw in a sharp gasp. His grey eyes were normally cool, liquid steel pools. But as they bore down into mine, I saw nothing but fire blazing, the edges almost entirely black. “He thinks just because he has money he can get away with anything. Even hurting you. I won’t stand for it, Lyss. And you shouldn’t either.”
I shook my head. “There’s no point. He’ll get off with a slap on the wrist at best.”
“Did you take pictures?” Finn asked, his eyes falling on my throat.
“I was a little…distracted.” Shame crept into my mind. I hadn’t been that drunk since one unfortunate misstep back in my teen years. Fall down, sloppy, pass out drunk. I was just lucky I’d missed the toss-your-cookies stage.
Finn traced a finger down the side of my face. “I’ll help you fight.”
I shook my head. “I really don’t want to, Finn. I want to move on and forget about it. I’ll hire someone to go get all of my things. That is, assuming he hasn’t burned them all.”
“I’ll go with you.”
I laughed again. “That’s quite possibly the worst idea I’ve ever heard. No. You’re not going anywhere near him. I have some money, but not enough to bail your ass outta jail.”
Finn’s lips went into a thin line. He didn’t like being told what he could and couldn’t do.
I rolled away from his chest and settled my head back on my own pillow. “I don�
�t even know what made me call you last night. I shouldn’t have dragged you into all of this shit.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Why not?” I asked, looking over at him. “You’re going to miss work, and now you’re going to lose out on whatever Rafe was paying for the stupid car he ordered.”
Finn rolled to his side and grabbed my face gently with one hand. His thumb brushed over my lips, silencing me. “Stop talking.”
“Finn…”
“It’s my turn.”
I buttoned my lips and tried not to tremble under his touch.
His eyes softened as he continued to caress my face. “I’m sorry for leaving the way I did last time. That wasn’t fair to you.”
“Thank you for saying that. I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said…” I paused, cautiously approaching the edge of yet another cliff. I knew that one step could send me flying. But what if I fell instead?
“Lyss,” Finn said, picking up where my thoughts trailed off. “We don’t have to talk about any of that right now. You’ve been through a lot.”
A sting of disappointment pricked at my heart but I smiled through it and nodded. “You’re right.”
His fingers got lost in my hair and I melted back to his side, my head on his chest. The steady thrumming of his heart enveloped me in a blanket of comfort and my eyes slid closed once again.
Chapter Nineteen
Alyssa
I woke to an empty bed. The rush of panic quickly fizzled when Finn came back into the room. At some point, he’d pulled back the thick drapes on the windows to let in a sliver of natural light. Judging from that, it was likely nearing the afternoon.
Finn smiled at me and padded back to the bed. He’d dressed, back in a pair of jeans and his leather jacket. His dark hair was a mess but that only served to make him more irresistible. I knew it was wrong. I was less than one day out of a long-term relationship. It wasn’t the right time to be yearning for someone new. Especially not Finn. He could never be some kind of fling or rebound guy. Even if that’s what I was looking for—which, I wasn’t. Despite the signals and aching my body was rapid firing over every nerve as Finn’s slow grin spread over his chiseled face.