by Elin Peer
It was tempting to run instead of waiting for the police to arrive, but the bar-bots recorded everything. I wouldn’t be able to hide so I might as well explain what happened.
It took me hours before I was done giving reports and making statements. The police worked slow and insisted on my coming to the station to clear things up. I was grateful that the other patrons in the bar backed me up, saying that the men had been drunk and throwing glasses at Laila. The fact that I was a member of the Doom Squad made a difference too, and by four in the morning, I finally walked through the hotel door to the suite.
Zasquash looked up at me. “Long run, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, you’re bleeding – what the hell, Solo?”
My hand flew to my face. “I’m bleeding?”
“Yes. Did you trip while running?”
“No.”
“Then how did you get that cut?”
I walked over to a decorative mirror and leaned in to see the dried-up blood on my cheek and neck better. “Must have been a piece of the glass from the bottle.”
“What bottle?”
“I stopped by a bar to get a sip of water.” I gave him a quick look over my shoulder. “Some idiots were talking trash about the performers, so I asked them to stop.”
Zasquash, who had been watching some nature show, got up and came closer. “Let me guess; they didn’t stop?”
“Oh, they stopped. It just took a little persuasion.” The corners of my mouth shot up.
Zasquash’s large hand landed on my shoulder. “It’s almost time for your shift to start. How about you do a quick power nap at least?”
“Nah, I think I’ll take a shower instead.”
“Now?”
“Yeah, I ran ten miles tonight. I need a shower.”
“Okay, just no singing or whistling in the shower. People are sleeping.”
I scoffed, since we both knew there was no fucking chance of my ever singing in the shower. That was something Zasquash would do, but not me.
Ten minutes later, I was back in the living room dressed in clean sweat pants and a tank top. My uniform could wait a few hours until the others woke up. I plunked down on the couch next to Zasquash. “Go cuddle up with Leo, I’ve got this.”
“Thanks, man. There’s only so much animal sex a man can take in one night anyway.”
I looked at the wall, where a lion was on top of a lioness. “He’s biting her, did you see that?”
Zasquash yawned. “I know, and they call us men brutal. I’ve seen at least fifteen different species have sex and it’s horrifying. All I can say is that I’m happy I’m not a male bee. Did you know their penises explode while they’re still inside the queen bee?”
“You’re making that up.”
“No, I’m not. It’s the truth. Not only do the poor fuckers die, but it happens in the most gruesome way possible. Imagine your cock exploding while you’re having sex.”
I scrunched up my face and squirmed in my seat. “They die, right? I mean living on without your cock is pointless.”
“Yeah. I just told you, didn’t I? Animal sex is twisted and not in a good way. There’s a lot of death and cannibalism involved.”
“Then maybe we’re the lucky ones for not having women in our lives.”
“Maybe.” Zasquash yawned. “But if nature can make a male spider or praying mantis try to hook up knowing that their females eat them during sex, then it’s proof that we males are biologically programmed to risk anything to procreate. I see all these women on the tour and I swear to you every time one of them smiles at me I get a boner in my pants.” Zasquash looked down at his crotch. “It’s fucking pathetic, but I can’t help it.”
“It’s because you’re not used to being around women. The same thing happened to me and my friends at the school, but you get desensitized with time.”
“So you don’t react to them anymore?”
“No.”
Zasquash looked skeptical. “Maybe your thing isn’t working anymore. If you can tell me you watched tonight’s show with all that beauty without getting a hard-on, then you’re either a liar or you need to see a doctor.”
“I don’t need to see a doctor. Everything works just fine.”
“You sure?”
“Yes. Thank you for your concern.” I rolled my eyes.
“Good night then.” Zasquash walked into the bedroom and left me alone with the nature show and my heavy thoughts. I spent ten minutes trying to find something less depressing to watch when I heard a bump from the other side of the wall.
I craned my neck and listened to locate the sound.
It’s not Zasquash. He was behind the other wall and knowing him, he would have been asleep the second he hit the pillow.
A muffled voice sounded, and another bump that made me stiffen and pay attention. Willow’s room was on that side of the wall.
Is she okay?
Another bump was followed by a moan and it made my protective instincts flare up.
I needed to know that she was okay.
CHAPTER 14
Checking Up
Willow
It was the sound of a running shower that woke me up.
Who takes a shower at four thirty in the morning?
For twenty minutes I lay awake unable to find sleep again. I rearranged my pillow, rested my head, and closed my eyes again. Still sleep wouldn’t come.
Thoughts of Solomon’s charming smile last night made me groan with misery. That man got under my skin like no one else, and now he had me tossing and turning thinking over every word exchanged between us.
With a deep sigh, I got up and went to use the rest room. I thought about Salma and wondered what she thought of the fact that everything was taller here than at home. The toilet, the vanity – it was all built for tall Nmen and since she was almost a head smaller than me, I imagined only her toes would reach the floor when she used the toilet.
After washing my hands, I walked back to the bed and massaged my thigh, which had been sore for a few days now. Maybe if I stretched thoroughly, it would help ease the tension. At first I did it on my bed, but the mattress was too soft and didn’t offer the stability that I needed so I continued on the floor. Kicking the table and knocking over a lamp wasn’t part of the plan and I scolded myself, hoping that I hadn’t woken anyone up. Picking up the lamp from the floor, I bumped the back of my head against the edge of the desk.
“Really?” I moaned and rubbed the spot that had taken the impact.
Two minutes later, I was back on the floor doing long uncomfortable stretches, when there was a knock on the door.
“Who is it?” I asked in a low voice and got up from the floor, hoping that my noise hadn’t caused complaints from neighbor rooms.
“Are you okay in there?”
I recognized the deep voice and opened the door. “What are you doing here?”
Leo yawned but craned his neck to look inside my room.
I turned to see what had him so interested, but there was nothing. “What is it, Leonardo?”
“Just Leo. We heard bumps and wanted to check up on you.” His eyes slid down before he refocused on my face.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I just knocked over a lamp, that’s all.” I pulled down my oversized and washed-out soccer t-shirt that Hunter had given me. It was the shirt he’d played his first professional game in and I loved sleeping in it.
“So you’re okay?”
“Yes. I’m sorry for waking you up. I was just trying to stretch out.”
“At this hour?”
“My thigh has been giving me trouble.” I rubbed it with an apologetic smile.
His eyes lowered to my hand on my thigh. “Do you need ice or a cooling spray?”
“No, but I would love to run a little – you know, to warm it up and see if I can stretch it out properly.” I shrugged. “But obviously my room isn’t big enough for that and I don’t suppose running outside is an option?”
Leo
rubbed his eyes again, looking tired. “There’s an exercise room down by the lobby.”
“That could work.”
“Except…” He sighed. “I’m not letting you walk around the hotel alone at this hour.”
“I’m not afraid.”
“I didn’t say you were afraid. I’m just saying that I’m not letting you.”
“Could you take me then?”
He gave another long yawn. “Solo will take you down there. He has the night shift and he was the one who worried about the noise coming from your room in the first place.”
Leo’s words hit me square in my chest. “He was?”
“Yeah, he woke me up and made me come over here.”
“Why didn’t he come himself?” Even while saying it, I knew the answer to that question. After our confrontation yesterday, and my threat to say Solo had touched me, he would keep his distance.
Leo lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “I know you two have history and don’t get along, but it’s too early in the morning for me to give a fuck. If you want to run, Solo is going with you. I’ll take his job of chilling on the sofa.”
It was a no-brainer. I should have declined. But for some reason what came out of my mouth was, “He wouldn’t do that.”
“What? Go with you?”
“Yeah, as you said, we don’t get along.”
Leo snorted low. “Solo would go if I asked him to.”
The idea of someone bossing Solomon around intrigued me. I knew he wouldn’t like it. Especially not if Leo ordered him to be alone with me.
“Are you his boss?”
“No. Not directly. But the security of this tour falls under the police force, and since I’m the highest ranking here, I’m in charge. Zasquash and Solo have been lent to us for obvious reasons and while they are here, they both report to me.”
I tilted my head. “Obvious reasons?”
Leo rested a shoulder against the wall and scratched his arm. “Yeah, their reputation and sheer size will keep men at a distance. You’ve noticed that they’re bigger than the rest of us, right?”
I gave him a small smile. “It can’t be much. I hadn’t thought about it.”
Leo’s lip quirked upward and he straightened up. “Really? Well, I suppose to the eye of a Motlander we Nmen are all tall and muscular.”
I gave a smile, enjoying his pride. “That’s right.”
“Okay, I’ll tell Solo to meet you out here in a few minutes. You might wanna put on some pants.”
This was the right time to say “No, I don’t want to go with Solo.” But my lips pressed firmly together, two treacherous autonomous parts of me that couldn’t be trusted. My head too was in on the betrayal and sabotaged my decision to avoid Solomon by moving in a small nod.
As Leo walked away, I closed my door and leaned my forehead against it.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” I mumbled to myself, unsure why I would behave in this irrational manner. I was supposed to avoid Solomon and now I had agreed to spend time with him alone in a hotel where almost everyone else was sleeping.
Nothing is going to happen. It’ll be fine, I comforted myself while I cleaned my teeth and face before brushing my hair back in a ponytail. Throwing the soccer t-shirt on the bed, I grabbed my usual outfit to work out in consisting of tights, a sports bra, and a tank top.
Muffled sounds from the other side of the wall made me listen. I couldn’t hear the words, but I guessed that it was Leo and Solomon arguing.
So what if Solomon didn’t want to escort me to the gym at close to five in the morning… or any time for that matter?
I closed my eyes for a second, not liking this small-minded and vindictive part of me that felt the need to punish him.
Why shouldn’t he suffer?
This tour was supposed to be my time to have fun and now he’s ruining everything.
If I have to be miserable on this tour, why shouldn’t he be miserable too?
It made no sense and was against everything that I stood for. It wasn’t tolerant, kind, or forgiving. It was petty, and by hurting Solomon I would only be hurting myself too. I knew that! Intellectually.
So why am I doing it?
I had no answer, except that being around Solo was like an itch I needed to scratch.
The sound of a door closing snapped me out of my confusing thoughts. With my hands shaking a little, I stepped out into the hallway.
Solomon stood there waiting for me with his face drawn tight and his eyes guarded. Like me he was wearing a tank top, but his pants were loose and his shoulder-length hair pulled back behind his ears.
I didn’t speak to him because if I had, my voice would have revealed how nervous I was. Instead I began walking to the lift and heard him follow me.
After entering, we’d stayed in opposite corners without looking at each other, and when the lift stopped on the ground floor we exited without a word too.
Solomon took the lead and walked me to the gym, which was empty as expected. One of the walls was interactive, and I walked over to change the motif from a stadium full of people to a sunrise over a beach.
In another corner there was music but I couldn’t figure out how to make it work.
“Solo?” I turned to see him sitting by the door, his back leaning against the wall, his elbows on his pulled-up knees, and his head hanging down as if he was resting.
“Solo,” I repeated a little louder.
He lifted his head. “What?”
“Do you know how to control the music?”
“I guess.”
“Would you help me then?”
He sighed but got up and walked over to stand a safe distance from me. “What do you want to hear?”
“Just something soothing. My thigh hurts; I have to warm it up and stretch it.”
His gaze lowered to my tight pants before he quickly looked away. “Okay, I’ll find something.”
I waited but he didn’t move.
He gave me a pointed stare. “I’m waiting for you to move.”
“Oh.” I took a step to the side.
Solomon raised a brow. “You got to move more than that. I’m not coming close to you.”
“Look,” I held up a hand. “I didn’t tell anyone that you touched me. I shouldn’t have threatened you.”
He looked unaffected by my admission of regret. “I figured,” he said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be alive, would I?”
There was no gratefulness or warm feelings in his words. As nice and charming as he had been to Salma last night, he was just as much cold and distant to me.
I moved to the corner and began running on a treadmill path in the floor. It was like the ones we had at home and adjusted to my pace. After putting on some music with a man playing a guitar and singing in a soft and melodic tone, Solo went back to sitting against the wall.
“I didn’t think you Nmen had calming music.”
He didn’t answer me.
“Aren’t you going to exercise?” I asked without looking at him.
When he didn’t answer again I was provoked and repeated my question louder, refusing to be ignored. “Why aren’t you exercising?” This time I turned my head and looked at him. “It’s not like you to pass up the chance to be physical.”
Solomon’s eyebrows were drawn closely together. “Why are you talking to me?”
“That’s what civilized people do.”
That only made the line between his eyebrows deeper. “I’m not sure what your plan is but I’m fucking sure that it’s not a good one, and I’m keeping my distance.”
“Don’t be so paranoid and rude.”
He narrowed his eyes. “If you hate me so much, why not just leave me alone?”
“Because you’re here, aren’t you? And so am I. Besides, from the dampness of your hair I have a feeling you’re the one who woke me up by taking a shower in the middle of the night.”
“Yeah. I did.”
“That was rude and inconsiderate to the rest of us who were
trying to sleep.”
“At least I didn’t use the dryer function. That’s the noisy part.”
“Still, I don’t see why you shouldn’t suffer with me now that you woke me up.
“Ahh…” Solomon’s head fell forward before he looked up at me. “I see.”
I kept jogging, my leg still bothering me and my breathing louder now.
“So forcing me to sit in a gym at five a.m. to watch you run is your version of revenge?”
“Let’s just say that I take pleasure in the fact that you are inconvenienced. It’s only fair.”
Solomon ran his hands through his hair and it struck me how tired he looked. “Sorry to say it, Willow, but you might actually be doing me a favor.”
I snorted in annoyance. “What are you talking about?” My leg hurt from the running and I was getting hot enough to stretch. Slowing down, I came to a halt and placed both hands on my knees, leaning forward and looking over at Solo.
His eyes widened at the view of my cleavage, but then his head turned to watch the artificial sunrise on the large wall. “When we got back from your performance I wasn’t tired, so I ran ten miles. I had to spend time talking with the police because of a little misunderstanding as well.”
“You ran ten miles?”
“Yeah.”
“Does that mean you haven’t slept at all?”
“Uh-huh.”
No wonder he was looking so fatigued.
“Well, I’ll take mercy on you soon. I just need my stupid thigh to ease up a bit.”
“Did you ice it?”
“No. If I were home I would have gone to the pleasure parlor and had a massage. That helps.”
“Isn’t the pleasure parlors where you go to have sex?”
To hear him bring up sex made me even hotter but I kept my face straight. “Yes, but they are always located in physical centers that offer everything related to physical needs. Nails, hair, exercise, meditation, body massages, cuddling, and erotic massages, which can involve sex if one chooses. Some of them even offer tattooing and branding.”
I kept stretching while using my hands to work on my thigh muscle. Being a dancer, I was flexible and the outfit I had on sat snug against my body. I lifted my heel behind me and used my hand to press it against my backside to stretch the quadriceps muscle on the front on my thigh. After that, I knelt down on the floor and did all the stretches I could think of to ease the pain.