I must have leaned forward too much because I suddenly slip off the stool. Taylor catches me, but my legs won’t seem to stand. It’s like my knees have turned to jelly. And my head’s spinning now, too.
I clutch Taylor’s shirt as I feel myself start to slide. Something rips. He tries to hold me up but I’m too heavy. It’s all he can do to keep himself standing and me from falling at the same time.
At this rate, we’re both going to fall.
I feel like I’m just about to when an arm goes around my waist. In the next moment, I find myself scooped up in a man’s arms.
Not just any man, I realize as I lift my head and gaze into ebony eyes.
“Cain?”
I may be drunk, but I know it’s him.
He shifts me in his arms so that my head is resting against his shoulder.
“Let’s get you home.”
Chapter Fourteen
Cain
I hear Allie throw up a second time from outside the bathroom door. As I wait for her to finish, I wonder why I’m here.
Why did I go inside that bar when I said I was going to watch Allie from a distance? Why did I help her when in the past few days, I’ve become certain that she is the daughter of one of the men who killed my brother? Why am I back here in her hotel room when I said I wasn’t going to be involved with her any longer?
The best explanation I can come up with is that I’m sticking to the plan. Now that I know Allie is Sergio Bianchi’s daughter, I understand why Orso gave me this job and I can’t just abandon it. I don’t know what I’m going to do with Allie yet, but until I do, I’ll keep her close, which is what I intended to do in the beginning.
That’s the reason I’m going with, the logical explanation. There are other things that I can’t fully explain, though. Like the magnetic force I felt drawing me to Allie’s side when I saw her again. Like the fact that when I saw her so close to another man, a man she knows and trusts, a man better for her than I am, I felt more annoyed than I ever have in my entire life. Or how my body acted on its own when I thought she was going to get hurt.
Why does Allie affect me so much? Why do I have this sudden urge to protect her, to take care of her? Even now, I want to break down this door so I can rub her back as she throws up.
When I hear the toilet flush, I feel a tinge of relief. Good. She’s done. I hear the water flow from the faucet and the scraping of bristles against teeth. After a few more minutes, Allie comes out.
She seems better than when she entered. Awake. More alert. Less red. Minty breath. I know that seven glasses of tequila isn’t something that can be easily washed off, though.
“Let’s get you to the bed.”
I offer her my hand. She swats it away.
“I’m fine.” She touches her forehead and walks towards the bed. Then she glances over her shoulder. “What are you doing here?”
The same question she asked when we first met. Seems like we’re back at the start.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you left without a word and now you’re back.”
“Because we have unfinished work,” I tell her.
“Unfinished work,” Allie repeats in a derisive tone. She snorts. “Yes. Yes, we do.”
She lies down on the bed.
“Is that what I am to you? Unfinished work?”
My eyebrows furrow because I don’t understand what she’s trying to accuse me of.
“I mean, you sure used your skills and expertise on me. You got me all weak in the knees and wanting you every second.”
That’s the effect I’ve had on her?
“You got me believing I was lucky that the first man I’ve ever been with is someone so unbelievably amazing.”
The first man?
“You got me feeling safe and special and all trusting you even though I don’t know a thing about you. You got me showing you off to my mother, defending you against my brother. And then you left. I told you I was just going to go change and you said you’d wait for me, but you left.”
Allie’s obviously angry. Why didn’t I think she would be angry?
In the past, I’d have sex with a woman and then leave her right afterward. Most of the time, I never saw them again so I never knew how they felt. A few times, I came back for more and they all welcomed me back with open arms. Maybe that’s why I thought Allie would do the same. Clearly, I was wrong.
“I only left because…” I pause to try to come up with the excuse I should have prepared in advance. “I had to attend to a family emergency. A medical emergency.”