As we walk through the airport, I can tell she’s trying to get away from me, but her heels just can’t carry her as quickly as she wants to go. Honestly, I’m not walking as fast as I can because I don’t have a problem keeping my eyes on her ass from a few feet back. If she wants a little distance, this works just fine for me.
I can tell she’s had a bad morning. There’s no chance in hell she would willingly show up for her first day at a new job looking disheveled the way she does right now.
Unless…
My feet misstep, and the blunder is so unnatural for me, I have to look back to check for the imperfection in the flooring. Finding none, I continue to walk.
Did she hit the hotel bar last night?
Did she find another man to warm her bed?
Was she late this morning because he wasn’t the type to leave right after?
Did she get out of the shower, get dressed in that sexy-as-hell blouse and pencil skirt and he just couldn’t take it and hiked it up her thighs, bending her over the bed, fucking her until she came on his dick?
Did I have to wait on a plane while someone else got her off?
A low growl escapes my throat as I reassess her in a new light. She does look freshly fucked—her clothes wrinkled, hair a little ratty. She’s walking with confidence, but the woman takes cock like a goddess, so that’s not exactly evidence either way.
My cell phone chimes with a text, informing me that our hired car has arrived and is waiting outside for us. I don’t bother telling Leighton because I’m pissed while fully understanding that I have no right to be.
“Blackbridge?” Leighton asks the man standing beside a sedan before I can do just that. The man smiles and nods, opening the door for her.
Leighton smiles, climbing inside as I walk around to the other side. The driver loads our luggage into the trunk before climbing inside.
I give him the address, and Leighton immediately corrects him. He finds my eyes in the rearview mirror, and a slight nod of his head tells me that we’ll be heading to my address first.
She turns in her seat, eyes pissed, tiny little lasers that would cut me in half if she possessed the power. “We have a meeting in an hour.”
“It’s been postponed.”
“By the prospective client?”
“By me.”
“It’s in poor taste to reschedule. It looks bad for Blackbr—”
“It’s in poor taste to show up for a meeting looking like you just rolled out of bed.” My eyes sweep the length of her, and honestly, if I were the one who caused the dishevelment, I’d be all for it, but I hate the sight of her, knowing I didn’t have a hand in making her this way.
I look away, barely restraining myself from shaking her and demanding that she tell me who she met last night.
My jaw clenches as we pull away from the airport, and it hurts, the tension stirring the beginning of a headache by the time we reach the hotel.
“You have two hours to put yourself together,” I tell her as we inch toward the valet area. “Showing up to work looking like this again is unacceptable. It doesn’t meet the expectation Blackbridge had when they hired you, Ms. Redmond.”
Her eyes are straight ahead, refusing to look in my direction, but I don’t miss the tiny quiver of her chin. I’m an asshole, but I’m normally not with women. You get more bees with honey as the saying goes, and maybe I should apologize. Hell, I probably shouldn’t have said it at all, but I just can’t get the mental image out of my head that she spent the night with someone else.
I’m pissed that I had to wait for her. Irrationally angry that it wasn’t me making her late.
I told Deacon this was a bad idea, but I can’t imagine sending any of the other guys to do this. They know how hot she is. I love them like brothers, but I’d strangle any one of them for even thinking about her the way I do.
Shit.
I just need to stop.
The car rolls up to the front, and I climb out the second I get the chance. Not waiting for the driver, I grab Leighton’s suitcase from the trunk along with my own. The sooner I can get us checked in, the quicker I can put some distance between the two of us.
Leighton waits off to the side while I flirt with the front desk clerk. She tells me that it’s another two hours before check-in, but she finally manages to find two rooms side by side, blinking up at me when I assure her that we in fact don’t need to stay in the same bed and that I need a room with a king because I sleep alone.