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“I'm truly sorry for this, Sir. I'm going to try my best to make up for it from now until we reach New York and resolve it all.”
“Your effort, New York,” the girl beside him squealed and leaned even closer to him, all breasts and all. “I love New York. I've always wanted to visit. Since you're going back there, then maybe you take me with you?”
I couldn't listen to any more of this for even a second longer. I turned around and returned to my room. It was as I returned, however, that I understood that I had messed up once again.
because I hadn't even gotten his response on my suggestion about flying Boone over here. As I arrived at the bank of elevators, I wanted to pull my hair out and scream.
I had to go back. I had to find a way to go back so that this could be resolved. However, I soon found that I couldn’t. Sighing, I headed into the elevators and returned to my room.
I wanted to call Emma because I needed some relief, however, I fought this. I didn't need any relief, I decided. I needed to feel this pain so that it would never happen again. So that my brain could be reset. And if I called her now, she was going to give me solutions that could very well be viable but would no doubt lead to me quitting my job and continuing on with my life.
I couldn't afford it. Now more for personal reasons than professional, but it was all the same to me. So, I decided then to suck it up, head to my desk, and keep in contact with all parts of the machine back in New York to ensure that there were no further hiccups and mistakes.
A few hours later, I had communicated our sudden leave with the conference organizers and arranged for our departure. All that was left was for his bags to be packed, as we had about five hours before we left. It would be in the morning, and it was the earliest we had been able to arrange it, but it was passable.
Now all I had to do was inform him. I stood before the door connecting our two rooms and couldn’t believe how intimate we had been with each other there. Work had stripped every bit of that away, and it truly made me wonder once again if it had all been in my head. I understood his current behavior now, understood that he had withdrawn from me. I deserved that. However, rather than ask off, I could pack his bags. What I wanted to ask was if he would ever draw back close to me again.
I tried my best to push this hope out of my mind. I tried to convince myself that it didn't matter and that I didn’t really want it, but I couldn't. I could, however, definitely shut up about it, and so I zipped my mouth closed and focused solely on getting ready to leave.
I knocked on his door, but he didn’t respond. It was late now, nearing midnight, so I wondered if he was asleep. He couldn’t be because then I'd have to wake him when it was too close to the flight. And I couldn’t call him either, in case that startled him awake. Plus, as I looked underneath the door, I could see that his lights were still on. I didn't want to lose this chance, so I pulled down the handle and walked in.
Chapter Forty-Four
Hunter
Iwas in the shower when I heard the scream. When I reached to shut off the faucet, I found that it was accompanied by almost delirious laughter. I was so confused as I had no clue whatsoever what was going on. It was most definitely a woman’s voice. Once that was sure, and since there was solely one woman who would react that way around me, I immediately got out and wrapped a towel around my naked body. I was wet all over, but checking if she was okay was more important. As I reached my bedroom, however, it's safe to say that I was confused by the scene that I saw was an understatement.
There was a woman in my bed. Usually, this wouldn’t be an issue. In fact, it would have been especially welcome since for the past few days there had been a woman in my bed. However, this time around, I almost didn’t recognize the woman currently making herself very comfortable in my bed. She was naked, this much I could assume from the covers she held high up on her chest, and she was smiling like a complete moron. And to my right was my secretary, who was frozen in the middle of the room. I turned to her and found that she wasn’t even looking at me. I was surprised and wondered why she wasn’t getting this woman out of there. When she, however, turned around and left the room without a word, I was even more confused. But that was to be dealt with later, so I turned to the intruder on my bed.
“I got your keys earlier,” she said to me. “It was the best gift, thank you.”
“What?” I asked, and I became more irritated as her gaze roamed down my body. And then she let the blankets go, and I could see indeed that she was completely naked. I sighed then, glad that I was leaving, otherwise, this was the worst possible mood I could be in to even tolerate this nonsense.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked.
“You were in such a bad mood,” she replied. “I wanted to surprise you. To cheer you up.”
I stared at her and truly wondered how and when she had gotten in here. Was this something that usually happened in Thailand? She followed me, which meant that my things were in danger. Perhaps she had come here to steal from me. At the change in my demeanor, she immediately understood that something was wrong.
I wanted to call out to Madison, to call the cops and get this woman out of my room. I remained calm as I headed over to the safe and opened it just to confirm everything was still intact. I checked, found my passport and valuables, and then I shut it back and turned to her.
“I don’t know what your game is,” I said. “But I'm pretty sure I didn’t give you the key to my room. Maybe this is some ploy or scheme you arranged with the hotel staff to exploit the rich businessmen that come here, but do I fucking look like I'm horny to you? Get the fuck out of my room. Because if there's nothing missing, I'm going to let this go, but if you don't leave within the next ten seconds, I'm going to ensure you're arrested for theft and sexual predation!”
At my words, the smile disappeared from her face. It was almost as though she thought I was joking, but then a few seconds later, she understood that I meant every single word.
“I’m sorry,” she cried as she jumped out of bed and hurriedly began to gather her things. “I’m sorry, Sir, I’m sorry. I thought... I thought wrong.” She was naked as she gathered her shoes, dress, and purse, and then she was running out into the hallway. For a little while, and at the manic way she had left, I was almost amused, but then my gaze went to the adjoining door, and I became upset all over again. Why the fuck had she just walked out? Hadn’t she understood the gravity of the situation? Why hadn't she thrown the woman out and immediately called the cops? I headed to her door then, intending to give her a piece of my mind. Truly, I had been holding back all day, and it had frustrated me because if it were any other employee, they would have both lost their job and been sued all in one for endangering my company the way her mistake had. However, it was her, so I had forced myself to exercise the kind of leniency that I didn’t even know I was capable of.
I didn’t have to knock, but I was going to just so that she could understand how fucking pissed I was with her. I geared up for it to be as loud as possible because I just couldn't understand why she had reacted so nonchalantly and to even not been alarmed at all. However, just then it hit me. She wasn't just my secretary. And even if she was... she would have reacted the same way. The woman had been naked in my bed while I was in the shower! She couldn't fucking read my mind and know that I was just as startled to see her there as she was. I paused then with my hand against the door and realized, “Fuck.” I cursed and took a step backwards. Her reaction then made sense to me.
Of course, she was shocked and upset. She probably thought that I had betrayed her and cheated on her. I mean, we weren’t exactly a couple, but I assumed to both of us it was an unspoken rule that until we were officially done with the other, that neither could sleep with anyone else. I understood this and accepted this, so I turned around and returned to the bathroom to complete my shower.
She was right in getting upset, but I didn’t exactly care to comfort her right now with everything that was happening, so I tried to put the entire issue out of my head. Usually, she would come in to help me pack and to ensure that nothing was left behind. It was her job, but lately, these things that could be passed off as her job were beginning to feel more domestic than anything else, and we’d been having a blast. In a way, it was almost as though we’d been playing dress-up and I’d been enjoying every moment of it. But now it was no longer the case and so everything seemed to just be a bitter reminder of how close we’d been when we were more personal with each other, and how efficient she’d been when our relationship was solely professional.
These complications I had expected. If something went wrong, all that was happening now was bound to happen, so I refused to feel distraught or surprised about it. Instead, I focused on liaising with the New York office in order to prepare for whatever shit was coming our way. We were prepared with the memos and information to send out to shareholders just in case the news got into the wrong hands and was suddenly publicized, but of course, this was the worst-case scenario.
Soon, we arrived at the airport and got on the plane. As I finished my last call before the flight, I couldn’t help but wonder why I hadn’t put worst-case scenarios in place as well when it came to our relationship. Of course, I had expected mistakes to happen in this as well and for shit to hit the fan, but I hadn’t been prepared for it. I had thought it would take a little more time. That we would have time. However, this wasn't the case at all, and I couldn’t help but feel incredibly sour about it. Sighing, I shut my eyes and ignored her while she sat as usual in the seat she always sat in and shut her eyes. She was going to feign she was asleep for the rest of the flight just so I wouldn’t talk to her. I was almost tempted to watch her but, in the end, I decided to just leave her alone. We needed this time apart so we could reassess. After this, I vowed to myself that if we were to continue this, then I had to put preparations in place to ensure that our relationship didn’t take these kinds of dangerous hits. If I was going to go on with her, then I had to readjust my priorities. It could no longer be business first. It had to be her.
This was my worry and fear, but it wasn’t that I wasn't open to it because some things were undeniably more important. I just had never allowed it before for mere distractions. I had always wanted for whoever drew that kind of prioritization from me to be someone I was immensely serious about. And now, as I thought of her and felt her presence around me, even if it was detached, I couldn’t help but admit that I felt warm. I felt comfortable and I felt at home. I had always been anxious and preferred my own company from the days of my youth, till now. But with her... I felt myself, I felt safe, and I felt good. I nodded to myself as my decision was made. But for now, however, we were both going to stew, and when it was time to talk, hopefully we would have thought long and hard about the things we wanted to say and would be able to communicate it clearly to each other.
