Page 20 of Room Service

“Forget it,” I said. “Tell me how things are going and if there’s something I need to do that Dad was supposed to be doing.”

I grumbled to myself silently as she started listing things out beside me and I listened with half an ear. What exactly was the old man planning?

Would Dad continue to refuse to see me until I got so impatient I just knocked his door down? He was lucky I didn’t pack up and go home. If he didn’t want to see me, what reason did I have to stick around?

But the truth was that he wouldn’t be in the office, and my stepmother could hardly handle those affairs. Supposedly all my brothers had been called, but I arrived first because I was the closest, and the other two were yet to get there. I couldn’t just leave the handling of the hotel to the secretary, so took it upon myself to handle my dad’s affairs, or I wouldn’t have been at the hotel at all.

By the time we got to the office, she finished giving me the run down. I listened half-heartedly, my thoughts of the girl from the past now on my mind. I needed to stop thinking about my cock and just my head; there was too much at stake to get distracted by Jessi. I rounded the desk, took off my jacket and draped it on the back of the chair before sitting down. Then I looked back up at my secretary.

“Put off my dad’s meetings for the next couple of days. If he doesn’t improve by then, I’ll see what I can do about it.” I couldn’t just go into his meetings without preparation. I knew my dad, and if I blew things for his precious hotel—though I was confident enough in my abilities to know I wouldn’t, it didn’t hurt to be cautious—he’d make me pay for it. “I’ll need some paperwork from the manager, so call him and ask him to bring them up. Where can I find everything else I need to take care of?”

“I’ll bring the files over to you and call the manager,” she said, making an about turn and marching out of the room without another word or quibble.

One thing about Dad was he had good taste, that was for sure. One wouldn’t be blamed for thinking Dad hired his secretary based on her looks and nothing else. This one was different, she was efficient, which was more than could be said for the others.

I tried to work and looked over contracts with business partners and sheets with hotel costs, but the interlude with Jessi this morning just wouldn’t leave my mind.

I could try to deny it to myself, but she had really got to me with her defiant beauty and courage. She gave me just as much venom as I’d given her at the same time, and it turned out it was a combo guaranteed to make my blood heat up. I’d shake my head every now and then to try to focus, only I’d remember the way she glared at me all over again. In another hour, I hadn't done much, and I was a little hard in my slacks. I groaned to myself and wondered if I’d been alone too long. When was the last time a woman graced my bed?

But as I tried to imagine the kind of women I usually brought home for a little fun, Jessi’s image wouldn’t leave me alone. Instead, I thought back to when she’d been a teenager, one of the last times I’d seen her before I left town.

Even back when she’d been all gangly, clumsy and awkward, there would be times when I would find myself looking at her. I remembered the kiss she gave me. I hadn't been able to forget it for months, and it took finding a multitude of girls to distract me before I was sure I’d put her behind me, only sparing the occasional thought for Jessi over the years.

But that kiss, I remembered it. I’d kissed and been kissed before, sure, but something about the way she did it, so soft and sweetly, followed by a confession, had thrown me for a moment. It had started this longing in me for everything I’d lost when Mom died, made me want so much more from life than money and women on my arm as temporary distractions from life, because even as a teenager I’d done that. If Jessi had known just how many girls had kissed me before she did, she might have thought twice about it.

She didn’t though, and I had an annoying memory to deal with for the rest of my life because I’d known my longing was only foolish. What I’d needed in my life was the ability to lead it on my own, how I wanted to. I’d pushed Jessi away, laughed in her face to make her run from me because I knew I couldn’t have a woman like her. Things would just end terribly for the both of us.

The starlets, models, and socialites that I went out with in public and occasionally warmed my bed, then left without complaint or trying to be clingy, were the most I deserved as far as companionship went. I couldn’t treat a sweet woman right, and the women I went for were never hurt by how I treated them. I wasn’t disrespectful, but it was rare I ever called them back. We’d meet at some big party later with someone else on my arm, and none of them would bat an eyelash.

Maybe I should call one of them here, I thought to myself.

But I hadn't seen anyone in three weeks because I’d been busy at work. I may not be doing my job at the moment, but that was still true. Besides not having the time for it, it was the wrong time even to be thinking of romance with my dad being ill.

“Even if that old man refuses to see me,” I growled.

A knock on the door made me look up. I thought it might be the secretary, or someone from the hotel coming to ask about something important, but the door opened without me calling for it too, and my brother Mason walked in.

“When did you get here?” I asked in not quite a greeting.

He grinned, pulling off his shades. “About an hour ago. I stopped by the house but there was no news, and Emily let me know you’d be here.”

Mason looked like his usual self, though it had been a few months since I’d seen him last. But then, he never really changed, did he?

He was shorter than me by an inch at six foot four, and I stood up as he crossed the room to keep him aware of that fact. We had the same gray eyes, but his blonde hair was a few shades darker than mine. He reached a hand across the desk as he stopped on the other side of it, and after a short hesitation he probably didn’t catch, I shook his hand. Then we both sat down.

“So?” he started saying, and I was already growing impatient, hoping he would just say what was on his mind. “What exactly is going on? I get an urgent call from Emily that Dad had a heart attack, only she seems more nervous than worried and won’t tell me anything about him. Even Mom isn’t saying anything.”

“Are you still trying to talk to your mom?” I asked because I knew I wouldn’t dare do that. It would mean having to acknowledge her existence, and I tried not to do that as much as possible. “She came back with him in an ambulance yesterday when he should probably still be in the hospital. That man is far too stubborn for his own good! Always thinking he’s Superman or something.”

He sighed and tipped his head back. “I tried insisting, but Mom’s just like that. If she doesn’t want to say something, you can't talk her into it, not even her kids.” He raised his head to look at me with an uncharacteristic frown. He was the always ready to party one, so seeing him so serious was nice for a change. “You don’t think it’s really serious, do you? He’s practically retired, though that just means he works here instead of looking into all the branches because he’s not the kind to stay at home idle. It’s probably bad that he’s not here working, isn’t it?”

I frowned as I arranged my thoughts. They were along the same lines as his. We all knew what our dad was like, after all.

“It probably is something serious,” I said slowly. “And he just calls himself retired, but I know he never stopped working.” He just asked me to take care of some of the other hotels and left other managers in charge of what I wasn’t taking care off, adding more to my plate without asking me if I even wanted a hand in his empire. “He’s refused to see me, so I guess we just have to wait until he stops being so damn shy.”

Mason snorted. “Since when was that shameless old man shy?”

I rolled my eyes as he chuckled. “Anyway, while he’s off, there’s a lot of work to do at the hotel. I’ll be looking into the other branches in a few days if we still have no news, but there’s plenty to get done here that he left behind.”