Page 72 of Veil of Lies

The hotel was OK. Not amazing, but clean and comfortable. Once Stella had told me where she was staying, I’d called and upgraded us to a suite with two bedrooms. One for me and her, the other for Quinn. I wouldn’t have minded him sharing with us, but she wasn’t ready for that.

I dropped my bag in the small closet and flopped down on the bed. The flight had been long but uneventful. Nobody recognized Stella, thank God, so we passed through the airport without being accosted by reporters or aggrieved investors.

Even at check-in, the receptionist didn’t bat an eye. Stella was famous, but with different color hair, thick-framed glasses, and a hat pulled down over her face, in the Big Apple, she was just one of eight million people, which meant she was invisible. Tomorrow, Stella would be visiting her father. When she returned, I planned to spoil my girl.

“Hungry?” I asked her.

She stood at the large window, staring out. “No, not really.”

The closer we’d got to New York, the quieter she’d become. I wasn’t sure if she was nervous about visiting her father or afraid she’d be mobbed by angry people. Either way, I was here to protect her.

The need to protect a girl was new to me. Mostly I gave no shits about the girls I dated and fucked. We had fun and then I moved on. It was how I rolled. My feelings for Stella were very different. I wasn’t prone to introspection, unlike Quinn, who had counseling once a month, but I did know she meant a lot to me.

I was close to blurting out how I felt, but she was so skittish, I knew she’d run a mile if I did. So for now, I had no choice but to keep a lid on my emotions.

She relaxed a little when I slid my arms around her waist and pulled her close. I nuzzled her neck, inhaling her sweet vanilla scent. As always, she smelled good enough to eat. Which gave me ideas and caused my cock to harden in my pants. Of course she felt it, because, yeah, I was no wiener guy.

With a small wiggle of her ass, she leaned back and huffed with laughter. “No need to ask what’s on your mind.”

“Is that so surprising? Here I am with the world’s hottest girl, in a luxury hotel room…” Her laughter increased because we both knew this was suite was definitely not up to The Plaza’s standards.

“Hey, we getting some food or what?” Quinn strolled in, ignoring my scowl that told him to fuck right off because I wanted to get my girl naked.

He stood, leaning against the wall with a smirk as Stella pulled out of my arms. I didn’t miss the way her eyes lingered on his stupid tattoos and piercings. Yeah, the douche was hot in an edgy way, but I had more muscles. And she was sleeping in my bed. Fuck you, Quinn.

His smile widened when he saw the expression on my face.

“I know this great Italian restaurant a couple of blocks from here,” he told Stella. “They do amazing tiramisu.”

“Oh really?” Stella’s eyes lit up like stars. “You remembered it’s my favorite!”

“Of course I did!” He winked at her. “I’m a good listener.”

She melted a little. Fuck me, he was good. I’d give him that much. Maybe I was missing a trick here. Perhaps the way to my girl’s heart was via her stomach, not her pussy. I could probably work with that. Quinn was the cook, but hell, ordering in I could do.

“We could order room service and do a movie marathon instead?” I suggested, mostly to torpedo Quinn’s romantic date night. Because, make no mistake, his intention was to woo her with good food. Well fuck that.

“I’m sure the hotel’s cable has lots of great movies. Or we could watch Netflix on my laptop. We could snuggle in bed and chill.”

“Hmm, that does sound good,” Stella mused. I threw Quinn a shit-eating grin and his fake smile told me to fuck off and die.

“How about a compromise?” he suggested. “Dinner at my favorite restaurant, followed by a movie back here.”

“Yeah, OK. Do we need to book a table?”

“Already done.” Stella’s eyes widened. She was clearly impressed by the asshole’s attention to detail. I was going to have to learn from his tactics. It was obvious he intended to pull out all the stops. I may be the one in her bed right now, but I suspected it wouldn’t be long before he was joining us.

I was happy to share her, but there was no way he was stealing her from under me.

Stella was my girl, and I was in this for the long haul.

Chapter 58

Stella

This was the first time I’d visited Dad while he was in prison. He’d refused to add me to the visitor list before today, which had hurt. But I kind of understood why he wouldn’t want me coming here.

There was nothing attractive about this place. Although it wasn’t the worst prison he could have been sent to, knowing he was likely sharing a cell with sex offenders, drug traffickers, and giant rats didn’t make me feel any better.

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