Page 11 of One More Kiss

When I opened my eyes, I felt a hundred times better than I had in days, perhaps even weeks. Rolling over in bed, I glanced at my clock that said it was after seven in the evening.

Sitting up slowly, I glanced around, confused. The last thing I remembered was brushing my teeth in the shower. I’d fallen asleep while Nash was still washing me.

My skin pebbled with goose bumps at the memory of him taking such gentle care of me. He’d never done that before, which made me wonder if I’d dreamed it. But I was wearing his shirt, and my hair was a mess after sleeping on the wet strands without brushing out the tangles.

Whether he’d taken care of me or not, he wasn’t in bed beside me. And that was what I wanted more than anything. Despite knowing what I did, my heart didn’t seem to care. I loved Nash.

Which was stupid. Because he had more than proven he didn’t feel the same way about me.

I might have been able to overlook how he was taking the hotel from my family. All I’d ever truly wanted was to make Grandpa Howie proud. I’d worked hard and earned my way up through the ranks. One summer after getting my driver’s license, I’d even spent a few weeks parking cars with the other valets.

No one, not one damn person, could say I’d been handed my place as an assistant manager. I’d worked in housekeeping for six months, and afterward, I’d fought hard to make sure that department got a well-deserved raise because people were disturbingly disgusting when it came to hotel rooms.

What I couldn’t forget was that Nash had been with Nicole. My stepmother had been intimate with my secret lover. I hadn’t even told Sam that little nugget of information I’d overheard.

How recently had they been together?

Was he with her when our relationship began?

Were they still hooking up?

All those questions torpedoed through my head, causing explosions of jealousy to echo through me. I hated Nicole. Not just because of what I now knew. She’d done everything she could to make me miserable from day one.

Evil stepmothers in Disney movies were laughable, compared to her. I’d tried to ignore her snide comments and the way she’d attempted to embarrass me at social events. All her vitriol and hostility made a sick kind of sense after discovering she’d been with Nash.

Reaching for my phone, that I found charging on the bedside table, I checked for any missed calls or texts. I had a few messages from Sam and Stef, both reminding me to take things easy and to wear my sexiest dress.

Smiling at their reminders, I got up and went to take another shower. Tossing Nash’s T-shirt into the hamper on my way to the bathroom, I noticed a few other items of his in there. Pausing, I bent to pick up the athletic shorts he favored for his workouts.

He’d been careful never to leave any of his things in my room before, not even a toothbrush. Yet now his clothes were in my basket? They hadn’t been there the last time I’d been home, that was for damn sure.

Rolling my eyes at finding signs of him invading my space while I was gone, I turned on the hot water and refused to think about the confusing man. After insisting we keep things quiet, now that we were over, he wanted to start leaving his things at my place?

I was so done with him.

And everyone else.

Everything else.

Including the Royal Phoenix.

My only home had become a weight, holding me down, trapping me in a place. For so long, I’d lived my life to please others, in hopes of earning their…what? Acceptance? Affection? Love?

Was it too much to ask for a little respect?

But it was patently obvious that had never been an option. I wasn’t enough. Not to my mom, who’d run off as soon as my father divorced her. Not my grandfather, who thought my only value to him was as someone to marry his best friend’s grandson in order to merge the shares of the hotel into one. Especially not to Nash.

It was time to move on, accept that the only person I needed to care about making proud was myself—something I definitely was not at the moment—and cut the people who didn’t deserve me out of my life.

Because I sure as fuck would not let my child feel the loneliness, the emptiness, of being surrounded by people who only wanted to use them.

An hour later, I walked out of the elevator. Stef had told me to wear my sexiest dress, and I’d done just that. My blond hair was in soft waves down my back, and my black dress had a long, conservative skirt but a plunging front that went past my belly button, making it impossible to wear a bra. Tape was the only thing that held the material in place over my breasts. The crystal-studded heels I’d paired with it were an early gift from Sam for my birthday in a few weeks, and my favorite. A double rope of diamonds graced my neck, a present from my grandfather when I turned eighteen, and glittered with each step I took.

Heads turned as I walked through the lobby, conversations stopping as people stared. I tucked my phone into my clutch that matched my shoes, unconcerned with the attention I garnered on my way out the door. I felt sexy and, for the first time in my life, powerful. Not having the weight of other’s judgment pressing down on my shoulders was a relief. I was pissed at myself for not seeking it sooner.

A car was already waiting on me. As I exited the hotel, Sam stepped out, a bright smile on his handsome face. “Goddamn, you’re beautiful.”

“Flattery will get you anywhere,” I said with a grin as I walked toward him. He lowered his head to kiss my cheek. “Will there be food? I’m starving.”

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