Page 90 of Mark my Words

I knew she’d kill me, but I emailed the photo of us at the Cloud Gate to myself and quickly assigned it as the screensaver on my personal tablet. She hadn’t wanted to take the picture, but the genuine smile on her lips, her cheeks glowing, had been the best part of my day. She’d put her armor away, trusting me. It may have only been for a few fleeting hours, but she’d let me in and enjoyed herself.

That spark of connection was still there, burning brightly beneath the surface. It would have been so easy to take advantage of it, stoking the fire and taking her back into my bed—showing her with my body how much her company affected me. But I could wait. It might kill me, but I could wait for her to acknowledge her feelings for me. The time and the distance she’d put between us since our intense affair in Boston hadn’t diminished the heat between us.

“Good morning,” I smiled as I joined Kristine on a bench in the lobby the following morning. Diana was sitting across the small seating area, rapidly texting as she glanced up toward the elevators.

“Hm,” Kristine hummed, picking up her travel mug of coffee from the table before her and moving to sit next to Di.

She refused to look up as she pulled out her phone and angrily stabbed at the screen. It was clear from her body language she’d stewed on last night and decided that she was angry with me. I’d expected it, but we had to stop this cycle of me pursuing her and then her running away. The only way she’d see how I felt about more than just her body would be to spend time with me outside a hotel room. I could take a bit of her ire as long as it ended up with her seeking me out for more than the orgasms I could give her.

“Morning, party people.” Chase was in a good mood as she wrestled her black suitcase into our small seating area, dropping into the couch next to me with Evan only a few steps behind. He looked relatively relaxed, watching the blonde to my right with a quiet intensity.

“Morning, Chase. How was your evening?”

“It was spectacular,” she laughed as she turned and grasped Evan’s hand, kissing his palm and tugging him to sit on the arm of the couch next to her. “Good food, good company, seeing my family, baby snuggles. What more could a girl want?”

Kristine glanced up, narrowing her eyes at me before she resumed glaring at her phone.

A kiss, I wanted to say, just to tease her, but she’d kill me if I outed us to Chase and Evan. She’d already told me Chase had suspicions of our relationship being more than professional. Obviously, I could not care less if they found out about it. But I still didn’t know how Kristine would react to people knowing about us.

“How was your day, Sam? Did you enjoy some downtime?” Evan asked as his fingers played with the end of Chase’s loose ponytail.

“It was better than I was expecting,” I admitted. “There’s just something about Chicago that Boston can’t touch.”

“I know what you mean,” he smiled. “It’s a good place for new beginnings.”

As Chase smiled warmly at him, covering his hand with her own, I realized that while Kristine may have been mad at me right now, our time in Chicago did feel like the start of something new.

“No.” Kristine’s arms crossed her chest, and she glared at me from her spot to my right. “Not going to happen. You can share with Evan.”

There hadn’t been a large enough Uber available at the Denver airport for all five of us to ride together, so Kristine and I had gone ahead to our hotel while Chase, Evan, and Diana waited for our luggage to arrive.

The only hitch in our plan—to get the room keys for our party—was the hotel had overbooked the rooms. Only three were available instead of four, and two had king-sized beds. The third had two double beds, so we had enough places for everyone to sleep comfortably, but Kristine refused to share a room with me.

“It’s only a few nights. We’ll each have separate beds. I’ll let you have the first dibs in the bathroom. This isn’t a big deal.”

“You’re right,” she huffed, her fingers flying across the screen of her phone. “It’s not a big deal because you and Evan are sharing one of those king-sized beds. As you said, it’s only for a few nights. You’ll be fine.”

The desk clerk looked at me apologetically as she tried to provide us with the only alternative she could manage with a fully booked hotel. “If you’d like, I can send a single cot to the king suite. There may be enough room to set it up next to the bed, and then there wouldn’t be the need for anyone in your party to share beds.”

“Can you give us a moment?” I asked calmly as I grasped Kristine by the elbow and looked for somewhere to steer her off to the side, hopefully out of earshot of the clerk.

“Yes, of course. I’ll work on getting breakfast vouchers together for all of you to thank you for accommodating the reservation change.”

“There wouldn’t be a need for you to thank us if you’d gotten the damn reservations correct,” Kristine hissed as I dragged her away from the desk.

“Would you quit it?” She slapped my hands away as we stood off to the side of the reception area outside the closed restaurant. “Stop pretending you have any say in this.”

“I’m not the one who needs to quit having a tantrum,” I sighed, pulling open my phone contacts and hitting the green button to connect the call I needed to make.

The phone rang twice before a deep voice picked up, a familiar laugh sounding through the phone in the background, along with the hum of activity you’d hear if you were out somewhere crowded. Good, at least he was with Isobel.

“What’s up, Langley?” Adrian asked cheerfully. He’d obviously avoided reading the text I’d sent him, or he wouldn’t sound so chipper.

“The reservations in Denver were fucked up.” No point in sugar-coating the situation.

“By whom?” he asked, his voice getting louder as the background noise faded. I could hear Isobel asking what was happening in the background, and then a quiet curse as a text alert chimed.

“I don’t know, but they’re fully booked, as is every other hotel in this part of the city. We’ve only got three rooms. Kristine is losing her shit.”