Page 55 of Room Service
“Absolutely not, Elise,” he interrupts, and I pout at him and then hiss as it stretches my lip.
“For fuck’s sake, I told you to stop doing that,” he barks, but I just find it so fucking hot that he’s concerned about me. A knock at the door interrupts us, and he tells me to go and answer it and then sit my fine arse down. I roll my eyes and move, feeling more relaxed than ever before, because he makes me feel safe, secure… wanted. I don’t feel like a burden here, because he hasn’t made me feel like one.
I open the door and am met with Celeste standing there, looking partly worried and partly relieved.
“Fucking hell, Elise,” she says as she takes in the bruises on my face and wraps her arms around me. I can’t stop the yelp that leaves me as her arm pushes against the bruising on my side. “Oh shit,” she exclaims, stepping back from me like I just electrocuted her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“It’s fine,” I tell her with a wave of my hand as I feel Dorien at my back.
“Christ, go and sit down,” he demands, turning me and guiding me to the chair that he likes to plonk me in.
“I’m fine, Dorien, stop fussing.” I bat his hands away, but he leans down on the arm of the chair and whispers, “You’re mine to fuss over.”
Well, doesn’t that just make me bloody wet for him.
“Take a seat, Celeste,” he says sternly, and I frown at him as he walks back into the kitchen area, leaving tension hanging in the air.
“He’s pissed at me,” Celeste whispers, and I try to placate her with a smile, but it doesn’t work as I see her fiddling with her hands in her lap.
“He’s just being… oddly weird.” I can’t even begin to get into what Dorien and I are right now. I’m still figuring it out myself.
“It’s not weird, Elise. It’s what happen when a guy cares about you.”
“Of course it’s weird, he’s still my boss,” I hiss, because what the fuck is going to happen when I go back to work? Is he still going to want me to stay here? Are we going to have the chat about what the hell we’re doing? Because he’s made it pretty clear that we’ve gone past the fucking stage, he even said so himself, so where does that leave me with everything?
“I don’t think you’ll be working as a maid again,” Celeste admits, and I feel uncomfortable talking about this with Dorien a few feet away.
“Can we talk about it tomorrow, over coffee, maybe? I could meet you on your lunchbreak,” I suggest.
“Yes!” Celeste replies excitedly, and I chuckle. “But I’ll come here, so you don’t have to…”
“Walk around with a busted face and have the other staff question what happened?” I finish for her, and she grimaces slightly.
“I didn’t mean it to sound like that.”
“It’s the truth… I look a bloody mess.”
“Stop it,” she tells me with an eye roll. “And anyway,” she continues, with a flick of her hand to brush over having to placate my insecurity of how bad I look. “It’s so fucking boring at lunch without you there.”
“It’s been, like, a day, Celeste.”
“Not to mention that since Dorien contacted me earlier, I’ve been worried sick about you,” she admits.
“Dorien was the one who contacted you?” I ask, because I assumed he probably had a message sent to her by someone else.
“Yeah, he said there had been an incident and that I was to come here after work. Of course I questioned him, because even if he is my boss, you’re my best friend, and you know what I’m like,” she says, and I nod. I do know what she’s like, and I love her more for it. “So, he told me that something had happened and you wouldn’t be at work for a while because you need to rest. And then he told me to be here after work and hung up the phone, so of course, my brain went into overdrive imagining all sorts, because I know damn well that you wouldn’t miss work unless it was really bad. So, spill the tea, Elise, because I need to know why last night changed so dramatically from you coming here to get your freak on to you having a busted lip and bruises on your face, and God knows where else.”
And so, I regale her with how my husband tried to fucking kill me.
Chapter Forty-Two
DORIEN
By the time Celeste leaves, Elise is exhausted, and once she’s said goodbye to her friend at the door, I walk up behind her and close it, lifting her into my arms and carrying her to the bedroom.
“Dorien, what—”
“Stop squirming,” I scold her, and she scowls at me, not having any idea how fucking hot that scowl is.
