Page 15 of A Series of Rooms
A dazzling smile pulled up the corner of the boy’s mouth, tugging a black studded piercing with it. “That’s an easy fix,” he said, extending his hand again. This time Jonah took it, hesitantly. “My name is Dominic.”
He could tell something was off.
An overnight call almost always meant a wealthy client with too much cash to spare, and a ritzy hotel to show for it.Jonah had come to associate overnights with luxurious high-rises along The Loop, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Lake Michigan, and room service that included champagne more expensive than an entire night of Jonah’s company.
Tonight, Jonah stood in front of a five-story chain hotel, a faulty vacancy sign flooding him in a neon glow.
“I’ll be in the lot near the end of the block at ten tomorrow.” Marcus spoke through a crack in the driver’s side window, eyes straight ahead.
Jonah nodded and watched the car pull away from the sidewalk.
He kept his eyes low as he passed through the lobby. If the night shift desk attendants ever had any suspicion of what he was, they never said anything, but he had been on the receiving end of enough contemptuous stares to want to avoid them altogether. In the elevator, he uncurled his palm to check the smudged ink for the room number.He hit the fourth-floor button and watched the glowing red light ascend.
The room was at the end of the hall. Jonah approached with soft footsteps, closing his eyes for just a moment. It never did any good to try and predict what the night would hold, but the images flashed before him anyway: faceless figures, fragmented memories of strangers in leather seats and hotel beds. Age-spotted hands extending a glass of champagne, a thumb-sized glass bottle, a leather belt twisted into cuffs. He had come to expect a few constants from client to client, especially those who paid for an entire night of histime, so when he finally knocked on the door the person who answered caught him off guard.
“Liam?” The name surfaced easily in his memory.
“Hi,” Liam replied.
A cold, achy feeling settled over him, a mix of dread and disappointment that he should have been immune to. For the week since their first interaction, the memory of that night had been a warm flame he’d kept shielded between his palms, a singular moment of reprieve like a pinhole of light in the dark. Was a week all it took for him to change his mind?
Liam’s soft smile crumbled when his eyes fell to Jonah’s cheekbone.
“Jonah,” he said.
He cringed at the use of his real name. The bruise on his face still throbbed as a reminder of what that piece of information had cost him. He knew by the look on Liam’s face that it hadn’t faded as much as he hoped.
“What happened?” Liam asked. The concern in his voice carved Jonah’s hurt into something sharper.
“Does it matter?”
Liam seemed taken aback. “Of course it matters.”
Jonah’s shoulders rose in defense. He tossed a look over his shoulder, checking that the hallway was clear.
“Sorry,” Liam said. “Do you want to come in?” He stepped aside, allowing Jonah a glimpse into the room behind him.
What choice did he have?
The chill from the air conditioning covered his skin in goosebumps as he entered. He wrapped his arms around himself, rubbing his palms over his arms as Liam closed the door behind them.
“Too cold?” Liam asked, already moving across the room to switch off the unit.
“I’m fine,” Jonah answered automatically. He kept his posture rigid, every nerve in his body on high alert. He didn’t believe that Liam had any desire to hurt him physically, not really, but he had made the mistake of trusting kind men before. Jonah kept his back to the wall.
Liam hovered several feet away, eyes lingering on the bruise. Jonah waited for further questioning, but it didn’t come. Part of him wished Liam would just skip the false niceties and get to what he’d come here for. It would be less of a mind-fuck if he didn’t insist on pretending he was the person Jonah had thought he was a week ago.
“What made you change your mind?” Jonah asked, ripping off the bandaid.
Liam stopped picking at his nail and dropped both hands to his sides. “What?”
Jonah crossed his arms over his chest, guarding himself from the look of genuine perplexity. “You were pretty insistent last time that you weren’t interested.”
Liam’s eyes widened. “I’m not,” he blurted. “I mean, I’m interested inyou, obviously, as a person. But not... Is that what you thought? Is that why you’re upset?”
Jonah felt himself flush, unnerved by his own transparency. “Why am I here?” he asked, ignoring the question.
“Because I couldn’t get you out of my head,” Liam admitted with a level of candor Jonah hadn’t expected. “I don’t know. I guess I just needed to see that you were alright, after the way things ended.”
