Dirty Rumor: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance(17)

Oh, my God. I could have shut him down right then, but I didn’t.

Why?

Because I want him. That’s the only possible answer.

I close my eyes and think of him taking off his suit jacket, unbuttoning his shirt, stripping off his pants and boxers….

Then I shake my head before the fantasy overwhelms me. I still have some things to do before I can check out for the night, and one of those things is to see how Rainflower Blue is doing today.

I log into the forum, and Ace is, once again, everywhere. There are debates about whether or not it was me he took home from the Swan last Friday, and I don’t bother to confirm or deny it—from everything I can tell, Ace is single.

Yes, but what happened to him?

The thought comes unbidden, but it makes me pause.

Maybe he isn’t just being a total *. Maybe something happened to him that made him regret sleeping with me…or made him feel guilty about it.

Every man has secrets in his past.

What I need to do is find out what secrets are haunting Ace.

The pressure is on.

But there’s nothing I can do about it right now, short of taking the elevator up to the penthouse and asking him to talk to me.

I’m just going to have to wait.

Sooner or later, someone will have information. Someone will post it on Rainflower Blue, and the forum will go wild. That’s how it always happens.

Patience. I need patience.

It’s damn hard, though, when I’m waiting on so many things. Waiting for rumors to surface, waiting for Ace to make up his mind, waiting for— There’s a knock on the door that makes me jump. My heart thuds against my rib cage. Is he here? Did I summon him here just by the power of thought? If I open the door, is he going to kiss me? I want it. I want it so damn bad….

I yank the door open….

To reveal a man in a tuxedo, holding a large paper bag.

“Carolyn Banks?”

“Yes?”

“Delivery from Sasabune.”

Sasabune is a high-end sushi place I’ve been to a few times in the past year. “I didn’t order anything.”

The guy consults the receipt. “A gift order from a Mr. Kingsley.” He holds out the bag. “There’s a note inside.”

I take the bag, then step back into the entryway. “Hang on a second, and I’ll tip—”

“No need, Ms. Banks,” the man says, and before I can say another word, he disappears down the hall.

What the hell is Ace Kingsley doing now?

I can’t help but smile.





Chapter 16

Ace





The second Carolyn is off the elevator, I call Sasabune and insist on being connected to the head chef. It’s one of my favorite restaurants in the city, and they’ll do whatever it takes to keep me a happy customer—something I’m more than willing to take advantage of, especially in times like these.

Carolyn could have stepped into the hallway without another word, maybe with her middle finger raised, but she didn’t. She joked. She left the door open, just a fraction.

And maybe I’m f*cking myself over. Maybe I’m going to end up with a heart bleeding with a thousand razor cuts, but my gut says that I should seize this opportunity. So I’m going to do more than put my foot in the doorway. I’m going to kick down the door.

The next call I place is to Noah.

“I have an order at Sasabune. Pick it up and deliver it to Carolyn Banks on the sixth floor.”

“You got it, boss.”

He makes no other comment.

I’m going to have to give him a raise.

My heart thuds against my rib cage while I make the walk from the elevator to my penthouse. If Noah performs up to his usual standards, he’ll be at Carolyn’s door inside half an hour. I don’t know how the hell he does it in New York traffic.

This is the perfect way to show her that she hasn’t gotten in the last word in on this, even if what she said to me on the way out of the elevator made heat flash through my chest.

It was also accurate.

She’s f*cking incredible in bed. Almost frighteningly so. I thought Elisa was my soul mate, my perfect match, but even Elisa never reached Carolyn’s level.

The air in the room seems thin, now that I’m thinking of Elisa. Maybe she could have been on Carolyn’s level. Maybe we just didn’t have enough time. Maybe if I had— No.

There’s no point in dwelling on what happened in Italy. Bad shit happens. The only thing I can do now is to move on. God knows her family never wants to see me again, even if ultimately it was their fault— Stop.

I focus on the scene that’s about to play out a couple of floors below me. Noah will knock on the door. Will her heart race? Will she think it’s me? He might have to wait—she could be in the shower, soaping up that gorgeous body after a day at work, and then— A text message comes into my phone.

Delivered.

I start to type back. How did she like it? Did she slam the door in your face?

Then I delete all of it. I’m not going to go there. Noah did his job. If he wants to tell me what Carolyn looked like when she opened the door, that’s up to him. I’m not going to harass him for details like I’m head over heels in love with her.

I’m not in love with her.