Game On(48)

“I gave him his chance.” Now the annoyance had faded from his voice and I could hear the anger. Shit. The last thing Nathan needed was an angry, vindictive guy like Tim out to get him. “So now we bring out the big guns. Hire a private detective. Ask his friends, his enemies. Get someone to say something about this guy—on the record—about what a tool he is. Get someone to dig up some dirt. We’ve got a lot to do, Saucy. Hope you brought enough pairs of panties.”

Thankfully we had pulled up to the hotel. I got out as soon as the car came to a stop, thankful for the broken seatbelt. I made a beeline for the lobby and for the elevator, hoping that the valet would slow Tim down enough for me to get out of there and up to my room. Unfortunately the little shit was fast when he wanted to be.

“Hey, wait up,” he puffed, running across the lobby. “We need to decide on a game plan.”

The elevator doors slid open.

“I have a headache,” I told him, not really a lie. The sight of him gave me a headache. “I need to go lie down.”

“On the rag?” Tim asked as he followed me into the elevator.

I prayed that we weren’t staying on the same floor.

“Yes,” I told him.

I relished the look on his face, which was, in a word, horrified. Not very comfortable with menstruation it looked like. Perfect. Now I had a way to keep him away from me.

“I’m just so grateful that you understand that I have to take the afternoon off,” I said, plastering a thankful smile across my face. “Besides, you don’t want me acting all crazy while you’re trying to interview people about Nathan, do you?”

He had slowly been backing away from me, his face growing paler and paler.

The doors dinged open at my floor. I noticed he didn’t move to exit. Either he wasn’t on this floor or I had terrified him so much that he wasn’t going to leave the elevator. I was satisfied with the work I had done either way.

“Thanks so much for understanding,” I told him, making sure to pat him on the shoulder.

I saw him look down at the place on his jacket where I had touched him, as if he was afraid I was bleeding from my hands and left some on the leather.

“Uh,” he managed.

“Byeeeeee!” I said brightly, stepping out of the elevator, waving cheerfully at him until it closed in his stunned face.

“Shithead,” I muttered to myself.

Ugh. Tim was going to be a nightmare. Not just for me, but for Nathan, especially if he managed to find any inkling of wrongdoing. Tim had ended careers. He did it with glee. Whatever got him attention and acclaim. He didn’t care about anyone but himself.

For a moment I thought about calling Nathan, trying to warn him, but I had tried to tell him last night what was coming and he had called me a liar. Told me I had been playing him. The thought that he believed that made my heart ache, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I wasn’t going to help Tim, of course, but there wasn’t much more that I could do. Especially if Nathan wasn’t speaking to me.

I really did have a headache now and a bath combined with a mini-bar sized bottle of tequila I couldn’t really afford sounded like the best way to deal with my presently terrible situation.

But the minute the door closed behind me, I was suddenly too exhausted to do anything but face-plant on my bed. I just wanted this assignment to be over. To go home—even though I didn’t really have that anymore—and forget about Austin, about the Longhorns, and especially about a too-attractive, too-nice, too-f*cking-sexy guy named Nathan Ryder. I especially wanted to forget what a good kisser he was.

Then there came a quiet, almost tentative knock at the door.

I lifted my head from the pillow I had burrowed into, not sure if I had actually heard it or if I was starting to go crazy, hearing knocking sounds in my head. With my luck, a descent into madness was certainly not unexpected at this point. It would be pretty par for the course, in fact.

But no, the knock came again, a little more assured this time.

I pushed off the bed, shoved my ponytail over my shoulder and went to answer it.

Even though I doubted it was Tim, who was probably hiding in his room weeping at the thought of the body of a woman he had sexually harassed on numerous occasions doing things that a woman’s body actual did, and was probably the kind of guy who pounded on a door the way he f*cked—loudly and without any rhyme, I still braced myself for the possibility of finding him on the other side.

Instead, when I peered through the peephole, I found Nathan, looking extra adorable through the fisheye glass. He had his hands behind him and was rocking back and forth on his heels as if he was nervous. It looked as if he had something behind his back.

I opened the door, but not all the way. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to control myself if I let him in.

“Hi,” I said.

His face did that happy-to-see-you thing that made him look utterly boyish and irresistible.

“Hi.”

We just stared at each other for a moment. I couldn’t understand what he was doing here. Didn’t he hate me? Because he didn’t seem to be looking at me like he hated me.

“Can I come in?” he asked.

I nodded and stepped aside to let him in. At least this time the room was clean and I wasn’t wearing a too-short robe. Not that I felt any less vulnerable this time around.

He stopped in the doorway and seemed to be looking around for something.