Need You Now (1001 Dark Nights)(12)

“Danny.”

The greeting comes from Frank, a tall, thin man with newly developing salt and pepper hair who runs the accounting department. He stops in front of my desk.

Shaking off my distraction, I force my attention into the moment and stand. “Hi, Frank. Let me walk you back to your meeting with Jensen Miller.”

He pushes his thick-rimmed glasses up his nose. “I’m certainly eager to find out how all of this will affect our financials.”

“All of this?”

“The hotel is buzzing about a potential expansion.”

“Wouldn’t that be amazing?” I ask, going with the flow, worried just the opposite is about to occur.

“If it’s done right. Speaking of doing things right, have you heard from Katie?”

“No. Why? Should I have?”

“She left a message with my assistant that she’s sick, but I can’t reach her to find out what that means.” He grimaces. “Last night was her birthday. I’m concerned this is a case of too much partying.”

“She was with me here at the hotel,” I quickly counter, though worried that rocker boyfriend of Katie’s has influenced her to do something she’ll regret. “We didn’t party. I’m her boring friend. I needed my beauty sleep. I had to be into work early this morning.”

“Boring is good on a work night, but she’s not always so quick to make that choice. Whatever the case, I need a temp if she can’t get into work tomorrow.”

He’s right. She doesn’t always make that choice, especially when rocker boy is in town. “I’ll get one on standby. And I’ll try to reach her.”

I walk him down the hall and leave him to knock on Jensen’s door on his own, hurrying to my desk to call Katie again, frustrated when her voice mail sounds instead of her. “Katie,” I say softly but no less fiercely. “I need to talk to you.” I end the call and a gnawing feeling of unease grinds through my belly and sets me into action.

Heading to the elevator, I travel to the floor I know Katie stayed on last night. A few minutes later I’m at the door, knocking, and I’m really not sure why. When no one answers, I seek out a maid and ask about the room to discover it shows checked out but has not been cleaned. Thanks to my role with Meredith, the maid happily opens the door for me, and I stare down at the birthday card I’d left. Snatching it up, I charge into the suite and around a corner, through the living area to the bedroom, and as I suspect, the bed is untouched. Katie left before her and her problem rocker ever made it that far. I sink down on the edge of the bed and I don’t know why but that “alone” feeling has returned, and while it has always been empowering and welcome in the past, like last night, it’s neither of those things now. It’s just...empty. Frustrated at myself, I stand up and head for the door. I have no idea what is up with me or why this Katie situation is messing with me so badly, but it has to stop.

Quickly, I lock up the room and head to the kitchen, returning to the executive offices with food in hand and using the walk toward Jensen’s office to try to figure out the best way to ask for my phone. I reach his door as Frank exits, his gaze awkwardly cutting from mine. Frowning, I enter the office and Jensen motions me forward. And he doesn’t look away, watching every step I take with excruciating attention to detail.

I set the bag on his desk, and somehow my gaze radiates to his naked left hand as he accepts it and sets it out of the way. He’s not married, or he is and he doesn’t wear a ring. And it shouldn’t matter, not after all that’s happened today, but it does. It matters.

“Have you eaten?” he asks, and my gaze jerks guiltily to his, the connection washing over me in a warm, wicked way no man has ever so easily created in me.

Eager to distract from my reaction, I blurt out, “Did you find my phone by chance?”

Unfazed, he replies with, “It’s in my room.”

In his room, where I’m not about to ask him to take me. “You’ll bring it tonight? I don’t want to travel without it.”

“I’d have brought it today if I’d have known who you were,” he states, sounding matter-of-fact and completely believable. He reaches in his desk and slides a card in front of me. “That’s the contact information for the driver I hired to take us to the airport. He’ll be here at four o’clock to take you home to pack so we can leave here by five.”

I wet my lips and accept the card. “How many days will we be gone?”

“Three. I figure we can hit two of the Florida properties in a day and end in the Hamptons.”

“Yes. Okay. I’ll be ready at five.”

“Good,” he says simply, offering nothing more, but there is something in his eyes that burns through me. Desperate to hide my reaction to this man, I give him my back, and I am once again intensely aware of him tracking my every movement. Lord help me, I’m going on the road with a man who I almost slept with, who also holds my job and many others in his hands. Worse, despite knowing these things, and even despite my suspicions of him and his earlier accusations of me whoring around to climb the corporate ladder, I’m pretty sure he could melt me with a touch of his hand. My normal calm and controlled life is swimming in a shot glass of tequila.





I fully intend to be at the car Jensen ordered by four o’clock, but on my way downstairs, I’m stopped by an angry employee, followed by an angry customer in the lobby, both of which puts me in the car at 4:30. I’m leaving without a phone, unless Jensen really has mine and returns it. By the time I get home and start to pack, I realize I really don’t know what I want to take, which makes me want to take everything. Unwilling to embarrass myself with more than one medium bag, though, I do my best to plan.