The VIP Room(27)

Chapter 6





Chloe





When I finally fell asleep, I tossed and turned, haunted by vague dreams in which Nolan came home, beaten and scared, and then Sam showed up to take me away before I could find out what was wrong. I didn’t really pass out until just before dawn, then didn’t wake up for hours. Usually I was up with the sun whether I wanted to be or not. Normally, my body sensed day break and switched itself on, even if I’d just gotten to bed.

Sam’s room had heavy curtains along the wide, tall window. Very heavy curtains. They must have tricked my brain into thinking it was still night, because I slept until eleven. Sleep fell away slowly, and I rolled over in bed trying to get my bearings for a few minutes before I noticed the time. Realizing it was almost lunch, I bolted out of the bed and into the bathroom.

The heat of the shower soaked into me, calming me down as I rummaged through Sam’s shower for what I’d need. I’d found an unopened razor blade in a drawer, along with an unopened toothbrush. But I’d have to make do with his shampoo and other bath stuff. Squirting the shampoo into my palm I realized I had the source of the citrus side of Sam’s scent. Looking closer at the bottle I saw it was a combination shampoo/conditioner/body wash. I smiled and shook my head as I massaged in the lather.

Sam was rolling in money and he couldn’t be bothered to buy a separate shampoo and body wash. He’d grown his company into a huge success over the past ten years. By the time I’d joined Desert Vistas, they were already handling large scale developments in both Nevada and California. But Sam was still the same down-to-earth guy he’d always been.

Daniel had told me once that it didn’t seem to matter if he was in a tract home or his ten million dollar architectural marvel, a tux or his jeans. He was still Sam. He might have been able to afford the most expensive soap on earth, but he still bought the normal stuff everyone else got at the grocery store.

I dried off and tried not to enjoy smelling like Sam. I hoped he’d be back to normal today. We had a lot of things to do. Meeting with Axel, probably. We had to go back to my place to see if anything had been destroyed. And I wanted to look for the number of one of Nolan’s work friends to see if he knew anything. At some point we’d have to go in to the office. He had contracts to review and I didn’t even want to think about his inbox. Or mine.

Teeth brushed and hair combed, I looked around for my suit and blouse only to find them missing. I’d taken everything off the night before and laid them over the arm chair across from the bed. Now it was empty. Not sure what to do, I looked through Sam’s huge closet and found a robe hanging on the back of the door. It was huge, dragging on the floor behind my heels, but at least it covered me.

Resigned to the fact that I wasn’t going to find anything better, I tied it tight and went looking for Sam. His office door hung open, the pull-out still unfolded, the sheets half pulled up, as if he’d thought about making the bed and then changed his mind. I found him sitting on a stool at the bar in the kitchen, working on his laptop and sipping a cup of coffee. Seeing me hovering at the end of the hallway, he smiled.

“Finally awake?” he asked. “I thought you never slept in.”

“I don’t,” I said, tucking my wet hair behind my ear. Without my hair pins, which had disappeared along with my suit, my hair was springing into curls and waves as it dried. I liked to keep it contained, thinking it more professional, but little strands were always falling out, no matter what I did.

“Are you hungry? Marte made you breakfast. It’s in the warming oven. I ate a while ago.”

He was smirking at me for sleeping in, but I ignored him. It seemed like he was back to normal. Good. As wonderful as that kiss had been, I couldn’t afford for it to happen again. He was my boss, and I didn’t want to leave my job. I found a plate of french toast stuffed with cream cheese and a bowl of sliced fruit. Yum.

I shouldn’t eat it, but I was going to anyway. I’d been dieting lately - it felt like I was always dieting - but I was a stress eater, and with Nolan missing it didn’t seem like that big a deal to eat the French toast. I was making myself a cup of coffee when I asked,

“Did she take my clothes to wash? I can’t find my suit. Or my hairpins.”

“No. I threw them out.”

“What?” I almost spilled the full coffee cup in my hand when I whirled to face him. Sam was still studying his laptop screen and hadn’t bothered to look up.

“What do you mean you threw out my clothes? You can’t throw away my clothes. I need them.”

“No you don’t. Pick something off the table in the dining room.”

I put my mug down on the kitchen counter and stormed past the bar and into the dining room. Like the model home I’d been hiding in the night before, Sam’s house was an open plan on the main level. The great room, with its panoramic views of the Las Vegas strip, flowed into the kitchen on one side and the dining room on the other. I strode through, without admiring the view of desert and city, to find the long table completely covered in clothes. One end was stacked with shoe boxes and a chair was pulled out and covered in scarves and purses.

“WHAT IS THIS?!” I screeched. I’m not usually a screecher. Really. Not even a yeller. The stress of the past few days had me a little more emotional than usual, but I’m generally a pretty calm, level headed woman. This was just too much. I didn’t even know what it meant. “Where did all of this come from?”