Bait: The Wake Series, Book One(45)

“You'll need this,” she said.

“I have the same key. The lock isn't working.” I really wanted to go inside.

“I changed the keys. I told them we lost yours and these are new. Let me come in.”

“Open the door, please.” I hadn't made a move to encourage her, well—my cock got hard, but I didn't have any control over that—I just wanted in the room. I shifted on my feet and felt my erection move in her hand. It felt good.

I hated that it felt so good.

She unlocked the door herself and let it swing open. I walked in and turned around to see her, standing in the doorway, she looked like a starved puppy. I wanted to feed her, but she wasn't my dog.

I looked at her head on. “You should go to your room.”

“Just tell me what you want. I'll do whatever you like.”

“I want you to leave. I'd like to go to bed.” I walked toward her, growing sick of the situation.

If a woman was followed to her room, and groped, and then the man came into her room uninvited, then that would be grounds for arrest. When a woman did the same thing to a man, well, the man still got to play the part of the *. Double-f*cking-standard.

I didn't care though. I'd been honest with her and now she was getting on my nerves. She was acting pathetically, which was the biggest turn off of all.

I opened the door behind her and stood there, waiting for her to take the hint and go. She loomed there for a second, let out a little laugh and turned to me. Her hair swinging around to her shoulder. She had a totally different look in her eyes. She looked angry.

She came forward, leaving like I'd requested. She stopped in front of me and whispered, “I'd let you call me Honeybee.”

My balls hit the floor. Honeybee. What did she know about Blake? My mind raced, and my adrenaline spiked. Maybe I heard her wrong. My mind was playing tricks on me.

“What did you say?”

“Honeybee. That's what you call your friends, right? You can call me that, too.”

“You don't know what you're talking about.” I made sure not to grab her arm too hard, even though I wanted to squeeze the shit out of it. I guided her out of the room. I didn't even let my fingers wrap around it. I only let my palm push her through the doorway.

As soon as she was past the frame, I shut the door. She still had my key. I'd need to call the desk in the morning and get another one. But first, I needed to figure out how in the f*ck Aly knew about Blake.

She saw her at the party, but I don't think I even mentioned her. I doubt that Micah or Cory said anything to her that night. Besides, that was weeks ago. Why would she choose then to bring it up?

And I never called Blake honeybee to anyone else. It was only in my phone.

My phone.

Aly went through my phone.

Aly switched my room keys.

Maybe she wasn't the pushover I thought she was. She certainly didn't act that way that night. I'd needed to talk to her. That kind of shit was crazy. She was nuts.

She saw what we'd written to each other.

I read through the messages from earlier that day. There wasn't anything to worry about, except for toward the end, it wasn't even that flirty.

I fell asleep that night with an uneasy feeling. Blake hadn't called. On one hand, I hoped Aly had something to do with it, because on the other hand was a possibility it had something to do with Grant. She could still be with him.

I hated that hand most of all.

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

I killed it at my meetings. Brewster's loved the beer that we'd sent them and was pretty much ready to place orders and get a regular delivery scheduled, as soon as possible. They committed to stocking Bay at their top three locations to see how it went over. Saying that if all went well, they'd be happy to make it a house brew at each of their many establishments. We finished early and had a long lunch at their flagship location downtown.

Bruce and Tom were cool guys. They would be fun clients.

It worked out well. We closed up everything that I'd wanted to accomplish in a day and a half in the sum of a few hours. There would be no dinner.

By the time I'd returned to the hotel, I'd already changed our plane tickets. We were leaving this afternoon. I just needed to let her know. It was probably passive aggressive, but I called Marc anyway.

I'd let him tell her that we were coming back early. I dialed him the minute I got back to my room, and into it with my third room key in two days.