I need a break from her.
Honestly, I don’t know if she apologized to Terry. She said she did, but if she’s telling the truth, her apology was probably trite and condescending. I go back into the restaurant, because Terry deserves a real apology.
I didn’t do anything wrong, but I can’t leave things the way they are.
I walk through the dining room, but I don’t see her, so I waylay another waitress. “You know where Terry is?”
“I think she just went on break,” the server says. “You can probably find her in the break room.”
“Where’s the break room?”
In the back, she nods. “By the restrooms.”
“The restroom is in the back?”
She laughs. “Yeah. We have two sets of restrooms. You didn’t know that?”
“I do now.”
Damn. So Kelly was telling the truth. She did go to the restroom. But she also lied. She didn’t apologize to Terry.
Christ…
I head toward the back, dodging the servers and customers, until I find—yes—another set of restrooms and an open doorway leading into another room with a couple couches and small tables.
Terry sits at the table, looking at her phone.
I clear my throat. “Terry?”
“Yes?” She turns and looks over her shoulder, and then she smiles broadly. “Oh, hello.”
“I’m Leif,” I say.
“Yes, I know. Your name was on your credit card. What can I do for you?”
“I came to apologize for my…er…companion. She’s been going through some stuff. She shouldn’t have treated you the way she did.”
She lets out a nervous laugh. “I’ve been treated a lot worse by paying customers.”
“Not by paying customers who accompany me,” I say. “I’m sorry for her behavior.”
“That’s kind of you. But she already apologized.”
I stop my eyebrows from flying off my forehead. “She did?”
Damn, she told me the truth, and I didn’t believe her. My bad.
“Yeah, she came in right after you guys left,” Terry says. “She apologized. And she told me you weren’t together.”
“No. We’re not a couple.”
“I know.” Terry blushes. “I was very glad to hear that. I hope you didn’t think it was too forward that I gave her my number to give to you.”
Again, I stop the eyebrows. “Oh, no, not too forward at all.”
“I hope you call me sometime.”
“I’m only in town for a little while,” I say.
“Oh.” She looks down but a second letter she meets my gaze with a sultry smile. “Well, maybe we could get together while you’re here. I’ve lived here a long time. Do you need someone to show you around?”
She’s not really my type. She looks too young, first of all, and she’s a little flirty for my taste. But maybe I should go out with her. I’m incredibly attracted to Kelly, but she is clearly not interested. Will never be interested. And as beautiful as she is on the outside, inside she’s ugly as a hag.
“How about tonight?” I ask Terry.
“That’d be great. I get off at four thirty.”
“Awesome. You want me to pick you up here?”
“Sure. But I have to go home and change.”
“Okay. I’ll pick you up at your home then.” I nod to her pad. “Write down your address for me. Put down your phone number too.”
“Don’t you already have that?”
“Right.” I turn and glance toward the entrance. Kelly’s long gone, if she even still has the number. “Yeah, but it doesn’t hurt to be safe.”
She smiles, scribbles on her pad, and then hands the paper to me.
“What time are you usually done cleaning up after work?”
“It doesn’t take long. Could you pick me up around six?”
“I’ll be there.” I smile. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Me too. See you tonight.”
I turn, walk back out of the restaurant.
Terry isn’t a woman I’m interested in, but going out will be good for me. Maybe I’ll find out I like her. You never know.
I hail a cab. When I’m back at the building, back on the fourth floor, I stop at Kelly’s door and knock.
I’m being paid to see first to her safety, I want to make sure she got home okay.
So I knock.
And I knock again.
And then, I panic.
Shit. I just put her in a cab. New York cabbies are notoriously honest, but still… What if I put her into the one cab that meant her harm?
And Reid Wolfe is paying me a shit ton of money to see to her safety.
I grab my wallet out of my pocket. Shoved underneath my driver’s licenses is something Kelly doesn’t know I have. The key card to her apartment.
Reid gave it to me in case of an emergency, and even though I’m not sure right now is an emergency, I can’t take the chance. Her safety is my responsibility. The Wolfe family trusts me, and I cannot betray their trust.
Of course, entering Kelly’s apartment without her permission may well be breaking her trust.
But right now, her safety is more important than that. It trumps everything.
I slide the key card through the reader, and the door clicks open.
I open the door, walk in stealthily.
“Kelly!” I yell.
No response.
I look around for any signs of evidence that she’s here. A phone on the table. A purse hung over a chair.
But there’s nothing.
Not that I know what this apartment normally looks like. This is my first time inside.
I continue to walk quietly through the small hallway and through the living area past the kitchen.
The door to her bedroom is closed.
Dare I enter?
I knock.
Again no response.
She could be asleep, so I knock a bit louder.
And again…nothing.
I turn the knob and open the door. “Kelly?”
The door to her ensuite bathroom is also closed, so I walk toward it, swiftly open it and—
A bloodcurdling scream.
Coming from Kelly.
Naked Kelly.
A towel is on a puddle in the floor in front of her. Rather than clutching it, to her, she must have lost her grip.
I gape.
I can’t help myself.
She’s a goddess.
Gorgeous round tits with light brown nipples. And those nipples? They’re standing straight out.
A curvy hourglass figure, gorgeous legs that are long and shapely. Her red hair is wet and hangs in strings around her milky shoulders.
I gaze again at her legs. The scars. On her thighs. My God…
“Get the hell out of here!” she yells. “You fucking perv!”
Right. She’s absolutely right.
What am I thinking? Staring at her as if I’ve never seen a naked woman before. I leave, closing the door.
“God, I’m so sorry,” I say through the closed door. “I was worried. You didn’t answer when I knocked.”
No reply. Not that I expect one. She’s angry and rightfully so.
And damn, I can’t get the image of her naked body out of my head. I think it’s seared in there permanently, as if it’s branded into my brain.
I sit down on her bed to wait for her.
“Are you gone yet?” Her angry voice comes through the door.
“No. I’m waiting for you.”
“Then you’ll be waiting a long freaking time, because I’m not leaving this bathroom until you’re out of this apartment.”
“Fine. I’ll wait for you in the living room.”
“No. You will leave my apartment. Now. How the hell did you get in here, anyway?”
A valid question, and one I will answer honestly. “Reid gave me a key in case of an emergency.”
“Did he now? Leave your key on the kitchen counter. Then leave.”
“I’ll leave, but I won’t leave my key, Kelly. It’s important that I have it for emergencies.”
“What’s your excuse today? This is hardly an emergency.”
“Yeah, it is an emergency. I put you in a cab, and I should’ve gone with you. So when I got back, I wanted to make sure you were okay. When you didn’t answer your door, I was concerned, so I came in.”
“You mean you broke in.”
“No, I came in. I was concerned about your wellbeing. You’re my responsibility—”
“Let’s get this straight, Leif. I’m no one’s responsibility. I haven’t been anyone’s responsibility other than my own. No one has ever taken care of me, and I don’t need anyone to take care of me now.”
Her words strike me.
Just as I suspected, she has a backstory. Her childhood was less than great.
She’s never been anyone’s responsibility? Not her parents’? The state’s? No one’s?
Scary stuff.
I don’t know what she’s been through, but it was far from good.
“Kelly, I—”
“I can still hear you, so that means you’re still here. Get the fuck out!”
I could win this battle. She has to come out of her bathroom at some point. But she’s stubborn. So damned stubborn. She will stay in there for hours, and I have a stupid date tonight.
“Fine,” I say. “But this isn’t over. I will not be leaving my key, and you and I need to have a chat.”
“I see no need for a chat,” she says. “I don’t want to hear your voice again.”
“Fine. I’m leaving.”
I leave her bedroom and shut the door behind me, and then—not leaving my key card—I let myself out of her apartment and head toward my own.
And I try to ignore the hard-on I still have from seeing her naked.