Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I wasn’t sure what bugged me more—the fact that in three short, intimate encounters, Weston had figured out something Liam had no clue about after more than eighteen months together, or that he’d figured out something even I wasn’t aware of. But either way, he was right. While I wanted to argue about business with Weston, and challenge him on everything, what I seemed to like in the bedroom was how he took charge. Sex with Weston was light years better than what things had been like between Liam and me. I’d chalked it up to the spark that came with our arguing, but there was more to it than that, and the revelation pretty much freaked me out.

So for the next twenty-four hours, I did my best to avoid Weston. And I was successful, too. Until I came out of the office supply store a few blocks away from the hotel at close to eight o’clock at night, and I happened to see Weston up ahead on the opposite side of the street. Since he was walking the direction I had to go, I kept him in my line of sight for the next two blocks. I figured he was on his way back to the hotel, like I was, but when he turned right instead of left at the next corner, I realized that wasn’t the case.

Standing at an intersection, I looked left and could see The Countess one block over. To my right, I watched Weston continue to walk. Conflicted, my head swung back and forth a few times before I finally sighed and decided a little extra walk tonight would do me some good.

I let more distance gap between us as I followed him from the opposite side of the street. Whereas before we’d both been heading toward the hotel, and if I got caught behind him, I had a legitimate excuse, now I was just a plain old stalker. I tailed him for a solid ten minutes, turning left and right with no idea where the hell we were going. Eventually, he turned in to an office building. I caught up and watched from across the street as he walked through the glass doors and headed straight for the elevator. With the show over, I probably should’ve turned around and weaved my way back to The Countess. But curiosity got the best of me.

Looking both ways, I jay-walked across the busy street toward the building. My heart sped up as I made my way to the glass doors. Weston had disappeared into the elevator, and I had no idea what the hell I was looking for. Yet for some stupid reason, I was willing to get caught to see if I could figure out where he was going.

In the lobby, I studied the building directory. It read like a typical Manhattan skyscraper, with dozens of doctors, lawyers, and corporate offices. Weston hadn’t stopped to check the directory, so he’d clearly been here before, or at least knew where he was going. Disappointed—though I had no idea why I’d followed him to begin with—I turned to leave. The last thing I wanted was to get caught when my snooping hadn’t even produced any good information. As I returned to the front door of the building, my cell buzzed. So I dug it out of my purse while I kept walking.

But my feet froze as I read the text that had come in.

If you wanted to know where I was going, all you had to do was ask.

Oh God. I felt nauseous.

But it couldn’t be from Weston. He didn’t have my cell phone number, as far as I knew. I racked my brain trying to figure out who else could have sent me such a text. Everyone I knew was in my contacts, and this message had come from an unknown number. It had to be Weston. Nothing else made sense. Though, I was so freaked out that I hung on to hope.

My hands were shaky as I hit reply.

Who is this?

I held my breath as the little circles jumped around, waiting for the reply to come through. When it did, my mouth went dry.

You know who it is. Meet me in my room in one hour.

I practically ran back to the hotel. All I wanted to do was hide. In my suite, I looked down at my phone and realized fifteen minutes had passed since the text came in, yet I didn’t remember any of the walk back.

Sitting down on my bed, I read Weston’s text over and over again.

Meet me in my room in one hour.

Was he crazy? I was not going to his room. What was the point? To make it easy for him to torture me about being caught? And how did he even know I was following him? Even if he’d seen me somehow, I could’ve had an appointment in the same building. The entire thing could be a complete coincidence. For all he knew, I’d been walking to an appointment and never even noticed him up ahead on the other side of the street. His damn ego was so big that he just assumed I was following him?

Yeah, that’s what happened. At least that was my story, and I was sticking to it.

In fact, the more I thought about it, the more it annoyed me that the arrogant bastard thought I’d been following him. He had absolutely no proof of that. Feeling a strong mix of pent-up anger and anxiety, I decided to take a bath to relax. Weston Lockwood was a damn egomaniac, and there was no reason to get myself all worked up over him. He had a lot of nerve barking at me to come to his room.

Turning on the bathwater, I pulled my hair into a ponytail and slipped out of my clothes while the tub filled. A good, long soak would make me forget all about the stupidity of this evening.

Except when I settled into the warm water, I couldn’t relax one bit. I just kept grumbling different rants, over and over, about Weston. Not only was he a cocky jerk for thinking I’d followed him, but now that I’d thought about things, I decided he’d also had a lot of nerve saying those things to me in his office yesterday. The man made a lot of assumptions that weren’t true.

Meet me in my room in one hour.

What did he think was going to happen? That I’d show up and spread my legs because I was so infatuated with him that I’d had to follow him?

I bet that’s exactly what he thought.

And that made me even angrier.

So much so, that I decided to show up at his door—to deliver a piece of my mind, not a piece of my ass. Abruptly getting out of the tub, I splashed water all over the floor. I dried off and threw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Grabbing my phone and room card from the counter, I didn’t bother to check the time. I wasn’t the least bit concerned whether I was early or late to his designated meeting time.

In the elevator, I jabbed the buttons on the panel and headed down to the eighth floor. Adrenaline surged through my veins as I raised my hand and rapped my knuckles on his door. I was so pumped up and ready to go that I started to rant before the door even swung all the way open.

“You have a lot of nerve. How dare—”

Oh shit.

This man was definitely not Weston.

He had on a bathrobe and slippers, looked to be in his seventies, and his white eyebrows drew down.

“Can I help you?”

“Umm… I think I might have the wrong room. I was looking for Weston?”

The man shook his head. “Think you got the wrong fella.”

“I’m so sorry to disturb you.”

He shrugged. “No problem. But take it easy on your Weston when you find him.” He smiled. “Most times us men mean well. Sometimes it’s just hard to see with our heads stuck so far up our asses.”

I smiled. “Thanks. And sorry again.”

After the man closed the door, I double-checked the number. This was definitely the one Weston had been in when our rooms were on the same floor. I was sure of it, because it was only two doors down from mine. But perhaps another suite had become available, and he’d moved, too.

As I waited for the elevator again, I decided it was probably for the best anyway. I didn’t need to waste my time and energy on Weston. I might as well go back to my room. When the doors slid open, I was greeted by Louis.

“Hey. You’re here late tonight,” I said.

Louis smiled. “I’m just on my way out now.”

I stepped into the elevator car. “Oh good.”

“Did you get off on the wrong floor? Forget you changed rooms?”

I shook my head. “No, actually I was supposed to meet Weston. But he must’ve moved rooms, too. I think maybe a suite became available. I know he was also waiting for a bigger room.”

Louis nodded. “He moved rooms. I was downstairs when he came down to change out his key the other day. But he didn’t take an upgrade. He’s just two doors over on this floor, in your old room.”

“My old room?” My forehead wrinkled. “Had his room been reassigned after he checked out or something?”

Louis shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of. He just asked to move to the room you’d vacated. I told him housekeeping hadn’t made it up there yet, but he said not to worry, he’d take care of it. I assumed you were aware.”

The elevator doors had started to slide closed, but I stuck my hand in at the last second, stopping them.

“Ohhhh, that’s right. I totally forgot about that. Sorry, Louis, it’s been a long day. I’m going to get off here to go see him after all. You have a good night.”

I walked down the hall to my old room, feeling completely confused. Why the hell had he changed rooms? The anger that had started to dissipate came rushing back with a vengeance.

This time I banged on the door like I meant it. Bam. Bam. Bam.

Weston opened the door wearing a smirk and immediately stepped aside. “Somebody’s anxious,” he purred.

“Why the hell are you in my old room?” I stomped past him.

“I think the better question is why are you following me?”

“I was not following you, you egotistical ass!”

Weston’s smile widened. “Right.”

“I wasn’t!” My voice came out so high, it screeched a little at the end.

“Have a seat, Sophia.”

I ignored him. “Why are you in my old room?”

Weston leaned against the desk and crossed his feet at the ankles. “I’ll tell you when you tell me why you were following me.”

“I was not following you. And you’re totally delusional about why I do things. I happened to be at the same building as you because I had an appointment. While I’m at it, I also did not have sex with you because I like when you boss me around.”

The smug bastard looked amused. He folded his arms across his chest. “No?”

I folded my own arms. “No.”

We stared at each other. Weston had a gleam in his eyes, and I could see the wheels turning in his head as we waged an unspoken battle of who would blink first.

“Have a seat, Sophia.”

“No.”

He smiled. “See? Just because you like me to be in control when we have sex doesn’t mean you want me to boss you around when we’re not. One doesn’t equate to the other. I promise you, it doesn’t make you weak in my eyes that you like being dominated sexually.”

“I do not.”

Weston pushed off the desk and walked toward me. The air in the room began to crackle. As pissed off as I was, or as pissed off as I wanted to be, I couldn’t deny that I was incredibly attracted to this man, in a way I’d never experienced before. Something about having him near made me feel like I might combust if he didn’t touch me.

He gripped my hip with one hand and looked up at me. Though he held me firm, I still knew without a shadow of a doubt that if I told him to take his hand off of me, he absolutely would. Our interactions were so bizarrely confusing.

“If I told you to remove your hand right now, what would you do?”

He looked me straight in the eyes. “I’d remove my hand.”

“So how can you say I want to be dominated by you?”

“You’re confusing domination with control. You can want to be dominated, and still keep control. In fact, you’ve been the one in control of what’s going on between us every time we’ve been together.”

I struggled to accept that, and Weston saw it in my face. “Just stop thinking about it and go with it, if you enjoy it.”

I looked away, but turned back and caught his eyes. I didn’t know why it was so important, but I had to ask. “Where were you going tonight? What was in that building?”

Weston was quiet for a moment. “I see a shrink. She has an office in that building.”

Oh wow. That was the last thing I’d expected him to say.

He watched while I processed his answer. After giving me a minute, he tilted his head. “Any other questions?”

“No.”

“Good, then it’s my turn. Were you following me?”

How could I not be honest when he’d just admitted something so personal to me?

My smile was sheepish. “Yes, I was.”

“Why?”

I thought about it. My answer came out on a laugh. “I have no goddamn idea. I saw you on the street when I came out of the store and just did it.”

Weston smiled, and my insides melted a little.

“Where were you all day?” he asked. “I looked for you, but you weren’t in your office. I couldn’t even properly stalk you this morning while you were getting your coffee.”

I grinned. “I hid in my room most of the day so I didn’t have to see you.”

The biggest, most honest smile spread across Weston’s face. You would’ve thought I’d just told him how great he was rather than I’d spent the day avoiding him.

We again had a little stare-off, but this time Weston broke it. He reached down to unbuckle his belt. The sound of the metal clanking shot straight between my legs.

“Down on your knees, Sophia.”

Oh God.

He put his hands on my shoulders and gave me a little nudge, encouraging me to kneel. To my utter disgust, I did. I dropped down and reached for his zipper.

“Hey, Soph?” Weston said.

I looked up.

He grinned. “I’ve been waiting a while to use this one. Parting is such sweet swallow.”