Cameron held up a hand stopping her. He gave her a shocked look and clutched his t-shirt as if he were clutching pearls. "Miss Rosebank, get your mind out of the gutter." He grinned and leaned toward her and spoke low. "While you know how I feel about you, I've got be honest," he inhaled sharply and gave her a confessing look. "All I really want to do right now is swan around a luxurious suite and take pictures of myself drinking champagne or something like an absolute poseur."
Completely taken aback, Ebony laughed, the sound echoing down the quiet hall. Trying to muffle their laughs they finally made it to their room. The three-room suite was quite nice, Ebony noted, but it hardly compared to Cameron marveling over all the amenities.
They were both dressed in their robes lying on the large king bed eating a bowl of mixed nuts and watching TV when she let out her third sleepy yawn. Cameron clicked off the TV and laid down on the pillow next to her.
Ebony wanted to remind him of the other bedroom but let it go as another wave of fatigue hit her.
"If I kiss you right now, would you kick me in the balls?" His gaze held hers.
Ebony nestled deeper onto her side, the crisp linen of the hotel pillow cool against her face as she stared back. "No, but I would taste like cashews."
"Mmm thank God I like cashews." He kissed her and just like that, everything else faded. The silence, the distance, the doubt. Just for one blessed moment, she could pretend it was all all right.
The shrill sound of a phone ringing jarred her awake. Opening her eyes, Ebony blinked, staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling. Actually, everything was unfamiliar. The bed. Her loose hair around her head instead of her satin bonnet. And the sleeping man next to her hugging a pillow.
Fora split-second panic began to rip through her like an electrical current as she stared at Cameron's sleeping face and equally distraught curls, then the memories of last night settled back over her. Oh yeah, they had come here because of the traffic jam.
The phone rang again, shrill and urgent. Reaching over to the nightstand she lifted it off the base and brought it to her ear.
A desperate sounding young woman whispered frantically into the phone. "Miss Rosebank, please. You have to do something."
"Wha-" she didn’t have the chance to get the word out before the woman continued.
"Gavin is here." The three simple words felt like gunshots in her head. "He's here threatening to go to each room one by one until he finds you if we don’t give him your room number. We tried to explain that-"
"Give me three minutes and send him up," she said, cutting the girl off.
All the fatigue left her body and Ebony stood up out of the bed. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thanked God she was still dressed in her underwear and t-shirt. Cameron had been true to his word last night, he had only wanted to kiss her and tried nothing else.
"Please make it two," the girl begged before hanging up.
Grabbing her jeans, Ebony hopped on foot and pulled them on while practically shouting Cameron's name.
He woke up like a zombie, hinging at the hips straight up in bed. Disoriented, he blinked and stared at her, still not really in the land of the present.
"Wake up, get dressed, and take the back stairs," she pointed in the direction of the back stairs they had seen last night in the hallway, "and run to your car. They just told Gavin the room number."
Allthe sleep vanished from his face and a little bit of color too as the reality of her words sank in. Faster than she had ever seen him move, Cameron was up and pulling his shirt on, since he had slept in his pants. She ushered him to the door looking frantically down the hall.
Quickly Cameron slipped past her. "Call me later," he half whispered half yelled as he ran towards the stairwell exit.
Looking back down the hallway towards the elevator, Ebony's stomach knotted as she watched the numbers on the elevator count down. He was coming.
Closing the door, she stepped back. Running a hand through her curls she glanced at herself in a nearby mirror. Her curls were a mess, but with a night of no bonnet and no product there was very little she could do about it.
She wasn't sure why she was expecting a knock. Gavin would never knock. Knock down a door sure. But he would not knock for entry. He would take it.
There was a beep signaling the lock disengaging and then the door was being flung open. The door slammed against the wall, hard enough to rattle the hinges.
Gavin didn’t just walk in. He invaded. Every step a promise of violence barely leashed. His hair looked as unruly as hers, with some of it hanging over his face. His eyes looked tired yet bright with rage as if he hadn't slept. There was a chaotic fury simmering beneath his skin that made her step back in caution.
"I came home last night to an empty house." He didn't raise his voice but it was deadly all the same.
Ebony’s breath stalled. She forced herself to ignore the radiating waves of anger. "There was an accident up here last night. The road down the mountain was blocked for hours."
"So, you get a room?" His voice was a knife gliding across silk. "You don’t call me?"
Ebony faked a nonchalant shrug even as she took another step back. "I was fine."
