Bared for Me(10)

It was the fight of his life staying distant from Dani.

“Don’t bother me again,” he said to the duty manager as soon as he’d escaped the starlet’s suite, leaving her smiling and the dust settled. “Not for anything. Not even if the hotel is burning down.”

“Sure, boss. Sorry.”

Rocco turned away. Then swung back. “I didn’t really mean that last bit.”

“I know.”

“Dire emergency only.”

“Got it.” His manager kept staring straight ahead as they walked down the corridor. “Sorry.”

Rocco made himself walk at normal pace to the elevator and wait there.

The virgin thing was all the more reason for him to avoid getting anywhere near Dani again. Without question.

But he couldn’t get over it. When she kissed like... like...

Maybe she’d had a lot of practice kissing.

Screw the elevator.

He bounded up the stairs, three at a time. Energy to burn.

Bad.

Logan and Connor would kill him.

He’d gone so long without looking. He’d avoided her for years. Because he’d always been drawn to her. He remembered the rare sound of her laughter. Had heard her giggling with the hotel maids at Summerhill when he’d been working the shit shifts as cleaner before working up to waiter.

He paused as he got to his floor. Needed to take a couple of deep breaths and calm the hell down. He wasn’t running to his now-ridiculously-small suite. Not running back to her.

Then his phone rang again. He glanced at the screen.

Crap.

Logan. The last person he wanted to talk to. But he’d better.

“Hey, it’s late.” Rocco gritted his teeth.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Sure. Of course. She’s fine. It’s all good.” He rolled his eyes heavenward, one answer would have done. He was babbling.

Lying. It wasn’t good, it was a nightmare.

“Good,” Logan sounded distracted. “Where is she?”

“Locked in one of the hotel suites.” His suite. His bed.

He could feel himself sweating.

“She hasn’t called.”

“I still have her phone.” Hell, until this second he’d forgotten he still had it.

But Logan laughed. “You’re punishing her. Good. She’s a brat.”

She wasn’t that much of a brat.

“You’ll bring her back tomorrow?” Logan asked.

“That what you want me to do?”

“Yeah. I have to book her on a flight to Summerhill. Connor will sort her out.”

For once Rocco felt like arguing with Logan. Did she really need Connor to sort her out? What was wrong with Dani making her own choices? “You’re not gonna give her a say about that?”

“Well where else is she gonna go?” Logan answered irritably. “She can’t stay with me.”

“She can stay here a while.” Rocco’s blood iced. Had he just said that? Aloud? “If she wants to.”

There was silence.

“I’m just saying...” What was he saying? “Maybe she needs a couple of days to realize she’s better off going back to varsity rather than home.”

Anywhere had to be better than Summerhill, right? He’d talk to her about it. Get her to see getting an education was her best chance of gaining the independence she craved. She didn’t need to do it the hard way, like he had.

Logan sighed. “I can’t deal with this right now—”

“So let me deal with it.” Rocco offered smoothly, feeling like a snake. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t get in trouble. I’ll pack her on a plane in a couple of days and she’ll be happy to go.”

Maybe he could help her see that all her family wanted was the best for her. Except he had the feeling she was right—and all they wanted was for her to be out of the way.

“I’m sorry to dump her on you.”

Rocco tensed, clenching his teeth together hard. Dumped? Dani wasn’t a piece of junk to be tossed from one location to another. He forced himself to relax. “It’s no problem. Sleep well.”

There was a muttered imprecation from Logan before he rang off.

He turned his phone off. No more interruptions. He needed to get through the night. One night defying temptation.

But he’d just signed up for another few?

What had he been thinking?

The silence in the suite worried him. The television was switched off. The door to his bedroom closed. Had she really gone to sleep?

Never. Not Dani, not when she’d planed to torment him for the night. She wouldn’t have let that idea go so easily. She had too much of a mischievous imp in her.

He eyed his bedroom door like there could be a raging inferno on the other side of it. Doubt gripped him. He wanted her to be in there. Wanted her not to have let him down. She’d said she’d stay, that he could trust her.

Bracing himself he turned the handle and opened the door.

The bed was empty.

Rocco stormed out of the room. He’d call security and review all the security footage of the corridor for the last hour. But he couldn’t cause a scene like that. No matter how discreet his staff. That he couldn’t keep tabs on his own woman?

He screeched to a halt. Breathed in. Out. Resumed moving.

She wasn’t his woman. Couldn’t be.

He glanced around the lobby, then went to the bar. Surely not. Surely she wouldn’t—

She would. She was walking through the middle of the mostly empty room. Stopped as soon as she saw him.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Checking up on you.”

And a good thing he was too—she was looking luscious in her skimpy tank top, her hair was loose, her eyes bright. His gut tightened. He wanted.

“Don’t you have a crisis to manage?”

She was his crisis.

“Not anymore.” He walked to meet her. To get close. To make sure there was no one else getting close. There better not be.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He gestured to the empty glass she was carrying. She’d downed that one already? Was onto the next?

Why was she here? What—or who—was she looking for?

“Just helping out.” She shrugged, frowning as she looked up at him. “Look, I didn’t run away. I didn’t leave before. Haven’t you learned yet that you can trust me?”

It wasn’t her he didn’t trust. It was himself. Right now he was fighting harder than ever to stop himself from pulling her into his arms. He ached to feel her softness against him again.

“Stop acting like I owe you something.” She lifted her hands in a wide gesture. “You’re not my brother. You’re not my lover. You’re not even my friend.”

“Not even that?” Why did that hurt like a paper-cut? Way more than it should.

“No.”

“Well too bad,” he snapped. “I’m not going to let you get drunk and let some asshole take something that’s precious. If you’ve hung onto it this long… it’s not worth throwing away now in a fit of pique.”

Her jaw dropped. “I’m not getting drunk. You know very well I’m not allowed to drink in here and anyway, I wouldn’t want to get your oh-so fine establishment in trouble. I’m helping out.” She tossed back her hair. “Did you really think I’d come down here to find some guy to fuck?”

He winced at her words. That mental image killed him.

“You think you’ve wounded me with your rejection? You think I’ve come out to drown my sorrows and that I’m going to end up in bed with some random?” She stopped to draw breath, staring at him—mad and sad. “You really do think I’m a kid.”

She walked right up to him, fiercely whispering in his face. “Do you honestly think I’d still be a virgin if I acted that rashly all the time?”

Uh. Yeah. Maybe he’d over-reacted a little. That didn’t make him any the less pissed off. Or ache any the less. “If you’re not drinking, or trying to find a guy, what the hell are you doing?”

“I told you, helping out,” she sighed. “Although yes, it’s not like the barman really needs me to. There was me thinking this place was the ‘bomb’.”

“It’s fifteen minutes past closing,” he pointed out. It was so late, she should be tucked up in her bed, alone and asleep already. “Dani, what are you doing down here, really?”

The attitude dropped from her gaze. “You left me alone in a hotel room for ages and I was watching that scary movie.”

Scary movie.

He rubbed his chest with the heel of his hand and tried not to laugh. She was going to be the death of him.

Her eyes narrowed, like she’d spotted his amusement. “I was creeped out. And there wasn’t going to be a happy ending to that movie.” She crossed her arms, a rueful smile curved her mouth. “Now you do think I’m a kid.”

No. He didn’t. Impetuous, yes. But definitely not a kid. If he were to pull her into his arms, it wouldn’t be a comforting kind of embrace he’d be offering.

So he had to stand back.

“I’m used to living in a boarding hostel or a hotel,” she added. “Being near lots of people. Sometimes the noise is nice.”

Yeah. Sometimes he liked the weird isolation that came with sitting in the corner of a crowded room. Just watching, knowing he’d helped provide the good time for them.