I kicked my clothing to the side and took a quick shower to wash the sweat from my body as I thought over the day. I was exhausted and needed to sleep, but the hotel had no rooms available because of a convention in town this weekend. I should have told Ella that before, but I was afraid she wouldn’t stay, and I didn’t know what would happen to her.
I wrapped a towel around my waist and quietly made my way to my duffel bag. I glanced over to the bed where Ella lay unmoving. I unzipped my duffel bag and pulled out a pair of basketball shorts. I dropped the towel and tugged them on as my eyes continued to drift over her as she lay on her side. She was here and she was safe. I should have gone back to the bar. But she rolled over, whimpering as her eyes blinked open. I froze, suspended between memories and reality.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I came to check on you, and my stuff was in here.” The lies rolled easier off my tongue than the truth. When you spent as much time as I did concealing your true self, it took no effort.
“No, it’s fine.” She sat up and pushed her hair from her face as she yawned. “How was the party?”
“Boring.” I tried not to stare at her legs as she stretched, rolling my neck from side to side. “So, you wanna talk about what happened earlier…with that guy?”
She shook her head as she tucked her hair behind her ear. “I really don’t know where he came from. I went home to change between shifts, and he was just there…waiting.”
“What are you going to do once we leave? You can’t really be sleeping on the streets or hanging out in dark alleys.”
“I met you in a dark alley, and you’re not so bad.” She shrugged, and I laughed sardonically. I was a curse, a black cloud. It was a sleight of hand. I hadn’t saved her, just lured her into my own web. She wanted to feel like she could trust me and all of this was on her terms, but I didn’t even trust myself.
“Maybe he wasn’t the one you needed to watch out for.” Subtle truths slipped through, veiled in sarcasm. It was the only warning she would get. I wasn’t strong enough to walk away.
“I’ll take my chances.” She stretched her arms over her head as she yawned, bowing her back forward. I couldn’t help but notice her small breasts pressed against the thin fabric of my shirt. I wished I had chosen something that would conceal a hard-on better than these shorts. “I was trying to save up to go back home, but now I will have to start all over.” She pulled her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, hugging herself.
“Where’s home?”
“Technically here, but I don’t really remember much of it. I left when I was little. My grandmother used to live in Jacksonville before she passed. I’ve always wanted to go back and buy her place just in case.” She sighed as she rested her cheek on her knees.
“Just in case what?” My chest tightened as I thought about the memories I’d left behind and how hard it was to come back. I didn’t like how personal things turned with her.
“It’s silly.” She waved her hand as if to dismiss the conversation, but I knew there was something deep lurking below the calm surface, and I wanted to know more.
“What happened after your grandma died?”
“That’s a few years I’d like to forget. So what about you? Are all of you from here?”
“Just me.”
“How did you guys meet?”
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose at the onslaught of memories. “It’s really late.” Liquor was still pumping through my veins, and if I didn’t end this conversation, I would end up saying more than I wanted.
“Oh.” Ella pulled her lip between her teeth as she looked up at me quizzically, biting back whatever question was plaguing her.
“What?”
“What’s your real name? It’s kind of weird I’m sleeping in your bed and don’t even know who you really are.”
“Many women have slept in my bed without knowing who I really am. You don’t want to know, and you don’t need to know.” I cursed myself in my head. I’d just reduced Ella to a notch in a fucking headboard.
“Fair enough.” If I’d offended her, she didn’t let it show. She pushed from the bed and stood in front of me, stretching again. My shirt she wore rode above the waist of the boxers, which she had rolled down to sit low on her hips. There was something incredibly sexy about seeing her crawl out of my bed in my clothes.
“Are you hungry, or do you need anything?” I tried to keep my eyes on hers, but my gaze traveled down her chest as I grew hard. The air around us began to change, and it was suddenly very apparent that we were locked alone in a bedroom. My self-control only went so far. I wasn’t that love-sick little boy anymore. My scars ran much deeper than anyone had seen.