Instead, I tossed my phone back in my bag with my key card and took confident steps back to the hallway. My door closed behind me, the click of the latch was a final warning to change my mind. But I wasn’t interested in another night spent alone and desperate.
And there was only one man I wanted to be with.
Chapter 13
Jamison
Exercising by means of relieving sexual frustration had proved fruitless. Now, there was the further frustration of wondering what I had interrupted between Sadie and my dip-shit cousin. Derrik had been leaning against the wall I’d had Sadie pressed against last night. I had no logical reason to be jealous, she didn’t have any commitment to me. Which was good because I wouldn’t wish a relationship with me on my greatest enemy, let alone Sadie If she wanted something with Derrik, I didn’t have a leg to stand on. Wallowing wasn’t going to help.
But then wallowing seemed to be my only option.
I kicked off my shoes and pulled off my socks. A knock on my suite door made me pause halfway to my bathroom. My eyebrows pinched together wondering who it could be and knowing it wouldn’t be Sadie. Even if she were the only person I’d want to be on the other side of my door. That the ache of being near her and not touching her was still better than the ache of not being in her presence.
Swinging the door open, my stomach flipped to find her gripping her little bag in both hands and chewing on her lip.
“Hi,” she breathed.
After a beat, she swallowed, and I realized I hadn’t said anything, just stared down at her.
“Hi,” I choked out.
She swung her arms toward my open door. “Can I come in?”
Blinking, I took a step back to make enough space for her to walk through the threshold and not let our skin touch. “Is everything okay?”
“Mmmhmm,” she hummed. Her eyes shifted around my room, taking in my laptop on the coffee table and the balcony on the outside the far wall. I’d opened the glass door, and the breeze off the ocean moved the sheer white curtains. The starry sky stretched endlessly over the crashing waves. The moon’s reflection wobbled on the water’s surface. “That’s...gorgeous.”
I took in her silhouette against the nighttime scenery. “Yeah.”
She looked over her shoulder back at me.
“It is.”
Her shoulders were tense as she looked at me from across the room, taking in the stretch of white cotton across my torso and chest. She bit down on her lower lip, and I let myself believe in the undertones passing silently between us. I let the handle go. The door closed with a click.
“I think we should talk,” she said.
“About?” I needed her to spell it out to me, regardless of the energy cracking in the air.
“Not being platonic.”
It was a dangerous idea. I was not equipped to fight it.
“You’re giving me whiplash, woman.” There was a gravel, an almost pained tone, in my voice.
Doubt flickered in her eyes before she looked down at the floor. “Should I leave?”
Yes. The realization that I had fallen way too hard for her to keep sex and emotions separate was vividly obvious. But so was the knowledge that I missed a goodbye.
When she stopped returning my texts, and had ghosted me for another man, I hadn’t known that would be our last time. This time it would be clear.
I wanted,needed, to say a proper goodbye.
I shook my head. “No, we should talk.”
“It would just be for this weekend.”
“Okay.”
