Page 21 of Housekeeping

I had a small suitcase packed by the time the door to my room was unlocked, and Laura came in, pulling in her cleaning supplies. She looked up, her eyes widening in shock to see I was still in there, but then they narrowed on me.

“Sorry for calling you in,” I said with a sheepish smile. “I didn’t know how else to meet you. When did you leave my room this morning?”

She arched an eyebrow. “I got up pretty early to head home to get showered and changed first. Was that all you wanted to ask?”

I wanted to cross the space between us and pull her into my arms for a long, wet kiss. The tenseness in her shoulders and almost defensive stance stopped me. I didn’t know why she was on edge and I didn’t like that. I wanted to frown but didn’t want her to think something was wrong, so I pasted on a smile and tucked my hands into my pockets, clenching them into fists.

“There was something else.” I sighed. “My brother is sending me on a little errand out of town. He’s too busy here and it’s not something Kevin can do, so it’s up to me.”

I was trying to sound important because part of me felt like an errand boy and the other part was trying to convince myself that it would come to an end once I closed this deal.

She looked around the room. “You didn’t have to call me up here just for that. There isn’t even that much of a mess here, and I do have a job to do.”

“I know, but I don’t have your number, and I wanted to let you know that I’ll be back, I’m not gone for good yet.”

“Not yet, huh,” she teased, a slight grin on her face.

“Yeah, not yet,” I said with a chuckle. “Besides that, I wanted you to know… that I would like to see you again.”

I must have surprised her with that declaration because she had this stunned look on her face like she hadn't expected me to want more from her than one night. That was far from the case; I wanted much more than a single night with this woman.

“I need to head out now,” I said, turning back to the bedroom to retrieve my suitcase. “I’ll see you when I get back!”

I pecked a kiss on her cheek, then left the room like a lovesick teenager. Once I got downstairs there was a car waiting for me. I hopped in and the driver took me to a small airstrip. Trent had arranged for everything, perfect as usual.

On the ride there, I sat back in my seat and looked over the documents some more. I hated being unprepared and the ride would give me that time if I used it properly, then I would have the confidence to do what I needed to do on landing. Besides, I knew better than to use my phone on the plane. When I’d gone through the whole document thoroughly, I tilted my head back and closed my eyes for a bit of rest.

When the plane landed, I got off and was led to a waiting car that drove me to the hotel I’d be staying in for the night. I went straight to my room, getting out my phone for a quick round of searches. An hour later, I was as ready as I was going to be on such short notice and left the room.

Before I could talk to my targets, I had to find them. I’d learned just enough about their hobbies and habits to know where to find them. In the lobby, I picked some pamphlets up of the hotel and went through them quickly.

“First off,” I muttered, “the lounge.”

Trent would have let them know I was on the way. The meeting would be super casual, which pretty much meant we could end up anywhere. It was time for lunch, so they’d be about ready to eat, I thought. Lucky for me, I didn’t have to wait long to meet them, because they were in the hotel lounge like I’d thought they would be, all gathered together and talking loudly in a circle of seats.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” I said smoothly, cutting into the conversation. “Would you mind very much if I joined you?”

“Why, if it isn’t Matthew’s second son?” one of the men said, his hand out for mine. I took it and looked him over.

I recognized him, and a few of the others, because they’d worked with my dad before. I was probably the youngest guy in the whole group, but that didn’t stop them from letting me off easy, simply because of my last name and my dad. There were some guys I recognized as the competition as well, and I wondered how much of a head start they had on me.

Not that it was going to matter. If Dad wanted this deal, I was going to get it for him.

“Hey,” one of the guys said, “it’s lunch already, so why don’t we all go eat now?”

There was a round of agreement, and everyone got up to go to the hotel’s restaurant. We were a pretty large group, but it was full of big names, so we were served well enough.

I was barely paying that much attention to the proceedings, though I’d done this often enough there was nothing I missed in the discussions, and I even joined in at times. It was all so fucking casual it would take a while before any actual talking about the deal went down. I couldn’t be the first to bring it up either, or I was going to lose.

Throughout the whole thing, I found myself preoccupied. After lounging around a bit after lunch to let the food settle, the group moved to the tennis courts for a few rounds. I didn’t have anything casual to change into, but besides rugby, there wasn’t any sport I played so I wouldn’t be joining in any way. Instead, I sat to the side with the commentators, dropping a few lines here and there.

Afterward, we all went to a club not too far from the hotel. The second I walked into the room, I knew just what kind of club it was. Usually, I would have been right in my element, but I couldn’t help but look at the others as we settled into the VIP area, half-naked women all over the room perking up at the group, offering themselves freely.

Fuck!

Usually, that would be the first thing on my mind. I would walk up to the bevy of beautiful women, or they’d come swarming to me like bees, but I had the honey back home and she wasn’t here. There was only one woman I wanted right now, and I sat back like a chump with a limp dick knowing that no matter what, none of the women here could get it or even me in the mood right now.