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Chapter 4
Trenton
Iopenedmyeyes,and it took me a moment to remember where I was. Then it all came back to me in a rush—going to the club, meeting Seraphina, bringing her to the hotel. And to think that I’d protested when Evan had given me the hotel room key card.
I rolled over, expecting to see Seraphina, but the bed was empty. The alarm clock said nine, which meant I’d only gotten a few hours of sleep. Last night had been intense. Fun and sexy, too, but intense. Frankly, it had been just what I’d needed. I’d never been one to sleep with a woman only hours after meeting her, but I was glad I’d gone against my norm.
I hoped the hotel had awesome room service, because I was famished. I slipped into my boxers and went in search of Seraphina, wondering if she was a pancake or omelet kind of girl.Please don’t let her order a plain egg white omelet. A person’s breakfast choice said a lot about them.
I wandered out into the living room of the suite, but it was also empty. I frowned. The bathroom door was open, so she wasn’t there. I opened the sliding glass door to the balcony, but that was empty as well. Putting my hands on my hips, I looked around. All of her things were gone.Well, what… the… fuck?
I did another round of the suite, looking to see if she’d left me a note. Nothing. I picked up my phone to see if she’d texted me before remembering we’d never exchanged numbers. Instead, I had a text from my cousin Lucas, one of the football players. He’d forwarded me the original meme of our other cousin, him, and me. Gritting my teeth, I stared at it.
ME:You’re late, as usual. This is old news.
His reply was almost immediate:Old news or not, it’s funny as hell.
“Depends on who you ask,” I muttered, suddenly grateful that Lucas wouldn’t make it to Thanksgiving dinner this year on account of his game schedule. Knowing him, though, he’d probably already sent it to everyone else in my family.
The distraction was only momentary, though. I felt… I didn’t know exactly how to feel about Seraphina being gone. Miffed, maybe. Definitely disappointed. The more I thought about it, the more fucked up I thought it was. I couldn’t believe she’d just left without saying anything. She’d sneaked out of the room like a damn ninja.A sexy ninja.
I had little experience with that sort of thing. Perhaps she had followed protocol, and I was being a sap. The thing was, I didn’t get the impression that one-night stands were her norm either.Because you know her so well.
Not knowing what else to do, I called down to the front desk to make sure she hadn’t left me a message. Nope.
I decided against breakfast and quickly threw on last night’s clothes then retrieved my car from the parking garage a few blocks away. At home, I mixed a protein shake. I needed to eat, but my appetite had diminished. After a shower, I changed into running clothes then headed downstairs to my treadmill. On second thought, I pulled on a hoodie and went outside. The weather was nice, and I apparently didn’t have to worry about being recognized, at least according to that stupid meme.
Last night, though, Seraphina had recognized me almost immediately. For some reason, that made her leaving like she had even harder to swallow. I didn’t care what the rules were for one-night stands—it was an asshole move. But thinking I was exempt from her treating me like she had because I was famous was an asshole thought, so perhaps we were even.
I pounded the pavement, taking a right onto a side street. I nodded to a woman out walking her dog. I’d bought the house years before, but in my neighborhood, people kept to themselves. I was fine being on a nod-and-wave basis.
Except I never would have left her alone in a hotel room. Hell, I was ready to have breakfast in bed. Feed her strawberries or some shit.
I picked up the pace, and my lungs screamed in protest. I felt like an idiot, and not because she’d bailed on me but because I’d actually liked her. I was kicking myself for not asking for her number or giving her mine. As a general rule, I didn’t give it out. I’d made that mistake once and had been forced to change it, which had been a pain in the ass. Seraphina didn’t strike me as the celebrity-stalker type, though. She’d had that moment of being visibly awestruck when she’d realized who I was, but it had been fleeting.
I was drawn to her in a way that I hadn’t been drawn to a woman in a long time. She was gorgeous—no doubt about that—and the sex had been hot as fuck, but it was more than that. She’d had a spark in her eyes that had been especially vibrant when she’d talked about the opportunity that had brought her to LA. It was too bad she wasn’t able to discuss it, because I was naturally curious. I got it, though. NDAs were nothing to mess around with.
By the time I’d hit two miles, I was out of breath. My workout routine always got off-kilter when I was on tour, and since I’d returned from the Misdirection tour, I’d yet to get back into the routine. Shaking my ass in a choreographed dance routine didn’t count as cardio, anyway.
My mind wandered as I ran. Seraphina’s height was average, so I doubted she was an aspiring model. It seemed half the pretty girls in LA were aspiring actresses, but that didn’t strike me as correct either. I would never know, though, because I didn’t even know her last name. I’d truly been an idiot. Playing it cool had not paid off. I’d never been into playing games, though it seemed she could have been. Was bailing on me a game?
Fuck it.It was a long shot, but there was one way I could find her. If it worked, I hoped I would find out she had had a legitimate reason for skipping out. Somehow, I didn’t think that was the case. Still, I wanted to try.
As soon as I got home after my run, I called Jerry. “Odd request,” I said, “but any chance you can get a copy of the guest list from last night’s party?”
He was silent for a beat too long. “Why?”
I thought about lying, but since I was asking my manager to do me a favor, I figured I owed him the truth. “Just want to find someone I met there, but I didn’t get a full name.” I kept it vague, but Jerry wasn’t an idiot.
He chuckled. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Half an hour later, after I got out of the shower, I was pleased to already have an email with an attachment waiting for me. Jerry was efficient, which made him a great manager.
I opened the attachment and was surprised to see how extensive the list was. I started skimming then quickly decided a better approach would be to do a search. I typed in “Seraphina” but came up with zero results. I tried a few different spellings before giving up and reading each name, one by one. It was tedious and yielded nothing. She wasn’t on the list.
Damn.It had been a shot in the dark, and I hadn’t realized how high I’d gotten my hopes. Honestly, it was probably for the best. I didn’t want to be that jackass who called her, only to get dissed a second time.
Ali
