***
Lana attempted to force sleep. She told herself that she would get up early, check out of the hotel before most of the other attendees roused themselves, and bide her time at the airport lounge until it was time to fly back to DC. That’s it. Think of your apartment in DC. Ken did not exist in DC. He was a misfortune of the year, but at least he hadn’t tainted Lana’s personal stomping grounds. To think she had invited him down to spend time with her…
To think she had agreed to be his girlfriend.
Lana could handle being used. Used for sex? Even less offensive. Not like she didn’t run around using men for sex all the time. But those situations had a mutual understanding that declared sex to be the only thing on the table. Never Lana’s heart, which she kept as guarded as a diamond in a lockbox.
She had transgressed her own boundaries. Ken was not meant to be anything more than sex and some trite conversations. Maybe he would offer her his honest opinion on the places she could work. Once they had established they could not work together due to their chemistry, however, Lana had grown too complacent.
Her heart was ripped open for a man to grab for his own. No, no, what have I done? Lana couldn’t sleep. She rolled back and forth in her hotel bed, wishing that this had not been where she and Ken first made love. What am I doing, thinking about it like that? What am I? Nuts? Nuts in love?
No, no, no…
Lana intermittently cried from the moment she went to bed until she finally got up to use the bathroom. She stood in front of the mirror, cleaning up her makeup and hygiene products so she wouldn’t have to do it in the morning. A bedraggled, red-eyed face looked back at her. White cotton negligee. Pink silk robe that was barely longer than her nightgown. Haggard blond hair already tangled. Drooping posture. Tear tracks on her cheeks. Get it out now. Get out all the tears she would bother shedding over Kenneth Andrews and his backstabbing ways.
Telling her there was nothing professional between them…
Making her feel like that during sex…
Asking her to be his girlfriend and promising to make the long distance work until she was securely in New York for her new job, regardless of who she worked for…
Then offering her a job to work at his company! Beneath him!
Did he think she wouldn’t notice? That she would go on in ignorant bliss thinking that he wasn’t pitching Lois & Bachman over all the other nice offers she received? Was that his plan all along? Seduce her, fuck her, use his dick to get her to work for him and make him richer? The man already owned half the neighborhood. He didn’t need her to make him money!
He got the girl and the prestige of hiring her. He got to do two things nobody else at the conference could achieve. His ego must’ve been the size of Manhattan right now, regardless if Lana stormed out on him or not.
She rolled toward the window and stared at the view she hadn’t bothered to cover up with the curtains before going to bed. Do I want to move to a city where a man like that rules? Personally? No. Professionally? Hell yes she did. Lana wanted to move to New York and become Ken Andrews’s biggest enemy. She wanted to become so powerful in their industry that she could start buying his properties. She would start with the hotel next door. Raze it to the ground. Goodbye, fucker.
Lana was stewing in these ridiculous fantasies when she heard her room door open.
She froze in her bed. Am I hearing things? It took her a few seconds to remember she had given Ken a copy of her keycard.
He…
He wasn’t…
“Lana.” A dark figure stood at the end of her bed. “I know you’re awake.”
Why oh why did she react? She shouldn’t have kicked her foot out from beneath the covers!
“Stalker,” she muttered. “You could’ve left the card at the front desk.”
He leaned against the bed. “I’m sorry. You need to listen to me. I…”
“Shut up. Turn around. Leave. Never speak to me again.” Lana grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand. “Don’t make me call security. I will, you asshole.”
“Let me explain myself first. Then I’ll leave.”
Lana curled her legs closer to the rest of her body. Don’t touch me. If you try to touch me, I swear to God…