More shouts of excitement filled the air, followed by laughter, a change in the music, and instructions on the game’s various features from that same young male voice.
By the time she reached the entrance to the kitchen, she was breathing hard from mounting anxiety, and paused in a shadowed corner between the hallway and the open kitchen. Once she was out in the open, anyone could simply pop up off the sofa and swing into the kitchen to grab a drink—and her trek of shame would be exposed in the vivid light of day.
But she had to cut across either the kitchen or the great room to get to her suite, where all her clothes currently lived. Not only that, but she had to cross into another hallway on the other side of the kitchen—a hallway with a wide opening straight into the great room.
How in the hell was she going to make that crossing without being seen?
Dammit, dammit, dammit.
She should never have stopped at the bakery. She should just have kept driving.
She took a calming breath and closed her eyes for a moment. There was no choice. She had to do what she could to get into her suite unnoticed.
Decision made, she held her breath and tiptoed across the kitchen tile and into the hallway, where she stopped again, pressed her back to the wall, and released her breath slowly…quietly.
“Dude, did you just do what I think you did?” the young man asked.
“He did.”
The second voice stabbed Julia’s heart with ice. Drake. Drake was here. He was also just on the other side of the wall. And, now that she thought about it, the three guys sitting on the sofa were facing the opening she had to pass to move into the hallway toward her suite.
Dread swelled inside her, bringing a wave of nausea.
Maybe she should just go back into Noah’s room and wait until everyone was gone. But how long would that be? She was starving. She was freezing. She was anxious and freaked and wanted to get the hell out of there.
Wincing, Julia laid her head back against the wall, closed her eyes, and mouthed Oh. My. God.
She listened closely for another moment, trying to place the voices, but couldn’t be sure and didn’t remember the layout of the room well enough from yesterday to help. When another burst of excitement broke, she inched her head around the corner to peek.
Drake stood almost within reach, but with his back toward her. Noah stood in the center of the room, a video controller in his hand, his gaze on the giant screen where he wielded a snowboarder across the virtual terrain. The others—she couldn’t see them all—had partial views of the hallway. If she could make a move while they were distracted…
She couldn’t believe she was doing this.
“Dude,” the young guy said, “did you just land a cab 270 to switch, half-cab on back 540 off flat down, and a half-cab layback slide off the cannon back 180 out? No way.”
“Wait,” Noah’s voice sounded rich to Julia’s ears and sent a sizzle down her neck and over her shoulders. “Watch what I do next.”
The room went silent except for the music and sound effects coming from the video. As soon as the excitement ramped up, she took another peek, ready to bolt across the opening while they were distracted. But just as she glanced in, Noah looked over his shoulder toward the others with a triumphant grin—and caught sight of her.
Heat and alarm spiked. She lifted one finger to her lips, and Noah casually continued his glance over his shoulder. “Okay, watch this. Eyes on the screen, or you’ll miss it.”
As he turned to face the screen again, he met her eyes for a millisecond and gave the slightest cock of his head—one Julia read as “Go now.”
With the beat of her heart drowning out the video game, Julia dropped her arms to her sides, held her breath, stared at the floor, and hurried past the opening. On the other side, out of sight, she paused against the wall, cringing. But no one called her name, no one asked questions, and they all hooted and hollered at whatever Noah had done on screen.
“Cab double cork 1260 holy crail,” the young guy said, his voice boisterous with excitement. “Frontside 1080 off the toes. That is so sick.”
Extremely sick—that was exactly how Julia felt as she rushed toward the door of her suite, slipped in, and closed it quietly behind her. As soon as she pressed her back to the door, relief loosened her muscles, emotions washed in, and she sank to the floor. Bending her knees, she wrapped her arms around her legs and pressed her forehead against them. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Once her heartbeat slowed, she moved to the nightstand and picked up her phone. She searched for a list of tow companies and called one after another until she finally found someone who agreed to meet her at the bakery in an hour to tow her car from the snowplow avalanche.
Then she checked road conditions and found her path back to San Francisco open, but slow-going with an expected drive time of six hours instead o
f four. At least she could get there. And she could use those six hours alone to figure out what the hell she was going to do with her life now.
With a sense of renewed control, Julia showered, dressed, and repacked her bags. But between memories of the shower she’d shared with Noah the night before and catching sight of the little marks he’d left on her body, her mind kept slipping back to the contradiction between the man she’d met yesterday morning and the man she’d spent the night with.
He was still full of himself, but in a fun, self-deprecating sort of way. He was still controlling, but she found that a huge turn-on in the bedroom. And he had a sweet side as delicious as toasted marshmallow. There was so much about him that fascinated her. So many things she wanted to know.