Dino ran out the door after her. They both stopped short when they saw Stacy.
“Oh, Stace. Oh, God,” Veronica said.
“You don’t have to tell him anything, Ronnie,” Stacy said. “I’ve heard enough already, and I’ll tell him myself.”
Emotion stormed through Stacy as she ran to the elevator and hit fifteen. No! No, damn it! Why did this have to happen? God, she’d let herself fall in love with the bastard!
Tears streamed down her cheeks. Was she sad? Angry? So many different feelings gripped her insides, surged through her veins. Finally, when the elevator dinged her arrival, one sensation stood out among the others.
Betrayal.
Though the bed had been made and no longer showed the remnants of their lovemaking, Michael’s suitcase sat at the edge of the wardrobe. Her own fault, of course. After their amazing afternoon, she’d invited him to move into her room for the remainder of the conference.
Well, he could now consider himself uninvited.
Not satisfied to merely push the suitcase out into the hallway, she opened it. Inside sat his underwear, his sundries, his shirts and jeans. One by one, she pulled them out and tossed them into the hallway as she sobbed incoherently.
“How could you, you fucking asshole?”
Boxer briefs, jeans, tight T-shirts littered the hallway. In the bottom of his suitcase was a cobalt bottle of vodka. “Yeah. I suppose you thought you’d get me drunk. Well, I’d have to be drunk to sleep with you again.” She threw the bottle into the hallway where it smashed into icy blue shards against the wall.
Last, she threw the empty suitcase into the hallway amidst the designer clothes, the expensive cologne, the razor, the toothpaste and toothbrush…
She slammed her door shut, flung herself on her bed, and wept some more.
Chapter Seven
Oh shit.
Clearly, this wasn’t leading to anything good. Michael shuffled through his belongings cluttering the hallway outside Stacy’s room. He should call housekeeping to clear away the glass from the broken bottle of vodka, but first, he needed to see Stacy and make sure she was all right. His skin tightened. Fuck. He was actually nervous.
What had gone wrong? Thank God she’d given him her extra keycard. He slid it into the lock and opened the door.
Darkness flooded the room. He switched on the light. Stacy was on the bed lying on her back, still in her scarlet formal gown, one arm flung over her eyes.
His heart thumped. “Stace?”
“Go away, Michael,” she said without moving.
“Are you okay? Why are my things in the hallway?”
She snorted. “As if you don’t know.”
“I don’t know, Stace. What’s going on?”
“Get out.”
“Not until you tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m fine. Now, get out.”
He inched toward the bed. “Please, baby. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Ask Dino and Ronnie. They’ll tell you.”
“I haven’t seen Dino and Ronnie. You didn’t come back for our dance, and I started to get worried. So I went looking for you.”
“Too bad you didn’t find Dino and Ronnie.