She wound her hands together, twisting a ring on her index finger. “I know, but she’s the reason why we couldn’t be together after. We could’ve been so great together, Jer. We were great together. I wish you would see that.”
“We were never together,” I said, then reminded myself that getting into an argument was counterproductive. “Is that why I’m here? So we can be together?”
A cold chill traveled down my spine. If that was where Jannie’s head was at, how long was she intending on keeping me here? And how had she gotten me in here in the first place?
The room looked and smelled like it’d been closed for a while, but it was still a hotel.
Off the beaten path and quaint, I knew it had plenty of regular visitors and often catered to companies hosting retreats at one of the many places nearby if there wasn’t enough accommodation.
Jannie nodded without saying anything, staring at a spot behind my shoulder. I turned my head to see what she was looking at, but I couldn’t turn it far enough. I knew the layout of this hotel. Jannie couldn’t know, but she wasn’t the only girl I’d been here with.
The rooms were spacious, but they weren’t exactly miles away from each other. If I called for help, surely someone would hear me.
“I wouldn’t have done this if I didn’t have to, Jeremiah,” Jannie said. “I thought bringing you here would remind you, but I can see it hasn’t.”
“I don’t need reminding,” I said, trying to work on a plan to get out of there. It had to be possible. Someone must’ve seen her coming in with an unconscious man. Alarm bells must’ve been raised at that sight. “How did you get me in here?”
Surprise flared in her eyes at my abrupt change of topic. “What do you mean?”
“How the hell did you manage to get my limp body into the hotel?” If only she would tell me, I might get the first fucking clue on how I was going to get out. If someone already suspected something was off about her, perhaps they would be lingering outside in the hallway or would send housekeeping to check on us.
Jannie frowned. “You weren’t unconscious. Your body wasn’t limp. I didn’t hit you that hard.”
What the fuck…? If she hadn’t hit me that hard, and I wasn’t unconscious, then what the hell had happened? The pounding in my head turned up a notch at all the unanswered questions swirling around inside it. “How did you get me in here Jannie? And into this chair?”
Vague memories of the night we were together played in my mind. She was so easy to handle. She had to have weighed half of what I did even then, and she’d lost weight since. Something wasn’t adding up.
“You weren’t unconscious, but you were delirious. You followed me without putting up a fight,” she said.
“How is that possible?” I didn’t remember a single second of any of it. And not putting up a fight didn’t sound like me at all.
Jannie lifted her thin shoulder in a shrug. “Head injuries, I guess. I’ve read they can cause people to do all kinds of things.”
“No shit,” I muttered. This was bad, bad news. If I followed her into the hotel like a drunken puppy, that was all anyone would think. That I was a drunk guy going to a gorgeous girl’s room. As happened in hotels all the damn time.
No alarm bells raised, no one suspicious and hovering around outside. What made it worse was that this was the kind of place where the administration knew the guests valued their privacy—for whatever reason. A romantic getaway or a forbidden workplace tryst, they got it all.
The other rooms weren’t miles away, sure. But would anyone hear me? And even if they did, would they come to check out what was happening?
Unfortunately, I didn’t think they would. Which meant my chances of someone coming to check on us had just fallen drastically.
One more option remained, and I already knew I wasn’t going to like the answer. “What are you planning on doing with me, Jannie? You can’t keep me tied up in a locked hotel room forever.”
Anger surged through me. Who the fuck did she think she was? She couldn’t do this. I wasn’t some kind of nobody who would lie down and take it. If she thought keeping me in the room where we fucked was going to change my mind about us, she was sorely mistaken.
“No.” Jannie shrugged again, meeting my eyes dead on. This time, they didn’t look as wild or as uncontrolled. She looked calm, completely comfortable with whatever she was about to say. “But if I can’t have you, my dear Jeremiah, then no one can.”