something over Reese’s shoulders.
Frowning, he glanced over his shoulder to find Missy, face bright red, the all-too-familiar murderous bitch expression plastered on her face that she got whenever something didn’t go her way, storming towards them, waving a white letter in her hand and snapping, “This better be a fucking joke!”
“Okay then, tenth floor it is,” Roger said, keeping his eyes locked on the crazed woman bearing down on them as he frantically hit the button to close the elevator doors.
“Roger, you better-” Missy screamed, only to get cut off by the elevator doors.
Once the doors closed and they were moving, Roger sighed long and loud with obvious relief. “Well, that went well,” he said cheerfully as he leaned down to get a better look at Kasey.
“Hand her over,” Reese said, already moving to grab Kasey when she-
“Did you just growl at me?” he demanded in disbelief.
“Yes!” she hissed only to end with a wince as she turned her head to bury her face against Roger’s chest.
“She’s a cute little thing,” Roger said cheerfully as he shifted her in his arms and let out another one of those sighs that had Reese’s hands clenching into fists.
“Drop her and-”
“You’ll kill me,” Roger finished for him with a nod of understanding. “I figured that one out on my own when I caught a glimpse of her belly.”
“Just so we have an understanding,” he said, reaching over and plucked the keycard out of Kasey’s hand and hit the button for the ninth floor, deciding that he’d let the bastard live long enough to get Kasey to their room.
After that…
He was going to wipe that grin off the bastard’s face.
Chapter 58
“Don’t,” Kasey gasped, close to begging the man that she couldn’t seem to let go of to stop moving.
“You’re really putting me in a tough spot, pumpkin,” Roger said with a heartfelt sigh as he shifted her in his arms and tried to hand her over to Reese only to have her gasp when the slight move had her stomach rolling and her hands clutching his shirt, uncaring that she’d long ago messed up the perfectly ironed shirt as she struggled to get through this.
“Please…stop,” she gasped, really wishing that Reese would give up glaring and trying to take her out of Roger’s arms and focus on finding her pills.
“Kasey,” Reese said, sounding absolutely pissed and at the moment, she really didn’t care.
“You heard the lady,” Roger said, carefully settling on the plush king sized bed while Reese was forced to stand there.
Still. Glaring.
“Reese, please,” she said, so close to crying.
“What does she have for medication?” Roger asked, releasing his hold on her legs now that he had her settled so that he could press the back of his hand against her forehead before shifting his attention and checking her pulse.
“Shit,” Reese bit out, thankfully giving up glaring so that he could find her pills.
“She’s not eating enough,” Roger announced as he finished his quick examination and making her frown.
But, before she could ask, Reese was taking pity on her and explaining, “He’s a pediatrician.”
“The best in the state,” Roger amended with an easy smile as he took the bottle from Reese and read the instructions. “Add a half tablet. I’ll write her a new prescription to cover the change.”
“Fine,” Reese said, taking the pill bottle from him and counted out the pills, breaking one in half so that when he was done, he was popping two and half pills into her mouth.
Closing her eyes, she waited for the pills to dissolve and do something about this damn nausea so that she had the energy to drag herself into the tub, order enough room service to choke a horse and try to decide what she was going to do about Reese. She still couldn’t believe that he’d brought her here with the intentions of proposing when this place clearly meant something to the bitch that had ruined his life.
Apparently she wasn’t the only one.
“What the hell were you thinking bringing her here?” Roger asked, wrapping his arms around her to hold her closer and she allowed it since it helped and only because it helped.
“I was thinking that she deserved to have one perfect night,” Reese bit out, making her shake her head in disgust.
“But, here? Are you fucking serious?”
“Why were you here?” Reese snapped back, making the man holding her chuckle for some odd reason.
“Because Missy has been obsessed with coming here since she heard about your father’s fucked-up proposal and I thought it would be the perfect place to serve her with annulment papers,” he said with relish as he gestured towards the minibar. “See if there’s any juice or ginger ale in there.”
Not looking particularly happy about leaving her side, Reese moved to go check while she slumped in Roger’s arms, admittedly having a hell of a time keeping up. “You annulled your marriage?” she mumbled, shifting to get more comfortable.
“Well, it wasn’t really so much as an annulment as it was a legal document from my lawyer informing her that since we never got a marriage license or registered the marriage that it wasn’t legal,” he announced with a shrug.
“Did you know it wasn’t legal?” she asked, glancing over to find Reese watching them with a frown.
“Of course I did, pumpkin,” he said as he took the small, overpriced can of apple juice from Reese and handed it to her.
“You’re not married?” Reese asked, making her stomach drop.
“No,” Roger said with a shrug like it didn’t matter when the expression on Reese’s face said it all.
“The lawsuit,” Reese bit out, looking angry.
“You got fucked over, Reese, and it was my fault so I settled. You would have never seen a penny from her and we both know it,” Roger said, gesturing for her to take a sip.
“I didn’t want your fucking money!”
“Too fucking bad,” Roger said, taking the can of juice out of her hands and handing it back over to Reese.
“Was this some sort of fucking game to you?” Reese demanded, snatching the can away from him and making her really wish they’d take this conversation somewhere else.
“A game? Are you fucking serious?” Roger snapped back, making her decide that if they weren’t going to leave then she was. “I saved you from making the biggest mistake of your life!”
Taking a deep breath, she shifted off his lap on trembling hands, moved to the edge of the bed and-
“We’re back to the manhandling again, Yummy? Really?” she couldn’t help but ask as Reese took this opportunity to snatch her away from his ex-best friend.
“Never stopped,” he reminded her even as he continued to glare at Roger, who was settling in to get more comfortable on the bed with a satisfied sigh.
When Reese opened his mouth again, most likely to tell Roger to go fuck himself, she slapped her hand over his mouth and said, “Bath, the hotel phone, and the room service menu,” because she was done.
Absolutely done.
*-*-*-*
“I like her,” the bastard lounging on his bed said with a smile as he grabbed the remote and turned the television on.
“Get out,” he said, not taking his eyes off the closed bedroom door as he continued to pace in front of it like a caged animal, seriously wondering how this had gone so bad so fucking fast.
One minute he’d been ready to tell her how much he loved her and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, raising their children together and the next…
“Do you think she’ll order any food for us?” the bastard that had fucked him over asked.
“Get. Out,” he said in absolutely no fucking mood to deal with this tonight.
“And risk running into Missy? Yeah, I think I’ll take my chances in here with you instead.”
“I wasn’t asking,” he pointed out, wondering if he should break that door down and-
/> “Why were you proposing?”
“Because I love her,” he snapped, shoving his jacket off and tossing it aside.
“Then why did you bring her here of all places?” Roger asked, reminding him that he knew him better than anyone else, which only made him hate him more.
“Because my father proposed to my mother here,” he snapped.
“And we both know how well that ended,” Roger said with a chuckle as he finished off Kasey’s juice.
“Shut up.”
“Hey, I’m only trying to help,” Roger said, already looking bored as he settled his attention back on the flat screen television with a sigh.
“Is that what you call what you did?” he snapped, glancing away from the bathroom door to glare at the bastard that should have had his fucking back.
“Yes,” Roger said with absolutely no hesitation, which was right around the time that Reese decided that he’d held back long enough.
Chapter 59
“Stop being such a fucking baby!” Roger snapped even as he dove over the bed and away from Reese.
“You’re fucking dead,” Reese said calmly as he rounded the bed to go after Roger, who was smart enough to stop wiping the blood off his lip and jumped back over the bed.
She stood there, watching the men fight over another woman on the night that Reese had apparently decided to propose to her and decided that she’d be spending the night alone, enjoying twenty-four hour room service when she finally got her hands on a phone that worked, while she waited for Eric to come pick her up in the morning.
With that in mind, she strolled over to the hotel door, opened it and said, “Out,” which of course, they both ignored since they were still busy fighting over the bitch that had fucked them both over in her opinion.
“Can’t we talk about this?” Roger asked, wiping at his bloody nose.
“No,” Reese said, changing directions to cut off his one-time friend, who’d made the mistake of allowing himself to be cornered.
“You can’t seriously be that pissed about Missy,” Roger said with a snort of disgust as he backed up.
“I’m not,” Reese said, moving towards the man resigned to having the rest of his face punched in. “I’m pissed because you wrecked tonight, asshole.”
“You’re not seriously blaming me for that fucked-up proposal, are you?” Roger asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
“I didn’t even get the chance to tell her that I loved her,” Reese bit out, sounding seriously pissed off as she closed the hotel door, definitely intrigued and curious to see where this was going.
“And that’s my fault, how?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Reese asked, advancing on him just as Roger decided to put a chair between the two of them.
“Well, if you’re going to beat the shit out of me for it then I’m thinking I deserve to know,” Roger pointed out as she fixed her towel so that it was wrapped more snuggly around her.
“I wanted to do this right. I wanted to make this night absolutely fucking perfect for her, and right when I was ready to tell her how much I loved her and tell her that she was marrying me, you show up,” Reese explained, grabbing the chair and tearing it away.
Roger snorted at that. “You should be thanking me.”
“For fucking this up?”
“No, for saving you. Bradfords don’t propose and we both know it. If she had said yes, then your marriage would have been doomed. I grew up hearing the same stories that you did and we both know I’m right,” Roger finished smugly, making Reese chuckle, somewhat terrifyingly.
“Do you seriously think that I was really going to take any chances of her saying no?”
“Well, you were asking.”
“I wasn’t going to ask, asshole. I was going to tell her, because there’s no fucking way that I’m going to let her get away,” he said, grabbing Roger by the shirt.
“Because she’s carrying your baby?” Roger asked with an oomph when Reese slammed him against the wall.
“Because I love her,” Reese snarled as he moved to slam Roger into the wall again, but she’d heard enough.
“In about thirty seconds, I’m dropping this towel, crawling into bed naked and giving you one chance to make this up to me,” she announced, biting back a smile when both men went still.
“One,” she said, deciding that perhaps he needed a little prompting.
“But-” Roger said, looking adorably lost as he sent a worried glance at the closed hotel door, clearly not looking forward to going out that door and facing Missy’s wrath.
“Two,” she said, walking towards the bed.
“Kasey?” Reese asked, throwing her a questioning look.
“Three,” she said, deciding that he needed a visual so she reached up and toyed the part of the towel keeping the rest in place.
“Shit!” Reese hissed, grabbing Roger away from the wall and shoving him towards the door.
“No, wait! We can talk about this!” Roger protested, stumbling his way towards the door.
“Four,” she said, running her fingers over the top of her towel.
“Get out,” Reese said, giving Roger another shove.
“But-”
Deciding that waiting until thirty was too generous, she reached up and-
“Shit!”
*-*-*-*
“You son of a bitch!” came the bitchy declaration as Reese shoved Roger out of the room and into the path of the bitch that had wasted enough of his time.
“Have fun” he said with a chuckle as he slammed the door shut in the bastard’s face.
With that done, he turned around and walked back into the room and nearly groaned when he spotted Kasey, naked, laying on her stomach, and waiting for him.
“So, I’ve decided to give you a chance to fix this,” she said, resting her chin on her folded arms as she watched him.
“And if I can’t?” he asked, as he reached for the buttons on his shirt and started to undo them.
“That’s not really a choice,” she said with a slight shrug.
“No,” he said, biting back a smile, “it’s not.”
“Then, I suggest that you start talking,” she said with a pointed look as he ran his gaze over her body, noting every delectable curve that he couldn’t wait to run his hands over.
“Where would you like me to start?” he asked, pulling his shirt off and tossing it aside.
“The ring,” she said, cocking her brow in question.
“You mean the one that Missy gushed over?” he asked with a wince as he reached for his pants.
“Yeah, that would be the one,” she said, watching his every move.
“It was my grandmother’s,” he said with a chuckle as he toed off his shoes.
“And she wanted it,” she guessed correctly.
“And she was never going to get it,” he promised her.
“Why?” she asked, looking curious.
“Because I didn’t love her,” he simply said, making her worry her bottom lip the way he loved.