“What the hell happened to your face?” Shade asked, wincing at a pair of what had to be painful shiners.
“I bounced it off some guy’s knuckles a couple dozen times,” Gabe grumbled. “Good times.”
Gabe pointed at Shade
’s forehead. “And what happened to you?”
Shade hadn’t even noticed the dull pain of the bruise on his head until Gabe pointed it out. The ache in his chest had been a far greater distraction. “Ex-wife,” Shade said vaguely.
Gabe sneered. He’d never been a fan of Tina. “Bitch.”
“Ball-buster.”
Gabe’s sour expression brightened as he poked Shade’s bruise and sent a sharp pain through his skull. “Head-buster.”
Gabe grinned, and Shade couldn’t help but smile back. Gabe was one of the few people who saw through Shade’s façade and yet didn’t give him grief about the softness hidden beneath his hardened outer shell. He wasn’t exactly vulnerable around Gabe—not the way he had been with Amanda—but he was more genuine. He let his guard down. But Gabe had never betrayed him.
Shade wasn’t sure which of them needed their back-pounding bro hug more as they crashed into each other and offered the manliest physical comfort possible. He actually felt a little better by the time Gabe opened the suite door with Shade’s keycard.
Melanie and her very bendy friend Nikki were curled up together on the bed all sleep-tousled and feminine. Nikki’s hand was cupped possessively over Melanie’s breast, her beautiful face pressed into her bedmate’s neck. Shade didn’t know why lesbian lovers were such a turn-on to him, but he was definitely a fan.
“Well, what do we have here?” Shade asked with a crooked grin. This was a sandwich any man would want to be the filling in. Why exactly had Gabe defected to another room?
Melanie’s eyes blinked open, and her intense dislike for him bubbled to the surface before she’d even taken a breath. “What are you doing in here?” she growled at him. “Get out!”
Shade was not in the mood for her sass. “This is my room. You get out!”
Nikki was more agreeable. She untangled herself from Melanie and stretched her arms over her head, showing off a strip of flat tanned belly at the hem of her tank top. “I guess I got to spend the night in Shade’s bed after all,” she said with a flirty smile.
And maybe Shade would have been better off with Nikki—or someone like her—in his bed. He’d have gotten his rocks off without the complications that came with emotional attachment. But even though Amanda had shredded his heart, he didn’t regret a single moment he’d spent with her. He had loved her. Still loved her.
Maybe she’d change her mind about him. Would it be better to pressure her or give her time and space?
What was he thinking? She’d made it perfectly clear that she wasn’t interested.
Oh hell, he didn’t know. When it came to women, he’d never had this problem before. He was usually the one pushing them away, not the other way around. And he knew how fucking annoying it was for him when a woman he didn’t want keep pestering him. It made him dislike her even more. How would he feel if he went after Amanda and her hated grew? Could he tolerate that?
Shade shook his head to clear it.
He didn’t need Amanda in his life. He would not swallow his pride and go after her. Fuck her.
He turned his attention to the undercurrent of drama in the room. Nikki seemed her regular chipper self, but Melanie was definitely out of sorts. Gabe seemed shocked by Nikki’s cheer. A bit puzzled himself, Shade couldn’t help but stare at the dark bruises on Nikki’s throat as she took Gabe’s keycard, patted him on the butt, and left to return to Gabe’s suite to get dressed.
“So what the hell happened?” Shade asked. “Owen said you two returned early from Austin, and there’s obviously something going on with Nikki.”
“I shouldn’t have left her by herself,” Melanie said, dragging a sheet from the bed to wrap around herself. She was wearing a nightgown, and it wasn’t as if Shade had never seen a woman in her nightgown before, but the cover seemed to offer some comfort.
“She hooked up with the wrong guy,” Gabe said. “An MMA fighter who wouldn’t take no for an answer. I tried to kick his ass, but…” He shrugged and pointed to his blackened eyes.
“He did that to her neck?” Shade asked.
“Not just her neck,” Gabe said.
“He fucking raped her!” Melanie shouted. “And no one was here to help her. She was all alone, lost in an unfamiliar city, broken and bruised.”
“Mel, you can’t blame yourself for what happened to Nikki,” Gabe said, pulling her into his arms.
Shade half expected her to pull away, but she didn’t. She melted into him and clung to his waist.
“Then who am I supposed to blame?”
“The fucking prick who hurt her.”
“I wish she would press charges against him,” Melanie said. “How could she let him walk?”
“I think she wants to forget it ever happened,” Gabe said.
“Or she thinks she deserved it,” Shade said. He’d spent enough time with Nikki to know how her mind worked. She had a victim mentality and until she figured out that she was in control of her destiny, life would continue to just happen to her.
“How can you say that? You’re such an asshole,” Melanie said. She shoved off Gabe’s chest so she could flee Shade’s odious presence.
“You really do bring out the worst in women,” Gabe said, shaking his head at Shade before he followed Melanie out of the suite and shut the door with a loud bang.
Shade had to agree with him. He’d turned Tina into a bitter bitch and Amanda into a heartless shrew. They’d both been perfectly wonderful women until they’d tangled with him.
Still fully clothed, he collapsed on the crumpled bed and at long last found the sleep that had eluded him. He felt almost human when he woke several hours later. It was still light out—so he wasn’t late for the show—and soon he realized that it was his rumbling stomach that had woken him. When had he last eaten? Sometime the day before. When he’d grilled burgers and brats for Julie and Amanda, he realized. Thinking of that happy time felt surreal. Had his world really been perfect just yesterday? He felt like he’d lost her a lifetime ago.
Shoving thoughts of Amanda aside—seriously, fuck her—he ordered room service and jumped into the shower while he waited for his food to arrive.
As water cascaded over his head and dripped from his jaw and the tip of his nose, he closed his eyes and tried to chase thoughts of Amanda from his head again. He didn’t want to think about her or picture her floating topless in his pool. He sure as hell didn’t want to continue to lust after her. He’d heard that absence made the heart grow fonder, but he was sure his dick would soon have other ideas. His need for her would diminish with time. Hopefully, real soon. How could he live with a huge achy hole in his chest where his heart had once beat strong and proud?
He was slipping into his leather pants when a knock sounded on the door. “Room service,” a woman called from the corridor.
He tucked his dick against his thigh, careful not to catch his bare skin as he zipped his fly, and went to the door shirtless. The young woman’s friendly smile was immediately replaced by slack-jawed gawking as her gaze roamed his exposed flesh. The dishes on the tray she carried rattled as she slumped against the door frame.
Her eyes lifted to meet his gaze, and he realized he wasn’t wearing his sunglasses. He quickly turned to remedy that oversight and swore the woman gasped the second his backside came into view. Normally he’d have used her obvious attraction to him to his advantage—he was confident that getting the raven-haired beauty naked between the sheets wouldn’t have been a challenge—but he honestly wasn’t in the mood.
“Just set it on the desk,” he said, sliding his shades into place and reaching for his wallet to offer the server a tip. It was apparent that she wanted more than a twenty when her hand touched the small of his back.
“If you’d like some company, it’s time for my dinner break,” she said.
Would he like some company? The image of Amanda laughing while sitting across the table from him entered his thoughts. That was the kind of company he wanted—the easy camaraderie and inside jokes,
the warmth that glowed in his chest from being with her, and the knowledge that she liked him for himself and not because he was famous. But he’d been so wrong. So, so wrong. She didn’t like him. She had never loved him. She thought he was stupid, and he must be if he thought what they’d had could have amounted to anything. He’d never share those simple moments with her again. So maybe losing himself between the thighs of some other woman—one who would never matter to him—would soothe the ache in his chest that was suddenly climbing his throat and making his eyes sting.
Shade turned, took the young woman by the upper arms, and gazed into her eyes. Her breath caught and her body immediately went soft and submissive.
He could practically hear her thoughts. Oh God, this is going to happen. I’m going to fuck Shade Silverton. I can’t wait to tell all my friends and my future grandchildren. It was obvious she knew who he was and that was why she was offering herself as company.
He turned her toward the door and gave her a little shove so that she couldn’t mistake his disinterest. “Show yourself out,” he said, his voice taking on an authoritative edge. “And put out the Do Not Disturb sign. I’m not in the mood to be bothered by the help.”
She practically sprinted to the door, and just before she slammed it, she shouted, “You’re an asshole.”