Rule's Addiction (The House of Rule 3)

Under his onslaught, her brain was only half functioning as she had that thought once again. So it was with no small shock that she suddenly found herself leaning against the tiled wall without any support from him. He’d released her and stepped back, and now stood a few feet away. The look on his face seemed to contain agitation or confusion, as if she’d messed him up somehow. Running his hand through his hair, his features tightened and became the same mask that his face usually reflected.

Her heart skipping a beat at the sudden lack of emotion in his eyes, all she was capable of doing was leaning against the wall while waiting for him to make a move.

She didn’t have to wait long. With an intense, lingering look, he swung around and walked out of the room, the door ringing a loud echo behind him.

****

Maria tiptoed around Garrett the entire next day. He was making her antsy, so much so that she couldn’t stay one hundred percent focused on her job, and that worried the crap out of her. Determined to force him from her brain and resolving to do better at her job, she set out to ignore him.

That evening, the Calderon party was in attendance. The family and their friends were in town for the wedding of one of their grandsons, and Maria was determined to make their stay perfect as well as memorable.

The Calderons were a lovely family. They’d lived in Miami at one time and still had family and friends in the area. The older couple had been coming to the hotel for years, more often than not making a vacation of their stay here, and usually, at some point, having their two grandsons in attendance. Maria was well acquainted with both young men, having gotten to know them off and on through the years.

It was Friday night, and they’d reserved the ballroom for a hotel-catered rehearsal dinner before the small church wedding the next day. Evidently not wanting to step on any toes, they’d not only invited the entire wedding party to the dinner, but all of their out-of-town guests as well. The party was a huge affair, with approximately a hundred and fifty guests.

Before the family’s arrival that afternoon, Maria had inspected their block of rooms one last time. Finding a small fault with only one room, she’d called maintenance but one employee was taking a day of vacation and the other man was resolving an issue with the swimming pool pump. Knowing that the pool problem was more crucial than this, but determined to make these rooms perfect, she hadn’t hesitated, but had gotten on her hands and knees to clean the stain from the carpet herself. She didn’t mind helping or the hard work, but the outfit she’d been wearing was now wrinkled and smelled of cleaning fumes.

Glancing at her watch, she slipped to her room to change clothes, knowing that she’d be amongst the partygoers that evening. Letting out a breath, she knew she’d been foolish to think she could have done the cleaning in her best outfit and come out of it unscathed. She’d planned to wear that particular dress tonight; it had been perfect, and, as her clothing pieces were limited, it was about her only choice for the event.

Already knowing her small wardrobe by heart, she steeled her spine and pulled out The Dress as she thought of it, the one garment that somehow transformed her into someone gorgeous when she clearly wasn’t. It was that once-or-twice-in-a-lifetime article of clothing that should somehow be treasured and only brought out for special occasions. An article of clothing that was timeless, that she could own forever if she treated it lovingly and only wore it sparingly. Looking at it now, draped across her bed, she began berating herself for not finding the time to go shopping for new clothes. It wasn’t as if Garrett wasn’t paying her enough now, because suddenly, she could easily afford to shop if she wanted to. If she had time.

Refusing to let the small detail of having to wear The Dress unbalance her, she pulled her clothes off and slipped into the shower.

****

Late that night, Garrett returned to the hotel. He’d been gone most of the day, having felt a need to escape from the unrelenting pull he felt toward Maria. While he’d been gone, he’d done some unnecessary banking and visited several properties in the area. His day out hadn’t helped much; he hadn’t been able to fully get her out of his mind for more than ten minutes at a time.

And that only pissed him off. He was beginning to get a nagging feeling in his gut that was telling him that fucking Maria wouldn’t be enough. Refusing to believe it, or in fact to even allow the thought to take hold, he walked inside the lobby with determined steps. Just one more fucking taste; that should be enough to hold him for the day.