I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of New York. I’d never liked the place, with its people so dripping with ambition they didn’t care who they stepped over on the way up. I was usually good for one or two nights of partying in the Big Apple, and then I was done.
And that day, I was seriously done. Shit, Bryan had caught the first flight back to LA that he could. Something about meeting with the label and being there in person for it.
Better him than me. I always managed to piss them off with my big mouth.
After Coral had left my room, I’d fallen into what I called one of my twenty-minute stress naps. I’d always been a big sleeper, and when the going got rough, it was where I retreated to. Some might say it was a cop out, but on more than one occasion it had kept me from punching someone’s lights out—and from the free night in county jail that often followed.
My mini-snooze helped to reset my mood. The strange thing about today’s nap, though, was that I dreamt of Coral the whole time.
She was getting under my skin. And she wasn’t even trying.
God, I was turning into a pussy.
But I’d made sure I got to sit right next to her at the trendy Chelsea restaurant we went to for dinner.
As usual, heads turned when we came in and a couple folks even whistled to get our attention. But we just waved, kept our heads down, and were seated in a far corner of the restaurant where we could have peace and quiet.
I grabbed Coral’s hand under the table. The other guys might have seen, but I didn’t give a shit. They’d be cool with it.
And to my delight, she didn’t pull away. In fact, she gripped my fingers right back.
Chapter 32
CORAL
When we’d gotten back from dinner, Ennis invited me to the guys’ suite for a drink.
I knew what that meant.
And I was tempted, truth be told. I didn’t know exactly what they had in mind, but I trusted them enough to know they didn’t want to do anything I didn’t want to do.
But, I made my excuses. “Thanks, Ennis. I need some time to myself. I’m getting in bed with a book.”
And we said our good nights.
Next morning, Hugh knocked on our adjoining door.
“Pack your stuff,” he said when I opened it.
I frowned, looking at my clothes strewn all over the room. “Huh?”
I wasn’t ready to go anywhere. I was all cozy in my yoga pants and an oversized sweatshirt, tapping away on my laptop, and really wasn’t interested in moving.
He walked into my room and looked around. “You don’t have too much stuff. Do you need help getting it all together?”
Ennis came in right behind him.
“Hugh, what are you talking about? Why do I need to pack?” I asked.
Shit. Were they firing me? Could they fire me?
I grabbed my phone to see if I’d missed a call or text from Randall.
Nothing.
Well, if they were giving me the boot, I was going down kicking. I hadn’t busted my ass just to be thrown out.
And I couldn’t deny any longer that, in spite of myself, I had a bit of a crush on all three of the rascals. So I had further reason to want to stick around. Unprofessional as it might be.
“Coral, we want to get back home. Bryan chartered us a plane to LA, and we’re leaving in an hour.”
Holy crap. I’d never been in a private plane.
“Why? Why are we leaving now?” I asked.
Stone walked in behind the guys. He looked much better than he had the day before, freshly showered and with the bags under his eyes nearly gone. “We just want to get the hell home. Don’t you?”
“Well, yeah. Okay. Oh my god, an hour?” I frantically looked at the crap all over my room. “I’ll be ready. An hour is plenty of time to get ready.”
Ennis laughed. “What Hugh meant to say was the plane is leaving in an hour. We get picked up in”—he looked at his watch—“five minutes.”
“Shit!” I said, running to shoved my laptop and all my papers into my tote bag.
“We’re almost ready, too, so we’ll be right back to help.”
Oh my god. Five minutes?
I ran into the bathroom and swept everything off the counter into the hotel’s plastic laundry bag. Then I grabbed everything out of my closet and off the chairs I had it draped over, stuffing it all into my suitcase.
I checked under the bed and in the dresser drawers like you’re supposed to when leaving a hotel. The coast was clear.
I wiped the sweat from my brow and wheeled my bag into the guys’ room, where they all stood by the door holding their duffels. Ennis hustled over and took my suitcase, and Stone grabbed my tote.
Well.
“I think that’s the record for bolting out of a hotel to catch a flight,” Hugh said laughing.
We jumped into the Town Car waiting at the curb, and in thirty minutes we were boarding a private plane.
Chapter 33
CORAL
Holy shit. So this was how the rich lived.
“This is insane,” I said, plopping into a cushy club chair after a pretty flight attendant had taken our bags.
The guys had grabbed chairs, too, which we rotated so they faced each other.
“It’s like a little club house. Just for us four,” I said.
The flight attendant handed each of us a glass of champagne. “I’ll just be in the back, should you need anything. I’m grabbing a seat for takeoff,” she said, pointing to a space beyond a curtain.
Moments later, the plane started accelerating.
“How did Bryan get this plane?” I asked, looking around at gorgeous paneled walls, thick carpeting, and full bar.
A girl could get used to this. Especially after a freaking bus.
“Bryan worked his magic. It probably belongs to some rich person who wasn’t using it. I’m sure it wasn’t cheap,” Ennis said, shrugging. “Guess he thought it was okay to splurge to get us back home.”
As soon as the plane was in the air, I got up for the restroom. We’d left so abruptly I’d not even combed my hair, and from the wind on the tarmac, I was a mess. Maybe I was an idiot for caring how I looked. But there it was.
I was traveling with three of the most beautiful men I’d ever known, and even though they were clients, I couldn't deny that being with them made my heart race.
They might have thought I was once the homely, sad girl in the lunchroom, but I was going to ensure they knew I’d left her far, far behind.
When I slid aside the bathroom door to exit, Stone was standing right in front of it. Blocking my way.
“Oops. Excuse me, Stone.”
I tried to step around him, but he didn’t give way. He just stood there, smiling down on me, his feet firmly planted in front of the accordion door. And there was no way around him.
I looked up to find his gaze on my lips.
I’d thought it sweet, the way he’d held my hand under the table at dinner the night before, as if it were his way of thanking me for listening.
And now, he took my hand again.
“You know how beautiful you are?” he whispered.
Oh my gosh. Was he going to kiss me, right here, on the plane, in the bathroom doorway? Shit, the other guys were just around the corner, and the flight attendant could appear at any moment.