Not that it mattered. Not really. I still wanted her.
Getting out of bed, I decided it was time for a shower.
It was on my way past the dresser that I realized that everything was gone from the surface of the dresser, not just Mia’s stuff.
Both my wallet and my championship ring were gone.
I definitely remembered setting them both down there when Mia and I had been tearing each other's clothes off.
I looked around on the floor and found nothing. I stood there, still scanning the empty carpet, astonished.
What do you know?
The player had been played.
Not only did she know exactly who I was, she had robbed me blind while I slept off the sex and bourbon.
Served me right for trying to bullshit her.
JJ Beckett was usually pretty savvy but apparently James, the boat salesman, was a fucking idiot.
I didn’t care about the wallet. The credit cards could be blocked and I was fortunate enough not to miss a couple grand.
But the championship ring was irreplaceable. I had scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter to clinch the win after a rocky start to our season my rookie year in the league when I was playing back east.
I had asked her if she was going to rob me. I had thought it was a joke. She had stared me in the face and asked if she looked like a thief. Wow, I was a total dumbass. The purse had probably been a ruse to get me to empty my pockets. I had played right into her quest for information. She’d seen my black card and a bunch of cash and I’d been the perfect mark.
Worst of all, I had liked her. I’d enjoyed her company, pictured a second date. She’d even been the first to mention a next time.
She was committed to her trade, I’d give her that. Not only had she faked me out entirely that she was interested in me, she’d ridden me like a champ.
I stared at Mia’s high heel on my nightstand, my shock spinning into anger that I’d been so careless. My nostrils flared, my fists clenched. My championship ring was gone. Fuck.
Finally, with a growl of frustration, I grabbed the sexy little thief’s heel and hurled it at the wall.
Which only resulted in me putting a hole in my bedroom wall.
That was winning right there.
Chapter Five
Five months later
Mia
“I’m so tired I couldn’t whip a gnat,” I said to my co-worker and friend Christina. I sat down on the bench at the foot of the bed in one of the bedrooms of one of the hotel’s most exclusive suites and sighed.
It was a combination of mental stress and physical exhaustion. Since Mama’s stroke a month earlier, I’d been a constant ball of worry. Even now that she was totally on the mend and safe in a rehab transitional facility, I still worried about her. I also always had the weight of financial pressure sitting on my shoulders, threatening to crush me. I’d been working nonstop and I still only had eleven bucks left in my bank account after paying my monthly bills. I was worn out. Busted. Done up.
“I have no freaking clue what that expression actually means, but I can tell you’re tired. You’ve been walking semi-hunched over for the last two hours.” Christina picked up her caddy filled with cleaning supplies and gave me a look of concern. “You can sit this one out, I don’t mind. It’s the last room of the day.”
That had me standing up guiltily, though it took just about everything I had left inside me. “No, this suite is huge. You can’t do it yourself.” I eyed the unmade bed with naked longing. “I wish I could take a ten-minute power nap. That would help me so much. I’ve been working for twenty hours straight.”
I always worked two jobs in one day, but usually clocked in around fourteen hours. This particular day the scheduling had just worked out that I’d worked at the coffee shop, then had said yes to a double shift overnight at the hotel. I had thought I could handle it, but what I was learning was that I could not, in fact, handle it.
“Go for it,” Christina said, heading toward the bedroom door to the living room. “I’m starting with the wet bar, so I’ll be right by the front door. I can warn you if anyone comes in, but a group of guys are staying here for a bachelor weekend and I heard them saying they were going golfing. You know whacking balls takes all day. They won’t be back for hours.”
“Are you serious? Do you think I should?” I asked, both appalled and thrilled at the idea of closing my eyes even for a few minutes. I had to go straight back to the coffee shop after my shift here was done. “I would totally get fired if anyone found out.”
“Who is going to find out? This suite takes two hours. How will anyone know if you take a power nap? Close the door to this room and I’ll text you if someone comes in, but I don’t think they will. Golfing takes forever and they just left when I came out of 2204 next door.” She gave me a grin. Christina wasn’t exactly a rule follower. She fudged minibar numbers on occasion and stole snacks and tiny booze bottles when it looked like a guest wouldn’t notice, and she vaped while cleaning. “It’s five rich and totally hot guys staying here. What are the odds all five would be hot? But they are. It’s like a suite of sexiness. I feel turned on just from walking among their dirty towels and expensive shit. Becca was considering pretending to be a stripper for a chance to meet them but then remembered she can’t dance.”
“I don’t care who they are, I’m just glad they’re gone.” I wanted that bed like nobody’s business. So much that it made me physically ache to think about being denied falling facedown onto that soft mattress with its high thread count sheets. The bed looked tantalizing and inviting. A fluffy white cloud that would envelop me and spirit me off to dreamland, where it would be transformed into a delicious pile of whipped cream I would eat by the handful and gain no weight. Not to be too specific or anything.
That bed had recently seen a totally strange and unknown-to-me male sleeping on its sheets and I was so damn tired I didn’t even care. That’s when you know you’re exhausted beyond reason. I would just sleep on the top sheet and hope he wasn’t a heavy sweater. “Though I guess it’s less weird to crash in a hot guy’s bed than a creeper’s, right?”
“For sure. Pretend like you’re his lover taking an afternoon nap while he golfs. Maybe he’s out buying you jewelry before you go out tonight and drink Cristal and party in the VIP section.”
“You’ve really thought this through, haven’t you?”
“I don’t get out much,” she said. “You know that. But I have a healthy fantasy life.” She gave me a grin.
Christina was a thin blonde who had once upon a time had aspirations of a singing career, but then had gotten pregnant by a nasty piece of work who was currently in prison. His “associates” had stolen everything Christina had and she was currently living with me with her adorable two-old-son. Together, with our combined five jobs, we could almost afford the rent. It was touch and go from month to month.
Plus it did not leave time for either of us to have a social life.
“Give me fifteen minutes,” I told Christina. “Then wake me up.”
I would set my alarm but I needed a backup plan or I might fall too deep into sleep and wind up groggy as hell instead of refreshed.