Chapter 101
I poured coffee for both of us and when he came back out a few minutes later, he was showered and in a fresh pair of tight black boxer briefs.
He reached onto the chair and fished his cell phone out of his pants pocket and started fiddling with it. I saw his eyes land on his dirty collar. He grabbed a bottle of orange juice from the minibar and downed it.
I stared at him over the rim of my cup, looking at his gorgeous body, his broad shoulders, sculpted chest, six pack, his muscular legs, and wondering if he’d let some other woman touch his body last night.
He glanced at me a few times while thumbing away on his phone and then said,
“Got something to say?”
“Nope,” I answered, making direct eye contact.
“I’ve got a meeting soon; I think I’ll grab another hour of sleep first.”
“Okie dokie,” I had trouble hiding the snark from my reply.
He let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Nothing happened. A business associate had entertainment for a post-meeting party but nothing happened. A chick tried to get frisky with me and I pushed her off. Alright?”
I chewed the inside of my cheek, “Alrighty. You were pretty smashed.”
“Yeah, well I’d had about 5 hours of sleep in three days so the alcohol hit me hard. Nothing happened. Didn’t we just go over this yesterday? Do you really think I’d promise to be faithful and then break that promise the very same day?”
I shook my head, “I didn’t accuse you of anything.”
“No but your attitude says different. Believe me, if I wanted to f**k someone else I’d just go ahead and f**k someone. I’d have no qualms telling you the score. Alrighty?”
Each ‘f**k’ was delivered with such venom it churned like acid in my stomach.
I raised my hands defensively.
Really nice.
His eyes were bulging at me; he looked furious. And rough. I kept my mouth shut for a minute while he continued doing something on his phone.
“So do I have to stay here all day waiting for you?” I finally asked.
He narrowed his eyes at me, “Yeah. Yeah, you do.”
Then he stormed into James and Nino’s room, slamming the door. I sat and seethed. Some fun Vegas would be. I turned the television on and flopped on the sofa.
A while later the adjoining door was thrust open and Azriel came back in and when he caught my expression, which I imagine probably looked pissed off still, his l*p curled and he slammed the door shut and locked it and then stalked in my direction and the look on his face and the way he walked had me suddenly holding my breath.
He lifted me up by grabbing fists full of my bathrobe just below my shoulders.
Once we were almost nose to nose, my feet not touching the floor, he growled, “Lose the f*****g attitude!”
My eyes must’ve been bulging out of my head. He let go of me and I landed on the floor right on my a*s.
He stood there over me. I could hear him huffing. I was afraid to look up so I buried my face in my hands and just stayed there on the floor.
A moment passed with me just sitting there and him just standing over me radiating anger.
Azriel’s POV
Damn it. She was on the floor looking so small and afraid. Her beautiful silky hair all messed up and hiding her face, her hands over her eyes, and just this white pool of terrycloth fabric surrounding her. I felt like the biggest a*****e in the world right now. I was the biggest a*****e in the world. I kept f*****g this up. Why did I keep f*****g this up?
Her shoulders started to shake a little and I knew she was crying. I got down in front of her on my knees and reached for her and she flinched.All content is © N0velDrama.Org.
“I’m sorry.” I pulled her to me. She kept her arms around herself instead of putting them around me and I could hear that she was trying to mask crying. I sat down on the carpet and pulled her onto my lap and held her tight, “I’m a d**k when I’m hung over. I’m sorry, baby.”
She stopped shaking and wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her bathrobe. She looked up at me for a second and then looked away, pain on her face, her eyes red. I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. I tipped her chin up so she’d have no choice but to look at me and then I kissed her lips softly, “I have to go out for just a while today and then we’ll go do something, okay?” I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
She shook her head and her voice was small. “I know you’re here on business, not to entertain me. Maybe you should’ve left me back at your place.” She still wasn’t looking me in the eye.
“Our place. And no, I want you here,” I let out a sigh and tucked her head under my chin and rocked her for a minute. Then I got up, taking her hand to lead her back to the sofa. I pulled her on top of me so that she was laying on me with her head on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her. She was so warm. My head was f*****g pounding so hard.
“I need to close my eyes for a few minutes, Claire. Stay with me?”