Sam pressed the end button and stared numbly at the cat, who sat on the arm of her chair, cleaning his long white fur. “Oh Snowball. What the hell am I gonna do?”
The cat looked up at her and twitched his fluffy tail with a plaintive meow.
“You think I should stuff my pride and call too?”
The cat purred and returned to cleaning, splaying the claws of one paw as his raspy pink tongue licked around the pads gently.
“You’re probably right but I don’t know how I can face him again. He thinks I’m some sex-starved nympho and I have no idea what he wants at this point.” And he was right.
The cat turned his luminous blue eyes on her and meowed again, then almost twisted himself in half to reach the fur at the base of his hind leg.
“Okay, so I do know what he wants but I’m terrified that’s all he’ll ever want from me.” But would that be so damn bad? That was exactly what she wanted from him at the moment.
The cat rose and stretched and yawned and padded down from the arm of the chair to coil up in her lap and purr.
“You’re right. I won’t know unless I talk to him again.” And maybe seduce him again.
David picked up his phone after five rings. She sat there silently, trying to think of something to say but she couldn’t. She was about to hang up, but he seemed to know who was on the phone.
“Is that you, Sam?” His voice alone was enough to send her into orbit. She cleared her throat but said nothing. When she couldn’t form a coherent response, he asked, “Where are you?”
“Um, I’m in my hotel room. What do you want, David?” She managed to get the words out. The sound of his voice was enough to bring a night’s worth of incredible memories flooding in and she shivered.
“What do I want? I don’t think you really need me to answer that, do you?” The disembodied voice was low and rough and it caressed her body like an unseen hand. She chewed her lip nervously. Sam’s stomach felt like it was going to race away.
“You said you weren’t going to sue. Now you’re threatening my business manager?” She did her best to sound indignant but only succeeded in sounding breathless.
“If that’s the only thing you care about enough to jog you out of hiding, then I’m guilty as charged.”
She felt hot color fill her face. “You can have whatever amount of money you want. But please don’t involve my friend. She hasn’t done anything to you. I’m the one you want to sue.”
“We’ll see.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Take a wild guess.”
She swallowed hard. Just considering the possibilities was enough to make her shamefully pre-orgasmic. Play it cool, Sam. Play like you aren’t all trembly and horny. “Let me think about it?” Lame. So lame.
“You know where I am. I expect you to be here by tomorrow night. I have a lease in the Embassy Suites on NW Forty-fifth. Just ask at the desk. If you don’t show, I will bankrupt you and your business manager.”
He hung up without another word and she sat there for a moment before hitting the end button. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply to calm her rapid pulse. The cat meowed and shifted into a more comfortable position.
“You think so, Snowball? Well, I’m not as sure about that as you seem to be. What if he’s just pissed off and changed his mind about more money for the books?” But even as she said it, she didn’t believe a word. He was waiting for her. He wanted her. With a vengeance. And as that thought sank in, a thrill of fear slid down her spine. Oh God. What the hell had she gotten herself into? She shuddered to think what he might want to do to her. Vengeance could be pretty damn scary.
As she sat there, gathering her courage, she closed her eyes and whimpered as heat pooled between her legs and her body shivered with what she realized was anticipation. Would it be the same? Had she built that one experience up to a fever pitch in her damn dreams? Would he feel the same way once he had her in his clutches again?
Oh, who the hell cared? One more night spent with that man would be worth it, no matter what he intended. Let him strangle her afterward. She intended to enjoy the hell out of him before he did.
Sam glanced at her watch. Then she called the travel service she and Phyllis had a contract with.
“When’s the next flight from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Chicago, Illinois?”
She sank back in the seat, her thoughts a confused jumble as she stared out the window of the jumbo jet. She had managed to find a seat on a flight the following day and had checked out of her hotel with flushed cheeks and hammering heart. She hadn’t had much to pack and it had been a simple thing to catch a cab to the airport.
Snowball was safely sleeping in the pet compartment with two other cats and one French poodle and she was free to close her eyes for a short nap. The flight from Council Bluffs to Chicago was not a terribly long one. She would step off the plane at four thirty and be in a taxi on her way to the hotel by five.
She had just shifted into a more comfy position once the plane had taken off and she was about to drop off into a relaxing nap when a voice came from behind and above her.
“You’re that woman. The one Chance Braza is looking for. Ohmygod. You are!”
Sam looked up over her shoulder into the excited face of a handsome young man sporting a stiff black Mohawk and several facial piercings, who was leaning over her seat from the next row back. She blinked up at his excited face and frowned. “And you are?”
“Joe. Joe Garcia. Wow! I knew it was you the minute you got on the plane. Me and my friends are on our way up to Chicago for the show. We got tickets a couple of months ago. Is that where you’re headed?” The guy talked almost faster than she could listen.
Sam sighed and sat back up. “Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to converse if you weren’t hanging over the seat like a vulture?” She patted the empty seat beside hers and the young man looked like he was going to have a heart attack before giving a whoop and saying excitedly to his pals, “She wants me to sit by her!”
As he moved to the seat next to hers, four more youthful male faces popped over and around the backs of their seats and she said, “Hello. Are you all going to the FPW show?”
Joe seemed to speak for the whole bunch as he nodded and said, “Yeah. And we got pretty good tickets too. I waited for two days at the SportTix office to be first in line when they opened the sales. I got us all seats in the third row back at ringside. They cost a lot but it was worth it. I think Braza is the best but Greg really thinks Wolfman will take him out tonight.” He ran out of breath and stared at her. “You really are gorgeous. You and Chance got a thing going, don’t you?”
Sam blushed slightly and cleared her throat, noticing that several other passengers were standing to look over their seats to get a glimpse of her. “Chance is a really great guy but no, we haven’t got a ‘thing’ going.” She shrugged. “That’s all hype. Just a lot of fun publicity.” The lie slipped smoothly from her tongue. “I write novels and he let me use his face on the covers. Sort of a mutually lucrative publicity thing.”
“I watched Chance’s interview before last week’s pay-per-view and he said different. He said he hadn’t ever met a woman like you and he wouldn’t stop looking ’til he found you again. Sounds like he’s really got it bad for you,” Joe’s friend behind her said excitedly.
Great. This was all she needed. “Of course. He’s a great actor. It’s just part of the show, guys. Do I look like the kind of girl Chance Braza would drool over?” She grinned wryly up at the young man.
The kid nodded and said, “You sure do, Ms. Hastings. I bought your last book just for the photo of you on the back cover.”