the last door she hadn’t opened. Felicity flicked on the light, found her bag sitting on the marble floor, and then searched through her clothes. When she didn’t immediately find them, she dumped her gym bag over, muttering as she dug through the contents on the bed.
“Damn!” No pajamas. She’d left them at home.
All she had was her change of clothes for tomorrow. She wouldn’t sleep in those. Returning to the bed, she put a hand to her stomach. The corset dug deep into her. How the heck did women live like this back in the day? Sure, it was fun to wear for a couple of hours, but spend her life in one of these? No way.
Gathering her skirts, she tucked her legs up on the bed and rested her head on the pillow.
So soft. Her mind started to drift in that hazy place between being awake and being asleep. What would it be like to live in a place like this? Surrounded by beauty, success, wealth? She’d likely never know. Her dream was to be an artist and a curator of a museum. Not much money in either of those dreams, but they were her passions.
Passion.
The word made her smile. The man who slept in this room definitely had passion, workaholic or not. He appreciated the finer things, and his taste was impeccable. Her fingers tapped along the bedding. It really was a pity she’d never meet the owner. A yawn escaped her, and she stuck a balled fist against her mouth. Her thoughts drifted, and she let them wander into dreams of the sexy man whose bed she was currently in and what would happen if he returned.
Jared Redmond stumbled from the taxicab, his brown leather briefcase smacking his back as he struggled to stay on his feet. He swallowed a growl of frustration. This was the last time he let the senior partners of his firm keep him out late to celebrate. He’d only had one drink, since he was dead tired from the last few months of overtime at the office. Having to smile, laugh, and socialize all night with the partners left him edgy and desperate to get home and crawl into bed.
God forbid he just do his job and do it well enough to earn respect. No, he had to spend hours at one of the most expensive restaurants with them, watching them pat each other on the back when he’d done all the heavy lifting in their multi-million-dollar transaction.
Big fucking mistake.
Now he was completely drained, and his body was determined to go to sleep on him right there on the street. His vision was fine, but his motor skills seemed to have abandoned him. He reached the glass doors of his apartment building lobby, leaning a little too heavily against the glass. Fishing around in his pocket for his keycard, he muttered a string of curses when his hand came up empty. He glanced up and rapped his knuckles. Thank God, the guard recognized him and buzzed him inside.
“Mr. Redmond.” The security guard nodded, a knowing smile on the older man’s lips.
“Hey, Randy,” he greeted, wincing at the slur of his words.
A few more steps and he reached the elevator. After much effort focusing on the series of floor buttons on the panel, he pressed the button to the fifteenth floor and it lit up. He leaned his head back on the mirrored walls, resting. Jesus, it was like he was drunk, but he knew it was sheer exhaustion.
It had been a hell of a day. After two months of negotiations, sleepless nights, long hours, and no chance of reviving his obsolete social life, he’d closed the massive real estate deal, and closed it earlier than he’d anticipated. Everyone demanded they go out and celebrate. He just wanted to crash and sleep off all of the stress pent up inside him.
He was going to walk into his bedroom and face-plant on his bed and not move all weekend from that spot.
Tanner would be out with his girlfriend, Layla, celebrating. It was Halloween, wasn’t it? A little grin tugged at his lips. The apartment would be empty and quiet. The perfect benefit of arriving home early. He’d told Tanner he wouldn’t be back until Sunday, and it was only Friday now. He expected his little brother and girlfriend would be out partying the night away, giving him total silence and a soft bed to crash on without any disturbances.
The second the elevator doors