slipped under the door and she didn’t need to check out. She dressed in a pair of yoga pants, a loose, thin T-shirt and flip-flops. She pulled her hair up into a messy knot and didn’t bother with contact lenses or makeup since she was going for a facial. When she’d packed, she backed out of the hotel room, pulling her small carry-on sized suitcase behind her, struggling a little with the heavy door. As she did this, the door of the room next to hers opened and a man stepped out, slinging a duffel bag over his shoulder.
They came face-to-face in the hall.
Ugh. One of the bachelor party dudes. As if she wanted to actually see any of them after listening to them all night.
She met his gaze with raised eyebrows.
He was probably about her age, thirtyish. His dark hair was messy, stubble shadowed his cheeks and jaw, and dark circles hugged his lower lids. He blinked bloodshot eyes at her. Beautiful eyes, probably, when they weren’t red—deep-set and a clear light blue, with thick dark lashes. Crap, even though he looked a little rough, he was one of the most gorgeous guys she’d ever seen.
She lifted her chin. “So, did you boys have fun last night?”
Color washed up into his face and he briefly closed his eyes. “Christ. You could hear us.”
“Oh yeah. Pretty much everything.”
That was an exaggeration, but she had a damn good idea of what had been going on.
“Fuck,” he muttered, rubbing a hand over those bloodshot eyes. “Sorry.”
“You should be. I’m a few hours short of sleep and that makes me cranky.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Also, I don’t know you or the bride-to-be, but I hope she never finds out what you were doing at the bachelor party.”
She turned her back on him and stalked down the carpeted hall toward the elevator, tugging her suitcase along behind her.
Of course, he was heading the same direction and they ended up waiting for the elevator together. He shoved his hands into the pockets of baggy cargo shorts, his big shoulders hunched under a wrinkled Cubs T-shirt. The air around them hummed with discomfort.
She adjusted the strap of her purse on her shoulder. Stared at the small table and chairs arranged nearby. Bit her upper lip. Tapped her foot in its flip-flop.
The guy cleared his throat. “It wasn’t like we were doing something illegal,” he muttered.
Her eyebrows flew up. “Prostitution is legal in Illinois now?”
The man choked. “She wasn’t a prostitute!”
“Whatever.” That poor woman. Sloane didn’t want to be all judgy. Who knew what would move someone to do such a thing. She just hoped the woman was okay. It hadn’t sounded violent but…her active imagination had been creating scenarios where the police arrived at her door in the morning to question her on what she’d heard because they’d found the woman’s raped and mangled body somewhere.
Finally the elevator dinged its arrival. Maybe she should take the stairs…but they were on the twenty-fourth floor and she was just being ridiculous. The police had not found any body. She stepped in first, poked the button labeled L for lobby, and faced the doors as they slid shut. She edged farther away from the man in the elevator, eyeing him warily.
The man leaned against the opposite wall. She heard his sigh.
Poor baby. All tired and hungover. Beh.
She let out a breath of relief when the elevator stopped on fifteen and another couple, probably in their fifties, got on. They stood in the middle of the elevator holding hands and smiling at each other.
Cute.
When the elevator arrived on the main floor, she let the couple precede her out, and the other man held out a hand to let her go before him. Polite. Huh.
She watched him smile at the doorman too as he walked out, and geezus, he wasn’t even trying to be charming and sexy—but he was, and she felt that smile in her girl parts.
Lovely.
She was obviously overtired. And undersexed. Her fatigue had disappeared, thanks to seeing her neighbor, and was now replaced with an Energizer Bunny buzz of annoyance.
She headed into the spa, unreasonably disturbed by having run into that man. It was bad enough having heard them. He was irksomely normal looking, handsome and polite to the hotel staff. She would have expected someone more skeevy.
She tried to put him out of her head as she relaxed in the steam room before having her face cleansed, buffed and polished, then her toes and