It wasn’t my first time seeing him in the hotel suite. The first time was when I was sure Tori had nodded off, I’d gotten up to turn out the lights and stereo, and kill the candles. He was leaning against a wall between the kitchen and living room with one foot hiked behind him, snickering. It was eerie, but not mean-spirited of him, I felt. His humor came at my expense, I just didn’t know why. But this time, his laughter was at a volume that knocked me out of my sleep. The shit fucked me up this time.
I reached for her before opening my eyes. My arm extended farther in search of her warmth. When I felt none of it, my heavy eyes burst open, and my already accelerated heart rate spiked. My head whipped across the room. Nothing. Just the sun coming up from the sky view window in the living room across the way.
Oh, shit…
My torso swung into the air and I glanced over to the bathroom door. The crack beneath the door was pitch black without an inch of movement. Still, I hopped from the bed, taking wide strides over there with my dick flopping in the air and pushed the door open. A strange visual of her being curled up, scared, in the tub played in my head. Did I hurt her last night? Did it conjure past traumas?
“Fuck!” I grumbled, lunging out into the suite.
The whole damn place was empty. Tori was gone. This was fucked up. It was what I got for listening to her.
“You can’t. You’re not capable of hurting me even if you tried to. Like ever. You’re a big guy—everywhere! Just do it. Do it like you claim you wanted to, to the girl who’d just knocked a bitch out. I want this. I want you to do this. You asked and gave me a gazillion outs. Let’s get it done!”
That shit fucked me up and had my dick throbbing so fucking hard for a release, it hurt. Why did I slip up like that? With my hands on my hips, I paced. Who do I call? Her mother was too damn far away. I couldn’t call Trisha Gaskin. Fuck no! She’d skew my ass for laying a finger on Tori, and would turn this around to make me some damn predator to A.D. Jones. But I had to call someone. I had to find this girl.
I trekked back to the bedroom for my phone. That was when I found a BBM Tori left me close to two hours ago, saying she was headed to the hotel’s gym.
Gym?
My heart continued to pound and palms misted as I tossed on my pajama pants and a t-shirt. I grabbed my phone and a key to the suite and jetted out of the door. Fuck the elevator, I made a beeline to the exit door. I hopped down fifteen flights of stairs, not thinking of shit but seeing her safe and cussing her ass the fuck out. That was until I got the first floor and saw there was no basement where the gym could be. I burst through the door and jogged to the front desk in front of a smiling woman of Asian descent who tried to hide how alarmed she was by my speed and stony expression.
I was out of breath, but still tweaking from anxiety when I asked, “Gym?”
With hiked cheeks and nothing else indicating her comfortability, she pointed down the hall. “Hang a right at the corner, sir.”
I took off in the empty lobby and made a right at the end of the hall. The gym windows could be seen right away. When I approached the door, a man walked out, swiping his head with a towel while looking into his phone. Inside, the place was empty…except for Tori. She was on the elliptical, moving deep and rhythmically. Sweat dripped from her drenched face. Her horsepower was something I wasn’t accustomed to seeing from a girl or woman. Tori wore her biker shorts, t-shirt from last night’s dinner, and ankle socks. She had no sneakers, likely because she didn’t pack any for this overnight trip. Her eyes were straight ahead to the wall. No music, no television. It was just Tori, the machine, and her protective head space.
I made my way over to her, stopping at her side. For too long, she wasn’t even aware of my presence, that caught up in her head.
“What the fuck are