When Blake left the dance floor, Joanne grabbed her hands and pulled her close. “Did everything go according to plan?”
“Oh yeah,” Roxanne said. “And then some.”
Joanne’s eyes rounded. “Tell me everything!”
Roxanne giggled. “I will,” she said. “Just as soon as we put the last bit of the plan in action.”
“Right,” Joanne said. “Let’s do that.”
She grabbed Roxanne’s hand and led her off the dance floor. As they sat at the table, Blake smiled at them.
“Do you want anything to drink?” he asked Roxanne.
“As a matter of fact,” Roxanne said, “I’d love to buy a round but I left my purse in the hotel room.” She pulled the keycard out of her skirt pocket and held it out to him. “Would you mind going up to get it?”
Blake smiled as he took the key from her hand. “Not at all.” He bowed. “Your wish is my command.”
Roxanne snickered inwardly. Where had she heard that before?
When Blake left, Joanne pressed her hand to her face. Her eyes were wide as she bent over slightly, her words muffled as she spoke. “Oh my God,” she said. “I can’t believe you pulled it off!”
Roxanne grinned at her. “Oh, I pulled it off…and then some.” Her face flushed at the memory of just how much further she’d pushed her friend’s plan.
Joanne reached across the table and grasped her hand. “Tell me everything.”
“I will in a minute.” Roxanne said as a waitress approached the table. “Martini times two,” she said. She needed a stiff drink and, when she told Joanne what had taken place, Joanne would need one, too.
Still, they had to think of the example they were to set for the teens. “No olive.” She lifted a glass half filled with club soda. “In a glass like this, please.”
The waitress nodded knowingly. They’d only been there a couple days, but already the staff had learned how to mask alcoholic drinks.
Joanne tapped the table impatiently. “Tell me what happened!” she called over the loud music.
Roxanne grinned sheepishly. “I followed your instructions to the letter,” she began. “And then…”
“You got horny.” It wasn’t a question. Joanne knew her too well.
Roxanne’s face ripped into a wide grin. “Yeah, I couldn’t help myself.” She clapped her hands to her flushed cheeks. “God, Will is so damn hot!”
Joanne pressed her back against the chair and laughed. The waitress returned with their incognito drinks. Joanne lifted her martini to her lips and smiled. “So you fucked him.” Again it wasn’t a question.
Roxanne lifted her glass and gulped. She sputtered, winced and shook her head. God, she hated gin! Still, it was better than cola or club soda. “I’m not wearing underwear,” she supplied. She took another sip of her drink. “And my crotch is a sticky mess.” Another sip. “But yeah, I fucked the shit out of him.”
“Ms. Way?”
Roxanne looked up to find one of her students standing over her. “Hi, Cory,” she said, hoping he hadn’t heard what she’d just said. “What can I do for you?”
“Well, uhm,” the teen stammered. God bless him. All the girls in her class had a crush on the kid, yet he was so shy. “Would you like to dance?”
“As a matter of fact,” Roxanne said, “I’d love to.” She grinned across the table at Joanne and tipped her glass to her lips.
Dang, it was empty. How’d that happen?
As Roxanne rose from the table, she nodded to Joanne. “Order another one of these…”
Oh fuck, what was it supposed to be? Ah yes!
“Club sodas for me, will you?”
* * * *
To say that Will was fuming was putting it mildly. Roxanne had left him tied to the bed, and not just that, he’d been covered in whipped cream. And if the situation wasn’t bad enough, Blake walked into the room and almost split his gut laughing.
He hadn’t been comfortable allowing her to call the shots. But this was his sweet Rockie. Who knew she could be so fucking vengeful? The one and only time he’d allowed a woman to take charge had blown up in his face. It was a mistake he’d never make again.
When he finished with her—and he knew he would—she’d be begging to submit to his every whim. No woman, not even Rockie, would get away with making him look the fool.
And holy fuck! The look on Blake’s face when he walked into the hotel room and found him tied to the bed said it all. It had taken a lot of cajoling to get Blake to untie him.
When he was finally released, Will flew from the bed and quickly showered and dressed.
They traveled to the ground floor in silence. When the chime sang and the door opened, Will turned to Blake and offered a word of warning. “We’ll never speak of this night again,” he said.
Blake’s cheeks pinched as he attempted to keep a straight face. “Sure,” Blake agreed. “You know, it could have been a lot worse. Rockie might have sent hotel staff to her room to find you instead of me.”
Will ignored the comment. “And you’ll never repeat any of this to anyone.”
Blake grinned. “Will Sheridan bested by Rockie Way. No one would believe me anyway.”
Will’s eyes narrowed, his blood boiled. “Rockie didn’t best me. She trapped me.”
“Of course.” Blake nodded as his face reddened and his eyes gleamed. The bastard was trying not to laugh. “She trapped you. Whatever you say.”
“Good,” Will said as he started down the hall to the bar.
“Hey, Will,” Blake said. “Considering what Rockie did to you with the whipped cream and all—”
Will cut him off in midsentence. “I don’t intend to say a word about the prank to Joanne.” The similarities between what she’d done to him and what she’d suffered six years ago were not lost on Will. It was as clear as a bell. But even if he’d been tempted to tell her the truth before, Rockie’s stunt changed everything. He fully intended to exact his revenge and by God, it was going to be sweet!
* * * *
“You’re a great dancer, Ms.Way.”
“Thank you Cory. You’re a good dancer, too,” Roxanne replied. After their third dance, she was ready to go back to her table. She spied several girls from her class watching them from the sidelines of the dance floor.
When a new song began, Cory gave her a hopeful look. “Wanna go again?”
Roxanne smiled and shook her head. “Three’s my limit,” she told him. “Besides,” she nodded toward the girls watching them, “I think there are a few others who would love to dance with you.”
Cory looked over his shoulder. His face flushed. “Geez, they won’t leave me alone,” he complained.
“There’s a good reason for that. You, Cory,” Roxanne said, “are a hunk.”
The color in Cory’s cheeks deepened.
Roxanne reached up and gripped his shoulders. “Cory, just ask one of them to dance.” When the kid opened his mouth to protest, she continued. “Just be yourself and you’ll do just fine.”
Cory nodded and turned to the table of waiting girls as Roxanne made her way back to her table. As she pushed through the crowded dance floor, she stopped dead in her tracks.
Damn!
Joanne was no longer alone; Will and Blake were sitting at the table with her.
Joanne was engrossed in a conversation with her husband as Will sat across from them with his back to her. Roxanne hadn’t planned on facing Will again tonight. She hoped to tell Joanne what had happened and quickly escape the party before Will and Blake showed up.
Roxanne checked her watch. Blake had gone up to her hotel room just over half an hour ago. Will hadn’t wasted a single minute getting down to the party.
All right, gather yourself and face the music!
Roxanne braced herself and started to walk toward the table. Her heart pounded in her chest. This was not going to be pretty.
Her feet halted.
Wait!
There was another option. Joanne and Blake were deep in conversation, Will’s back was to the dance floor. She could slip away, run back to her room and bolt the door. There was no need for her to face Will at all.
The realization made her giddy with relief. Like a thief in the night, she pushed into the crowd around the hotel doors and made her escape. Once inside, she stopped to take a long breath and let it out slowly.
Dodged that bullet!
It wasn’t until she reached the elevators that she realized she’d given Blake the keycard to her room.
Shit!
She was left with two choices, go back to the beach party or beg the hotel clerk to give her another key to her room.
That was a no-brainer. She quickly walked to the lobby.
The clerk greeted her with a smile. “Can I help you?”
“As a matter of fact, you can,” Roxanne said. “I lost the key to my room.”
The clerk’s face fell. “We always give two keys.”
“Yes,” Roxanne said, “and the spare is safely tucked in my purse. And I’m afraid my purse is in my hotel room.”
“Well, do you remember where you were this evening? We’ll have to get the security staff to look for it.”
Damn, this wasn’t going to be as easy as she hoped. Best to go with a different strategy. Roxanne smiled, “God, did I say I lost it?” She ignored the clerk’s frantic nod. “I meant that I asked my friend to hold it for me and now I can’t find her.”
The clerk’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “So you didn’t lose your key, you lost the person holding the key for you?”
“Yes,” she said. “That’s right.”
“Do you have an I.D?”
Roxanne’s heart sank even deeper. “Well no, my purse is in my hotel room.”
“I’m sorry.” The bitch didn’t look sorry at all. “I can’t let you into any room in this hotel without proper identification.” The clerk lifted the phone and pressed a single number. “How about I call security to see if they can help you out?”
Roxanne backed away from the desk. “No, that won’t be necessary. I think I’ll see if I can find my friend.”
“Security will be happy to help you locate your,” she emphasized the next word, “friend.”
“That really won’t be necessary,” Roxanne said as she turned on her heel and walked blindly into what felt like a brick wall. She stepped back as she gazed up at the huge man, his face drawn into a killer frown. “I take it you’re with security.”
“This woman was trying to get into one of the hotel rooms,” the clerk said from behind. “She claims to be a guest but doesn’t have any identification.”
The guard’s frown deepened as his ham-like hand gripped Roxanne’s forearm. “Come with me, ma’am.”
“This is all a horrible mistake,” Roxanne cried as the guard propelled her away from the front desk.
Chapter 6
“Hi, guys!”
Will was engaged in an animated conversation with one of his history students when Rockie greeted them. He did a double take when he saw the security guard standing beside her. The man looked like he could cream a very pissed off
Incredible Hulk
.
Holy shit!
Exactly what had Rockie been up to after she’d left him in her hotel room?
The guard nodded at the woman whose forearm he had a firm grip on. “We caught her trying to get into a hotel room.”
“Hey,” Rockie said quickly, “I was at the front desk.”
The guard nodded. “Asking for a key to get into a hotel room,” he said.
“Well don’t make it sound like I was trying to break into a room.”
The guard ignored her comment. “The lady says she knows you.”
It would serve the bitch right to get pitched out on her ass. Since Joanne and Blake were somewhere on the crowded dance floor, it seemed his little Rockie had only him to rely on.
How sweet was that?
He turned to the kid at the table. “We’ll take this up another time, Ben.” When the kid left, Will turned his attention back to the pair standing at the table.
“Well, how ’bout it?” the guard pressed. “Do you know this woman?”
Will hesitated.
What to do? What to do?
“Come on, Will,” Rockie said impatiently. “Just tell the guy you know me.”
“Roxanne!” Joanne cried as she and Blake came back to the table. “Where the hell have you been?”
Damn!
So much for having fun with her situation.
The guard turned his attention to Joanne. “You know this woman?”
“Of course,” she said. “She’s a fellow chaperone. Is there a problem?”
The guard released his grip on Rockie. “Not anymore.”
Rockie rubbed her forearm gingerly as she took a seat at the table. She pierced him with an icy glare. “Thanks for the support,” she said sarcastically. “I thought that guy was going to chew me up and spit me out.”
Will grinned. When he was through with her, the security guard was going to seem like an abandoned kitten on a rainy day! “Always glad to be of service,” he said.
He felt a measure of gratification when Rockie’s face pinched in annoyance. He wanted to rattle her, to shake her up to the point where she’d beg him for mercy. He was just getting started.
“Where did you get to?” Joanne asked as she lifted what she claimed to be a club soda to her lips. Will was willing to bet there was a little more to the drink she tipped to her mouth. “Last I saw of you, Cory asked you to dance. You were gone forever.”