Realizing she only had fifteen minutes to finish getting ready and get her ass downstairs, she hurried to rinse out the shampoo. Scarlett had just squeezed a blob into the palm of her hand when a knock sounded from the room’s main door.
Her heart gave a hard thud. Was he early? And if that was him, why had he come to her room and not texted and waited downstairs as planned?
It wasn’t like the man had sounded too keen on coming here to meet with her in the first place. Even now, as she recalled their phone conversation the previous night, Scarlett could almost hear the mistrust and suspicion in Oliver Garcia’s deep, sexy?—
Nope. Absolutely not.
His voice hadnotsounded sexy in the least.
It wouldn’t matter if it had. She was here to find her sister, not romanticize some stranger she’d never met simply from the sound of his voice. Not even if the sound made her think of all sorts of sensual, naughty things.
Holding back a frustrated growl, Scarlett rinsed the perfectly good conditioner off her hand, not bothering to watch it run down the drain. Scarlett tried to remind herself there could be all sorts of plausible reasons why Rose’s friend hadn’t waited downstairs.
Something like, say…a fire. Yeah, that could be it. Maybe he got here early, but now there’s a fire, and…the hotel’s smoke alarms aren’t working. But since he knows she’s still up here, he raced up the stairs to get to her and?—
This ain’t fiction, Scar. In real life, a man you don’t know isn’t going to risk his life to protect yours.
Scarlett rolled her eyes at her inner voice, but smiled at the ridiculous turns her imagination sometimes took. Wringing out most of the water from her hair, she pushed the white curtain open and reached for the nearest towel before engaging in a record-breaking pat-down.
With the now-damp towel wrapped snuggly around her body—and water still dripping from her hair—she padded swiftly across the cool tile floor. Her footfalls grew silent as the soles ofher feet met the carpet. She reached her hotel room door and stopped.
Lifting onto her bare tiptoes, Scarlett peered through the tiny peephole to get her first look at the man who supposedly knew her sister better than anyone. Only when she looked through the slightly distorted lens, Scarlett realized…
There wasn’t anyone there.
Frowning, she looked a second time. But like before, all she saw was the empty, carpeted space between her room and the one directly across the hall.
She flipped the safety bar free and pushed the door handle down. With a careful pull, she opened the door just enough to be able to peek her head out of the room.
Looking left, Scarlett could easily see the widened section that housed the floor’s two elevators. Positioned on the wall across from them were two fancy-looking chairs separated by a long, narrow accent table.
Centered on top was a large ceramic vase filled with a beautiful array of what she assumed were silk flowers. Mounted on the wall behind the table was a massive, rectangular mirror.
Her view to the right was less than impressive.
All Scarlett could really see was the door to the room next to hers and…a wall. A partial wall that jutted out where the hallway made a sharp turn before continuing in that same direction.
The knocking must have come from someone else’s door.
She released a frustrated sigh and shut the door. After securing the metal bar back into place, she rushed back into the bathroom and into her awaiting shower.
Goosebumps covered Scarlett’s pale skin as her chilled body readjusted to the warmth of the water. Moving even faster than before, she raced to rake the conditioner through her long hair, spending precious seconds she didn’t really have to give some special attention to her ends.
Less than a handful of minutes later, her body was washed, and her legs and other important parts had been shaved. Scarlett was starting to feel a bit more optimistic about being able to get herself ready in time. But just as the last of the conditioner was washed away…
There was another knock. Harder than before. Louder. And it had definitely come fromherdoor.
Confident someone was out there this time, she shoved the curtain open once more. For the second time in a few minutes, Scarlett raced to get somewhat dry before donning the towel and walking back to the door.
She rose up, looked out the peephole, and…nothing.
What the…
That bar was flipped again, and the door was pulled open. Scarlett looked out, absolutelycertainshe’d heard it that time. But just like before, all she saw was an empty?—
Hushed laughter reached her ears a second before she heard someone running. Scarlett swung her gaze to the right, the direction from which the sound came, but the jutted wall made it impossible to see more than a few feet of that section of hallway.
Even so, Scarlett didn’t need a clear line of sight to understand what was happening. The shadows she’d seen moving on the carpet near the wall’s edge were enough.