I grabbed the card and the bag and went back outside and damn near had to shake Dex out of his skin.
“Dex. You have to come in. They won’t run your card without you standing there.”
He groaned. “Nique just tell ’em—”
“I did. The uppity bitch got sassy with me about their policy. Come on, I’m tired too and my head is killing me.”
He hauled himself out of the truck moving like a man walking through deep water. I guided him through the lobby doors and back to the desk. He didn’t even look at the clerk. He just leaned his elbow on the marble counter to keep himself upright and dropped his ID next to the card.
“She’s with me,” he said, his voice thick with exhaustion.
The clerk processed everything without another word and slid two key cards across the counter.
There was no way I was letting him drive back to Point Clear like this. He’d never make it across the Causeway.
“Give me your keys,” I said.
He dropped the fob into my palm without question. I stepped outside, handed them to the valet under the Nash reservation, and went back in to collect him. I got his arm over my shoulder and walked him to the elevator.
“You’re spending the night,” I said as the gold doors slid closed. “You are too far gone to be on that road and I’m not having your death on my conscience too. I already carry enough of that.”
He didn’t argue. He just leaned into me, his heat radiating through my clothes, and followed me down the hall like he had nowhere else to be and no energy left to pretend otherwise.
When the room door swung open the first thing I saw was the king bed, white linens crisp and untouched under the soft lamps. My pulse spiked.
“Maybe I should go back down and ask if they have two queens,” I said mostly to myself.
Dex didn’t hear me. He kicked off his shoes, groaned, and dropped face first onto the mattress. His breathing went deep and steady within seconds.
My head was throbbing too hard to think about moving two hundred pounds of sleeping man. I went into the bathroom and scrubbed the night off my skin, wincing at the hotel soap. I was used to my own products but I thanked God for the complimentary toothbrush.
I slid into the thick robe, climbed into the far edge of the bed, and lay there staring at the ceiling. My mind was loud with Stellaand Nel and Kel and the ghost of Prez cycling through on a loop. I wished I had whatever Dex took just to shut it all down.
A few minutes later he shifted in his sleep and threw a heavy warm arm over my waist, pulling me back against his chest without knowing he was doing it.
The noise stopped. Just like that.
The smell of him and the slow steady rhythm of his heartbeat did what nothing else had been able to do all night. My eyes got heavy and my body finally gave up the fight it had been losing since this whole disaster of a day started.
Chapter ten
Salvage
My iPhone alarm cut through the air like a siren, vibrating against the nightstand and rattling my brain. I groaned, my arm feeling like dead weight as I fumbled to kill the noise. The room was still pitch black and my body desperately wanted more rest. Between the sleeping pills and the short night I felt like I’d been hit by a freight train.
I mindlessly rolled back over and was met with a face full of curls and the scent of lavender. Nique’s body heat was so comforting that the thought of getting up became depressing. My morning wood was pressed right against the small of herback, poking her through my joggers. Being that close to her took me from wood to brick in seconds.
My hand was resting just above her hip, close enough to feel the warmth coming off her thighs. I wanted to slide it under her robe so bad to see if she was as wet as I was hard.
I shifted, grinding into her just a little to see what she was gonna do.
“Dex, please get your little ass dick off my ass,” she mumbled, her voice all scratchy from sleep.
I let out a low dry chuckle against her neck. “It’s little?”
I didn’t back off. I pressed into her harder, letting her feel exactly how much she was bothering me. A soft whimper broke out of her that made a nigga want to lose his mind. Before I got carried away she shoved me back.
“Stop,” she groaned, rubbing her temples. “My head hurts too damn bad for this.”