Page 27 of With a Broken Wing
When she sucked my thumb clean, her mouth was warm and wet, and I wanted to see it wrapped around my cock. I didn’t know how I expected her to react to me running my come along her lips, but I was pleasantly surprised by her hunger for it.
The woman loved to have an attitude with me, but she had also been so timid the last few days. When her face had lit up like she was pleased with herself when I told her she did good, it was a look I wouldn’t have minded seeing again. I wasn’t lying when I told her I’d destroy her, but after hearing Jacob talk about her like he did, I wanted to. I wanted to be the only one to.
Pulling my phone from the pocket in my jacket, I opened it and pulled up my messages.
ME:Meeting was a success. We are headed to the hotel.
I watched my phone, waiting for the three dots to pop up to indicate she was responding. Part of me expected an immediate response, assuming she was bored in her room at the hotel. Then I thought about the way she’d flirted with the bartender in Sacramento. The way she giggled and called him handsome came to mind, and I became more frustrated with each passing moment. Was she with someone else now?
“That went really well, I think!” Shelby’s overly cheerful voice was like nails on a chalkboard to me today. Scott and Erin mumbled their agreement, and I looked up to find all three of them looking in my direction.
“What? Do you want a high-five?”
Three sets of eyes widened, and Erin tilted her head to the side. “Okay, what is your deal? You have been one grumpy fuck since we left the meeting. They signed on. They loved the app. Why are you being a dick?” Erin was the only one who would stick up to me in that way, and it took her almost ten years of working together to be brave enough to do so. Then for the last five years, she’d been the biggest pain in my ass.
I shot a pointed glare in her direction. “Don’t start with me, Erin.”
With a roll of her eyes, she crossed her arms and sat back in her seat. She also knew when not to push my buttons any further.
“Geez, I was just trying to be positive.” Unlike Erin, Shelby didn’t know when to stop. She dropped her voice to a mumble, barely speaking loud enough to be heard. “You don’t seem to be getting pissy with Little Miss Sunshine all of a sudden…”
I narrowed my eyes and she shut her mouth, rolling her lips between her teeth. Shaking my head, I looked back down at my phone. Still no response, but it showed the message was read. Was Andy ignoring me? I wouldn’t blame her if she was. I’d called hermygood girl, and then I told her I’d destroy her.What the fuck is wrong with me?
ME:Why are you ignoring me?
At the hotel, she still hadn’t responded to me. I tried to disregard the slight feeling of panic that had started to settle in my bones. Images of her crumpled and unconscious on the hotel floor in Sacramento flashed in my mind. What if she hadn’t eaten anything and had passed out again?
In the lobby, I headed for the bar. When she wasn’t there, I grabbed a prepackaged sandwich before making my way to the elevator. I tried to feel calm as I stepped out onto the floor with our rooms and moved down the hall to her door. With a deep breath, I knocked.
I couldn’t hear anything on the other side of the door, and I knocked again, waiting. “Andy, if you don’t open this door, I’ll have security open it for me.”
The shuffle of her steps could vaguely be heard from the other side of the door before the scraping of the metal chain lock indicated she was there. She pulled open the door, a wide smile plastered on her face, but her eyes didn’t match. They were red, and the skin around them was puffy.She had been crying.
“Oh, you guys are back! How was the meeting?” Her cheerful tone was forced, sounding more strained than it normally did.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. How was the meeting?”
“Enough,” I said, pushing the door open and stepping in. With every step I took towards her, she took one back. It was almost déjà vu. “I asked you a question.”
“I asked you one first.” She crossed her arms over her chest, and her stubborn shield came up between us.
I rubbed my hand over my face, pausing to take a deep breath. “No more bullshit. Why have you been crying?” She didn’t move when I closed the distance between us, grabbing her face in my hands and running my thumbs over her cheeks. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“It’s nothing, Demetri. Drop it.” When she spoke, she averted her gaze, looking down. “Please.”
I wanted to force her to start talking. Instead, I took a deep breath. “What did you eat today?”
She rolled her eyes, and a quiet growl escaped me. “You’re not my dad. Why do you care?”
“You’re fucking right I’m not your father. Now answer the question. What did you eat today?” When she looked away again, I took it to mean she’d had nothing and grabbed the sandwich I had discarded on the dresser by the door. I handed it to her, not pulling my hand back until she took it. “Eat it.”
Andy feigned annoyance, but the quiet grumble of her stomach betrayed her. She held the package, and when she realized I wasn’t leaving the room until she ate the sandwich, she opened it.
Her lips closed around the bread, and I felt more satisfied with each chew. A few bites in, she held the other half of the sandwich out to me. “Don’t make me eat alone?” The determined look on her face told me she wasn’t going to take no for an answer, so I grabbed the turkey sandwich from her and took a bite.
The smile she gave me made my heart skip a beat in a way that would have made me consider seeing a doctor before I’d met Andy Johannson. We ate the sandwich in a comfortable silence as the tension rolled off her shoulders. I still wanted to know what had upset her. I assumed it was me.
