Page 44 of Masters of the Game: Colton
Wiping tears off her cheek, she stood, grabbed her briefcase, and left.
**
Colton tossed his luggage on the bed and checked his watch. Kelly should be in her hotel room by now. They had reason to celebrate later tonight, but more than anything, he wanted to see her, hold her, kiss her and make love to her. He’d only been gone a couple of days but he missed her like hell.
And he was definitely looking forward to spending a week with her at his home in Savannah. He couldn’t wait to show her the house he’d renovated. And introduce her to his parents, and all his aunts, uncles and any Masters she hadn’t met yet. They could be a little overwhelming at times, but he was sure everyone would love her.
The meeting with Lake had gone great, and he’d accepted Kelly’s recommendation as Colton had known he would. And Lake had thought it had been a stroke of genius on Kelly’s part to notice the lots that hadn’t been shown to them, and then insist on additional perks for the deal to be considered any further. In the long run, her boss move would save Masters Unlimited millions. On a conference call to her earlier today, Lake had told her what an excellent job she had done for their company.
Because Colton didn’t want Lake caught unawares when news spread around the family, he wanted Lake to know he was seeing Kelly. He told him that they had first met at the Bennetts’double wedding, and that while on their latest business trip, they’d managed to work out the issues that had kept them apart. He’d even admitted to falling in love with Kelly the first time they’d met.
Lake told him that wasn’t so hard to believe, considering he’d fallen in love with Courtney just as quickly. He was a big believer in love at first sight and was glad things had worked out for them.
After taking a shower, Colton eagerly left his room to catch the elevator to Kelly’s. They had a lot of celebrating to do.
CHAPTER 18
“Calm down, Kelly. All I’m saying is that you need to hear Colton’s side of things.”
“Calm down?” Kelly snapped as she paced the floor of her hotel room. “Monica, how can you tell me to calm down? You know how much time and energy I put into KP Consulting to make it what it is today. Now, because of Colton, my company could lose all credibility. I earned every contract I’ve ever gotten and never slept with anyone to get it.”
“And you didn’t sleep with Colton before you were hired.”
“But if he made sure I was hired just so he’d have the chance to sleep with me, that’s even worse.”
“But didn’t he say that whatever the two of you did after hours was nobody’s business? And for the record, he’s right.”
“You’re missing the point, Monica. His employees assume the only reason my agency was hired was because he wanted to get me into bed. Stupid me, I thought it was because my agency was the best one for the job.”
“And it was. Why are you allowing two gossiping women to upset you so much?”
Kelly dropped down on the sofa. “Because I love him, Monica, and it hurts knowing I might have been nothing more than a pawn in some game he was playing. Colton made it clear from the first that he wanted more than a one-night stand with me. I told him I didn’t have the time for more, so what does he do? He manipulates things to make sure I have time for more.”
“You don’t know that he did that, Kelly. The two of you need to talk and straighten this out.”
Before Kelly could respond, there was a knock on the hotel room door. She had a feeling it was Colton. He was due to return from Orlando this evening, which made the timing about right. She had known every time he’d called and had refused to answer it.
Standing, she said, “I think Colton’s at the door.”
“Please give him the chance to explain, Kelly.”
Unsure of whether or not she would follow her sister’s advice, she simply said, “I’ll talk to you later, Monica.”
**
Colton knew something was wrong the moment Kelly opened the door. She seemed angry about something. “Kelly? What’s wrong?” he asked.
Instead of answering, she moved aside to let him in and then closed the door behind him.
“Did you receive another call from your dad?” he asked.
When she didn’t say anything, but just stood there with her back against the door, he reached out to pull her into his arms, but stopped when she snapped, “Don’t touch me, Colton.”
Taken by surprise by her words and the tone in which she’d said them, he stepped back. The look on her face went from angry to furious. “I want to know what’s wrong, Kelly.”
She moved away from the door and around him as if to put distance between them. “What’s wrong is that your employees are spreading lies about me and discrediting my agency.”
“What are you talking about?”
