Page 47 of Say You Remember Me
And before she could get too close of a look, I reached for Ian’s bicep, tucking my fingers under his arm to keep my left hand out of sight.
Because yep, apparently our little “engagement” facade was starting round two. Right now.
Fantastic.Lexi and Juliette were going to love this when I told them later.
The elevator doors opened, and the three of us stepped inside. I clung to Ian’s arm a bit tighter than necessary as hetapped his keycard on the reader and pressed the button for our floor.
Once “10” lit up, he stepped back, giving Margot room.
She tapped her card, then paused. “Oh,” she said, raising an eyebrow in surprise. “Looks like we’re on the same floor.”
Of course we were. She probably had one of the big suites, too.
Was it too much to hope we were at the opposite ends of the floor?
We were silent as the elevator began its ascent, the quiet almost amplifying the tension. But when I caught Margot peeking a glance our way, I knew I had a part to play. So trying to look as natural as possible, I leaned my head against Ian’s shoulder and just hoped she couldn’t somehow hear how fast my pulse was racing.
“Tired?” Ian mumbled into my hair, his tone warm and affectionate, perfectly in character for the moment we were trying to portray.
“Yeah,” I said softly. “I know I said I was going to take a bath earlier, but I think I’ll just head to bed.”
I was tempted to add something about him keeping me up too late the night before—just to rile Margot up—but since I probably shouldn’t say something like that to my boss, I just left it at that.
The elevator pinged when it reached our floor and the doors opened.
“Have a good night,” Ian told Margot, nodding for her to step out ahead of us.
“You, too.” She nodded curtly before exiting.
Ian and I held back, lingering just outside the elevator as we watched Margot walk down the hall. But instead of continuing to the far end of our floor like I’d hoped, she stopped at the door just across the hall from ours. And when she glanced back at usas if waiting for us to go into our rooms, I knew she was most definitely watching to see what we did next.
Had she somehow found out which room Ian would be staying in and had requested to be close by?
Because this was just way too much to be a simple coincidence.
My eyes flicked up to Ian’s, silently asking,What now?
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” he murmured, leaning close enough for me to feel the warmth of his breath on my ear, “but I think I’m going to need you to come into my room with me.”
Oh boy. This night had to be breaking all sorts of company rules.
But since Margot seemed to be taking her time at her door, digging inside her purse as if she’d lost her key, I really didn’t see another way out of this.
So, instead of stopping at my room like I had the first time we’d gone down this hall together, I followed Ian a few steps farther to his door and waited for him to unlock it.
The light on the keypad flashed green, and after taking a deep breath, I followed Ian into his hotel suite.
“Well, that was close,” Ian said, sighing heavily once his door had clicked shut.
“Close?” I looked back at him, arching a brow. “That was nearly an ambush.”
“Yeah.” Ian chuckled, his gaze meeting mine. “It does seem like that.”
“Do you think she knew where you were staying and asked for a room close by?” I voiced the question I had earlier.
“I have no idea.” He ran his fingers through his dark hair, tousling it. “We’ve literally had no contact since we broke up. So it would be strange if she did.”
“I guess so…” I bit my lip. “...unless her real motivation for coming to the conference was to meet up with you. Possibly reignite the spark you once had.”
