Page 60 of Ruthless Touch
Needing to do something while I wait for Aria to return, I get dressed and head down to my office. If there was ever a time I needed to distract myself with work, tonight’s that time.
I pass Sasha in the lobby and say nothing to her. She gives me an odd look like she can’t understand why I’m down here instead of up in the penthouse with Aria.
Neither can I.
Before I can get seated behind my desk and get lost in whatever issue the hotel has tonight, she walks into my office and glares at me. Great. Yet another woman unhappy with me.
“Why aren’t you upstairs with Aria?” she demands to know like she’s my boss and I’m here assistant and not the other way around.
“She left, so I needed something to help me pass the time until she gets back,” I answer flatly, not really sure I can say anymore than that because I’m still not understanding what happened.
Sasha, of course, doesn’t take that answer as the end of our conversation. Sitting down hard in one of the chairs in front of my desk, she continues to glare at me, except now she’s five feet closer.
“What do you mean she left? Left where?”
“Somewhere in the hotel. She was unhappy and stormed out after you left.”
Seriously, that’s all I can tell her, so if my assistant keeps pressing me for more answers, all she’s going to get are more vague statements because I don’t know anything more.
“Gideon, why was she unhappy? Did you do something after I walked out?”
Now it’s my turn to glare at her. “No. Like what could I do? I have no idea what the problem is. She yelled at me and stormed out. You women aren’t exactly easy to understand. One minute you’re perfectly fine with everything, and the next you’re crying and slamming the door as you snap at the guard outside.”
Sasha doesn’t say another word but stares at me for so long that I begin to feel uncomfortable. “What?”
“Please tell me you didn’t surprise her with what happened between the three of us. Tell me you didn’t do that, Gideon.”
The way she’s looking at me reminds me exactly of how Aria looked right before she started yelling. Clearly, I’m not seeing the problem, but there’s definitely a problem.
“I told you I was going to do that. Why are you shocked I actually did?”
She angrily pulls her eyebrows in toward her nose, frowning at me. “I told you not to do that. I stood in this very room and told you that surprising her was a bad idea. I then explicitly said to make sure you don’t spring what we were doing on her. What were you thinking?”
“That it was going to be a nice sexy night she wouldn’t forget. Isn’t that what it was supposed to be?”
The look of disgust facing me at this moment tells me I misread something along the way. Sasha shakes her head and stands from the chair, throwing her arms up in the air.
“I swear to God you’re hell bent on losing this woman, Gideon. You actually didn’t tell her before having me join you tonight. And now you’re surprised she’s angry with you? How can you be so obtuse?”
Anger and something that looks like disappointment flashes in her eyes as she snaps at me. Two women yelling at me in one night is not what I want, but like with Aria, I don’t seem to know how to make this one happy either.
“I thought she’d like it. It’s not like I left her with you. I was right there the whole time, Sasha.”
All she can do is shake her head. “No wonder she acted like she did. I thought she was doing a hard-to-get thing, but she was scared. She already thinks there’s something between us that’s making you not want to be close to her, so you pull this shit? What is wrong with you, Gideon?”
“I’ve told her over and over we aren’t together. I professed my love for her. What else could she want?” I ask, truly not understanding how things went so wrong tonight.
My assistant looks like she wants to slap me as she begins pacing back and forth across my office. “You tell her you love her, and then you bring in the one woman she’s worried is standing in the way of that love? You should have told her beforehand. She should have had a chance to say no.”
With a sigh, I confess the real reason why I didn’t tell her ahead of time. “I wanted her to enjoy herself, but I didn’t think she’d do it if I told her about it first. I never thought she’d be upset. She and I have joked about you wanting her. I thought she’d like it. Every other time we’ve done that the women I was with loved it.”
Sasha’s frown deepens. “Those women weren’t Aria. You told me that yourself. She’s crazy about you, even after everything, and you pull this stupid stunt. You’re going to be lucky if she ever utters another word to you. If you thought this was the way to make her love you back, you’re either blind or stupid. I can’t say which at this moment, to be honest.”
I stand from behind my desk as her words sink into my head. “I guess I better go find her and apologize.”
“You haven’t done that yet? Jesus Christ, Gideon! What the hell is going through your head tonight? You’re going to be lucky if she hasn’t run away from this hotel already. If she has, it’s what you deserve.”
Hanging my head, I repeat what Aria said just before she left the penthouse. “She said she hated me. I didn’t want to tell her she couldn’t walk around the hotel without a guard and go back on my word. That would have just made things worse.”