Stormy Weather (11 page)

Tomorrow morning, he would get the money he needed to pay for the room and then leave. There had to be another place closer to town for him to stay. He couldn’t continue staying here, not with Rachelle upset with him.

She had actually walked away from him without looking back in his direction. She acted like he wasn’t even in the room with her, which concerned him. Now, he might have lost the opportunity to see how their future might have been because he had allowed Akisha to get underneath his skin.

He’d never worried about other people’s wants or needs, he learned to bury that trait after becoming a tabloid TV reporter. Cash made sure he never got too involved with others or worried about what they wanted from him. He only focused on the life he wanted to live and what he wanted to do.

He approached life as his own personal mission, whatever he did to further his own agenda stayed in his direct line of sight. This made him incredibly impatient. He usually got what he wanted right then and there, so Rachelle not coming to see him wasn’t something he was used to dealing with.

Thinking she could show up later pushed him to leave his room to find her so he could make her listen to him. She didn’t understand what he was trying to tell her earlier. He wasn’t saying he wanted to end anything between the two of them, but she didn’t give him the chance to finish telling her how he was feeling.

“Shit,” Cash cursed, running his fingers through his hair. He couldn’t handle much more of this. He felt so torn up inside.

Why was this happening to him at this time in his life?

Wasn’t he supposed to use this vacation to put an end to one chapter? How was it possible for him to jump headfirst into a relationship with Rachelle?

Wait, could what they were doing even be considered a relationship?

In the past, he had constantly gravitated towards people with passionate, challenging, and powerful personalities. Rachelle’s unabashed confidence intrigued him after their initial conversation and kept him downstairs in the lobby with her.

How could he not be drawn towards such a beautiful, smart, and sexy woman?

Nothing else mattered to him tonight but Rachelle showing up. She was making him risk something he had never done before…the unknown. For the past several years, he had grown too predictable with his everyday schedules. It had become too safe and planned out.

The routine was starting to stifle his creative nature and he was becoming unhappy. Coming here and meeting Rachelle had given him back his zest for being creative. He would tell her all of this if she just would show up.

Glancing at the door, Cash wished Rachelle was on the other side but he knew she wasn’t. So, he might as well take a shower and get ready for bed. He had a lot to take care of in the morning. Turning around, he headed for the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

****

A cold lump of anxiety lodged in Rachelle’s throat as she stood outside Cash’s door. She wondered if she was making the right decision by even being here this late at night. She had been in her room and planned on staying there after the way they had left things earlier.

She wasn’t planning on coming to see him, but she thought about it for a while and changed her mind. She just couldn’t blow him off without hearing what he had to tell her. She had been the one who left without hearing his side of the story. She jumped to her own conclusions.

Cash came into her life tonight like a tornado, stirring up so many emotions inside of her. She wasn’t used to being pulled in two different directions. Tonight’s events came totally unexpected for her but, as crazy as it sounded, she liked this rollercoaster ride with Cash. She was so used to having her feet planted firmly on the ground that it felt beyond good to be a bad girl for the night.

More often than she cared to admit to herself or anyone else, she stayed too busy taking care of
Luxury
and worrying about her sisters. She had never given much consideration to having a love life, especially not with someone as handsome as Cash. He captured her interest the instant she saw him standing at the check-in desk, waiting for someone to help him.

In that very second, she fought down the need to not become Akisha or Genise and shamelessly flirt with him. Instead, she took a deep breath, then acted unruffled and composed like he was just another guest, not some gorgeous man who was making her pulse race a hundred miles a minute.

Rachelle raised her hand to knock, but she couldn’t go through with it. Something was holding her back. Could she leave things like they were or did she want to hear Cash out? He had sounded so insistent when she walked away from him, like he really wanted to tell her more, but stopped because she had blew him off out of anger.

No, she wasn’t going to make another mistake by falling for whatever he was trying to sell her. Akisha and her sisters were right, she couldn’t let herself get caught up a man she barely knew from Adam. Every time she watched a talk show she would laugh at the one female who swore she would marry her husband the second she saw him in a crowded room. The comment came off as so cliché. People didn’t fall for a stranger that easily, it just didn’t make any sense.

Yet, here she was standing outside Cash’s door debating if she wanted to knock or walk away. Why was something so simple coming off as so hard? She had to make a decision or she might end up standing here the rest of the night fighting between her common sense and going with the less traveled road.

As she raised her hand to knock, the door suddenly swung open and her eyes locked with Cash’s, but quickly slid down to the towel wrapped around his lean waist. The sight of his bare chest was hypnotic.

“Rachelle, you came,” he said, smiling at her. “I was hoping if I opened the door you would be standing here. You had me a little worried when I went to take a shower.”

She took another glance at his smooth stomach before looking back into his eyes. She couldn’t miss the simmering desire there, but she held back from acting on her own. Cash wanted to talk and that is what she came to his room to do—nothing else was going to happen between them.

“Yes, I came,” she answered. “I think we need to talk. I was going to leave but I changed my mind,” she said, dropping her hand.

“You’re right,” he agreed. “We really need to finish our conversation. I think you misunderstood what I was trying to tell you after your sister left. Come on in.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her into his room, closing the door behind them.

“I hope you will listen to me before you make any more judgments.”

The mere touch of hand was making her skin tingle, showing her how long it had been since she had been with a man.

Stop it
! she scolded herself. She hadn’t come here to have sex with Cash.

Letting go of her, Cash ran his hands down her arms and then moved away from her. “Why don’t you have a seat on the bed while I go back into the bathroom and get dressed?” he suggested.

“Alright,” Rachelle said, walking over to the bed. She took a seat on the edge and watched while Cash spun and hurried back into the bathroom. She was nervous about what he was going to tell her, but she wanted to hear what he had to say. It only made sense she learned more about him. Five minutes later she heard the door open behind her. She turned around on the bed and stared as Cash pulled down a t-shirt over a pair of gray sweatpants.

Walking around her, he took a seat in a chair next to the window. He leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees and fingers folded between his muscular thighs. “I have so much to tell you,” he said.

“What do you have to tell me?” Rachelle asked. “I do want to know more about your life. You have to understand all of this is new to me as well. I’m not used to being this attracted to a man after one meeting. It’s a little scary and exciting all at the same time.”

“I shouldn’t have been so quick to push you away, but your sister did make me think about some things after she left us alone. First, I should tell you more about me. You have asked me more than once, but I keep avoiding the topic,” Cash said.

“It’s not that I’m trying to hide anything from you. It’s just there isn’t much to tell about me. I’m a pretty simple guy with an okay life, nothing to really brag about to be honest with you.”

She wasn’t about to believe what Cash was telling her for a minute. His life wasn’t as dull as he was pretending it to be. This was her chance to find out more about him and she was going to take it.

“Didn’t you tell me you were a reporter? What made you decide on that profession? It sounds very fascinating to me. Have you interviewed any famous people or are you more on a local news man in your hometown? If I was to Google you, would I find out any information about you on the Internet?”

****

Why did Rachelle ask the questions he was trying hardest to avoid? Cash knew this was going to happen sooner or later. He still wasn’t ready to dive into his career yet, but she had just tossed it out there.

So, what was he supposed to do? He couldn’t pretend like she hadn’t asked him a question directly. He told her to come to his room and he couldn’t back out now. She kept up her end, so he would do the same for her.

He always got asked these same questions every single time anyone new in his life found out about this job. He never wanted to answer them, but they kept coming. Yet, when he gave honest answers people gave him looks of disgust like he was absolutely the worst person in the world because he was getting paid to report the juicy gossip about the Kims and Kanyes of the world and other celebrities who liked being in the spotlight.

His most recent television shows weren’t anything he would proudly brag about, especially to a woman like Rachelle. She came across as good with a sweet personality that could draw anyone to her. She might not like how he earned his paycheck. He would hate to see the light leave her eyes once the words were out of his mouth.

His coworkers, along with other members of the paparazzi, weren’t getting the best of attention over the several few weeks. Not with celebrities banding together to punish all of them for taking pictures of their children.

Every day another bad story about celebrity reporters hit the newspapers and amateur gossip sites. He wasn’t as bad as most of them, but he wasn’t squeaky clean either.

He couldn’t tell which way Rachelle would lean when it came to this. He should be honest with her, but what if the truth cost him someone that could possibly be a changing factor in his life?

“I wouldn’t call myself a local news reporter, but I do report the news in a way,” Cash answered, wondering would his answer be enough. “I really don’t want to say anything else about it. I have talked about a few celebrities here and there over the years, but that’s about it.”

“I can’t believe that is all you have to tell me. You’re a reporter. I know you have done something more exciting than what you’re telling me,” Rachelle said, looking at him. “Come on. I told you about my crazy sisters. God, you even got to meet one of them tonight and you survived Akisha’s interrogation.

“I know you can give me a little bit of information about you. If what you told my sister was the truth then you’re going to have to open up more than you are right now. I like you a lot and want to know about you, so what else do you have to tell me?”

Her beautiful eyes held his as she continued talking. “I wasn’t that open with my ex-boyfriends in my past because I didn’t feel a connection to any of them like I do with you. Please don’t make me regret my decision to come here by not opening up more.”

Cash felt like if he did as Rachelle wanted he would push her away. He couldn’t let that happen, so he would rather keep quiet until he was sure she wouldn’t judge him too harshly. “I’ll tell you later. I promise.”

“No, it will be now or I’ll leave,” Rachelle said with a feistiness he hadn’t heard before. “I won’t keep going around in circles with you over this. Yes, we haven’t been around each other for that long. However, I know you feel the same spark as me when we are in the room together. Why would you want to lose that over not revealing more of yourself to me? All I asked about was your job. What are you hiding from me? I know it can’t be that bad, or is it?”

Cash didn’t want to lose Rachelle, so he pushed ahead. She was bound to find out sooner or later, and maybe he was making a bigger deal than it really was. “I fell into it by accident after not landing a job as a regular television news anchor like I hoped for after college.

“After the disappointment of not getting hired to report the nightly news, I knew I had to pay the bills so I started working odd jobs here and there. I was about to give up completely at getting hired for my dream job until I saw a small article in the newspaper.

“A top rated syndicated news program called
The News
where I lived in California was looking to hire a new reporter. I didn’t waste anything getting a resume emailed to them, and within a month I was working for them. I did quite well for a few years, but then my ratings started getting low. So, the producers of my show came to me with a new idea. They wanted me to change the direction of my show to draw more viewers.”

“Okay, what’s so bad about your bosses wanting to change the direction of your show?” Rachelle asked. “I think it’s great they wanted to keep you and decided to find a way to do it instead of firing you or replacing you with someone younger. Why would you be ashamed to tell me about it? They noticed you have a gift and your employers wanted you to use it every day. What is so wrong about that?”

Getting out of his seat, Cash came across the room and sat next to Rachelle on the bed. He watched her for a second or two, feeling emotions of anticipation and dread. He was usually good at reading people, but he couldn’t gauge what her reaction would be when he told her the rest of his story. The longer it took for him to answer Rachelle’s simple question made the silence lengthen between them, making him even more uncomfortable.