What Next?
She didn’t want to go, but the awkwardness was hitting an all-time high. “Well, I will go check on my lovely roommate and see if I am allowed to take a shower.” Could she get away with using his hospitality as an excuse to take a few steps closer to him and wrap her arms around him? She continued to run her hand absently through her hair, but he wasn’t moving toward her, so she let it go.
Crossing the room to the door, she paused and turned to look at him again. “Thanks for letting me stay here.”
The weight of his intense eyes were on her, and she realized she had his full attention, standing there in her crumpled sweatshirt, hair a mess. Cadence hoped he could overlook her disheveled appearance. He stared at her for a long moment, as if he couldn’t really think of anything to say. Licking his lips, he bit down slightly and then managed to cheerily say, “Sure. Have a great day!”
Both eyebrows raised at his ridiculous tone, Cadence giggled. “I feel like I’m leaving a shopping center.” Crimson began to creep up his neck, but once again he must’ve been struggling for words, so she shouted, “You, too!” and bounded down the hall, disappointed that nothing had happened between them, but at least she wasn’t the only one who felt awkward about the situation.
As she headed back to her room, determination set in. She might not have gotten what she’d wanted from Aaron, but she was getting back into her hotel room, one way or another.
* * *
It was 8:37 and Sebastian had not yet shown up. Aaron had been in contact with a messenger off and on all day, receiving updates on Holland and making sure the turncoat knew where to be and when to be there. They were supposed to meet early so that, by the time the nightlife (or afterlife, as the case may be) started their nightly corruption of the City of Lights, his team was well informed and ready to bring Holland down.
Lying on her bed in the room she shared with Stormy, Cadence flipped through a magazine she’d picked up while she was out shopping with Eliza. That had been torture… but at least it was over now.
All day, her mind had been on Aaron and how it had felt to have her body so close to his, his arms around her in bed.
Had she done the right thing in not trying to see if he was willing to forget what he’d told her only a few days ago about keeping their distance from each other?
Not much could be done about it now, so she tried to focus on the French magazine, ignoring Stormy, who was polishing one of her guns. She had several, more than Cadence could easily account for, and this one was a custom number Stormy said she relied on heavily. When she heard it click a few times, she had to ask, “Is that thing loaded?” watching Stormy flip it around nonchalantly.
“Always,” the Amazonian woman replied.
“Nice,” Cadence muttered. She had asked Aaron about weapons yesterday, and he assured her they had quite an arsenal and that she would be fully armed. As exciting as that seemed, she’d never even been in a simulator with more than one Glock at a time, and the idea of trolling around Paris with a couple of Berettas or a handgun strapped to every portion of her body was sounding more and more like the backstory for an episode of World’s Dumbest Criminals.
“I think we’ve got a no-show,” Aaron finally admitted at 8:45.
“The first step toward healing is admitting you’ve got a problem,” she replied. Even the sound of his voice in her head was enough to make a bolt of electricity shoot through her body.
“Sarcasm, very helpful,” he said. “We’re going to head over to Le Doll, which opens at 9:00, and see if Sabin and the girls know anything more. You want to come to the strip club with us?"
Cadence didn’t hesitate. “Strip club? You know it!”
