The blasting sound of the music woke him up, and he hissed outwardly. He thought he could escape everything and do the best with his stay in Florida before everything becomes alright with his plane and who the hell was this trying to take his right away from him? He had run away from the nagging of his Mother and their usual fights with his Father, why couldn’t he enjoy a few days of solitude to himself.
He groaned and blocked his ears, but the music didn’t stop, and Jack wondered what he would do. He sat upright on the bed and took off the sleeping shade he had always worn. He knew it always irked his sister whenever she came to wake him up and she found out that he was still wearing his sleeping shades and that always got him a smack on his laps or sometimes a knock on his head. And since she got married, no one was there to disturb him anymore. He smiled and remembered that he had seen her missed call before he turned his phone off because he didn’t want his Mother to keep on calling and asking when he would be back because she had a party to attend which she would love it if he went there with her for security, obviously and also to showcase him to her friend’s daughters. And yes, the shopping malls. There was a new designer bag that was released, and they had a luncheon with her friends which she would love to wear to that, and she didn’t want the driver to take her to the mall because she wants someone to snap a picture of her while she shopped.
The music came even louder than while he slept and when he stared up at the wall clock, it was only a few minutes past nine. He hadn’t gotten enough sleep yesterday because of that girl. He didn’t know why whenever he got kicked in the balls it pained him so much that he wished he could have his life hibernated for a while and even after a few hours, he couldn’t walk straight. He hissed when her thought crossed his mind, crazy fiery girl, he would have to teach her some lessons, surely.
He had to go back to sleep, but first whoever the person with the music was, had to turn the volume down or switch it off. He got into his pants and the shirt he had bought yesterday in the evening before he walked out of his suite and the suite opposite him was where the music was coming from. He briskly combed his fingers through his hair to look as presentable as possible. He knocked on the door and waited.
A few minutes passed but it seemed as though his knock had gone unheard due to the blasting music in the room. He knocked again, this time with a higher intensity and he heard as the music went low and there was a sound of someone shuffling through the room. He waited patiently as he tapped his feet on the floor, and when the door got opened, it was a woman in towel. At least that was what he could say from her feet up until he reached her face.
“How may I help you?” She couldn’t hide her surprise just like his anger came back even more dangerously than he felt it yesterday at night. So, it happened that he was stuck with this lady and god was giving him more chances to teach her the lesson he should’ve thought her since in the airport. His balls twitched with pain, and it reminded him of what had transpired between them and how much he had to make sure she would never ever try to do that to another man, not to even talk of himself.
She was about to close the door on his face when he put his hand and stopped her, she was trying to use her force when he showed her who the most powerful was amongst them and he roughly pulled her away and got himself into the suite. It was a beautiful one, exactly like his. She gulped down a lump in her throat and he realized how scared he must have made her feel. And not just being scared, he wanted to make her regret doing what she did to him.
He moved toward her, and she strode backward, “What the hell do you think you’re trying to do? How could you get into my suite uninvited and try to act as indecent as this?!” She put her hands on her waist, and with her height and the way she had pulled her hair up, probably styling it, she looked like an angry bird, or better, a mug that had two handles.
“All thanks to your stupidity, I was awakened by the loud music that couldn’t let me rest. Who would put on a music with such volume in a hotel knowing so well it isn’t your house? Are you as uncivilized as this? Who the hell cared about how happy you are or whatever the hell is your reason for doing such a barbaric act?” He watched as she curled her fist and that made him chuckle, “What? Are you planning on punching my stomach now instead of my balls? Do you think that you might actually regret doing what you did to me yesterday?”
Anna didn’t know who this man thought he was or what gave him the right to be acting as though he owned everything and everyone in the world. She had met arrogant and annoying guys in her 22 years of life, but none of them had come even close to how annoying this guy was. She closed her eyes exasperatedly and when she looked back at him, all the fear that she had once accommodated on her face vanished and she didn’t care that she was only in a towel. He could kill her for all she cared, for she was sure he would end his life in a jail or better, murdered. Her Mother will make sure of that.
“Get the hell out of my suite unless you want me to do something that will make you regret ever knocking on my damn door for the rest of your life, Jack!” Damn it, why would she call out his name? He would think that he was somewhat important for her to know his name this much. He took a step toward her and she furiously pointed at the door for him, “Get the hell out of this room!” She thundered and instead of him to do what she ordered, he roughly pulled her arm that if she hadn’t firmly held the end of her towel with her other arm, her towel would’ve now been on the floor.
“Do you have an idea what you are doing? Let go of me!”
“I dare you to make me do that, and don’t even think of doing what you did yesterday because, miss, I’ll make sure you regret doing that for the rest of your miserable life as well.” His voice wasn’t just threatening but it sounded as something he could actually do. But she knew she wasn’t going to fail on this fight, she had until the end.
“What do you think that will be? The worst that will happen will be you killing me, isn’t it? And I’m quite sure that if you make that mistake, rather for it to be something I’d regret for the rest of my life, it will be something you wouldn’t even get to live to regret yourself. Get your hand off me and get the freak out of my room!” She sounded enigmatic that he had to stare at her twice, she was fuming. And whatever gave this girl the confidence she had was surely something sturdy.
He squeezed her arm, and he was aware that he was hurting her, but she didn’t even flick her eyes off him, her eyes were firmly held into his that he wondered if she was affected with the look in his eyes like he was of hers. “Do your freaking worst!” He bended her arm in a way that with another swift move, he might hear the crack that would declare her hand broken, but he wouldn’t go as far as doing that.
“Let go of my arm, Jack. Damnit, you’re hurting me!” Tears began to accumulate in her eyes, and she hated herself for being too clumsy.
“Has it ever occurred to you that hurting you is exactly what I want to do? Do your worst if you could.”
He didn’t realize she was holding her phone in one hand until he heard her whimpering voice as it uttered, “Is this the reception? This is Anna Brayden; can you please send some security to my room? Someone is harassing me here, he might be a…” the tight squeeze he gave her arm was what gave forced her to end the call and she looked at him with pain in her eyes, forcing her tears out to her cheeks.
“Might be a what?!” He questioned and flung away her arm. “Harassing you? Really? How could you stoop this low just because you think you being a woman gave you lots of opportunities? Oh, just because you’re in this flimsy towel you thought I could be enticed enough to harass you? I’ve always thought you’re an idiot, but it seems you’re so stupid to have known a woman that’s capable of enticing a man to the point he would sexually harass and not. And you, Miss, isn’t that type of woman. It’s such a pity to any man that would look at you twice even.” He hissed loudly and he was sure his words hurt her more than the squeeze of her arm and the evident paleness of where his wrist held on her porcelain skin.
She scoffed and when she lifted her face up to hold up her stoic expression, she was certain her weakness came through. “How dumb must you have been? Did you hear me say out the word ‘sexual harassment?’ Or perhaps you didn’t know the meaning of harassment?” That hit home, he looked taken aback by his own assumption. “Oh, I’m sorry for assuming that you’re educated enough, my bad. Now,” she pointed at the door, the anger on her face fierce enough to break through an army barrier, “Get the freak out of my room before I get you arrested for harassing a woman, not sexually though.” There was taunt in her voice and that pushed him in wanting to strangle her throat until she could never speak back to a man the way she did to him, but he knew that the security would be there any minute and the last thing he wanted was for their HR to get an email about a police case regarding him. He took a step back with aplomb.
And before he turned the doorknob to get himself out of the room, his voice that was clouded with so much anger uttered, “Don’t think this is over here, I’ll have to make sure you regret doing this.”
“And I’ll get you sacked and hire you as my bodyguard if you do that. I told you, being a bodyguard will actually look nice on you, all this false and boyish anger wouldn’t be a waste if you’re one.” Controlling himself was hard, she was aware of that, and when he banged the door behind him, she heaved a huge breath she didn’t know she was holding and slumped on the sofa behind her. What an escape. What just happened or nearly happened?
Her warm and sweaty arm moved over the place his palm had left a mark on her arm and wished she could strangle him for doing such to her skin. She had wanted to put on an armless shirt to go and see Nate, but then that wouldn’t be possible because she was sure the mark wouldn’t leave her skin until tomorrow. She hissed again and when another knock came, she knew it was the security men.
She moved to the door and unlocked it, “Are you alright, Ma’am? We got a call from the reception.”
She nodded her head and tried to plaster a smile on her lips, “Oh yes, it was a mere misunderstanding that had already been settled now, thank you for checking up.” They both nodded their heads and after flashing her an indecisive look and trying to peer at her suite, they left.
She walked back into the suite wondering on what to wear now and also why in the whole world did she cover that up for that stupid Jack. He might actually be arrested for this.