Page 35 of Culinary Chaos (Hotel Bombshell #1)

Chapter

Twenty-Six

A ngelica walked through the main lobby, pausing suddenly when her eyes lit upon Tatum. He didn’t look well. Not unwell, but he looked stressed. In a way she hadn’t seen before. She’d stayed longer than normal at the wrap party, and she hadn’t even seen Tatum slip out of the room.

But now, she couldn’t stop herself.

“Tatum?” Angelica said loud enough to catch his attention.

When his eyes locked on hers, she knew the devastation was true.

“What’s wrong?”

Tatum shook his head, but there were tears in his eyes. Something she rarely saw in a man. Walking closer and softening her step, Angelica decided to pry whatever it was out of him. Tatum nodded his head toward the back garden.

“Outside.”

She followed him, curious and decided at the same time. She was going to help him through this, whatever this was. He sat down on the bench that was quickly becoming one of Angelica’s favorite spots, and she mimicked him.

“Dad called this morning.” Tatum swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I didn’t want to ruin the party, and I couldn’t fake it any longer. I don’t know how you do it.”

“Practice,” Angelica said, her lips pulling into a tight smile. “It’s not something I’d recommend, however. What did your father say?”

“The treatment plan isn’t working.” Tatum rubbed his hands across his cheeks and through his hair. He dropped his chin and stared at the ground, elbows on his knees and tears streaming down his cheeks. “There’s another one they want to try.”

“Tatum…” Angelica reached over and touched his shoulder lightly, rubbing a circle. Her heart was shattering just watching him go through this. She’d been witness to so many people over the years dealing with similar situations, and it was never easy. “I’m so sorry.”

“We’re going to have to talk about selling the hotel to fund it, but also because this isn’t my passion.”

He had fooled her on that at least. She’d thought he’d found a love here that he hadn’t had elsewhere, because he seemed to enjoy it so much. Still, she understood. Running a business like this when the heart of it was no longer around was more difficult than anyone could anticipate.

“I can’t do this on my own.”

Angelica stayed silent. She could help him.

She could offer assistance, but she wasn’t sure he’d take it, and she wasn’t sure that he’d be open to the idea.

Still, it felt right in this moment. Angelica shifted on the bench, her shoulders tightening as she was about to make a leap that she normally wouldn’t.

“I can help with running the hotel if that’s what you need. Temporarily. Until your parents are back or even until they decide on what they want next. If you just need a stopgap for a few months or even a year, I’m more than willing to step in and assist.”

Tatum furrowed his brow, turning his head and looking up at her. “What do you mean?”

“I manage hotels all over the country, Tatum. I don’t own them. I can help you run this one, give you and your parents a break. If that’s what you want.”

“Really?” His eyes lit up.

“Yes. And I wouldn’t change anything, either.

” She’d seen enough of the hotel to know that even if she did make changes, they would be minor.

Overall, everything here ran fairly well.

She’d just supply him with a hotel manager on a temporary assignment and then she’d give it back over to him when he was ready.

“Family is important, and you shouldn’t have to worry about paying the bills when you also need to worry about taking care of your parents. ”

“Ms. Shields…” Tatum’s jaw dropped. “I’ll have to talk to my parents about it, but honestly, even if it’s just for a few months so I can be in Denver instead of here, that’d be amazing.”

“Talk to them and call me. It’s the least I can do.” She licked her lips and flicked her gaze toward the door. “I need to get ready to leave.”

“Leave?” Tatum frowned at her.

“Because I was sick I had to cancel a trip to Los Angeles for some interviews. I have a few days before our next shoot, so I’m leaving early to get that done.” Angelica smiled at him, genuinely. “Call me and let me know. And if you don’t, then I’ll be calling you.”

She touched his shoulder lightly again and stood up. She didn’t like leaving him so disheveled like that, but she also wasn’t sure that she could stay there and comfort him any longer. She wasn’t someone who did that on a regular basis, and it took a whole lot out of her.

Once she was alone in her room, Angelica pressed her back to the door and closed her eyes.

She never would have thought she’d make an offer like that to anyone.

But something about this place—it was magical.

And if she could stay connected to it, then she would.

She finished packing up her things and then put her hands on her hips as she stared at the bed.

Hope’s trill of a laugh echoed in the hallway, and Angelica pursed her lips. She wanted to see what she was laughing at, she wanted to know what could bring that joy to Hope. But she didn’t move. Hope laughed again.

Angelica closed her eyes, breathing in the sound, the lightness, the happiness. They’d had that for a few brief moments when they’d snuck out late at night to walk downtown and dance. God, she couldn’t believe that Hope had convinced her to do that. But it had felt so good.

Biting her lip, Angelica stared at the rumpled bed.

“Fuck it.”

She sat on the edge of the mattress and unzipped her shoes, dropping them onto the floor.

She had thirty minutes and that was it until the car came to drive her back to the airport.

It’d been months since a woman had touched her, and it had been months since she’d touched herself.

Between all of the stress and moving pieces of her life, she hadn’t even thought of it.

But the magic of Mountain View, the ease of this episode, she was actually able to think about it again. She undid the button on her slacks and pulled them down over her hips, just to her thighs. She didn’t have time for anything else.

Angelica wasted no time, sliding two fingers against her pussy, touching and testing to see where she was at. She was already wet, which was a surprise. Angelica pulled her fingers up and sighed, her eyelids fluttering shut. She needed this. She shouldn’t have waited so long.

Angelica pressed two fingers inside herself.

They were instantly coated, and as soon as she was filled, she had to bite back a little moan.

She focused her attention back on the door and listened, trying to figure out where Hope had gone, but then she shook that thought from her head.

Leanne would be a much better option to imagine.

She and Leanne had a wild sex life, one that was fulfilling in so many ways.

Leanne would touch her confidently, controlled.

She loved to dominate in the bedroom, and Angelica was all there for letting her do that.

Sliding her fingers deeper inside herself, Angelica imagined Leanne’s face.

The curve of her cheeks, the rosy hue that would take over when they were in the middle of fucking, the brightness of her dark brown eyes, the strands of hair that always seemed to escape the tie holding them.

The way her lips would quirk up when she knew she was being devious and teasing Angelica until she’d whine through her annoyance.

Slowing her breathing, Angelica focused on the sensations rolling through her with the slide of her thumb across her clit.

The pleasure was slow at first, a gentle tease of her body back to where she should have been well before now.

She shouldn’t have waited so long to do this.

She knew better. She was a happier person when she wasn’t so pent up with tension and stress, and this was one of the best ways to relieve that.

Angelica licked her lips, imagining Leanne’s flavor against her mouth, perhaps after she’d just fucked her until she screamed.

Hope’s voice hit her ears again. “We should do it again!”

Angelica winced.

God, she must be right outside the door.

Every fiber of her being was tuned in to what Hope was doing and saying, what she might be looking like.

The smile on her face. The crinkles by her mouth and her eyes.

The brightness in her energy that went with her everywhere.

The way her eyes lit up when she was flirting, so intentional with each phrase she used. Angelica gasped.

She kept the pace of her fingers gentle and slow.

She didn’t want to rush this. She resisted thoughts of Hope, trying to force her brain back to Leanne, back to their last encounter before everything had shattered around them.

When it had been fun, when they’d enjoyed plying each other’s bodies with pleasure until one of them screamed so loud they went hoarse.

But her mind wouldn’t stay there. When she imagined Leanne’s face between her legs everything was fine, until the woman of her imagination looked up, and she was met with Hope’s crystalline gaze.

The tongue was flat against her, pushing hard, intentionally.

The glint in Hope’s eyes told her she knew exactly what she was doing.

Grunting, Angelica breathed deeply. She wasn’t going to escape it, was she?

She paused her movements, a brief debate over whether to continue before she slid her fingers out of her pussy and used her own dampness to wet her clit. She wasn’t going to stop.