Page 15 of Worth Every Moment

After forty-five minutes, my phone buzzes in my jacket pocket. I ignore it. But it goes off again, and again; an influx of messages disrupting this moment with Erica.

She sits up, shifting her body away from mine and pointing the remote at the TV to pause it. “Can you get that? Someone obviously wants to get hold of you.”

I grab my jacket and pull the phone from my pocket, unlocking it. I click to the messages and when I open them, a selfie of a naked woman appears. I click the screen off, turning it dark before I even have a chance to work out who it is. My heart is racing, and beside me, Erica has gone very still.

“Do you need to answer it?” she asks, her voice quiet.

“No.” I put my phone face down on the coffee table, where it sits like a landmine.One wrong step and that fucker’s going to explode. “Let’s keep watching.”

“Who was it?” Erica asks, nodding at the phone.

“I… I’m not sure.”

My phone buzzes again.Now? Really?

“Whoever they are, they really want your attention.” Erica leans forward to grab the phone and hands it to me. “Just deal with it.”

The phone starts to ring.Unknown number. Erica raises her brows, nodding at it.

Okay. Fine.I swipe to answer. “Seb Hawkston speaking.”

“Seb. Where are you?” comes a woman’s voice I don’t recognise. “I’m here. Waiting. In the hotel. Room 346. You’re late. Are you coming? There’s champagne on ice.”

Erica is inspecting her nails, but I know she can hear every word of this woman’s verbal onslaught.

I push off the sofa, pacing away from her. “Who is this?” I whisper into the phone.

A giggle comes down the line. “Who is this?” she mimics. “How rude.” She doesn’t sound remotely affronted. “It’s Emerald, from the other night.” I say nothing, having no idea which ‘other night’ she’s referring to. It could be any number of ‘other nights’, and she could be any number of women. “At Martini Gems?”

Oh, right.One of the women in the photo that Nico took objection to. I had no idea her name was Emerald.

“I’m staying at the hotel,” Emerald continues. “The Hawkston Mayfair. I told you when we met, and you said you’d swing by my room tonight. I’ve been waiting for half an hour… did you get my pictures?”

“Yes,” I hiss, sounding as angry as I would if she’d just shat on my doorstep. “I got them.”

“Good. So… are you coming?”

I glance over at Erica again. She’s watching me, so I quickly turn away to prevent her lip-reading. “No. I’m busy tonight. I’ll cover the cost of your room. Feel free to enjoy it with someone else.” I hang up and make my way back to the sofa, but Erica doesn’t lift the remote to play the movie.

“You’re supposed to be on a date, aren’t you?” she says, her voice tinged with annoyance, and the question makes me halt.

“I wouldn’t call it a date.”

“A hook-up? A booty call?” Her annoyed tone only increases, eyebrows rising with it. “Is there a naked woman waiting for you in a hotel room somewhere?”

I take a step back. “How much of my conversation did you hear?”

Fuck, I all but confirmed it.

Erica sighs, lowering her head and running a hand over the back of it before she points at the door. “Go on. Go.”

I raise both palms like she has me under fire. “What? No. It’s not important.” I let my hands fall. “I’d rather stay with you.”

Erica’s narrowed eyes latch onto mine. “I don’t want you here if you’re supposed to be elsewhere. You can’t leave her hanging like that. And I don’t want to sit here with you, knowing that some woman is waiting in a hotel room for you to show up. And that maybe you’d prefer to be having sex with her than sitting here with me.”

I rub a hand over my jaw as I stare down at Erica’s impossibly beautiful face. I’d rather sit beside her all night,every night, than go and find Emerald-whatever-her-name-is back at the Hawkston. “I have no memory of arranging anything with her. I don’t even know her full name.”

Erica’s face scrunches, telling me that this is absolutely the wrong thing to say. “Maybe you should go and find out then,” she snaps.