CHERISHED (By the Alpha Billionaire #3) by Rossi St. James Page B

thought you were settling for Luke, I just never said anything.”
    “Why not?!”
    “You seemed happy.” She flipped the drink menu open and perused the martini section.
    “I wasn’t,” I sighed. “I was just…comfortable. I realize that now.”
    I peeked over her shoulder, my gaze landing on the description of a lemon drop martini with a splash of cherry grenadine.
    “Look who it is,” Lou said as he strutted toward our end of the bar. An amused smirk claimed his round, pudgy face. “Just missed your friend.”
    The color drained from my face. “What friend, Lou?”
    “That guy, um, the one you were talking to in here last week,” Lou said, wiping his hands on a towel.
    “Uh, the rich looking one. The one with the airplane,” he said, scratching his balding hairline.
    “Sawyer?”
    “I don’t know his name, but yeah, if that’s who was in here last week.” Lou shrugged.
    “He’s in town?” Lydia had to practically pick my jaw up from the floor. “Lydia, I have to find him.”
    She flashed a knowing smile and nodded, closing the drink menu.
    “Lou, is he staying here tonight? At the hotel?” I asked. “You have to tell me.”
    “I think so?” Lou said. “I’d assume so. He didn’t really say much. Just had a glass of single malt scotch and left. Seemed down about something.”
    I handed Lydia my keys, grabbed my purse and headed to the lobby, where a pimple-faced teenage clerk greeted me with bloodshot eyes.
    “I need to know which room Sawyer Thomas is staying in,” I said.
    “Um,” he said slowly, his eyes skating between my face and the door of the bar I’d just flown out of. “I can’t give out that information, ma’am.”
    I hated being called ma’am. I was only twenty-three. “Look, you tell me which room he’s staying in, and I won’t tell your boss that you’re stoned out of your fucking mind right now.”

TWO
     
    Sawyer
    The vision of Maisie letting her ex into her apartment haunted me. I loosened my navy blue tie as I stood in front of the bathroom mirror of the hotel. Staring into the eyes of a foreign reflection, I didn’t know who I was anymore. I hardly recognized the man standing before me. The man who used to grab life by the balls and take whatever he wanted with no apologies.
    I should’ve went to her. I should’ve knocked on her door and interrupted her little reunion and taken what was mine. He didn’t deserve her.
    I’d felt lost after Alexandria died, and for a brief five days of my life, when I was with Maisie, I felt found again. Maisie was sassy and she made me smile for the first time in months. Sex with her didn’t feel like meaningless sex with a stranger, though that’s what we essentially were.
    I yanked my tie off and hung it on the bathroom door handle, my fingers working the buttons of my shirt until a knock at the door jarred my attention away from the task at hand.
    “I’m good thanks,” I yelled toward the door, assuming it was a staff member of the hotel. Then I remembered the Best Western didn’t have concierges.
    “It’s me,” a woman’s voice said from the other side. “Open up.”
    My heart thudded hard in my chest, and the air around me felt laced with a certain kind of magic that couldn’t possibly be real. I was dreaming. She hadn’t found me. She wasn’t coming back to me.
    I yanked the door open. “Mouthy Maisie.”
    “Shut up, Mr. Fancy Pants Businessman,” she said. A wicked smile curled her lips.
    She pushed herself onto me, slamming the door behind her and pinning me against the door as her lips kissed mine with a hungry fervor. With my hands grasping her wrists, I lifted them up and deposited them on my shoulders. My hands slid down to her round ass, copping a feel before hoisting her up. With her legs wrapped around my waist, I spun around, pinning her against the wall and burying my face in her soft cleavage.
    “You came back for me,” she breathed, her hands in my hair. “Why’d you do that?”
    I