Own Me (The Wolf Hotel, #5)

“What?” I check the clock on the wall, the time escaping me. But he’s right. “Where’s Henry?”

“I wouldn’t worry about him.” Raj looks pointedly at my sweatpants.

“Right. I should do something about this.”

“You really should.”

I grin. “I’m sorry for being crazy. I’m meeting these guys for the first time, and I just want tonight to be—”

“Perfect, I know.” He smiles patiently. “And it will be, unless you start doing that.” He playfully swats my hand away from my freshly manicured nails.

“Thank you!” I sprint up the stairs and peel off my clothes. Waiting for me in a garment bag is a fitted black dress and stilettos Margo had couriered from a New York designer when I lamented that I didn’t know what to wear. I slip into the full outfit, including the shoes—in a pitiful attempt to break them in before tonight—and study myself in the full-length mirror, satisfied. As usual, she knows what will look good on me. I’m glad someone does.

Thankfully, I snuck away long enough this morning for a blowout, so my hair is sleek and smooth. I wish I’d hired someone to do my makeup. I’m still very much in the learning stages after a lifetime of embracing “a wholesome look” at Mama’s and Jed’s behest.

I still shake my head at all the ways I’ve been under my mother’s thumb. Aunt May is right—the sooner she learns that the days of having a say in how I live my life are over, the better for everyone involved.

My phone chirps with an incoming text as I’m about to tackle eyeshadow.

Ronan: A journalist is sniffing around. He’s looking for a story about you and the wolf.

I curse.

Abbi: Was it Luca?

I texted Ronan after that guy called.

Ronan: No. Frank. Or Hank. I can’t remember.

Seeing as there’s no Luca at the Tribune, maybe he’s dropping fake names.

Abbi: It could be the same guy. What’d you tell him?

My phone rings and Ronan’s name appears on the screen.

“I told him to suck my dick,” Ronan’s gravelly voice fills my ear before I can say hello.

I smile as I throw the call on speaker. Ronan isn’t intimidated by anyone, not even Henry, who could legitimately make his life hell. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.” His tone softens immediately. “I haven’t heard your voice in forever.”

“It’s only been a couple of weeks.” My cheeks flush with the reminder of the last time we saw each other, just before Ronan left Henry and me alone in the bedroom of Penthouse Cabin One. He said he’d never forget that night.

The truth is, neither will I.

I would never choose Ronan over Henry. Never. You could ask me a thousand times and I would only ever have one answer: Henry is all I’ll ever want. And yet Ronan was a lifeline during the darkest months of the summer, when my heart had been shattered, the pain a hundred times more than anything I felt after Jed broke it. Our friendship may be unconventional, but it’s ours. Keeping him in my life is important to me.

“How’s Miami?” With the Alaska location shut down for the season, the staff has retreated to their previous lives. In Ronan’s case, it’s back to Florida, where he shares a condo with Connor.

“Boring, but balmy.”

“Are you staying out of trouble?”

“Define trouble.” There’s a hint of teasing in his voice.

“I can’t. My imagination isn’t that dirty.” Henry keeps calling Ronan and Connor deviants. Given the things they got up to at Wolf Cove after I left—namely their little fuck club experiment—the nickname might not be too far off.

“I think your imagination is just fine, Red.”

I smile as I blend a smoky shadow at the corners of my eyelids. He’s the only one who calls me Red, and I like it that way. “Did this reporter leave you a number?”

“Nope. Unknown caller. Kept calling back until I answered.” Ronan snorts. “The balls he has. How did this asshole get my number, anyway?”

“Probably from whoever’s feeding him all this information.”

“My money’s on Tillie.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking the same.” It has to be her. She’s a gossip vampire who feels she’s been spurned by me, though I’ve never done anything to her. Yes, Connor flirted with me while they were hooking up, but Connor flirts with everyone. But I think it’s all driven by jealousy because I’m with Henry, and she had no idea. If there is one thing Tillie was never shy about admitting, it was how happy she would be to climb into the big bad wolf’s bed. “She doesn’t know anything, though.” Nothing for sure. “Deny everything. We’re just friends.”

“We are just friends, aren’t we?”

“You know what I mean.” If Henry didn’t exist, we might be more. “Are you going back to Wolf Cove next year?”

“Haven’t decided yet. Got some time before I have to commit.”

“But you’ll come for the wedding, right?”

“I’m invited?” I don’t miss the shock in his voice.

“Don’t be silly. Of course, you’re invited.” I falter on my second question. Henry and I haven’t settled on the bridesman topic yet.

“And that’s where you guys are doing it? Alaska?”

“Yeah. We both love it up there.”

There’s a lengthy pause.

“Ronan? Are you still—”

“Yeah, I’ll be there. For you. Not for your asshole fiancé. He doesn’t deserve you.”

Ronan was the only one who knew the silent agony I was suffering during those weeks, no one else the wiser to my secret relationship with Henry. “I’m happy.”

“I know you are, and I’m happy for you.” He sighs heavily. “What are you doing tonight?”

“Nothing with you,” a deep voice cuts in.

I jump at the sudden interruption and spin around to find Henry standing in the doorway. Even with an annoyed scowl on his face, my heart races at the sight of him.

A loud, aggravated groan carries over the speaker. “I guess this conversation is over.”

“It shouldn’t have started,” Henry throws back without missing a beat.

I glare at him, but all it earns is his smug smirk.

“You still work for me, Ronan.” Henry closes in on me, his hands loosening his tie. “Which means I can fire you any damn time I please.”

“But then you’d have to answer to your future wife, and I doubt she’d be impressed, seeing as I saved your rich, jealous ass for her,” comes Ronan’s quick retort. “Talk to you later, Red.” He ends the call.

“Do you have to be a jerk?”

“Yes.” Henry leans in to kiss my neck. “What did he want?”

I inhale the delicious scent of his cologne. “A reporter’s been calling him, digging for dirt.”

Henry curses. “Same one?”

“I don’t know, but we think Tillie might be the one talking.”

“Which one’s that again?”

“The other redhead in my cabin. She was in housekeeping.”

“Southern accent.”

“Yeah.” I used to think she was a friend. She was so welcoming at first, but I guess she didn’t see me as competition back then. “I’m going to ask Autumn to see what she can find out. They still text sometimes.” Autumn is friendly with everyone, but Tillie has no idea how close she and I have become since the summer.

Henry tosses his tie toward the hamper. “Let me know what you find out so I can handle it.”