Page 40 of Off-Limits Bosses
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said, and hurried away from the cabana.
Luckily for me, the hotel’s hallways were all abandoned. I spotted a cleaner once, but she had her back turned to me and I managed to sneak past in a hurry. Finally, I was in the staff quarters, and I was almost home free.
That was until I reached the final corner and turned it to see Landon standing in front of my door.
19
Landon
Adriana looked like she’d seen a ghost when she turned the corner. She seemed disheveled, but I figured that was because she’d had a particularly hard day. I couldn’t blame her for that after the incident in the kitchen. I’d done what I could to slow down the rumors, but they were still swirling.
“Landon,” Adriana breathed, frozen to the spot. “What are you doing here?”
I was surprised at that. Hadn’t she been wanting to see me all day?
“I thought we could talk,” I explained as gently as I could. “Can I come in?”
She seemed to think about my request for a moment, looking flustered and confused. But eventually, she walked past me to her door and unlocked it.
“Yeah, uh, I mean, sure,” she said, before heading inside. I followed, and shut the door behind me.
Adriana’s suite was much smaller than mine, and far more minimalist in terms of luxury. Most of the furniture was standard for the staff quarters, not exactly pretty but verypractical. She kept the place neat, too. There weren’t many personal effects or additional decorations, either.
She turned to face me with her arms crossed. Closed-off, careful.
“I know I reacted badly about Nolan,” I started, and noticed the surprise in her eyes. “I realize we’re not exclusive, and I can’t exactly be possessive when we’ve barely been together.”
She was listening with eyes that were widening by the second, as if she couldn’t believe what I was saying. I wondered what was going on in her head, and wished that she would speak up. It didn’t look like she was upset with me, just like she didn’t quite know how to process what was going on.
That made sense. This was a full turn-around from how I had reacted earlier. But I hadn’t known about her and Nolan. I had no idea that I was not the only man that she was seeing. I hadn’t expected to come across that scene in the pantry, especially not with other people witnessing it, too. At that point, I had to be professional, and had to focus on my job. I couldn’t have a meltdown, and I didn’t have any time to process all of it.
“How long have you—?” I started, then cut off my own sentence. “No. I don’t need to know. It’s none of my business.”
“Not long,” Adriana answered, still looking uncomfortable and a bit distracted. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you anything. I… shouldn’t have done any of this in the first place. Now it’s all so unnecessarily complicated.”
“I have to apologize, too.” I took a step closer to her. “I could’ve reacted better. But… Seeing you with someone else— It was a shock to the system. I didn’t expect it. I didn’t think it was a possibility. I suppose I was wrong.”
This time, she raised an eyebrow at me. “What do you mean by that?”
I blinked a few times. I was fairly certain that what I meant was obvious. Did she think I was insulting her? That wasn’t what I’d intended to do.
“Nothing like that,” I insisted, starting to feel like this conversation was going south. “Look, my point is, I don’t want to end things with you. I want to be with you. I want you to choose me. That’s what I came here to say.”
She was staring at me silently now. I didn’t know whether she was thinking about it or not. There was something about her that still seemed distracted. I wasn’t sure what else could be going on. Had she spoken to Nolan already? Was she leaning toward choosing him instead?
“I don’t know,” she said, rubbing one arm with the other. “I’m not sure I can do that.”
That hit harder than I thought it would. Frustration flooded my body, but I forced myself to stay calm. It was, luckily, one of my greatest talents to keep a straight face.
“Why?” I asked, realizing that some of my true feelings were slipping into my tone. “I know that you want me as much as I want you. I know that you don’t want this to end here.”
“I don’t,” she admitted softly, though she looked away from me as she said it and pulled her shoulders up. “But I don’t want to lose Nolan, either.”
That sentence plowed through me like a bulldozer. I tightened my jaw. That wasn’t something I was prepared to accept right there and then. She had to know that she would have to make a choice between us. Nolan would tell her the same thing, or I hoped he would. Knowing him, he might already have considered their relationship to be over. If he’d made the choice for her, maybe this would be easier.
“Adriana,” I said firmly, hoping that she would listen. “I— I care about you.”
“If you truly cared, you wouldn’t try to force me into something I don’t want,” she answered with constrained venom in her voice.
