Forget Me Not by Stormy Glenn Read Free Book Online Page B

nightstand. The continued ringing of the phone jarred him into realizing he needed to answer it before whoever was on the other end hung up.
    “Hello?”
    “Dominic Loudan?”
    “Yes.”
    “Sorry to bother you, sir. This is the night clerk in the lobby. There’s a Keely James down here requesting permission to come upstairs.”
    Dominic pressed a hand against his chest trying to ease the sudden racing of his heart. “Please, send him up.”
    “Very good, sir.”
    It took Dominic a moment to realize he was listening to a dial tone…and that Keely was on his way up.
    Shit!
    Keely was on his way up.
    Dominic snapped his phone closed and dropped it on the nightstand next to the bed. He quickly rolled to his feet and started straightening the blankets on the bed before running to the bathroom to run a brush through his hair and splash some cold water on his face.
    He wasn’t happy with the water spots that ended up on his shirt, but there was nothing he could do about that now.
    Keely was knocking on the door.
    Dominic rubbed his sweaty hands on the legs of his jeans and then walked over to unlock the door and let Keely in. Keely was a little paler than usual, and his eyes wouldn’t quite meet Dominic’s. The way he rubbed his hands together as he glanced around the hotel room made Dominic feel a little better. The man seemed as nervous as he did.
    “Thank you for coming, Keely.”
    “I’m not staying.”
    Okay, it was going to be that kind of conversation. Dominic couldn’t say he was surprised. Keely had every right to be angry with him.
    “I should have called,” Dominic said. Even if there was no point in arguing his case, he still needed to explain things to Keely so that the man understood that…that… Dominic inhaled slowly. He just wanted Keely to understand that his leaving was all on Dominic, and Dominic knew it.
    “Yes,” Keely replied, not trying to pretend he didn’t understand what Dominic was talking about. “I needed you and you were too busy to even call me.” The anger in Keely’s eyes was vivid. But so was the anguish. “I get it that you didn’t receive my phone calls, but you didn’t even once try to contact me in all that time, not once.”
    “No, I didn’t.” There really was no point in even trying to lie or come up with an excuse. He had taken something precious for granted, and he had lost it because he couldn’t make one little freaking phone call. He deserved whatever hatred Keely tossed at him. “I have no excuse for my behavior.”
    Keely stopped yelling and blinked up at Dominic as if surprised he had admitted what he had done. After a moment of poignant silence, Keely shoved a hand through his reddish-blond hair and spun away to walk over and stare out the window.
    “I am sorry, Keely. I hope you know that. I never meant for things to get this out of control. A couple of days went by, and then a couple more, and before I knew it I hadn’t talked to you in a week and then two weeks and then a month. When I came home, I—”
    “Is that how you found out I had left?” Keely asked without turning away from the window. “You came home and I was gone?”
    “Yes.” Dominic swallowed hard at the remembered pain from discovering Keely had left him. The distance he felt from Keely now was almost as bad and they were standing in the same room. “It wasn’t until I talked to Sophia that I learned you had been trying to get in contact with me. By then it was too late. You were already gone.”
    “What happened to Sophia and Karen?”
    “I fired Karen, of course, and took out restraining orders against both of them. The recording was enough to get them both charged with stalking, harassment, and criminal mischief. They both signed a plea agreement that will put them behind bars for the next three years.”
    Keely’s green eyes were pale with sadness as he glanced over his shoulder. “Doesn’t seem long enough.”
    “I doubt they would have been able to do what they