Stay for Me by Carlene Love Flores Read Free Book Online

member take a non-employee guest inside to make use of the room. That’s
what we do here, bro. So, uh, keep that in mind.”  
    He knew Gabe only meant well, but all
that meant to Sam was that there was nothing, no rules, nothing holding him
back from Emma now. That was a big problem. He reminded himself that there
might not be any rules, but there were consequences. There always were. Huge ones.
    Sam opened the door to S room, prepared to deal with these huge
consequences if it meant helping Emma. His insides were torn up. He let the
door close behind him.
    “Please come here, Emma,” he said to the
black walls housing them. He eyed the only piece of furniture in the darkened
room and the spot where the only real light shone on his pile of white clothes.
Slowly, he took a seat. Tried to rock it. It didn’t
budge. The armless chair was solid.
    It
will hold both of our weight. The vagrant thought scared and turned
him on in ways it shouldn’t.
    But he knew it was true. He’d sat in the
damn thing many times before.
    “I shouldn’t have left. I’m sorry,” he
said then waited, controlling his breath.
    She walked out of the dark corner. Shaken and very un-Emma like.
    Clearly, he had more to prove.

 
    Chapter Six
     
    Emma paced forward.
    She retraced her steps to the door.
    She stalled and ran her hands through
her hair. It needed to be washed.
    Emma stalked around the room some more.
    She sat down on the floor and carefully
relocated his pile of dress whites to her side, then picked them up with the
utmost care and set them on her lap. It was too enticing not to indulge, and
she needed something to dull her nerves. On a huge inhale, Emma sank her head
nose first into his clothes. They smelled like man heaven. Sweat. Soldier. Sam.
    Wherever he’d gone, he was naked, and
all she wanted was for him to come back so she could apologize for making him
jump through some ridiculous burning hoop and give him his clothes back.
    I’ve
lost it. I’m nuts.
    So he’d quit.
    She hadn’t and wouldn’t. He knew why.
She just wasn’t as good a saver as he was. Managing Club Mantasy had become her heart’s work because of the people involved. One of these days,
she’d want to take care of her parents, and the experience of being a manager
would always get her work out here in the desert mecca of gambling and
entertainment.
    Back to the
being “nuts.” Even though Sam didn’t work here any longer, Emma was pretty sure Ellen would
frown on her using the club for personal use.
    Ugh. This place. S room.
    Sit. Stay.
    “Sam.”
    Maybe saying his name out loud would
replace the ugliness of what Luka had done to her in here. “Sam,” she said
louder and slapped her hands down over his military costume. “Sam.”
    She’d made a huge mistake asking him to
strip for her, but she’d go out there now, track him down, and do her best to
explain how fear ruled her every thought when it came to this small room. The one chair. Nowhere to hide if things went horribly wrong,
or worse, he realized just how far out of her league he was. One of these days
Sam would figure out she wasn’t as strong and smart as he saw her.
    Was she willing to put their friendship
through this? How could she face him yet again if things went badly? The only
guy she trusted to erase Luka from her memory was the one person she couldn’t
play these messed up games with. Emma took too many short breaths in and out
and had to stop for a very long one. One where she thought very hard about
leaving safety behind and getting lost in the complete unknown of this room—with
Sam.
    She stared at the chair and saw herself
sitting there like an idiot. Staying.
    Yeah, Sam didn’t know what Luka had done.
The jerk hadn’t lasted long as a dancer after several complaints. Gabe had kept
her secret, otherwise Sam would have without question done something to have
gotten himself jailed and probably fired a long time ago.
    She shook her head and inhaled his
clothes one