ENTANGLED: A McCarthy Love Story

CHAPTER 012

“Do you want to go back to the hotel?” that was the first thing Nick had said to her since he had practically dragged her off the dance floor in the middle of their dance and into the car. One minute she had been floating in his arms and the next he was halting and telling her they needed to leave immediately, no explanations, nothing else. And now he was asking her if she wanted to be dropped off at the hotel, seriously?
She wanted to ask him where things had gone wrong, they had been having fun, she knew it wasn’t just her so why then did he suddenly shut it down. Shut her down. He was the one who had asked for the dance, she had been content having a pleasant time with Andrew and he had interrupted and as usual made promises without uttering a single word only to later break them and make her feel like she was crazy.

“My apartment. I’d like to go home now” she said instead and then threw her face out the window to enjoy the comfort of the night while making up her mind, she was done with Niklaus McCarthy. She was done waiting for him, she was done wanting him, she was done letting him mess with her head, she was done, period.

WHEN SHE GOT back to her studio apartment Sammy found that it didn’t feel like home anymore, she felt like a stranger in her own home because now home was the McCarthy manor.
She had left all the stuff she’d come back with at the hotel, thankfully her key was always under the mat. That was mostly so Vicky would have access to it whenever she wanted, giving her a spare had been a waste of time because the girl was as terrible with keys as she was with watches, you’d think not because one was specifically designed to be attached to the wrist but she would always find that she was missing it at the end of the day.
The apartment was dusty so she immediately got to cleaning, it was past midnight but Sammy found that she still had a lot of energy probably pent up from the anger she felt.
It had been a while since she scrubbed and she found that she missed it, not just the cleaning part but also the feeling useful. She had done nothing in the McCarthy house but to just exist.
After the vigorous scrubbing and cleaning, she took a long soak in the tub before deciding to call it a night. She was going to decide what her next step would be tomorrow once she had spoken to Vicky whom she explicitly avoided telling that she was already in New York. The girl would have a fit once she discovered she had been left in the dark about a lot of things.

Sammy had barely gone to sleep when the pounding on the door started, it sounded distance at first then it grew louder jolting her from sleep.
She knew it was obviously Vicky before she got to the door, the girl had somehow found out she was in New York and was furious that she didn’t tell her. Typical Vicky, she couldn’t wait till morning for the inevitable confrontation. 
“I’m coming! I’m coming” Sammy yelled back hoping the girl wouldn’t knock her door down before she had the chance to open up.
Sammy spotted the single key sitting on the tiny centre table and grabbed it only to remember that she had just bolted the door, she half raced to the door struggling with her falling robe because she hadn’t bothered to wear anything underneath and then unbolted the door expecting Vicky’s furious face and mentally preparing herself for the earful she knew was coming. Except it wasn’t Vicky’s angry face, it was Niklaus’s
Still in his tux, the bow tie he had worn earlier was gone and a few top buttons were undone but Niklaus nonetheless. His hair was in a mess, like something that had been ruffled so many times and his eyes looked scary.
What was he doing here?
Her first thought had been to race back inside and lock him out but instead she stood her ground, there was not much more he could do to her after today’s humiliation.

**   **  **

Nick drove around in circles, he was in a heated battle with himself which he was already losing. He should return to his hotel suite and go to bed, he should also purge Samantha from his mind but that was next to impossible. Not when the cool night breeze still carried her scent long after she was gone, that girl was going to be the death of him and there was little he could do to stop it. And by the second time he started to head to her apartment building, Nick knew he had lost the battle with himself, he wanted Samantha Baker like he had never wanted any woman ever. He had tried to fight it, he had denied it and even tried to bury it but neither of those things were working, the only thing left to do was face it and he was ready to face it consequences be damned.
It took Samantha all of three minutes to open the door and the more time passed, the more anxious he became. He didn’t think things through rushing over here, he wanted her but who was to say she felt the same way. What if she rejected him? She seemed pretty pissed when they had left the gala.
She finally opened the door, the look on her face showed she didn’t expect him to be on that side of the door, for a minute she looked like she was going to run and then she didn’t, instead she sighed like someone who was tired and then asked,  
“What are you doing here?”
She was putting on a purple bath robe which was a couple sizes bigger than her, it made her look smaller and somehow cuter at the same time. Her face was scrubbed clean of the makeup she wore earlier but she was still beautiful.