WELL SINCE MY BABY LEFT ME,
WELL, I FOUND A NEW PLACE TO DWELL.
WELL, IT'S DOWN AT THE END OF LONELY STREET,
AT HEARTBREAK HOTEL.
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225.
I knock, and Austin opens the door. Shirtless. His neatly combed haired is now a scroungy mess, but it somehow looks good on him. He leans on the doorframe with one arm, while looking down at me. His flushed cheeks, and glistening eyes make me want to run back to the reception, and hide under the counter.
He eats me alive.
My eyes keep wanting to get a long look at his bare torso. His abs, like they're glazed with a honey syrup, while a single drop of sweat trickles down to his belly button. I force myself to look away.
"Ottie?" The deep rasp brewing in the base of his throat rings between my eardrums like a broken record. My brain yearns to hear him speak more. "Did I forget something?" His brows raise questioningly.
I quickly shake my head. "No!" And my eyes accidentally catch a glimpse over his broad shoulder, at the empty bottle of Château Margaux. "You didn't forget anything, Mister Butler."
His glass eyes then narrow, before he leans forward to gift me a soft smile. "Please, call me Austin."
I gulp. "Austin," it feels almost criminal to say his name out loud. And to be breathing so close to him, I won't even bring up. He straightens his back and shoves one hand into the pocket of his black jeans, while the other one stays sturdily against the doorframe. "I just came here to ask if everything is to your liking."
There is a small second of him chuckling, and as he looks to the side, I see more of the inside of his room. My eyes widen after spotting some kind of white powder sprinkled across the glass coffee table.
I try and shake it off.
"Does the phone at reception not work?" He asks. The smug face makes me wonder if he knows I only came up here to see him, and hear his voice.
I look away but my eyes find his bare chest again, so I search for somewhere else to look, and find the wall.
When I press my lips together, trying to come up with an excuse, Austin chuckles again.
"Everything's fine." He brings his hand to my face to pinch my left cheek between his pointer and middle fingers. "Thank you for asking, Ottie."
Although his fingers only touched my face for a short second, I can bet on my own life he felt the heat. Blood rushes to my face and my left cheek starts to burn. It's on fire, it stings, it gives me tingles in my stomach.
"Y-You're wel...welcome." With shaky breaths in between each word I utter, I turn around with trembling legs. My knees feel exactly like the oatmeal I ate for breakfast this morning. Weak, hot, and just a complete sludge. I can hear the bones around my chest cracking from the repeated force of my heart hitting.
Finally, I manage to turn away. Things are much easier when he's not piercing straight through my soul with those seducing, dangerous, and foxy eyes of his. As I'm carefully making my way back to the elevator-
"Ottie!"
Austin calls after me.
I immediately stop in my tracks. When did he start controlling me like a dog? I shut my eyes tightly for only a second, before slowly turning back around to see him standing half-naked in the same position, this time with a smirk slightly wider than the last one.
"Y-Yes?" I force a smile, pretending my body isn't about to collapse. "Is there something wrong?"
Austin nods. "There is, actually."
My eyes narrow, genuinly curious to know what I did wrong. I push through my jelly knees and approach him by the door again. Something feels different.
"What's wrong?" I feel different. My words won't go louder than a whisper, and my breathing turns sporadic. I feel closer to him. Closer than any time before. My face levels with his bare chest, and it makes me lift my head and look into the dark eyes, which are looking down at -and on- me. His breathing. It shakes as well.
Austin licks his lips, "My room." He points behind with his thumb, introducing me to the gloomy atmosphere of 225. The air is thick, and feels heavy. I try but don't understand how he stays in there, most nights.
His flexed bicep catches my attention, and I struggle to shake the image away. It's hard when he's standing so close, and half-naked in front of me.
I take a deep breath, which comes out like the waves of a sea at night. Big, loud, and strong waves. "What's wr-wrong with your room?"
He goes quiet for a little while, but his heart doesn't cooperate. While he stays stuck where he is, my feet force my body forward. Until there's a small inch worth of space left between our bodies. My chest heaves under my white button-up, while his naked chest stays hard. Austin's hand no longer stays on the doorframe, instead, his brawny arms make their way around me. His hands, the same hands that burn any place they touch, brush against my hips. He doesn't quite commit to it. His fingers only hover beside my body. And all the while I can't take my eyes away from his. Or better yet, he doesn't let me.
It's like I'll die in an instant if I look away, but I'll die slowly if I keep looking. He devours me with a glimpse.
"You're not in it." He whispers.
It's the kind of tension I feel, that could kill me if I let it consume me at once. He's drunk. He doesn't know what he's doing. His eyes tell me everything.
"I'm working." I whisper back, and perch my hands on his bare chest. Though I am a complete coward, so I wince and pull back. His body is burning. Quite literally. He feels hot to the touch.
Awkward silence takes over the corridor of the hotel, until Austin breathes out deeply. "Mmhm." He nods, "You're working." A somewhat condescending tone, he uses it whenever he doesn't get things his way.
I nod, but my body doesn't move.
Neither does Austin's. He looks down at me, the heat of his skin oozing through my pores and taking over my entire soul. He captivates me. Traps me in his essence.
"Yeah. Get back to work." He then utters, and closes the door on me. It takes me a couple seconds to process everything, before I even remember to breathe.
My throat hurts from all the tingling, and my stomach starts aching. The butterflies have torn my insides with their knife-sharp wings. Something I'm used to.
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➥ IN THE NEXT CHAPTER
Austin leaves Andromeda early in the morning,
and Ottie can't help but think about the night before.
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