Free Rock Me (New Adult Romance) by Olivia Marks Page A

took about 45 minutes to get to Liam’s
hotel in midtown. I bustled up to the front desk, trying to look important.
“I’m here to see Liam Carter,” I said confidently.
    The pretty blonde behind the desk gave me
a sympathetic look. “Uh who?” she asked. I realized that Liam must be staying
under a fake name. From the tone of the message boards, I was sure other girls
had tried to scope him out.
    “Please, I know you’ve seen me come in
with him.”
    The blonde’s look changed from sympathy
to mild irritation.
    “I’m sorry miss, there’s nobody here
named Liam.” She then leaned in slightly and said in a whisper, “And if there
was, I’m pretty sure no one would be allowed to see him. OK?”
    I tried staring her down but I was never
good at that. I retreated to one of the shiny black leather couches, muttering,
“Just let me call him first.”
    The blonde shrugged her shoulders and
went back to her computer. I sat down and pretended to play with my phone. What
are you going to do next, crazy woman? I thought wildly.
    Someone must have been looking out for me
because the blonde soon received a call that sent her scampering off. Seizing
my chance, I got up and slid over toward the elevators, quickly punching in the
right floor and then gliding into the first available elevator. A minute later
I was outside Liam’s door, knocking gently.
    “Liam?” I called. ‘It’s me. Please open
up.”
    The only thing that came back was total
silence. But I’d already made a total idiot of myself; I might as well go the
whole way.
    “Liam, I’m not leaving until you open
up,” I said in a louder voice. “I know you think
    I’m just some nice girl from Minnesota
but you have no idea how cold the winters are there. I’m made of some seriously
hardy stock. If I need to stay here all night and day I’ll do that, you got
me?”
    There was a moment of hesitation before I
heard faint scuffling. The door slowly cracked open and Liam peered out at me.
His chestnut hair was wild and his scruff was more homeless than dashing. He
was dressed only in a pair of black boxers. I felt a million things at
once—relief that he was in one piece, concern that he might be going
nutty, adoration (I guess my heart was a tough one to break), and anger,
definitely anger.
    “Where the heck have you been?” I started
off.
    He scratched his head. “Look Shay, I’ve
been on this writing kick lately. I’ve been meaning to reply to you but once I
get into these creative bents it just sort of takes over my life.”
    I pushed past him. I didn’t come all the
way there for him to feed me some mumbo jumbo.
    The room was littered with crumpled
pieces of paper that were covered in maniacal scribbles. Pencils, pads, and
take out wrappers were strewn everywhere. Liam stood in the middle of this
chaos scratching his head confusedly.
    I wanted to berate him for his stupid
excuse. After all, how flipping long does it take to send a three-word text
message such as I am OK ? Or better yet, I am OK, please come over, I
miss you, love you forever, Liam .
    But the last thing I wanted to do was
come off as fresh out of high school. I had to try a more mature approach.
“Liam, I’ve been very worried about you. I wish you would have called me.” I
said through gritted teeth.
    He looked genuinely embarrassed. “Yeah
Shay, I really can’t apologize enough. The guys brought me back here after my
hospital check-up and all of a sudden I had this crazy urge to start writing. I
haven’t left since.”
    I gaped at him. “You haven’t left this
room in a week ?”
    He shook his head sheepishly. I frowned
and picked up one of the crumpled pieces of paper next to me on the bed. It
said: So far away / But always back where I began / You beat me right into
the ground / Was the reason that I ran.
    I
picked up other pieces of paper; the lyrics were just as raw and hurting. I looked
up at him. He seemed drained. ‘What’s eating you, Liam?” I asked softly.