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“The accommodations are decent,” he told me, waving around the room.

Decent was right.

It wasn’t necessarily in the top ten hotel rooms I’d ever seen. It was small, stucco-walled and cement-floored, colored in bright reds and deep browns, with all-white linen bedding. The attached bathroom wasn’t overly fancy either. It was modern and clean, at least.

Certainly not something I could see influencers lining up to book.

Until Raff pushed open the door to a little courtyard.

Then I got it.

Three sides were encased in some sort of rusty metal fencing. Everywhere. Except for a long, narrow window overlooking the desert.

Right in front of that window?

A bathtub.

You could bathe outside in the desert.

“Oh, wow.”

“And, of course, the stargazing bed,” Raff said, gesturing toward the bed set up a few feet from the tub.

“This is… incredible.”

“Thought you might get a kick out of it. And in case you aren’t fond of bathing naked outdoors, I got you this,” he said, unzipping his duffle bag and producing a white one-piece bathing suit.

The crazy part? It was exactly the kind I would have chosen for myself.

“And, as always, I am available for my photography services. Clothed. Or naked,” he told me with a smirk.

I shook my head at him.

“So, what do we do about food? I didn’t see any staff.”

“There is no staff. I mean, I’m sure they’ll be around, and they do housekeeping. But this is more of a glorified guest house.”

That was why he’d had a code to open the front door.

“You called it a hotel.”

“An… embellishment.”

“And said we had to go to Joshua Tree to delay check-in.”

“A fib.”

“Have you told me anything true today?” I asked, smiling.

“You are the prettiest thing in this whole fucking place. Now I’m gonna go check out my room, then we’ll talk ordering food.”

“Wait,” I called, rushing out into the hall. “Are there other guests?”

“Two rooms. Just the two of us for the night.”

There was no good reason that sent a thrill through me.

While Raff was gone, I went ahead and freshened up, slipping into the bathing suit but putting my clothes back on over it.