Page 69 of Spring Break Fling

I laughed softly. “A little.”

“I’m starving. You worked me hard.”

“Me!” I giggled. “That was your choice.”

“Yes, it was and I wouldn’t mind doing it again. But I feel like I owe you a meal.”

I grimaced. “I don’t know if I want to get out of bed.”

“This place has room service,” he said. “And a minibar.”

“I vote room service because, frankly, I’m not paying twelve bucks for a tiny bag of peanuts.”

“Company doesn’t cover the cost of your trip?”

“I get fifty dollars a day per diem. We might get a couple bags of peanuts and a candy bar to split on that.”

“Got a menu?” he asked.

I gestured to the small desk that was covered with my paperwork. “Somewhere over there.”

He raised his head and then looked at me. “Yeah, how about we keep it simple. Burgers. Everyone serves burgers.”

He slipped out of bed, padding across the room in all his naked glory to retrieve the room service menu. I couldn’t help but admire him, the way his muscles moved with such a fluid, graceful strength.

Rummaging through my papers, he finally found the glossy menu and brought it back to bed, flopping down beside me with a victorious grin. “Burgers it is,” he affirmed as he flipped through the pages. He had that boyish charm about him now, a stark contrast to the intense lover of just moments ago.

The somberness he had when he showed up at my door was gone as well. That made me feel good to know I was the person he came to when he needed to… well, he didn’t exactly do a lot of talking but whatever.

“I’ll have the double cheeseburger with everything on it, and you?” he asked, glancing over at me with those piercing eyes that seemed to see right into me.

“Same,” I replied, feeling a bizarre blend of comfort and excitement being here with him like this. It was unusual for me to let my guard down so quickly, to feel so spontaneously connected to someone.

He dialed room service and ordered our burgers and a bottle of red wine.

“Twenty minutes,” he said.

I sat up and started to get dressed. While he certainly made me feel pretty, it felt strange to be sitting around in the nude. Especially since we were going to be eating soon. I didn’t want burger grease on my boob or other places, although I had a feeling he would be more than happy to help me clean it up.

Nikko pulled on his briefs and jeans but left his shirt off. He walked out to the balcony, standing with his hands on the railing. My room had an amazing view. He looked far more at peace than he had when he first showed up at my door. It felt like the storm cloud over him had finally started to clear.

While we waited, I tidied up the room a little, trying to organize the mess we had made in our haste to clear the bed.

When the food arrived, I carried the tray out to join him on the balcony. He grinned as I set it down on the small table between us.

“Classy,” he teased, picking up the wine with a smirk. “Red wine and cheeseburgers. Don’t tell me I don’t know how to treat a woman to a fine dinner.”

“I think this is the full five-star hotel experience,” I said.

He poured the wine into our plastic cups. We dug into our burgers with the ocean breeze washing over us. The man was tearing into his burger with gusto. He was eating like a man starving. I assumed part of that was because of the workout we just had.

“Feeling better?” I asked after he’d polished off half his burger in record time.

He nodded, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “Yeah. I guess I just needed to let it out, you know?”

I smiled softly. “I’m glad you did.”

He looked at me and I caught a hint of that vulnerability I had seen earlier. He leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his messy hair.