AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Actually, she’s on the phone. Waiting.” I hold an index finger up to my lips, and his mouth forms a sexy O.
“I’ll be as quiet as a mouse,” he whispers, crossing his hand over his heart.
“Okay, but please, not a word,” I admonish, opening the door wide enough for him to enter.
Barclay tiptoes into the room. It’s not a common display for six-foot-something publishing moguls, and I cover my mouth when laughter bubbles up. He lets his fingers linger over the pink satin on the bed and glances at me with dark eyes. I shake my head at him and mouth, “Later.” He pouts like a little child being told no, which I don’t have time for. I push him past the bed, and he sulks over to the window area, sitting down in an upholstered chair paired with a side table.
Giving me the universal finger drag across his mouth, meaning his lips are zipped, I pick up the receiver before my mother calls the front desk asking them to check on me—or worse, tells Miles something’s wrong. I sure don’t need the police showing up here two nights in a row.
“Sorry, Mother. There was someone from the hotel at the door.” Barclay does own the hotel, but I’m stretching the truth, which equals a white lie.
Lying is something I don’t do with her—or anyone, for that matter. The only time I feel justified in doing so would be to protect someone’s feelings. Honestly, I’m doing something similar now, since my lies will keep her from worrying when I know everything is fine with me. I glance at Barclay, who’s smiling deviously. Things are crazy, out-of-my-mind fine.
“You seem out of breath and flustered, Tessa. What did they want?” she asks.
Barclay picks up a book I have sitting on the side table next to him. I forgot all about it in the rush to clean up the room. Big mistake too. He glances down at the cover and looks up at me with a pointed stare that quickly turns into the devil’s smile.
He holds the book up for me to see, as if I have no clue what it is, and nods his head approvingly. Opening the book up to the first dog-eared page, he waggles his brows. I have no idea which page it is, but I can only imagine since it’s The 365 Days, 365 Positions Handbook.
How do I ever recover from this one?
I look away from the sexy smile lighting up Barclay’s face as he peruses the book. He keeps peering up at me from the pages and either shaking or nodding his head. A flush spreads across my cheeks. I want to put my mother on hold and rip the book from his hands, but I wonder if he’d let me. He seems to be enjoying it too much.
“Uh, it’s uh … it’s someone from the hotel doing a nightly turndown service.” Another white lie, laced with some truth, because I believe Barclay and I will be under the sheets, or at least on top of them, soon.
“Imagine that. Southern hospitality in a big city like New York.” I exhale in relief, but breathe in a lungful of guilt.
I never hide things from my mother. I even told her about the guys pressuring me to have sex in college, knowing they just wanted to claim me as a virginal prize.
“I need to go,” I say, more rushed than I should, but Barclay has set down the book and the look in his eyes makes me squirm. It’s like he’s a tiger ready to pounce … on me.
“Remember, you promised your grandmother you’d light a candle for your grandfather at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral tomorrow.”
“I’ll go to the ten-fifteen service. The choir sings then.”
As we hang up, I can’t dismiss how insane it is that I’m discussing church services while sexy lingerie sits on the bed close to the man who may cash in my V-card. But I’m ready … I think—or more like I should just do it and not think about it. Actually, I’m a freaking emotional mess.
31
Tessa
“My family keeps interrupting us.” Sitting on the edge of the bed, I place the receiver in its cradle, exhaling a big sigh. “They mean well, though.”
“It was messing with my conscience, but I’m over that after thumbing through your latest read.” Barclay places my sex handbook back down on the table and tilts his head to the side. He gives me a quizzical look, and a flicker of a smile passes over his face. “Did you find that book at the Monroeville Library?”
“Ha. Ha.” I fake a laugh at the thought of this book on any shelf in my hometown. I’ve hidden it under my bed since I returned back home from graduating college and snuck it into my suitcase. “My best friend Maggie gave it to me for research purposes. Besides, my mother’s the town librarian. If she put something like that on the shelves, it would be her last day working there.”
