AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I leave my foot on the seat.
Owen loosens his grip but doesn’t let my foot go completely.
He then proceeds to shift all my thoughts into a disordered state by lightly caressing my ankle while we talk for the next half hour.
I learn more about Owen’s love of sailing and he learns about my love of Italy. He’s only been to Italy once, so I tell him about my top three favorite places. He listens like he’s hanging off every word, but then, my perception could be off due to the chaos going on in my brain with every stroke of his thumb on my skin.
When I can’t possibly take another second of his attention, I say quite forcefully, “You have work to do.”
He looks at me, amused. “Do I?”
I pull my foot out of his hold and bring my legs back to my side of the table. “Yes.”
“This is you managing me?”
I give him what I consider to be a bossy look. “Absolutely.”
He reaches for his laptop. “I think I’m going to enjoy your style of management, Charlize.”
The last thing I think before he stops looking at me and gets to work is that I should have insisted on him wearing those brown contact lenses I forgot to find.
* * *
“No,”Owen says to the hotel receptionist in London, “We’ve got two suites booked.”
It’s just after 1:00 a.m. London time and the receptionist looks like she wishes this day didn’t exist. We arrived ten minutes ago, and it’s been nothing but problems since we got to her.
I was handling the check-in while Owen worked through some emails that just came in. The receptionist was rude to me from the second we began talking. When she told me she only had us booked for one suite, I produced our booking confirmation email. She investigated and came back with the verdict that she didn’t know how it happened, but that one of our suites was given to another guest a few hours ago. She wasn’t apologetic at all.
Apparently, because of the conference, the hotel is fully booked.
I watch Owen take over and think about how calm he is. I’m ready to tell this woman exactly what I think of her rudeness, but he’s still in pleasant mode.
He goes back and forth with her for a good five minutes, at which point, I have to walk away. I’m tired after our flight and don’t have the patience Owen does for rudeness.
When he finally joins me, he looks apologetic. “They only have one suite for us.”
“It will be a true hardship sharing with you.” When he doesn’t respond straight away, and continues looking regretful, I say, “It’s okay, Owen.”
“I’ve made it clear we’re to be top of her list if a room becomes available.”
I release a long breath. “Let’s just go up and settle in. We’ve got a long day tomorrow and you need sleep so you can be at your best.”
He nods and we find the elevator to take us up to our suite.
There’s something to be said for exhaustion: it helps distract a girl from sex.
However, that’s not the case when said girl is presented with the view of a king bed while standing next to the man she’s going to have to share it with.
“I’ll take the sofa,” Owen says.
I look at him. “You’re the one who needs to get good sleep this week. You take the bed.”
He doesn’t even entertain that. With a firm shake of his head, he says, “No.”
I’m far too tired for this.
And now I’m also really turned on because Owen’s looking at me like he’s a starved man who’s trying desperately to never want to eat again.
