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She looked around. The bedroom was still dark. “What time is it?”
“Almost ten.”
“In the morning?” she asked, confused.
Bill laughed. “Yes. It’s dark in here because those are heavy drapes, but also because it’s still snowing. It’s been snowing all night.”
“Oh no. I should get home.”
“Sweetheart, I don’t think you can. My car is buried. There are plows out but bus service is pretty thin, and I don’t think you could hope to catch a cab.”
She rubbed her eyes. “What am I going to do?”
He smiled. “You’re going to go soak in the tub while I make some coffee. Or would you prefer tea? Cocoa?”
Impulsively, Amanda reached up and kissed him. “Whatever you’re having is fine. I like them all. Is the bathroom through there?” she asked, pointing.
He nodded. “Here, I brought you a robe.”
He handed her a huge, fluffy, white terrycloth robe and a pair of terrycloth slippers still in their wrapper. “I get samples from all the resorts, and toss them in the closet in case I have house guests who forget things.”
“Where’s this one from?”
He checked the robe’s lapel. “Waikiki.”
“Perfect. Thank you.” She kissed him again and slipped out of bed.
The master bath took her breath away. What she hadn’t seen the night before was that the fireplace in the bedroom opened onto the big bathtub on the other side. There was framed art on the walls and a chandelier over the bath.
Just beyond the big, jetted tub was the shower enclosure. It was the size of her apartment’s bathroom, and clad in marble. There was a long bench along one wall, and a dozen shower heads. She dropped the robe into a chair and stepped into the shower, adjusting the thermostat to a bit above body temperature. Water hit her from all sides and she laughed from the sheer pleasure of it. She’d never experienced anything like this, not even on vacation. She washed her hair with expensive shampoo, and scrubbed herself with soap that smelled warm and woodsy. It smelled like Bill.
As she was rinsing herself, she turned and saw Bill standing outside, watching her. He was smiling broadly, so she took her time and made a show of finishing, letting the water sluice down her body, running her hands down her wet skin, bending to show off her backside, stretching to show the pert lift of her breasts. She loved it that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
She opened the door and said, “I thought I’d clean off before our soak. You should too,” she told him, inviting him into the luxury of the warm spray where she scrubbed him down and followed the roughness of the sisal brush with the softness of her lips.
The tub was nearly full when they stepped out of the shower and sank into the hot water with contented sighs. “This is the sort of morning I dreamed of when I designed this bathroom. Cold and snowy outside, inside, soaking in hot water and sipping tea with someone I—” He hesitated, then said, “like very much.”
“Who likes you very much,” Amanda said, smoothing over that moment of hesitation. Whatever he’d meant to say, he wasn’t ready to say. If it was what she thought it was, she wasn’t ready to hear it either. This was so good in the here and now that she didn’t want to think about the future, about the possibility of this ending badly because he was her employer. Or the possibility of continuing and word getting around so that her co-workers would look at her in that knowing way and tell people that Amanda got her job because she was screwing the big boss.
“You look pensive,” Bill said.
“The future always intrudes.”
He nodded. “I know what you mean.”
“Let’s not let it, not today. Not until we can leave here again.”
“We’ll be the only two people in a world covered in snow.”
“Yes.” She touched her mug to his with a dull clank, and sipped the spicy, fruity tea he’d made for her. The fire blazed in front of them, the hot water swirled, and outside, everything but the snow ceased to matter.
Finally they stepped out of the bath. Bill wrapped her in a warm towel. “Oh that’s nice,” she whispered.
“I have a towel warming drawer in the vanity.”
“You thought of everything, didn’t you?”
“Almost. Let’s go have something to eat.”
