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“You love it.”
After another playful love tap on her ass cheek, I roll off the bed and go hunting for something to clean her up with. I let the water get warm and then wet a washcloth. She’s lying on her back when I walk back into the room, and she watches as I dip between her thighs to wipe away the mess I made.
“You’re the first to ever do this. Did you know that?”
“To clean you up post-sex?” I ask, cleaning myself up once I’m done with her.
“Yeah.” She sighs. “I think it’s a younger man thing. Older men expect you to thank them for the mediocre ride and go get them a beer.”
I snort. “That cannot be true. You’ve just had some duds.”
“Maybe.” She shrugs.
I toss the cloth to the side and crawl back onto the bed. We get comfortable, pulling some covers over us as we lie in the dim light that’s flooding in from the main rooms. The wind whips around the windows outside, but it’s pretty quiet for a hotel. I guess it is pretty late, and most people who stay here are on business trips, asleep before midnight.
She rolls onto her side and lays her head on my chest. I feel her body melt into mine as she takes a deep breath and runs her fingers through my chest hair. It’s starting to get weird—the silence. I feel like it’s gone on too long, but once you get to this point…who is supposed to break it? How do I break it?
“Your thoughts are so loud they can hear them in reception.”
I laugh because it’s probably true. I was stuck inside my head on a loop.
“I’m starving.”
“It’s like, two in the morning,” she says. “Think they’ll still have room service?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of Chinese…”
“Brilliant. You’re a brilliant man!” She kisses my cheek and rolls off the bed, tugging her dress off as she goes. “No wonder I hired you,” she throws over her shoulder before walking out into the living room.
“Funny!” I call out.
“I know!” she yells back. “Now, come tell me what you want!”
CHAPTERELEVEN
We couldn’t find a single Chinese place open, but we did find an amazing late-night barbecue place that was close by. They didn’t deliver, so Ivy sent her car to go get it for us. I tried to tell her that wasn’treallywhat he was on call for, but she shooed me away, saying he loved her and would happily go get her drunk ass some food.
“So,” she says between bites. “Tell me what I’ve missed in your life. How are your friends? Anything new and exciting?”
“Well, Aurora had a baby. That’s Owen’s and Hudson’s partner. Turns out she got pregnant during that Tokyo trip, actually.” I laugh, thinking about how they all really wanted a kid, andboom, they got one.
“Aww.” She smiles. “Boy or girl?”
“Girl. Lucia, but she goes by Lucy most days. Cutest little thing. Almost gives me baby fever…almost.”
“Mm,” she hums. “They’ll do that when you’re able to hold them while they coo and giggle but give them back once they start acting up.”
“Jack and Quin have been trying for the past year, but…” I trail off. It’s not something they really talk about with us. We all know they’re trying, and we know that seeing the happy family with their brand-new baby is rough. “They might try IVF next year. I think Quinlan is just trying to decide if she wants to put her body through that.”
Ivy nods, her face serious. “I’ve heard the side effects can be brutal. Pregnancy is hard enough on a woman’s body. Have they thought about adopting?”
I shrug. “They don’t talk about it often. Not that I blame them. It’s not our business, but I do think about them a lot. If I was a praying man, I would pray for them.”
“Lucky for you, I am. I’ll add them in.”
“What?” I feel like she just slapped me. She has never, ever let on that she is a religious woman. The subject has never come up, and in my experience, Christians try to throw it into every conversation they can.
“Don’t be so dramatic.” She laughs. “I’m not going to try to convert you. Your faith, or lack thereof, is not something to fix.”
