Page 25 of Nothing to Tell

“Do you like hotels?”he asked.“Did facing Damon in one put you off?”

“No,” she said, sinking into the luxurious linen spread on the bed.“I don’t stay in hotels often.Work takes precedence over play.”

“So Adara said.”Bastian came over to rest his legs on the side of the mattress.“I can respect that.I’ve been accused of the same.”

Conversation in the privacy of the bedroom wasn’t usually held like this, with one party lying down and another standing up.Falling into the obscure seemed to be their thing.

One undeniable point rose above the others…

By loitering, Bastian betrayed he wasn’t ready for goodnight either.

“You don’t have to be afraid,” she said, lifting a hand toward him.“Lie down with me.”

What did they have to fear?He’d never pressured or harassed her.If they were what people thought they were, they’d have done the same, or more, several times.No one was watching, they didn’t have to perform.Would that put him off?

No.He toed off his shoes and took her hand without hesitation to lie at her side.It shouldn’t feel right, their intimacy was a lie conjured for others.Yet her body, her mind, her hormones responded as though it were all true.

With one liberty came another and she rested her head on his chest.They’d been this close when dancing.Nothing wrong with it.Nothing strange.Did horizontal matter more than vertical?

Listening to his heartbeat soothed in the silence.One, two, three.Sharing heat, the sure arm he closed around her shoulders kept her safe.

He inhaled the scent of her hair.It should be strange and creepy, yet she couldn’t remember ever being so at peace.Bonding didn’t have to be sexual or conversational.Being in this private space, in the intimate position, she closed her eyes and brushed her palm up and down the shirt buttons that concealed the flesh of his torso.Learning his shape, his scent, his rhythm only made her hungry for more.

“Your mom is nice.I see where you get your kindness from.”

“I’m sorry for her tonight,” he said.“I don’t know what she was thinking, suggesting that you come back here.”

At the time, the suggestion surprised her, but lying there with him, she couldn’t be sorry.

“You’ve met my family,” she said, “but I know nothing about yours.”

“What do you want to know?”

Was that an invitation?One he may come to regret.

“You sure you want to do that?Ask such an open question?”

“I don’t know,” he said.“Ask and I’ll see.”

Was there a tinge of humorous dubiousness?Is that what she heard?Emotion, why was it so damn difficult to decipher?Amusement?Reluctance?She needed to know this man better.

“Are your parents still together?”

“They are.”

“Siblings?”

“Younger sister.”

“Is she married?”

“Not last time I checked.”

“Do your family live in town?”

“Yes.”

“You see them regularly?”