Page 5 of Protecting Her

The door opened to her quarters to reveal a small sitting room with a television, a small but full kitchen, and a bedroom with a bathroom in the back. I handed her the bag and showed her around.

“Could I?” she started as she looked in and saw a white robe with the name of the hotel.

“Shower? Of course, my dear. I’ll leave you if you’d like and let you have some rest.”

“No!” she called out, her eyes panicked as she looked around. “I, just, I.”

“Too wound up to be alone? I’ll call for some room service, shall I? Have a few things brought up.” She paused, her eyes full of tears again, and I smiled softly. “Go on. I’ll be here when you come out.”

You would think she’d be terrified of being alone with me, but she seemed to have that instant connection with me that I did with her. Who knew, maybe she’d rob the place blind and run off in the night, but something told me she wouldn’t. There was something about her that reminded me of a scared rabbit, and I knew she’d be right here in the morning, and if not, she wouldn’t have taken anything I didn’t explicitly offer.

She didn’t show the signs of a drug addict, or a scrounger, just a woman down on her luck. She took a deep breath, and then she went into the bathroom. I heard the lock click quietly and smiled to myself. She was a sensible woman then.

I’ve played the field, don’t get me wrong; I love women. I wasn’t the kind of man who needed to force himself on a woman or extort her for sex, and I didn’t want to. I wouldn’t turn down a chance to find out what she hid beneath that coat of hers, but I wasn’t about to intimate that to her, at all.

I heard the shower turn on and within moments I heard a sigh as the smell of soap filled the air from the crack under the door. I’d put plenty of soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a brush, and deodorant in the bag. Things people sometimes forgot and often ran out of on trips, and we kept a supply so guests wouldn’t have to run out and get them at an awkward moment.

I heard her hum as the water ran, and I smiled. She was content. I went to the phone and got room service. I ordered coffee for the pot in the room, tea, milk, sugar, some pots of jam and bread, and a few doughnuts in case she got peckish in the night. I also ordered a few savory dishes she could pop in the microwave and had them all in order by the time she came out. The robe was tucked around her, and she’d brushed her hair out but hadn’t dried it.

The room was warm, and her skin glowed from the heat of her shower. “All better?”

“Oh, that was heaven!” She looked at the bags of coffee on the counter and looked at me. “Would you like some?”

“If you feel like it. Or I can go.” She’d spotted the doughnuts and tucked into one before I’d even answered her. She was hungry.

“No, I’ve been alone and haven’t spoken to anyone for days now. It’s nice to have someone around.” Her eyes still looked strained, but her body was more relaxed now. “I’ve been terrified, here alone.”

“I imagine you were. Well, I think we can soon get you sorted.” The coffee was done and in mugs by the time we moved into the sitting room.

“This was more than enough. I’ll be gone first thing in the morning.” She waved her hand around the room, her eyes still tired around the corners.

The two lights on the end table were all that was on, and up here, high in the air, you couldn’t hear the noise outside. The room was calm, warm, and safe. “You’ll stay right here, Ember. This is a staff room that isn’t being used anyway, so you can stay as long as you need to. Room service has been told to bring you whatever you ask for, and well, I suppose we’ll have to find you some clothes.”

I hadn’t meant it to sound like I’d noticed, but it was hard not to. Ember’s smooth legs, still tan from her summer in the sun, were on display and the gap at the top of the robe told me she was naked underneath it. I had to admit though, she looked rather young without her cap and stress around her eyes.

“How old are you, Ember?” I tilted my head, and she followed suit.

“I’m twenty-one, why? How old are you?” Her lips parted slightly as she spoke, and her pupils went wide as she looked at me.

“I’m twenty-four.” Old enough to know better, my brain told me. I hadn’t wanted sex from her, and she’d been afraid I would at one point in the evening.

Now, alone and relaxed, her eyes showed an interest that said we’d both been wrong. “I should probably go.”

“Do you have to?” Something in her voice changed, became sultry, and I shifted on the couch. That voice had almost broken me.

“I should.”

“After coffee. It’s the least I can do,” she said and pointed her head at the table where both mugs were going cold.

She curled up into her end of the couch and turned on the television. “I’m sorry if I offended you.”

“No, it’s not that. I just don’t want you to feel obligated. Truly, I’m not that kind of guy.”

“I know. Something tells me you aren’t like any man I’ve ever met before.” She gave a yawn then, and her head rested on the back of the couch. In seconds she was asleep.

I watched her, the coffee forgotten once more, and wondered how any man could treat such an angelic creature as she’d been treated. A man on drugs, no doubt, because Ember was beautiful, but she was also good. I’d known that from the moment I’d laid eyes on her. She was good.

Quite unlike most women I knew. It wasn’t the hotel that had made desire flare in those eyes of her. It might have been desperation after her split with this tosser she’d left behind, but I didn’t think it was that. I wasn’t a rebound for her either. No, there was something between us, something that screamed connection in my mind, but didn’t make sense to me.