He pointed to a hotel a few blocks down the road.“Ever been there for lunch?”
“They don’t have a restaurant.”
He turned back to her, his gaze intense.“Exactly.”
Tension coiled within her.“Ry, I’ve never checked into a hotel for two hours in the middle of the day.I’d feel like?—”
“Someone’s lover?”He didn’t touch her, but his glance caressed her with bold intimacy.“You are.”
Her fingers trembled as she turned the key in the ignition.“I suppose you’re used to this sort of interlude, a big-city boy like you.”She checked the rearview mirror and backed out of the parking space.
“Right.Two-hour lunches with the well-stacked secretary are commonplace with me.”
She hit the brake.“They are?”
He chuckled.“No, Freddy.”
She pulled into traffic with the deliberate care of someone who’d had one too many drinks, which was the way she felt — high.“But I’ll bet you’ve done this before.”
“I think I can handle the registration and checkout without blushing, if that’s what you mean,” he said.
“Won’t they ask you about luggage, and when you’ll be checking out, and stuff like that?”
“I’ll tell them the luggage is in the truck and we’ll be checking out in the morning.Then when we leave, I’ll explain that we had a sudden change of plans.”
“But they’ll know.The maids will see the bed’s been…”
“Well-used?”he supplied.
She nodded as her heart pounded furiously.
“Does that mean you’d rather find a coffee shop and have lunch?”
She took a deep breath.“No.”She flipped on her turn signal and swept into the hotel’s drive-through entrance.
“Want to come in with me while I get us the room?”he asked.
“No.”
He chuckled again.“Be right back.”
Freddy sat in the truck trying to figure out what she’d say if anyone came by who recognized her sitting there in plain sight with the True Love Guest Ranch brand on the truck’s door panels.She ran a guest ranch.Why would she be parked at a hotel in town?She thought for a minute.She was...comparing room rates.That was it.She and a friend were checking out the going rates in Tucson, to decide if their own pricing structure was reasonable.But no one came by, and within minutes Ry was back, a key in one hand.“Drive around behind the place,” he said, climbing in.“I thought you’d rather not park the truck where anyone on the road could recognize it.”
Freddy let out a breath.“Thank you.”
“I want to give you pleasure, not embarrassment.”
Pleasure.The word echoed in her mind as they parked the truck in the nearly deserted lot behind the hotel.The rooms all opened to the outside, and Ry guided her toward one on the ground floor, put the key in the lock and opened the door.She stepped into the cool interior with a shiver of anticipation.
Behind her, the lock clicked into place and the curtains swished closed, throwing the room into twilight.The air conditioner hummed in a unit beneath the window.In front of her was a king-size bed, quilted spread neatly tucked under the pillows.Now that they were here, alone and undetected, the thrill of being sinful took hold.“Stay there,” she said to Ry, her command coming out in a sultry murmur, “while I redecorate.”
“Be my guest.”
She laid her hat on the built-in that held the television set as she walked past it to the far side of the bed.In one movement, she swept back the spread and the top sheet, destroying the atmosphere of neatness.Then she plumped the pillows against the headboard.
“Finished?”Ry stood watching her with his thumbs hooked through his belt loops.
“Just getting started.”She reached down and pulled off her boots.“Do you come into town often, cowboy?”she asked as she began undoing the snaps on her shirt.
