I closed my eyes for a moment, wondering how I hadn’t thought of that.
“Size four, please,” I whispered. “And my shirt is?—”
“Small, I know,” he said with a grin as he typed into his phone. “My shopper will have it brought here in half an hour.”
“Thanks. I’ll be quick,” I said, reaching for the soap and hoping I wasn’t delaying him.
He stood by the door, watching me with a robe on. Taking it off, he stepped up and opened the glass door, wearing nothing. He stepped under the shower next to me, and the look in his eyes was open, honest, as he gazed at me.
“I was hoping I could join you,” he said, melding his body to mine and lowering his head.
We kissed wet kisses, and I let him wash me, laughing ashe took extra effort to draw hearts on my body with the bubbles.
“Am I clean enough now?” I asked against his bare chest while his fingers gripped the curve of my waist, his mouth on my neck.
“Just five minutes more,” he murmured and pushed aside the bathrobe I’d been reaching for.
“All right then,” I said, giving in when his lips made their way down my neck. “You win this one, Des.”
26
AVA
After breakfast, which Desmond had ordered in from a local bakery, he went to his walk-in closet while I got dressed and wandered into his bedroom in search of my phone.
I found my phone on his dresser.
“What are you doing?” he asked while he got dressed.
I checked the train schedule for the nearest subway station.
He looked over my shoulder and groaned. “You’re not taking a train to work. Not when I’m headed the same way myself.”
I shook my head and reached for my shirt. “I’m not going to work in the same car as you. We can’t get caught the very morning after we spent the night together.”
Desmond pulled me to him, my back against his torso, and planted a kiss on my neck. “A night I didn’t want to end, by the way,” he said in a husky voice.
I wriggled free and turned around with a chuckle. “Point taken. But I’m not going to work in your car.”
“All right, I’ll have Stan, my driver, bring someone around with a second car for you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Who pays for the cars that drive you around?”
He thought for a minute. “All right, I see where you’re going with this.”
I nodded. “Exactly. I’m getting a cab,” I said, and this time, I let him button up the rest of my shirt, which ended with another firm, deep, heart-melting kiss.
Half an hour later,I turned up at Luxe Hotels, where I found an early trickle of employees waiting for the café to open.
“Sorry I’m late,” I called out to Carolyn, who was waiting patiently for a customer to decide between a half-caff café au lait or a decaf one.
“Ava,” Carolyn called warmly as she waved me over from the café counter. “Could you get the coffee carafes out to the tables?” she asked, pointing to the long tables by the wall, covered with white linen.
“I’m on it,” I called, glad for the chance to lose myself in my work.
The morning went by pretty quickly, and I looked forward to my lunch at two in the afternoon, during the lull at work. Carolyn finished a phone call with her brother, and after she hung up, she unloaded her concerns to me about her brother’s latest failed job interview.
“Will’s in Florida,” Carolyn informed me. “And he’s not been able to take care of himself lately, if those increasing wrist sprains and that second fall in his bathroom are anything to go by.” She sighed and put her phone back inher pocket. “It makes me think I ought to go there and take care of him for a few months. You know, until his health gets back on track. But I can’t imagine leaving this place.”
